#extortion bait

“Girl Held As ‘Extortion Bait’,” Border Cities Star. October 3, 1931. Page 13. ---- MISS IRENE THOMPSON HENDRIX, above, was arrested in Kansas City, Mo., and returned to Mattoon, Ill., on a charge of ‘conspiring to impersonate a federal officer.’ The Government alleges she and another young woman were decoys who lured prominent business men into adjoining states, where the male members of the gang poses as Government men and threatened prosecution on Mann Act charges if blackmail was not paid.

[AL: It’s very, very unclear if the women in this story are actually Romani, or if this is just a racialized description of the criminal act - that is, the pastor assumed the trick and theft here is a typical ‘Gypsy’ crime, even if the actual person arrested was not Romani. It wouldn’t surprise if that is the case.]