Evening star., 1923-03-21

Continued from First Page)
as well as rich men. have been vic
times Of blackmail on Il large scal.
here. Many times. the police them
selves say, the victims are wholly in
nocent of wrong doing, but the trap
has been so carefully arranged that
they are compelled 70 pay.
A concrete instance which came to
the attention Of private detectives
now working on the keenan, case was
cited today. The woman in this in
stance. of moderate wealth, but of
recognized social and even better Of
fetal prominence, dropped in with a
companion one afternoon to tea
dance in a fashionable restaurant. In
few minutes the assistant manager,
who had often served the woman and
her husband, came to her able and
offered to introduce two young men
who were good dancers Supposing
restaurant as Official dancers, the
women accepted their attentions and
danced with them.
Drinks Were Served.
Her only misstep was that she
allowed drinks to be served to her
self and friend. This was, of course,
violation of the law. as she well
knew. Whether some drug was slip
ped into the drinks or not, it is GER
tain two drinks affected them far
more than usual. They were suffi-
GENTLY off their guard that when
one of the youths admired the ring
their hostess was wearing she was
indiscreet enough to remove it and
allow him to examine it. Then he
refused to return 1t until the woman
would consent to allow him to ac-
company her home or make an en-
gagement to meet him the next day.
The afternoon was wearing away and
the woman had a jealous husband.
The assistant manager had uisap-
peared She could call the police,
but it would mean a serious scandal.
So she agreed to meet the youth
the next day in the hotel lobby.
She kept the appointment taking
with her two women friends. The
youth and his male accomplice met
them and said he would return the
had borrowed from him the previous
afternoon. 1t was vain to protest she
had borrowed no money. To refuse
payment meant explanations to her
husband. the police. and to permit
the public statement that she had
been so befuddled she had handed
a ring to a stranger. Raging, but
helpless, the woman paid the money.
BIackmaiIing Fine Art.
Blaokmailing, it is admitted, has
become 50 fine an art in New York
that its representatives frequent
many Of the best hotels. The detec-
tives are kept on the jump eliminat-
ing these undesirables whose ap-
pearance always is that of men and
women Of culture and refinement.
A favorite game of this class is to
lure prosperous appearing individ-
uals, men and women, into bridge
games. The victims win at the start.
There is an adjournment to another
rendezvous and then the victims are
trimmed. Card debts and dice losses
mount up. Drink flows. The victim
usually Is fortunate when the gang
is content to stack the cards or load
the dice without trying the pressure
of a scandalous and compromising
situation as a means of extorting
more money.
The gang works on information sent
from other cities concerning victims.
1t Is this that often makes 1T easy
to land victims and to trim them for
large amounts. With such methods in
vogue it Is not to be wondered at IL
one Of the tools. perhaps unknowing-
ly, as her relatives insist, may have
been Dorothy keenan,.
But the widespread publicity in this
case may prove the downfall of the
trade. There Is growing indignation
in the city over the revelations in
this case and a demand is being
voiced that the police take steps to
stamp out blackmail and to either
send the leaders of the profession to
Jail or run them out of town. Be
cause of this some of the figures tn at
have been most prominent in the
after-midnight life of the city al
ready have disappeared.
fOnnrydrht 1Q21A