In the past, lawyers and public authorities advocated for
the decriminalisation of homosexuality - not from a
humanist or human rights perspective, but with regard to
the abuse of legal instruments. In the interwar period, the
press published a number of articles about people
becoming victims of extortion groups of young people
who specialized in searching for homosexual victims,
whom they then extorted and blackmailed financially. The
young men threatened their victims, and also threatened
to reveal the victim's true sexual identity. If the victim
wanted to defend themselves, they threatened them with
physical attacks, which often took place. The victims
usually did not seek help, and some preferred to pay for
fear of disclosure (this sometimes meant that they had to
steal money). Others took their own life.
From the courtroom: Three years of prison for two attempted extortions (Penal senate of the court). František Prokop, a 30-year-old former private employee of a factory in Bratislava, has been dismissed for various machinations. After exhausting all of his financial resources, he specialised in extortion. First, he wrote a letter to Štefan Čermák, a clerk of the healthcare treasury, that if he does not immediately pay him 10,000 Kčs, he will denounce him for falsifying various vouchers.
Čermák did not react to the extortion letter, which resulted in Prokop’s denouncement of Čermák. Investigation has shown that Čermák indeed had discrepancies in his work and was dismissed. The second extortion letter was sent by Prokop to a silk store manager of the “Lyon” company, Mr Schwarz, in which he demanded that he should come to a certain café in Brno on a certain day and at a certain time, where they need to talk about a certain delicate matter. In this letter, Prokop threatened Schwarz that if he did not come to Brno, he would denounce him for homosexuality at the police. Schwarz ignored the extortion letter and when Prokop came to threaten him in person, Schwarz called him to the police and denounced him. During the police investigation, Prokop’s dark past was uncovered as he had been imprisoned for seven times for various criminal offenses. Mr Necida’s penal senate sentenced the dangerous criminal for the two extortion attempts for three years of prison without probation. The senate was presided by Dr Pásek, the prosecution was represented by state prosecutor, Mr Formánek.
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A special group of detectives protects people with unnatural inclinations
from blackmailers and criminals – The curse of being a war prisoner –
Young offenders hunt for sick men.
A few months ago, the State Police of Budapest, at the initiative of Chief
Detective dr. Lajos Laky, set up a special team of detectives to protect those
unfortunate who have sick inclination. The head of the team is tactful and
adept police inspector Ernő Róna, who with his team of four observes the
suspicious elements lurking around people with sick inclinations. The team
conducts regular raids in places in Budapest where the sick turn up. Based
on these raids, the group has already had some surprising experiences.
There must be around a thousand men in the capital who betray their
affinity with their appearance: they dress very elegantly, shave thoroughly,
use powder and always promenade in certain places, where they also meet
others. During the war there were still only few of them, usually meeting
around the terminus of tram number 8, in the shadows of the Danube bank.
Later the so-called Emke Corner, the corner of Rákóczi Street and Erzsébet
Boulevard, became their meeting point. Recently men of higher social
standing have been spotted in Erzsébet Square, on the Fürdő Street side; the
poorer ones walk around in the Népliget park and in the City Park around
the circuses. No matter how poor they are, these men always use many
cosmetics, which makes them look almost like women, wear prim ties and
white gaiters.
Fake passion
In the experience of the police, the number of men with sick inclination has
grown especially since the war, and we can conclude that they usually
brought this fatal weakness from war prison and internment camps abroad.
A surprising number of them work in trading professions. The police have
also observed that as a result of this phenomenon of almost epidemic
proportions, a new group of criminals was formed in Budapest: people who
evilly exploit the weakness of sick men, pretend to be homosexuals and
torture and blackmail their poor victims, making them virtually support
their living and sometimes they even commit the gravest crimes. Namely,
men with sick inclinations are usually shy, and in order to avoid scandal,
they decline to go to the police, which makes them free prey to unscrupulous
criminals. Therefore, the police keep a register, for the protection of the
victims, of men whom pseudo-homosexuals regularly plunder. The photos of
potential victims are collected in an album, along with their names and data
about lifestyle; this preventive measure can help the police in case a crime is
committed against these sick people. Then the police can immediately trace
the person’s contact and get on the right track to identify the perpetrator.
Such traces were found in the memorable murder case when foreign
ministry official Pollák was killed by a young man who, though himself
healthy, befriended the sick man, then murdered and robbed him. The police
have established that the sick never commit crimes against each other, they
always fall victims to those who exploit their sick inclinations.
The 12-year-old blackmailer
Frequently men, especially of a young age, lure their victim to a secluded
place, there they whistle to their companions and together they take the
money and watch from their victim, robbing him completely. During the last raid in the City Park, a whole group of young men was traced
by the detectives, and they also witnessed scenes which proved the rationale
of the raids. Namely, they encountered a young man who was chased by eight
under-age youngsters and was desperately crying for help. It transpired that
one of the youths, aged 12 or 13, had made a plan with his companions, went
to the young man to ask for a cigarette and a movie theater ticket, then
collected his companions in a shady part of the park and they tried to
blackmail the young man. The detectives collected the youngsters, as in their
experience these often turn into dangerous pseudo-homosexuals, who
attempt blackmailing sick people already at such a young age. Another sick
man also reported to Chief Inspector Róna that he was being chased by
several people.
“I am not a doctor”, the Chief Inspector said, ”but a policeman; I cannot cure
your problem, but we try to protect you from blackmailers and frauds.
However, if you are sick, it is your duty to get yourself cured, hide away from
the world, not make a public scandal and especially not initiate contacts with
children.”An elegantly dressed young man with a small black English moustache also
turned to the Chief Inspector. “I have a complaint, I have already submitted
my photo to the police, but the naughty children keep chasing me whenever I
set foot in the street. Recently I was walking with my companion and another
gentleman, and my companion did not dare to confront the children chasing
us, because he was embarrassed in front of the other gentleman.” 15–20 men were arrested during the raid, and interestingly almost all of
them are shop assistants. The first question of the experienced detectives
was whether the man had been in a prison camp; the answer is usually yes.
Now the police is trying to ensure that such former war prisoners and
interns should not be able to contact young boys, who on the one hand
blackmail and plunder them, on the other hand may also fall victim and
increase the number of these unfortunate ones.
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