EXTORTION RING HITS CAPITAL

Congressman Is $40,000 Victim for Sex Silence

By JACK ROTH

New York Times Service

NEW YORK A member of Congress from an eastern state was shaken down for $40,000 by members of a nationwide ring that has preyed on homosexuals over the last decade, federal and local authorities said yesterday.

Existence of the ring, said to have extorted hundreds of thousands of dollars from several thousand victims, was first disclosed Feb. 17, 1966, when 17 suspects were indicted and nine arrested.

Investigation of the ring has continued. At least 30 persons have been convicted and imprisoned on charges of extortion and impersonating a police officer, and officials say the ring has now been broken.

As the investigation went on, the list of the ring's victims grew.

IN EARLIER disclosures. the victims included two deans of eastern universities. several professors, businessmen, a movie actor, a television personality, a musician and a high-ranking military officer who committed suicide the night before he was to testify before a New York County grand jury.

More details of the ring's operations became known yesterday through interviews with eight investigators who had gone into aspects of the racket across the country and overseas.

The investigators disclosed that additional victims included the member of Congress (who was not named), a general, an admiral, a British producer and two well-known American singers.

ALL WERE shaken down, it was learned, on the threat that their homosexual tendencies would be exposed unless they paid for silence.

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