Broadway butterfly : Vivian Gordon, the lady gangster of Jazz Age New York
(Book)
Author
Published
New York : Kensington Publishing Corporation, [2024].
Status
Description
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Copies
Location | Call Number | Status | Due Date |
---|---|---|---|
Central Library - New Nonfiction - New Books | 364.1 D | Checked Out | December 16, 2024 |
Subjects
LC Subjects
Female offenders -- New York (State) -- New York -- Biography.
Gangsters -- New York (State) -- New York -- Biography.
Gordon, Vivian.
Mafia -- New York (State) -- New York.
Murder -- New York (State) -- New York -- Case studies.
Organized crime -- New York (State) -- New York -- History -- 20th century.
Police corruption -- New York (State) -- New York.
Prohibition -- New York (State) -- New York -- History -- 20th century.
True crime stories.
Gangsters -- New York (State) -- New York -- Biography.
Gordon, Vivian.
Mafia -- New York (State) -- New York.
Murder -- New York (State) -- New York -- Case studies.
Organized crime -- New York (State) -- New York -- History -- 20th century.
Police corruption -- New York (State) -- New York.
Prohibition -- New York (State) -- New York -- History -- 20th century.
True crime stories.
More Details
Published
New York : Kensington Publishing Corporation, [2024].
Format
Book
Physical Desc
viii, 246 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm
Language
English
Notes
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 227-230) and index.
Description
"The definitive book on one of the most notorious murders in Jazz Age New York history, that of Vivian Gordon, the high-end escort, con artist, and blackmailer connected to gangsters like "Legs" Diamond and Arnold Rothstein, whose death exposed the dark underbelly of police corruption throughout the city--from the Pulitzer Prize and Emmy Award-winning investigative journalist who is one of the foremost Mafia experts writing today. Like so many other pretty butterflies, Indiana-born Vivian Gordon fluttered to New York in 1920 looking for fame and fortune. Before long, the flame-haired chorus girl parlayed her youth, beauty, and ambition into more profitable means as a tough and glamorous symbol of Prohibition-era excess. She was a speakeasy owner, blackmailer, high-end escort, extortionist, racketeer, and con woman. But given her dangerously intimate associations--from ruthless underworld gangsters to corrupt high-ranking city officials--Vivian was also a woman who knew too much and who rightfully feared for her life. On February 26, 1931, Vivian's bludgeoned and garroted body was found dumped in Van Cortland Park in the Bronx. Now, in the first in-depth biography of its kind, Pulitzer Prize and Emmy Award-winning journalist Anthony M. DeStefano unravels her tumultuous life and the headline-making murder that became an obsession for many, including then-Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The evidence Vivian left behind was a diary with more than three-hundred names implicating powerful officials, philanthropists, businessmen, and every major gangland figure in collusion and corruption. The investigation eventually resulted in the career-endinginvestigation of James "Jimmy" Walker, disgraced mayor of New York City. Ultimately, Broadway Butterfly finally finds a place in history for Vivian, a woman with a rare legacy in gangster lore, whose demise was as tragically inevitable as the brutality of the city's demimondeduring Prohibition." --,Goodreads.
Citations
APA Citation, 7th Edition (style guide)
DeStefano, A. M. (2024). Broadway butterfly: Vivian Gordon, the lady gangster of Jazz Age New York . Kensington Publishing Corporation.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)DeStefano, Anthony M.. 2024. Broadway Butterfly: Vivian Gordon, the Lady Gangster of Jazz Age New York. Kensington Publishing Corporation.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities (Notes and Bibliography) Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)DeStefano, Anthony M.. Broadway Butterfly: Vivian Gordon, the Lady Gangster of Jazz Age New York Kensington Publishing Corporation, 2024.
MLA Citation, 9th Edition (style guide)DeStefano, Anthony M.. Broadway Butterfly: Vivian Gordon, the Lady Gangster of Jazz Age New York Kensington Publishing Corporation, 2024.
Note! Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy. Citation formats are based on standards as of August 2021.
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