The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-05-16
To save OTHERS.
Abe Ruef Says That Is Why He
Pleaded Guilty.
Declares He Is Innocent Of the
Charge of ExtOrtiOn.
OF TAKING BRIBES.
He Says in Interview He Is
Actually Guilty.
Wept as He Related Story of
Misdeeds and Mistakes.

/ my plea to guilty in court. but pledge
you my solemn word that 1 am as in
nocent as you are ABE Ruef, boss
| of San Francisco. said this after he
| had pleaded guilty of extortion. SEN
| tence on his plea viii be announced in
| two weeks.
Ruef was charged in this case with
| extorting bribes from French restau-
rants to permit them to violate city
| dinances. This Is the charge to which
Ruef pleads guilty. although he says he
| is actually innocent He was also in
dicted of accepting bribes from corpor-
ations. This, he says, he is actually
/ guilty of. He has not yet been tried on
1 the latter charge.
| After a private conference with his
four attorneys in Judge DUNES pri-
vate chambers and after they had with
drawn from his case because of the
resolution he had taken to change his
I plea and avoid trial, Ruef, to the utter
astonishment of the prosecution, rose
in court and announced in a dramatic
! address, that after long and earnest
| consideration he had determined to
withdraw his plea of not guilty and
| enter a plea of guilty. He asked that
! jury be dismissed and the trial aban-
doned.
Wept i'm Court.
Ruef read his statement from a man
uscript which he had prepared in the
presence of his attorneys few mo-
ments before Judge Dunne's chambers
| opened. He showed in his voice, in the
! expression of his face, in his quiet and
gestureless attitude and by the tears
| that again and again overfowed his
| eyes and ran down his cheeks, the
great emotion and utter humiliat tion he
suffered. The accused man was sew
eral times overcome by emotion. When
he reached the final words of his adj
dress-"I desire to withdraw my plea
of not guilty and enIer the contrary
plea''-his voice was sunk to a whisper.
60 int he ell hot
| reached to the far corners of the room.
Although Abraham Ruef has formal
ly declared himself to be guilty of the
Icharge on which he was about to be
nocence. He declares that his sole mo-
tive in accusing himself in open court
was to save the lives of those who are
nearest and dearest to him-his father
and mother. his sister and a niece.
His Explanation.
In the course of a long and frank
conversation in room a the house No.
ZS49 Fillmore street. which for the last
month or more has been his prison,
Ruef said:
II changed my plea to guilty in
court but L pledge you my solemn
word that 1 am as innocent as you are.
I have been guilty of conniving at the
corruption of municipal officials by
corporations, but in these French res
taurant- cases I am not guilty. Since
my action in court l can have no mo-
tive in misleading you on this point.
1 shall not mislead you. Never, never.
in the wide world could 1 have been
convicted on this charge. No one
knew this as well as myself. Then.
why you ask, did I plead guilty? I
pleaded guilty to save the lives of
those who are nearest and dearest to
me on earth. 1 am not overstating the
truth when 1 tell you that if my
father. my mother and my sister had
been compelled to endure the strain
of my trial, lasting at least two months
and possibly longer, it would have cost
their lives.
Ruef's eyes were filled with tears
when he said this. He turned and for
a full moment gazed out of the win
dow unseeingly. When he had mas
tered himself he turned and with wet
eyes, but a steady voice went on:
"You don't know what they have
suffered in these last few months and
1 would not tell you if I could. Why
night after night-every night-my
father and my sister have come up
here into my room and sat for an
hour, saying nothing, seeing nothing.
1 could not stand it any longer" again
the tears and the choking and the long
look out of the window. Tuesday
night I gathered my family about me
in this prison house of mine and pre-
pared them for the act | had deter
mined upon. That would mean one
day of sorrow. To go on would have
meant months of agony and-death.
Didn't Care for Himself.
'.I don't know what my sentence
will be. For myself do not greatly
care. I say to you now, and you can
Judge if I boast, that no man possesses
physical nerve more than 1 do. I
could face crowd of 5000 men, of
10000 men. every one with a rope in
his hand and calling for my life. II
could face them calmly and meet my
end without fiinching. But the suffer-
ing of those 1 love 1 could endure no
longer. 1 say 1 do not know what my
sentence will be. If it be five years
across the bay 1 can meet that when
it comes. l believe that with my per-
sonality and leaving out of considera-
ton the feelings of those who love me
and have stood by me. could spend
five years in San Quentin almost as
comfortably as in hotel at Napa
Springs. But If the step took had
meant five years or fourteen years or
fourteen hundred years the fear of
that would not have deferred me.
Il have made no confession. I
know much Some things I shall tell.
some things I shall not tell. When
ever an innocent man has been forced
into corruption against his will that
man I shall protect Whenever man,
be he high or low. has entered into
corruption with his eyes open that
man I shall expose
II will not say at the present mo-
ment that Mayor Schmitz is guilty of |
the charges that have been brought |
against him or that he is innocent |
will say that / wanted to break away
from Schnitz before his reelection a.
wear AGO last November and said to |
him: I am sick of the whole thing |
and I want to get out. / can't stand |
for all these labor union buns you |
have gathered around you and will ap-
point They would eat the paint off |
a house. In answer the mayor beg
ged me to stay with him and put up I