In the mid-1970s, New York reporter Anthony M. DeStefano didn’t know much about the Mafia. But working at Fairchild News Service, he and two other staff members, at an editor’s request, wrote a 10-part series for Women’s Wear Daily on organized crime’s control of the Garment District. “It created a stir,” DeStefano said in a telephone interview. “I was a little stunned.” The series led to criminal investigations and prompted other news outlets to chase the story. It also launched DeStefano’s career as a crime-and-courts reporter and author of 10 nonfiction books on the Mafia. His latest, Broadway Butterfly, was released last ...