American dream, 3

Jonathan Winthrop, who lives life looking down on Boston from his Beacon Hill penthouse, has his lawyers working overtime to maintain his divine right to keep John Walsh, a guy who actually worked for his money, from moving in downstairs.

So far Winthrop's lawyers have subpoenaed one legislator who filed a bill to end the kind of elitism Winthrop champions and subpoenaed another legislator who had the audacity to call a snob a snob. His lawyers have demanded bank records for the Walsh family, including his kids. And they have also subpoenaed me. If he thinks he is going to shut me up, the guy has been spending way too much time waiting for the cheese cart to come by at the Somerset Club.

Last year I told you how Walsh, the rags-to-richest chief executive of Elizabeth Grady Cos., the New England salon chain, tried and failed to buy an apartment in a swank building overlooking the Public Garden. His problem: The Beacon Street building is a cooperative building, and the board, headed by Winthrop, rejected Walsh, saying he "would not reasonably coalesce as a member of this cooperative community."

The column created a flood of support for Walsh, who grew up as one of six kids in a Somerville housing project, and criticism of Winthrop, a wealthy descendant of John Winthrop, the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Walsh sued Winthrop and the board, and legislation that would allow a co-op board to reject applicants only for economic considerations got initial approval in the Legislature yesterday.

Walsh and his lawyers think the spate of subpoenas is an attempt to chill the legislation; Senator Dianne Wilkerson, who wrote an article in support of Walsh in the Beacon Hill Times and got one of those subpoenas, agrees. She calls the subpoena an "act of intimidation," but says her deposition, scheduled for Monday, was canceled. "I was looking forward to it - the bunch of snobs," she says. Representative Barry Finegold, a coauthor of the legislation, was also on the list.

Walsh is not going away. "This goes against everything this country stands for. It is un-American," he says. Walsh's bid for the apartment, which the owner, Sovereign Bank, accepted was $700,000; Walsh has spent $400,000 in legal bills on the case and the meter is running. (The co-op board's legal bills are being paid by its insurance company.)

Winthrop declined to comment, and his lawyer, Scott Carroll, couldn't wait to get off the phone. He said the lawsuit limits what he can say. But of the subpoenas, including the one to me, Carroll said: "We are endeavoring to find the truth of what was said. It is as simple as that."

The lawsuit has turned up some interesting stuff, including e-mails in which Winthrop asks a friend to help arrange a background check of Walsh. In the e-mails Winthrop shipped the Social Security numbers and other information on Walsh and his wife to Mark J. Adams, who then worked for Marsh & McLennan Cos. in Boston. Marsh owns Kroll Inc., which among other things does investigations.

Wrote Winthrop: "Does Walsh have a history of real estate investments where he buys low then flips the property? Does he have any police or court record? Why does a man of his apparent wealth choose to buy a ground floor property in need of significant repair? What is his reputation as a neighbor? Philanthropist? Churchman?" (Adams didn't return my call either.)

In another e-mail, to Whitney Foley, a real estate consultant, Winthrop wrote: "As an individual, he is an unlikely fit for the building. Were this a NYC co-op, he would be shot down immediately."

Here's a solution to this unfortunate mess. Why doesn't Jonathan Winthrop sell his penthouse to John Walsh and buy a co-op in New York, a place more to his liking. The hitch: Who would want this guy Winthrop in their building?

Steve Bailey is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at bailey@globe.com or at 617-929-2902.