BLACKMAIL

Hokitika Guardian, 1 November 1928, Page 7

BLACKMAIL

INNOCENT MEN TERRORISED.

LONDON, August 20

(Seaside blackmail of the kind disclosed in the recent Brighton murder case is by no means confined to Brighton, though its organisation there was of an exceptional character.

Inquiries made by a special correspondent of the “Daily Mail” suggest one important piece of advice to all visitors to pleasure resorts: When accosted by affable strangers avoid their company.

Neglect to do this was the downfall of many a visitor to Brighton. There were five men and a woman known by the police to have been associated with gang. Three are now beginning sentences of penal servitude for life after narrowly escaping death penalty. It is hoped that their fate will be a warning to tbe other three, all of whom are known

“PEEPING TOMS.”

At the start of their career olf crime the blackmail practised by the men of this gang was similar to that found in most seaside resorts. They were “Peep spots favouredby lovers, and having spied for a while appeared and demanded money under the threat of (a) Personal violence; or (b) following tbe woman in the case home and exposing her. Many men qute innocent paid the blackmail rather that expose the woman to annoyance.

Later |th,e blackmailers extended their operations. Two frequently took a boat and rowed along the shore near the beach at dusk or on a moonriglit nights and thus discovered more victims, whom they threatened in conjunction with a confederate ashore. By this time their existence was well known to the police, who shadowed them on more than one occasion but were unable to make any arrest because of the constant refusal of the victims to submit themselves to tbe publicity of the witness box.

WHEN THEY WERE THRASHED. Once or twice members of the gang met with severe rebuffs. Once two young men one disguised as a woman “trapped” the blackmailers into'making their usual charges and demands and then gave them a sound thrashing. So far as the history of this gang might he duplicated in almost every seaside resort, and in itself it should provide a warning to the most innocent young couples not to stray too far from the crowd. But at this point the original members appear to have come under the leadership of George Thomas Donovan —one of llie three men recently ‘convicted of murder. Donovan was an expert motor mechanic able to drive any make of car, and he had already been charged elsewhere with obtaining money by menaces. A young woman frequenter of llie front at Brighton was added to the gang, and at least two of the male members of tbe gang were peverted moral character there were three de-

Onoe a victim had been placed in any sort of 'compromising situation, innocent though he might be, other memers of tbe gang appeared and the usual blackmail followed. They generally took care to find out beforehand who their proposed victim was and whether he was worth their attention by tbe simple process of picking his pockets. An example of a case which actually occurred will illustrate this method.

Mr X—bis real namo naturally cannot bo given—lives in a town near Brighton, Ho was walking along the Brighton promenade one day when an affable stranger—one of tbe gangasked him for a match, and, with this method of introduction, invited Mr X to visit a public-house for a drink. Mr X agreed and there met two other members of tbe gang.