It has been argued that an important function of the racketeer is sometimes to help enforce agreements that are beyond the law. Price-cutting in the Chicago garment trade was punishable by explosion—the fee for the explosion being paid by the price-fixing organization—according to R. L. Duffus, “The Function of the Racketeer,” New Republic (March 27, 1929), pp. 166–68.

Thomas C. Schelling, The Strategy of Conflict, loc. 774