Lupipparu

The indictment in this case charges a conspiracy to devise a scheme and artifice to defraud, and for obtaining money and property by means of false and fraudulent pretenses, representations, and promises. The scheme and artifice was that the defendants would write and send, through the post office establishment of the United States, certain letters to one Frank Laurieella, wherein they would pretend that they intended to and would -kill and murder the said Laurieella, unless he would take and deposit at a designated time and place the sum of $2,000 in lawful money of the United States for the use and benefit of the defendants. The indictment then charged as overt acts the mailing of several letters to effect the object of the conspiracy. The present writ of error was sued out to review a judgment of conviction, and the sufficiency of the indictment to sustain the judgment is the only question presented for our consideration. In Horman v. United States, 116 F. 350 , 53 C. C. A. 570 , the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held that a plan to extort" money from another by means of threatening letters was a scheme or artifice to defraud within the meaning .of section 5480…