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, 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. The evidence Vivian left behind was damning: 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-ending of James "Jimmy" Walker, disgraced mayor of New York City. 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 demimonde during Prohibition.
Author Biography:
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Anthony M. DeStefano has covered organized crime for over three decades, including the crime beat for New York Newsday for the past twenty years. His books on organized crime include Gangland New York, King of the Godfathers, Mob Killer, The Big Heist, Top Hoodlum: Frank Costello, Prime Minister of the Mafia, and and Gotti's Boys. Romy Nordlinger is a New York City-based actor and bestselling audiobook narrator who has recorded over 350 audiobooks for publishers such as Tantor, Dreamscape, Audible, Oasis, Deyan, Podium, Highbridge, Recorded Books, Penguin Random House, HarperAudio, BeeAudio, Blunder Woman, Eljin, and many more. Among some of her favorite titles recorded include the hit ongoing series Haunting Danielle for Tantor, This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald for Dreamscape, The Girl in the Green Sweater (the true Holocaust story of Krystyna Chiger made into an Academy Award-winning film), and Cats Don't Chase Dogs for Podium. She has been recognized in AudioFile magazine and Library Journal amongst many other editorials with critical acclaim. She was recently a SOVAS winner for the full cast recording of Wrong Turn with Blunder Woman Productions. Romy has narrated in a wide array of genres, including mystery, romance, sci-fi, chick-lit, self-help, and nonfiction. She has a strong command of language and dialects and has recorded titles in a plethora of accents ranging from Russian to British and back around the globe again. Some of her film and TV credits include featured roles on Law & Order (Officer Talbor), FBI, Manifest, All My Children, Bull, and Real Life, and she has starred in dozens of productions Off-Broadway and regionally. A passionate bookworm and actress, nothing brings Romy more joy than bringing a book to life by fully embodying its characters and faithfully telling its story with all her heart.
