The Broadway Butterfly Must Die

Retired Intelligence Detective Gary Jenkins brings you the best in mob history with his unique perception of the mafia. In this episode, author Michael Wolraich and Gary discuss his book, The Bishop and the Buterfly. This is about the murder of Vivian Gordon, a prostitute connected to wealthy men, and Prohibition-era organized crime figures like Arnold Rothstein, Legs Diamond, Dutch Schultz, and others. The author explains the corruption within the government and political system, highlighting the investigation’s challenges and media coverage. We learned the investigators uncovered a collection of diaries with incriminating information about gangsters, leading to demands for an anti-corruption investigation. The climax occurs during a meeting between Mayor Jimmy Walker, investigator Samuel Seabury, and Franklin D. Roosevelt. We also touch on the history of New York City and Mayor LaGuardia’s efforts to clean up the city.

Click here to find Michael Wolraich’s author page.

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Transcript

[0:00] Welcome all you wiretappers out there back here in the studio of Gangland Wire.

Retired intelligence unit detective Gary Jenkins coming from Kansas City.

And guys, I have Michael Wolraich here with us in the studio or on the Zoom.

And he has a book called The Bishop and the Butterfly. I’ll have links to how you buy that book in the show notes.

Here’s a picture of the cover. If you’re on YouTube, you’ll see that.

It’s a really interesting look at New York City. The son of the seamy underbelly and the corruption of New York City during the 1930s just come out of prohibition, really, and going into the Depression era during this time.

And there’s a prostitute named Vivian Gordon that has been murdered.

A good murder mystery always starts out with a body.

And so we start out with a body. Right, Michael?

Exactly. Yeah. I mean, she was, you know, they discovered her and they didn’t know who she was at first. Her body was found in a gully in Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, which is a number.

It was a popular dumping ground for bodies in the 1930s, maybe still is.