Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 38, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 February 1906 — A Lafayerte Lawyer Convicted of Blackmail. [ARTICLE]

A Lafayerte Lawyer Convicted of Blackmail.

Joseph Eacock, a well known attorney of Lafayette, has after a long trial, been found guilty of blackmail and unless he can get a new trial, is now facing a term of from two to 14 years in the penitentiary. His method of procedure seems to have been to conspire with some married woman of that kind of stripe, and to get some prominent maried man in her toils, find then they would threaten him with a snit for alienation of affections, with its consequent exposure and disgrace, and by that means induce him to buy them off with a large sum. It is said quite a large number of men had been held up in this way, and who gayq. assistance in convicting Eacock. Himself and his family formerly stood high in the community, and the trial and exposure so worried him that he became temporarily insane during the trial, but recovered after a number of days adjournment.