Join Michael in his conversation with Michael Wolraich about his new book, The Bishop and the Butterfly, Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age which tells the gripping story of the rise and fall of the New York Tammany Hall political machine intertwined with a murder-mystery that set everything in motion.

Her body lay in the undergrowth beside a road that snaked through Bronx’s Van Cortlandt Park. It might have gone unnoticed but for a white kid, glove snagged on a bush that caught the morning light, drawing the attention of a pedestrian. Her hair was auburn and fashionably short. She wore a black velvet dress and a single suede shoe. A dirty noose squeezed her throat so tightly that it broke the skin. The murder was sensational, even by the jaded standards of the bloody Prohibition Era. Journalists rushed to the scene and breathlessly expounded on the victim’s beauty and glamorous clothing. 

But the biggest bombshell landed after the body was identified as Benita Bischoff, alias Vivian Gordon. The lead detective described her as “a woman of many acquaintances,” while the Bronx DA called her “a shakedown artist.” When detectives searched her posh Midtown apartment, they found scandalous black books and an explosive clue—a letter from an anti-corruption investigation that had exposed a heinous police conspiracy. These shocking discoveries riveted the public and set in motion events that ultimately brought down the corrupt political machine that had ruled New York for generations.

About Our Guest

Michael is the critically acclaimed author of The Bishop and the Butterfly, Unreasonable Men, and Blowing Smoke. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, RollingStone, TIME, The Daily Beast, New York Magazine, and other publications. Wolraich grew up in Iowa City, Iowa, and graduated from Williams College in Massachusetts before moving to New York City, where he has lived since 2000.