Los Angeles herald., 1907-06-16

| election frauds and to give any fur
ther information they could to the
| graft fighters.
To Burns the two pardoned convicts
unburdened themselves. Then Burns
approached Maestretti. The district
leader was in a vindictive mood to-
ward Ruef because he felt he had
| been politically sighted. He main
| tanned his silence, however, until Burns
| broke the news of the arrangement
with Wyman and Steffens and told
| him of secrets that involved him in
numerous election Irregularities of the
| Ruef-Schmitz regime. Under the per-
suasive influence of such disclosures
and at the same time moved by feel
| ing Of resentment toward Ruef, Macs
tretti took side with Burns. Night
after night he met the detectives in
a house down by the bay shore to
reveal more and more of the corrupt
Administrations practices and suggest
schemes for forcing the truth from
other members of the Schmitz plunder-
bund.
That was Burns first notable
achievement in the fight to corner the
grafters. Soon with the knowledge he
had gained from Maestretti, he had
driven a number of the administra-
tion's favorites to the wall-amoDg
them three ex-police commissioners
and two Doodle go-betweens. The
confession of each, however he kept
from the others. One knew not what
his confederate in graft had done.
With admirable tact the detective thus
played upon the vulnerability of the
guilty bribe-takers until uncertainty
bred fear, and fear generally led to
an application for the prosecutions
immunity bath. In such way the
detective laid aa foundation for his
operations against the mayor, the
supervisors, and the boss of them ALL
One of the men closest in Mayor
Schmitzs confidence was man known
in San Francisco as G. M. Roy. From
Maestretti Burns learned that Roy
was no other than Morris Golden, a
fugitive from justice for two crimes
committed in Oklahoma-one the for
gerry of the signature OF Secretary
Bliss of President McKinley's cabinet,
and the other the embezzlement of
$4,000, placed in Golden's care by the
residents of Guthrie for the purpose
of securing an Indian agency.
In the favor of the Schmitz adminis-
tration, Golden, alias Roy, had pros
pered. He had grown rich from Illicit
interests and thought he had left his
criminal record years behind. He had
come to be a political power and
leader of the society in which Mayor
Schmitz was the central figure.
Brought Golden to His Knees
Then suddenly, at an early morning
meeting, Burns flashed complete
story of the past before Roy's eyes
a story intensified by accurate details
and colored by pathetic applications to
the fugitive's gay freedom and social
sway.
Instantly Roy was on his knees to
the secret service agent. Without at
tempting denial he admitted his guilt.
But what could he do to escape ex-
tradition for forgery and embeSzle-
ment? What service could he per-
form?
zone thing" said Burns. Confess
all you know. Tell us everything"
And Roy confessed the whole shame
full story. He told of collecting the
police corruption fund from the gam
blers of the Chinese quarter, of divid-
ing the swag, and of bribing the super
visors in the interests of public service
corporations. He turned over all his
intimate knowledge of graft to Burns
and then remained subject to the de-
tective's orders, cowed like Maestretti,
by fear of criminal prosecution.
But Burns kept Roy's confession
secret that Roy might retain the conf
dence of his old associates and help at
trapping them. This was wise course,
for two months later Burns and two
of his assistants, concealed behind cur
tains, saw two supervisors, Thomas
Lonergan and DIR. Charles Boxton. take
a bribe of $500 each from the hands of
Roy in return for their votes against
an ordinance excluding children from
a skating rink in which Roy was inter-
ested. AS the supervisors pocketed the
ia dQtafttuad Pnofpnntn6 than1
and Boxton tried to turn upon
Roy, but were soon convinced that
they had been caught and that their
only hope lay in making a complete
confession of their boodling operations.
Within u week they had admitted all
their crimes under oath and so impli-
Gated their associates that the confess
sions of fifteen supervisors were soon
in the possession of Burns.
The logic of the detectives scheming'