The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1884-06-12
WOMEN BLACKMAILERs.
How They Hunt and Entrap Their
Prey in the Cities.

"It Is, perhaps, an ungallant thing
to say, but in New York, and large
cities generally, beauty and blackmail
have come to be associated TO such an
extent that the only safeguard is for
susceptible person to steer clear of
good-looking strangers altogether.
The speaker was a veteran detective,
whose thirty odd years of active SER
vice had furnished valuable expert
ence.
docs it prevail to-day as largely as
IN former yearsP" he was asked by the
writer.
why, it has multiplied tremend-
ously. You see it is a trade, this of
blackmailing, which can 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?" Al.
The necessity for constant change
of system, to avoid detection, drives
them to invent new tricks so often that
1t is difficult to keep track of them.
One of the latest. and the most novel,
1 happened to hear of just u few days
ago. A beautiful girl sought employ
ment in a 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, believ-
ing he had got real treasure in his
darling Edith, would make little ex-
cursions around New York in her COM
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 rutlian,
whom she introduced as a special Off
Ger, claiming to be her father. OF
course, Romeo was only too glad to dis
gorge literally on the spot.
"a new and rather neat trick to en-
trap is for pretty blackmailer to en-
ter store where there arc great
many clerks and salesmcn. Well, once
In the store she plies all her feminine
arts upon her chosen prey CASUALLY
some one occupying n good remunera-
tive position, and whose circumstances
she has learned something about, )and,
engaging him in conversation, lets slip
some stray remark which she empha-
sizes with her eyes. A visit or Two,
possibly a theater or opera night, and
some fine day my lady sails into the
store like n Spanish frigate bent on
plunder. A hurried talk follows: the
man looks glum. but hands to the en-
snarer the money she has demanded.
1 once knew of the case of we'll
known editor in this city who was Ia
ken in by q blackmailcr She was q
little widow from Jersey City, and she
called upon him one day with a woeful
expression on her pretty girlish face
that won his heart. By and by she
dropped him q note, and he foOishly
answered it. Then she got, as a favor,
a couple of theater tickets, again a con-
cert ticket, and other similar courte-
sizes. These were invariably accompa-
MED by polite and somewhat gallant
ly worded little note from the editor.
Onthe strength of these letters, and
with the aid of a confederate. she ex-
torted from him over thousand dol
lars within three months"
lis it invariably the case that either
the principals or allies in blackmail
operation are womenp"
almost always. They are the best
operators. Men suspect men always;
they are fools enough never to suspect 4
handsome woman. The best allies of
the craft are bogus detectives and
blackmail lawyers. The former help
them to scare the victim into 'shelling
out, while the latter, more adroit in
the art of financial phlebotomy, bleed
you by gradual and lingering pro-
cess under the color of law.
''Is there no means. then, of defeat
ing such nefarious schcmersP'
''Yes, il you have the grit to do it
which, unfortunately, very few people
have-that is, to resist their first ap-
proaches and hand them over to the
police, Drawing all publicity. There
Ia no other way, ~