D

CONVICTION OF RUEF

URING the second trial of Ruef, we received several intimations that men on the jury panel had been approached and bribed to vote for acquittal. We were unable to get hold of facts that would definitely prove this,

until we came to Haas.

Haas was an ex-convict, and a lover of a married woman. Bragging to her one day, he told her that he was to be on the Ruef jury, and would get several thousand dollars out of it. She repeated this to her husband, and he, furious with rage and jealousy against Haas, sent the information to District Attorney Langdon.

When Haas was placed in the jury box for examination, Judge Lawlor called him up and asked him if there was any reason why he should not serve as a juror. Haas replied that there was not.

Heney, not wanting to waste a peremptory challenge upon him, and seeing that he would not take advantage of the loophole given him, then exposed the fact that he had done time in the penitentiary, and he was dismissed.

He was shamed and humiliated by this exposure. The United Railroads detectives seized on this fact, taunted and laughed at him for lying down under such an injury, and at last worked him into a desperate frame of mind. He became obsessed with the idea that he could wipe out the injury only by killing Heney. Just before the court was called to order after recess, he walked up behind Heney and shot him through the head.

The town went wild with excitement at the news. Haas was carried off by policemen and thrown into jail. Heney was placed in an ambulance, supposed to be dying, and was heard to say in the ambulance, "I'll get them yet!"

I was, of course, pretty nearly insane. I followed the ambulance to the hospital and got such news as I could of Heney's condition. The surgeons could not say whether or not he would live. I rushed back to the hall that was being used by Judge Lawlor as a courtroom, crying out for Ruef, trying in my half-mad condition to further infuriate the already infuriated crowd there into taking some violent action.

The streets were flooded with extras, and the city was for once thoroughly aroused. Crowds gathered on the streets

and in the hotels, the air was electric. Phelan rushed up from San Jose, found me in my office and wanted to know what should be done. Hiram Johnson appeared, pale, trembling, earnest, and said, "I'm ready for anything that it is decided is the thing to do. If it's the rope, I'm for that." San Francisco's mood was dangerous that night, and the slightest impetus would have precipitated the crowds into mobs, ready for lynching. A wildly excited mass meeting was held. However, cooler counsels prevailed, and nothing was done.

We made every effort to get a statement from Haas as to who had inspired him to do what he had done, but a few days later he was found shot in his cell in the city prison. He had obtained a gun from some source and committed suicide.

The town was still aroused to a point where it seemed we could go ahead with the trial of Ruef and convict him. Hiram Johnson and Matt I. Sullivan volunteered their services in Heney's place, and the trial went on, while Heney lay on his back at the Lane Hospital.

Burns had reported that four of the jurors had been fixed, and he gave us their names. Hiram Johnson made most effective use of this information in his dramatic talk to the jury. He called each of these men by name, pointing to him, and said, "YOU, you DARE NOT acquit this man!”

We hoped to get a quick verdict, but we didn't. The jury retired to a room over the courtroom in Carpenters' Hall and were out all night. There was a meeting that night and all sorts of wild plans were discussed, but nothing came of it. None of us slept.

The next morning the jury was still out. After a sleepless night I went to the courtroom, in a very overwrought condition of mind, and insisted upon the making of an outcry in the court in case the jury came in to ask for instructions. I would demand that justice be done, and the crowded courtroom should let the jury see its temper.

I was talked out of this foolish idea by another man no less overwrought than myself, who ended by saying that he would make the outcry himself. But the jury was not

brought in.

The day dragged on. The jury was still out in the afternoon. At about 2 o'clock Heney telephoned me that he was well enough to come down to the courtroom and pay his respects to Judge Lawlor. I thought I saw in this a chance to get a verdict.

I telephoned Heney to wait until I came for him. Then I telephoned to the League of Justice, a group of people organized to support the graft prosecution. They had a number of men, called "minute men," whom they could get at a

minute's notice. I asked for as many as could be mustered to come at once to Carpenters' Hall. Fifty, or perhaps a hundred, came immediately, and I told them to jam the courtroom, which was immediately under the jury room, remain there until I arrived with Heney, and as we appeared in the hall to shout as loud as they could.

I reasoned that while the shout could be considered merely a welcome to Heney, it would have the effect of so thoroughly scaring the jury that it would bring in a verdict.

Heney came. I walked in with him, and I have never heard such a roar as went up. It lasted for five minutes. Twenty minutes later the jury came in, some of them white, shaking and with tears on their cheeks, and returned a verdict of guilty.

This was our first big victory. We had convicted Ruef. Judge Lawlor gave him fourteen years at San Quentin, the utmost penalty the law allowed.

Ford had been acquitted of the charge of giving the bribe money to Ruef, but Ruef had been convicted of taking it. It only remained to try Calhoun. This was to be our big star performance.

T

RUEF SENT TO THE PENITENTIARY

any

HE conviction of Ruef was our first great definite triumph. It exalted us. For days I refused to entertain misgivings, or allow anxiety to dilute the unrestrained pleasure I felt. Soon, however, came the worry about the upper courts. Would the appellate or supreme court dare to upset our work of years and save Ruef from the penitentiary? We hoped not, but we feared. Their previous rulings had all been against us.

Henry Ach was Ruef's leading attorney, and we knew his remarkable ability and resourcefulness. He prepared the appeal to the appellate court, working on it for months. It was said to contain more than a million words. It had the record for size and hair splitting technicalities.

To our astonishment and satisfaction, the appellate court made short work of it. In an amazingly brief space of time after the case was submitted, a decision came down upholding the verdict in the lower court. This lessened our fear of the supreme court. We reasoned that it would not have the courage to interfere.

In time Ach petitioned the supreme court for a rehearing, and to our horror it was granted, four of the seven justices voting for it. Were we to be thus balked of our prey? Enraged, I assigned several men to the work of attacking the decision, the justices, the lawyers, and everyone remotely connected with it. I realized that it would accomplish nothing in legally altering the status of the case, but perhaps I could arouse public indignation, and failing in that, at least I could have revenge. The article that I prepared covered every possible angle of the case, including interviews with attorneys favorable to our side, and vicious attacks upon the justices.

At an early hour on the morning following this publication, Charles S. Wheeler, the well known attorney, called

on me.

He said, "I read the article in the Bulletin last evening, and I have come to you because you are the only member of the graft prosecution in the city. Spreckels and Heney are in the East. Do you want to send Ruef to the penitentiary on a technicality?"

"Yes, I do," I replied.

"I think myself that it is only poetic justice that he should

go over on a technicality," he said. "He has used so many of them himself. Now is the time to decide. If you would rather not, say so now and we will let the matter drop."

"I think he ought to go," I said.

"Very well, then," said Wheeler. "Make an appointment for me with Governor Johnson in Sacramento for this evening and have Attorney General Webb present, and I will explain how it can be done. In your paper last night you had a story that after Justice Henshaw signed the order granting a rehearing, he left for the East, and when the decision was rendered he was not in the state. You probably are ignorant of the legal significance of that fact, but it means that when Henshaw left the state, he was legally dead. Therefore, only three members of a court of seven justices affirmed the decision. It required four. I will explain it all to the governor and the attorney general this evening."

At that time the legislature was in session and John Francis Neylan was the Bulletin's legislative correspondent. I telephoned him to make the appointment.

Wheeler and I took the 5 o'clock train, and we were in the governor's office a little after 8. The governor and the attorney general were waiting for us.

I was, of course, in a great state of excitement. In a few words I explained the reason for our visit and asked Wheeler to state the case. He was very cool, calm and brilliant. In the fewest words possible, he outlined the law pertaining to the absence of Henshaw from the state and he made it quite clear to Governor Johnson that the decision of the supreme court was worthless, and that if the attorney general would follow his instructions, it would be upset.

The attorney

The governor and I were enthusiastic. general was not. He raised many objections. This aroused the governor and in one of his characteristic speeches, he pointed out to Webb just what his duty was in the matter, and that this was not the time to quibble or hesitate. When the governor finished, I broke into the discussion with a violent tirade about the enormity of Ruef's crimes, and being very angry at Webb's apparent hesitancy, said many foolish things which later I regretted.

The meeting ended, however, by Webb agreeing to do what Wheeler said could be legally done, which was to appear before the supreme court and point out to that body that Henshaw's signature to the order was non-existent after he left the state.

The attorney general carried out the program to the letter, and the court, with Henshaw acting, reversed itself. All obstacles were thus cleared away and Ruef entered the penitentiary under a fourteen year sentence.