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Michael Wolraich

Michael Wolraich Profile Photo

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

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March 4, 2024

Tammany Hall, FDR & the Murder of Vivian Gordon

In 1931, Judge Samuel Seabury was leading an investigation for Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt into corruption in New York’s magistrate courts when a witness in the investigation named Vivian Gordon was found murdered in the Bronx. Because of the public demand for answers in this high-profile murder case, FDR could no longer keep his uneasy peace with Tammany Hall and expanded the scope of Seabury’s investigation. What Seabury’s team uncovered brought down Mayor Jimmy Walker and began to topple t...