Omaha daily bee., 1916-09-18
BLACkMAA BAND
OF EIGHT NABBED
IN CHICAGO HOTEL
Federal Agents Capture Men
and Women Alleged to Have
Been Preying on Rich
Persons of East.
EVIDENCE BY DICToGRAPH
Apartment Honeycombed With
Machines to Furnish
Information.
FEDERAL OFFICER PLEASED

Chicago, Sept. l7.-Eight members
OF an alleged blackmail gang, charged
with using the beauty of their womer
members and the fascinating powers
Of their male members to mulct
women out of more than $250,000, are
in custody of federal authorities here
today and will be taken to Philadel'
phia Tor trial.
The band, including five men and
three women, was arrested shortly be-
fore midnight last night in, a raid by
Department of Justice officials on a
fashionable South Side apartment
hotel
The women, according to the au.
thorities, are young and beautiful The
men are we'll groomed and OF a type
calculated to impress society women
Many Are Victims.
They are accused of Fleeing mer
and women of social prominence in
Chicago, Baltimore, New York and
Philadelphia through organized eff.
forts. Their scheme, according to
Hinton G. Clabaugh of the Depart
ment of Justice, was to compromise
their victims and then blackmail them
Impersonation of Department of Jus,
tice officials is another charge against
the men. They are said to have used
the charms OF their women confed.
crates to win attention from rich men
and then to have. threatened theiS vic
tins with prosecution under the Mann
act.
Director at Large.
Those arrested gave the names Of
Henry Russell, Edward Donahue
Helen Evers, Mrs.~Frances Allen
Mrs. Edward Donahue, James Chris
tian, Frank Crocker and George
Bland. George Irwin, alleged director
of the group, is still at large.
The principal. charge against the
band is the alleged kidnapping OF Mrs
Regina H. Clifford of Philadelphia
one OF their alleged victims, and want
ed as government witness. She was
spirited away to Canada, it is charged
at the time she was wanted to testify
against the band.
"The chief offenses charged against
the band occurred in Philadelphia and
for that reason they will be taken
there for trial" said Clabaugh today
Get Quarter Million.
Clabaugh said there were fifteen
known victims of the gang and that
the amount obtained from these vic,
tins probably will reach S2S000O
Forty thousand dollars was obtained
from one victim and $35,000 from an
other, Clabaugh said.
Authorities refused to reveal the
names of the victims. SOME, it was
said, are men prominent in political
life, who were vi:t.mized while at the
republican convention here last June
During the raid which had been
carefully planned for many weeks, an
elaborate opium outfit was found in
one of the apartments raided.
Dictagraphs GIVE Evidence.
Federal authorities said tonight thai
one of the gang, Henry Russell, had
posed as a brother of Mayor William
Hale Thompson of Chicago and had
used this alias in a plot.
Bill" Woodward, another alleged
director of the gang, is'also being
sought, Clabaugh said. T..
The raid was made only after the
apartment building had been literally
sown with dictagraphs. These were
connected with an adjoining building
where the detectives hid.
Sixty in Syndicate.
There are at least sixty members oi
the syndicate" according to the fed.
eral officials, one-third Of whom are
women. Others than the eight now
under arrest as the result of the raid
Saturday night are expected to be in
custody soon Only three victims OF
the swindlers in the entire Unitsd
States, Mr.. Clabaugh said, had de.
clared themselves willing to face pub.
licity and testify against the criminals
One Of these, he said, is Mrs. Clifford
of Philadelphia. Another is Mrs. J
Bolton Winpenny of Philadelphia
CONTINUED on Paes Two, Column FourD