The Mena weekly star., 1907-03-28
AMAZING STORYOF GRAF I
Conditions in San Francisco Worse Than Those Exposed in St.
 Louis by Gov. Folk.
sEvEHTY-flvE INDICTMENTS RETURNED
Of Which 65 are Against Abraham Ruef, the Political Boss of the City Work Accomplished by Assist. ant District Attorney Heney and Detective Burns.

| San Francisco, March 22.-The long-looked for indictments in the
 municipal graft cases were returned
 Wednesday night Shortly after $ O.
 clock the grand jury filed with the
 presiding Judge Coffey of the SUI perior court 75 indictments charging bribery which were found on evi. dence presented to the grand jury af ter six months probing into the mu- nicipal affairs of this city by Assist ant District Attorney Francis J. Heney
 and Secret Service Agent Wm. j.. Burns and which reveal an amazing story of alleged graft and corruption that surpasses the poodle cases of St Louis. ranks with the Minneapolis ex- pose and Is only eclipsed in the amount of money passed but not in it's ramifications and organization by the famous Tweed ring of New York Of the indictments returned 65 are against Abraham Ruef, for years the political boss of San Francicso, charging him with bribing the board
 of supervisors to grant franchises to
 the United Railroads, the Home Tele- phone company, the San Francisco Gas & Electric company and the SO called "prizefighting trust. Ten are against T. V. Halsey, former gen
 eral agent of the Pacific States Tele- phone & Telegraph company, who is
 charged with having bribed the super
 visors not to grant franchise to the rival company. One indictment against Ruef and four more against Halsey, which it is understood, were also returned Wednesday, were not filed in open court Several more in
 ditcments, the exact number and against what person Heney and Burns
 refuse to divulge until the accused parties have been arrested, were re-
 turned by the grand jury but not filed. Tine indictments against Hslsey charge the agent of the Pacific States Telephone & Telegraph company with having bribed IA members of tha board of supervisors to refuse the
 rival company a franchise.
 Judge Coffey fixed the bail at s10,000 on each indictments or total of S640,- GOO for Ruef and S100000 for Halsey.
 In the overhead trolley deal, Ruef,
 according to Burns, was given $4S5,- GOO by the United Railroads of which
 the political boss is alleged to have
 divided S91 .000.
 Assistant Attorney Heney stated
 that Wednesdays indictments was | the beginning of the end of Ruef" but
 merely the beginning of the work of
 exposing the municipal corruption in san Francisco and the prosecution of those high up, who are responsible for such conditions in this city.
 The indictments returned Wednes- day followed the clever and inderati- 1 hle work of Eeney and Burns during
 the past week or ten days. The en- ! terirg wedge was driven when super vieors Lonergan and Boxton were al- | ieged to have been trapped several
 days ago by Heney and Burns in the
 act Of taking small bribe. The
 confession of all grating with which
 they were connected was followed
 last Sunday by the confession Of | SaEderson to Heney at Pafo Alto l Sanderson. who was a rormer school
 mate of Heney's went to Arizona
 scvera. months ago and when he re-
 turned he was met by Heney. When confronted by the latter with evidence
 already in hand Sanderson reluctant-
 " admitted his part in the taking Of
 5ribes With the confessions of these
 three. Supplemented by a mass of
 information obtained from other
 sources, the remainder of the super
 visors except J. l. Furri were sum-
 moned before the grand jury Monday, When confronted by the confessions
 literally fell over each other to tell all they knew and thereby secure pos sible immunity from prosecution. The supervisors were interrogated and
 sweated by Heney and Burns from II o'clock in the morning until after
 midnight and made most sensational disclosures of bribery and corrup- tion It was largely on this informa- ton that Thursdays indictments were returned and others which it Is said are to follow. Furri was not examined but George Duffey. formerly a super visor, but now president of the public works has been called. It is said that Duffey who has been heretofore re- garded as one of the guiltless members of the board, Is willing In fact. anxi- ous, to make a clean breast in order to obtain immunity This. how ever. has not yet been granted to him aud will depend, according to Heney, upon certain conditions that he also tell of tbe alleged corruption in the board of public works. where astound- ing conditions are said to prevail
 while neither Heney nor Langdon
 will admit that the supervisors were promised immunity from prosecution
 if they confessed. it is practically cer-
 tain that they win not be proceeded against In order to convict the
 bribe-giVers who Heney and Burns
 declare are the actual criminals. it is
 apparent that no attempt will he
 made to prosecute the small fry" if
 the latter will give such information
 as 1t may have.
 Burns Wednesday night refused to
 discuss the report that even Ruef had
 been promised partial immunity if he
 would confess and thereby enable the
 4ty