A nephew was brought before the First Special District Court yesterday charged with attempting to extort $10,000 from his aunt who is a widow. An alleged accomplice arrested in the French Concession also appeared in court but since the crime needed more investigations the hearing was postponed for a week.
The accused, Zing Deli-chuan, was an assistant in a jewel shop at 444 Hankbw Road formerly opened by his uncle who is dead. At the time of his arrest early yesterday morning in the Yangtze Hotel, he was alleged to have told the police that he tried extortion because he had lost all his money in gambling houses.
He was caught after a mysterious telephone call was traced to him. The telephone call was answered by his widowed aunt living in an alley in Connaught Road. He was alleged to have told his aunt that he had been kidnapped and that unless a ransom was paid he would be sent to Hongkew. The kidnappers would then kidnap the aunt's seven-year old daughter, he was further alleged to have said. The aunt referred the matter to the Louza police who made the arrest.
Previous to the telling of the make-believe kidnapping story, the accused youth was further alleged to have written an extortion letter to his aunt asking for $10,000 and threatening to burn down all her houses in Nantao. He was alleged to have posed as "Zoong of the 7th Japanese Division Guarding Party in Hongkew" in the extortion letter, which also threatened to kidnap the seven-year old daughter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.