Arizona weekly citizen., 1884-11-29
MoMEN RLACKNIAILERs.
How They Hunt and EntraP Their
 Prey in the Cities.

sIt is. perhaps. an ungallant thing to say, but in New York, and large cities generally. beauty and blackmal have come to be associated to such an extent that the only safeguard IS for susceptible person to steer clear or good-looking strangers altogether.
 The speaker was . veteran detective. whose thirty odd years of active ser vice had furnished valuable eXperi- ence.
 ..Does it prevail to-day as largely as in former years?' he was asked by the writer.
 ..Why. it has multiplied tremend- ouslv. You see it is q trade, this of blackmailing, which Oan only be sue cessfully piled in great populOus cities, as there is then the slightest possibility of detection"
 What are the favorite methods adopt ed by this queer profession?"
 1.-The necessity for constant change of system, to avoid detection, drives them to invent new tricks so often that it is difficult to keep track of them. One of the latest, and the most novel, 1 happened to hear of just few days ago. A beautiful girl sought employ ment in 8 downtown business estab- lishment run by father and son. Well, she contrived to entangle them both and get up an escapade with the son, which in the end cost him a tidy sum to settle. The romantic fool, beliey- inp he had got a real treasure in his darling Edith, would make little eX- cursionS around New York in her con- pany. Then she persuaded him to write her letters and furnish flat for her personal and exclusive use up town. Then in stepped the male friend of the girl, an elderly ruffian, whom she introduced as a special off cer, claiming 10 be her father. Of course. Romeo was only too 2 lad to dis gorge liberally on the spot.
 "A new and rather neat trick to en- trap is for q pretty blackmailer to en- ter q store where there are Q great many clerks and salesmen. Well, once in the store she plies all her feminine arts upon her chosen prey Casually some one occupying q good remunera- tive position, and whose circumstances she has learned something about, land, engaging him in conversation, lets slip some stray remark which she empha- sizes with her eyes. A visit or two, possibly theater or opera night. and some fine day my lady sails into the store like 8 Spanish frigate bent on plunder. \ hurried talk follows: the man looks glum. but hands 10 the en- snarer the money she has demanded. l once knew of the case of 9 we'll known editor in this city who was ta- ken in by blackmailer. She was Q little widow from Jersey City, and she called upon him one day with . woeful expression on her pretty girlish face that won his heart. By and by she dropped him a note, and he fOolishly answered it. Then she got, aS q favor, a couple of theater tickets, again n con- cert ticket, and other similar cOurte- sies. These were invariably accOmpa- nied by polite and somewhat gallant ly wOrded little note from the editor. On the strength of these letters, and with the aid of confederate, she ex- torted from him over thousand dol lars within three months.
 'Is it invariably the case that either the principals or allies in Q blackmail operation are wOmen?"
 "Almost always. They are the best operators. Men suspect men always; they are fools enough never to suspect a handsome woman. The best allies of the craft are bogus detectives and blackmail lawyers. The former help them to scare the victim into smelling out. while the latter. more adroit in the art of financial phlebotomy, bleed you by a gradual and lingering pro- cess under the color of law.
 ''Is there no means, then, of defeat ing such nefarious schemers?'
 ''Yes, if you have the grit to do it. which, unfortunately. very few people have-that is, to resist their first ap- breaches and hand them over to the police, braying all publicity. There is no other way.'