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Sexual blackmail first reached public notice in the late eighteenth century when laws against sodomy were exploited by the unscrupulous to extort money from those they could entrap. Angus McLaren chronicles this parasitic crime, tracing its expansion in England and the United States through the Victorian era and into the first half of the twentieth century. The labeling of certain sexual acts as disreputable, if not actually criminal--abortion, infidelity, prostitution, and homosexuality--armed would-be blackmailers and led to a crescendo of court cases and public scandals in the 1920s and 1930s. As the importance of sexual respectability was inflated, so too was the spectacle of its loss. Charting the rise and fall of sexual taboos and the shifting tides of shame, McLaren enables us to survey evolving sexual practices and discussions. He has mined the archives to tell his story through a host of fascinating characters and cases, from male bounders to designing women, from badger games to gold diggers, from victimless crimes to homosexual outing. He shows how these stories shocked, educated, entertained, and destroyed the lives of their victims. He also demonstrates how muckraking journalists, con men, and vengeful women determined the boundaries of sexual respectability and damned those considered deviant. Ultimately, the sexual revolution of the 1960s blurred the long-rigid lines of respectability, leading to a rapid decline of blackmail fears. This fascinating view of the impact of regulating sexuality from the late Victorian Age to our own time demonstrates the centrality of blackmail to sexual practices, deviance, and the law.

Extortion --- Sexual ethics --- History. --- Extortion.

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A serial killer is on the loose in a sleepy, Welsh seaside town, picking off victims like some people pick cockles... The year is 1947 and three young men have recently been demobbed and are back at home in north Wales. It's the start of good weather and they're enjoying being alive. They share the favours of Lilian Ridetski, who runs a high class hair salon in the town. When she and others are found brutally strangled, suspicion falls on all of her customers. Blackmail and murder make Say Goodbye to the Boys both a dark comedy and a quick-witted thriller. It's also surprisingly tender, a port

Serial murderers --- Extortion

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"In Snowton, Alberta, secrets flourish like the crocuses in spring. When Louise Till lets herself into a neighbor's home using a surreptitiously copied key, she discovers more than she ever wanted to know about her small town and herself. Louise Till, mother of two, has inherited her father's hardware store after her parents' unexpected deaths. She begins to cut copies of her customers' keys for herself, each one a talisman against grief and the terrible guilt she feels at not having realized that her parents were desperately unhappy. Louise could use the keys, but she doesn't. Not until her life is overturned, again, when her marriage falls apart. Lou gives in to temptation, letting herself into Euphemia Rosenbaum's home. What follows is a tale of blackmail, break-ins, an unsolved mystery, and more secrets than Lou ever wanted to know. Lou must confront not only the lives of her neighbors, but the unspoken truths of her family and the doors within herself for which there are no keys."--

Extortion --- Secrecy --- Alberta

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The Italian's bridal bargain...Libby Vincent wants to tell Romano Vincenzo why she allowed his ruthless family to take her baby from her. But the dark-hearted billionaire isn't in the mood for listening. He needs Libby back in his life and he knows she will do anything to see her child. Even marry her most bitter enemy.... He'll take her as his bride, but Romano doesn't do love.

Billionaires. --- Billionaires --- Extortion --- Man-woman relationships

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Like sharks to blood in the water, the mob arrived in Hollywood greedy and ready to tear away huge chunks of cash. Opportunistic mobsters saw labor unions as the means for muscling into the movie industry and extorting millions of dollars from studio bosses.

Extortion --- Gangsters --- Motion picture industry --- History --- History --- Employees --- Labor unions --- History --- Hollywood (Los Angeles, Calif.) --- History