Don't Let Yourself Be Blackmailed

Manawatu Times, Volume LIII, Issue 6631, 9 June 1928, Page 3 (Supplement)

Don't Let Yourself Be Blackmailed

“FIGHT” AND “DON’T PAY” IS THE COUNSEL OF AUTHORITY ... JOHN GALSWORTHY ON A HEINOUS CRIME ...

Blackmail, “the blackest crime of them all," is one of the most difficult for the authorities to punish, inasmuch as the victim seldom reports the criminal. Strange tactics and strategies are employed by these depraved individuals who prey upon their fellow men. The latter, in many cases absolutely innocent, pay the demanded “hush money” rather than suffer the matter to become known. LACKMAIL Is well named. Of all the aw ful crimes, it leads human beings into the darkest labyrinths of distress and agony. Originally it was a yearly payment made for security and protection to bands of marauders who, about the middle of the 16th century, infested the borders of England and Scotland and laid the inhabitants under contribution. Only recently it was reported that London society was again in th§ thralls of a blackmail gang who have been extorting millions from the wealthy and socially prominent among the fashionable West End set. In one case the son of a well-known English peer fell into the hands of one of these blackmailers. For three years the father of the young man paid more than £60,000 to keep the matter quiet. Finally he mustered courage enough to have the blackmailer prosecuted. Fortunately, in the legal proceedings which followed, It was possible to keep the names of the persons involved a secret. Some years ago the annual toll of the blackmailing brotherhood in New York City alone was placed at £2,000,000, and with the increase of crime, imagine the vast sums that doubtless now are being paid there and in every other community.

Any man or woman is liable to be blackmailed. It makes no difference whether the victim who is chosen be rich or poor, guilty or innocent, so long as he can be intimidated. Fear, one of the most destructive forces in human life, lies behind every blackmailing. If only people wouldn't let themselves be blackmailed —by meeting with defiance the sinister suggestions of the criminals, having the moral courage to refuse the first money demand that is made upon them— blackmailing would soon become such an unprofitable crime that the innumerable crooks who are now making an easy living out of it would be obliged to turn their wits toward some other more • difiicult moneymaking scheme. John Galsworthy, the great English writer, in one of his short stories, entitled “Blackmail,” has said: “No wonder blackmail was accounted such a heinous crime. No other human act was so cold-blooded, spider-like and slimy; none plunged so deadly a dagger into the bowels of compassion, so eviscerated humanity, so murdered faith!”

It is characteristic of Galsworthy to draw for his material upon existing social evils and then write around the theme for the purpose of exposing a grave wrong and changing conditions. In England blackmailing seems to be more than ordinarily common, although the crime is really prevalent everywhere, more so than people generally realise. " This condition is due to the fact that so many cases are never reported to the authorities. A person who will pay another for silence is not apt to appeal to the police. Innocent or guilty, the blackmailer’s victims dread publicity above all else. That is the main reason why it is possible to blackmail them. When a man is the objective woman decoys are used. They sit in the lounges of the more exclusive hotels and night clubs, where they become acquainted with wealthy business men. Strange to say, they still adhere to the old method of taking their victims to an apartment, where subsequently they are surprised by an alleged husband who demands money for having his honour so grossly outraged. Women, on the other hand, are ofteu victimised by the chance acquaintances that they make in public dancing resorts. One London society matron arranged with a young man who had danced with her once or twice in a night club to give her private dancing lessons. It was easy enough for him, under the guise of teaching her new steps, to assume a position which, when reproduced by means of a concealed camera, looked intimate and compromising. He then proceeded to blackmail her and had almost bankrupted her before the girl’s father learned of the situation and saved her from a disgraceful "expose which, under the particular circumstances, her husband might not have understood. Very often blackmailers will haunt the fashionable resorts, making friends with women whose jewels and clothes indicate wealth. To the women these casual friendships seem harmless enough until the week-end approaches, and it is time for hubby to arrive upon the scene: then these handsome playfellows show their teeth suddenly and threaten to tell the trusting mate all sorts of terrible things which never happened unless the woman “comes across” with money and jewels, and when she does so she is never again entirely free from that outstretched claw which takes and takes until there is nothing

more left for her to give, not even her honour. Men in certain professions are peculiarly subject to the attack of the blackmailer, particularly if their stock-in-trade is their reputation. Ministers, physicians, and even lawyers, unless they guard themselves against compromising situations, are easy prey. ■ A young clergyman who called rather frequently to see his wife’s people was astounded one day when he received a note to the effect that it he did not desist from paying undue attention to his young sister-in-law he would have to face serious consequences, because the writer was "on to him.” The note was, without doubt, the first step in an elaborate blackmailing scheme. The minister’s answer was a bold one. He made his calls more frequent and of longer duration, so that this would-be blackmailer could see that it was useless to proceed against him, since as an innocent and upright man he was wholly unafraid of scandal, even the manufactured kind. Several years ago a famous blackmailer intimidated London society with her highly organised system of blackmail. It was she, it has been said, who originated a criminal information bureau. So ruthless were her methods that many of her victims were driven to suicide. They paid her as long as they could and then, rather than face the disgrace- with which' she threatened them if they

failed to “come across” with more “hush money,” chose death as the only way to escape from .her relentless demands. r VUsing valets, ladies’ maids, butlers and other servants, she was able to amass a great deal of intimate -personal information regarding her prospective victims. Upon one occasion, by means of forged references, she even went so far as to "plant” an expert safebreaker in a household for the purpose of obtaining an incriminating document. This paper was subsequently redeemed for 5,000 dollars. Nor did she rely wholly upon household servants for her information. Gardeners, waiters, newsboys, dishonest clerks of solicitors—any one, in fact, who was in a position to “get something on” the person to be blackmailed—were paid for whatever information they could furnish. The fact that this woman, used business methods in carrying out her criminal activities doubtlessly contributed largely to the success of her career, while it lasted, for blackmail is essentially a commercial crime in that invariably the motive behind it is the extortion of money. Rarely, do human emotions figure in a blackmail case, at least so far as the perpetrator of the crime is concerned. The blackmailer plies his vicious trade in a cold-hearted, business-like way, naming his price and exacting It regardless of yhat his victim may suffer in order to pay and pay.