Broadway Butterfly by Anthony M. DeStefano

Author:Anthony M. DeStefano [DeStefano, Anthony M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Citadel Press
Published: 2024-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

IT WAS NO secret in the city that its mayor, James Walker, was ministering to his job with his left hand. Walker was known widely for his partying, speakeasy appearances and catering to famous visitors. He ran things through aides and deputy mayors but really never saw to take bold initiatives. He liked the glamour that went with the job and the free publicity he got about his haberdashery and canoodling with Broadway babes.

But if all that superficial publicity is what Walker thought would keep him in good standing, the death of Vivian Gordon showed that he was very wrong. Vivian’s brutal murder, and the suicide of her daughter, shocked the public. The double tragedy was also seen as symbols of something deeper and troubling going on in the city, evidence of something that was alarming and needed to be swiftly addressed. At one Baptist church in Manhattan, a pastor in a Bible study class got a resolution approved which condemned the crime that appeared to be rampant everywhere. The Baptists approved of what Mulrooney and Seabury were doing to address crime and denounced the corruption which seemed to abound.

The Bible study group resolution got a short notice in the New York Times, which in itself showed that it had some newsworthiness. But it was when two big names in New York City religious life—Rabbi Stephen Wise and Rev. John Haynes Holmes—took a public stance that the deep issue of crime in the city was put on the front burner. Both men, officials of the City Affairs Committee, put out a strong statement in which they mocked the “wise cracking” Walker and called for action against the evil combination of criminals, cops and courts which were being exposed daily. Wise was a well-known name in Reform Judaism and a avowed Zionist who had been outspoken on a number of public issues. Holmes was well-known pastor of the Community Church who in late 1930 had criticized both Walker and Roosevelt for not doing enough to deal with what he called the “loathsome vermin” of corruption in the city, including a court system that was “the playground of dishonest politicians and racketeers.”

“The murder of Vivian Gordon lights up our city’s life as with a lighting flash,” their statement said. “In no more sinister and dramatic way could the alliance between the ‘forces of law’ and the forces of lawlessness have been exposed.”

For Wise and Holmes, Vivian’s death showed that anyone prepared to expose the evils of crime would be met with “swift and awful punishment.” The committee believed that the murder was sparked by Vivian’s decision to talk with Seabury, a view shared by many at that point. The question was what government should now do and for that Wise and Holmes didn’t think that either Walker or even Manhattan district attorney Thomas C. T. Crain could be effective.

“The murder of Vivian Gordon cries not for vengeance but for swift and unrelenting scrutiny,” they said. Governor Roosevelt had taken the first step

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