Age-old advice: Don’t give in to blackmail
We mine the Free Press archives for advice that still applies today (...or doesn’t)
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/07/2019 (2322 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
From Sincerely Edan Wright, published in the Winnipeg Free Press on Dec. 7, 1959
Dear Edan Wright: I’m a 17-year-old girl who got herself in quite a mess two years ago and is being blackmailed for it. I was green about everything when I started dating and I let an impressive college guy talk me into doing things I didn’t know were wrong.
I woke up in time to save myself from ruining my life and I worked hard to regain my good name. For a long time I didn’t even date because I was afraid all boys were like the first one I had gone with. It was nearly a year later that I met a wonderful boy who was a newcomer at high school.
Right at the beginning of our dating, I came clean with all I had done. He didn’t ask me questions. I just felt I should tell him because I was fond of him. Also, I guess I was afraid he might hear about the past and I thought it would be better if he got it straight from me.
We came to love each other and our relationship has been pure as well as honest. This boy has graduated from high school (he’s two years older) and he’s been in the service now for six months. We write faithfully and our love is growing deeper.
However, it’s about to be destroyed because the fellow I told you about in the beginning has suddenly started to pester me for dates and threatens to break me up with my beloved if I don’t go out with him.
Dating him only means one thing: going back to being bad. He has proof of my past that could really tear my sweetheart and me apart and has given me until the end of the month to decide what means more — my virtue or my wonderful guy.
I told him I would go to the police but then the whole story would come out and my parents are completely unaware of it. I would not only break their hearts but might ruin their good standing in our community. Please, please help me!
— Gidget
Dear Gidget: Stand pat on your threat to go to the police. Tell him that blackmailing is a criminal offence and he could be sent to jail for it. Also, tell him that since you were only 15 at the time you met him, he could get into more trouble for contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Then remember that no matter what proof he has, you’ve already confided in your sweetheart and at a time when he wasn’t in love. So a few more details — black as they may be — won’t make any difference.