The bishop and the butterfly : murder, politics, and the end of the Jazz Age

Title:

Author:

Summary:

Vivian Gordon went out before midnight in a velvet dress and mink coat. Her body turned up the next morning in a desolate Bronx park, a dirty clothesline wrapped around her neck. At her stylish Manhattan apartment, detectives discovered notebooks full of names—businessmen, socialites, gangsters. And something else: a letter from an anti-corruption commission established by Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Led by the imperious Judge Samuel Seabury, the commission had uncovered a police conspiracy to frame women as prostitutes. Had Vivian Gordon been executed to bury her secrets? As FDR pressed the police to solve her murder, Judge Seabury pursued the trail of corruption to the top of Gotham’s powerful political machine—the infamous Tammany Hall. -- Amazon.

Physical Description:

xiv, 336 pages : illustrations, 24 cm

Personal Subject:

Gordon, Vivian, 1891-1931.

Corporate Subject:

Tammany Hall (Political organization)

Subject Term:

Murder -- Investigation.

Police corruption.

Geographic Term:

New York (N.Y.) -- History -- 1865-1898.

Publisher:

Union Square & Co.,

Publication Date:

2023

ISBN:

9781454948025

Publication Information:

New York : Union Square & Co., [2023]

Call Number:

364.152 WOLRAICH

Holds: Copies:

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Item Barcode	Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
33607003696278	New Adult Nonfiction	364.152 WOLRAICH	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

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Summary

"The 1931 murder of 'Broadway Butterfly' Vivian Gordon exposed an explosive story of graft, corruption and entrapment that went all the way to the top of the state. Wolraich brings a journalist's eye and a novelist's elegance to this story of Jazz Age New York."-- New York Times

Vivian Gordon went out before midnight in a velvet dress and mink coat. Her body turned up the next morning in a desolate Bronx park, a dirty clothesline wrapped around her neck. At her stylish Manhattan apartment, detectives discovered notebooks full of names--businessmen, socialites, gangsters. And something else: a letter from an anti-corruption commission established by Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Led by the imperious Judge Samuel Seabury, the commission had uncovered a police conspiracy to frame women as prostitutes. Had Vivian Gordon been executed to bury her secrets? As FDR pressed the police to solve her murder, Judge Seabury pursued the trail of corruption to the top of Gotham's powerful political machine--the infamous Tammany Hall.

Author Notes

Michael Wolraich is the author of the critically acclaimed Unreasonable Men (2014) and Blowing Smoke (2010). His writing has appeared in The Atlantic , Rolling Stone , the Daily Beast , New York magazine, Reuters, and CNN, and he is the founder and editor of dagblog.com. Wolraich grew up in Iowa and graduated from Williams College in Massachusetts before falling in love with New York City, where he has lived since 2000.

Reviews (1)

Publisher's Weekly Review

This engrossing true crime tale from journalist Wolraich (Unreasonable Men) examines mobsters and misconduct in 1930s Manhattan through the case of murdered actor Vivian Gordon. Shortly after Gordon--locally known as the "Broadway Butterfly"--was discovered strangled in a Bronx public park in February 1931, authorities unearthed three black leather notebooks in her apartment. Some incriminated powerful men and police officers in criminal activity ranging from gambling to sex trafficking; others included correspondence with an investigative team helmed by then-governor Franklin Roosevelt that uncovered a coordinated effort to frame innocent women for prostitution. Wolraich throws a wide net as he recounts the search for Gordon's killer and the fallout from her notebooks, roping in a cast of characters that includes vice cops, ex-husbands, madams, mistresses, stool pigeons, bootleggers, theater denizens, and judges including Samuel Seabury--the "Bishop" of the title--who was dragged into the case and followed his instincts all the way to the top ranks of Tammany Hall, helping to bring down New York City mayor Jimmy Walker in the process. Wolraich does a sterling job spinning the investigation into a portrait of wider New York society, all while keeping the pages turning as quickly as in any top-shelf mystery novel. Fans of Erik Larson's The Devil in the White City will be enthralled. Photos. (Feb.)

Preface	ix
Dramatis Personae	xii
Part I Murder on Mosholu
Chapter 1 A Moth That Loves the Flame	3
Chapter 2 Nothing to Be Concerned About	26
Chapter 3 Old Heads for Counsel, Young Heads for War	55
Chapter 4 Don't Worry, Little Girl	78
Chapter 5 A Woman of Many Acquaintances	98
Part II Nothing But the Truth
Chapter 6 Everybody in New York	133
Chapter 7 A Matter for Judicial Consideration	160
Chapter 8 Passage to Oslo	182
Chapter 9 A Damnable Conspiracy	206
Part III Catch a Tiger
Chapter 10 The Tin Box Brigade	241
Chapter 11 Little Boy Blue	260
Epilogue	294
Acknowledgments	304
Notes	305
Picture Credits	325
Index	326

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Bound With These Titles

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Summary

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Publisher's Weekly Review

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