Anthony M. DeStefano, a bestselling true crime author and national expert on the American Mafia, has been widely recognized for his work. His ten books on the subject, including recent bestsellers like The Deadly Don and Top Hoodlum, have garnered him a reputation for his in-depth knowledge and meticulous research. DeStefano’s expertise is not limited to writing about organized crime; he is also an award-winning journalist, covering legal affairs and law enforcement in New York for Newsday. His work has been honored with numerous awards, including a Pulitzer Prize and an Emmy, in 2020, for a film on the tenth anniversary of the first Gilgo Beach body discoveries and the resulting investigation. This year he was a recipient with his fellow Newsday team members of the Deadline Club award for their continued coverage of the Gilgo case.
My latest book about the life and death of Vivian Gordon was released on June 25, 2024. Gordon was a lady racketeer who used sex extortion rackets to squeeze money out of wealthy men during prohibition in New York City. Her unsolved murder ignited public outrage, contributing to the resignation of Mayor Jimmy Walker.
From the Publisher
“The definitive, jaw-dropping account of the Jazz Age con woman, escort, speakeasy owner, and racketeer Vivian Gordon, whose sensational murder – and the damning list of powerful politicos, gangsters, and businessmen left behind in her diary – captivated Prohibition-era New York, obsessed its then-governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt, ensnared its mayor, and exposed the city’s dark underbelly of police corruption. From Pulitzer Prize and Emmy Award-winning mob historian Anthony M. Destefano.”
In Broadway Butterfly, Anthony DeStefano has exhumed the Jazz Age in New York City in the embodiment of a colorful one woman crime wave named Vivian Gordon, She cast a long dark shadow on the Great White Way from City Hall to Van Cortland Park in the Bronx where her murdered body led to an autopsy of climate of dirty cops, crooked pols, corrupt judges and the sex and blackmail rackets that forever changed the city. DeStefano’s remarkable research and lively prose details how Gordon’s murder shone a spotlight on the dark side of the dazzling Jazz Age and indirectly triggered the resignation of Mayor Jimmy Walker and the end of an era. I can’t wait for the movie.
– Denis Hamill, author of Long Time Gone, Sins of Two Fathers and Fork in the Road.
In Boadway Butterfly, mob expert Tony DeStefano tells the little-known story of Vivian Gordon, one of Prohibition’s most notorious racketeers, who along with the corrupt cops and politicians of her day, set New York on a crooked path that is often fllowed today.
– Nicholas Pileggi, author of Wiseguy and Casino.
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Bruce Cutler, the bombastic and iconoclastic attorney who catapulted to fame representing the late Gambino boss John Gotti, died on October 6. Sorry to hear of his passing. He was always a straight shooter with me. Always good for copy. Here I am with him in Cadman Plaza Park in Brooklyn during the Mafia Cops…
Tribute to Vivian Gordon: A Hidden Life Unearthed
“Broadway Butterfly” was just featured in a news segment on ABC Television. It explores the struggles Vivian Gordon faced throughout her short and tumultuous life. Additionally, the segment captures the moment of my visit to her grave, where I had a monument placed at the previously unmarked burial spot. This tribute symbolizes both remembrance and…
Celebrating One Year of Broadway Butterfly: A Journey
Today marks the first anniversary of the publication of Broadway Butterfly. How fast time has gone. It’s incredible to reflect on the journey I’ve taken over the past year. Since my debut presentation at the Mob Museum in Las Vegas, I’ve participated in a series of interviews with several national press outlets, including radio shows,…
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Anthony M. DeStefano 