The San Francisco call., 1908-03-15
Ruef Tells of Dinge

brothers. from whom he secured shirt
box in which to carry the large bundle
of bills which composed the first $50
900 which Ford paid him in the trolley
matter DR.. Kaplan stated that he
would Investigate that matter and
subsequently did go to Hirsch brothers
and get a statement from one of them
to the effect that he did furnish Ruef
with shirt box about that time.
RUFF PUTS OFF PLEA
After the partial immunity contract
had been signed by Langdon and Heney
and Ruef on May s, 1907. Mr.. Heney
had been urging me to have Ruef go
into court and enter his plea of guilty
to No sos. l kept urging Ruef and
he kept putting 1t off and begging and
pleading to avoid II.
When Ruef was endeavoring to pre-
vent the prosecution from forcing him
to enter his plea of guilty in the ex
tortion case he made a veiled threat
to this effect: that at the time ] told
him that unless he came through hon.
estiy and conscientiously as he prom
ised to do and tell the whole truth that
the immunity contract would be OF and
he would be prosecuted, he stated that
the prosecution could not AFFORD to
throw him overheard as everything
of the reasons why he should not be
forced to plead guilty. that IT, on cross
examination he would be compelled to
tell what the arrangements were about
the immunity contract and the mid
night meeting of the judges l became
very angry at Ruef and told him that
I wanted it distinctly understood that
/ would not permit him to dulldoze or
threaten me in that way and that we
were not afraid TO make public the
midnight meeting of the judges or
anything else that we had ever done IN
our dealings with him. That If Ii be-
came necessary on cross examination
for him to tell that or anything else
that occurred we were perfectly will
ing that he should do so; that we had
never done anything that would not
bear the light of day or anything TO
be ashamed of, and our only purpose in
not permitting it to become public at
that time would be because of the use
to which il would be put by the
United Railroads.
RUFF GROWS ANGRY
Finally on the 18th of May Heney
told me that he would insist on Ruef
entering his plea on the following day;
that if he did not do il Mr.. Langdon
and himself would declare the i'm
munity agreement cancelled and would
prosecute him on No. 3o5 Ruef then
concluded to enter his plea of guilty.
but was very angry. He stated that he
would enter his plea the following
morning. but would do II in his own
way. / advised him TO be careful and
not do anything he would regret. He
wrote out a long statement, but re-
fused to let me read il.
Just previous to this Ruef stated he
wanted to see Henry Ach. while he was
quibbiing over entering his plea, and
for that purpose | called at the resi-
dence OF Henry Ach, northwest corner
of Webster and Clay streets. Ach was
very angry when / called and stated
that he supposed the whole matter had
been settled; that he was fearful Of
getting mixed up in it. and as he had
already explained how 1t was going to
hurt him, he again reiterated thst he
would be considered the biggest -
of a in San Francisco for hav-
ing done this. and it would hurt him
in many ways: that many of the peo-
pie that Ruef was going to involve
were friendly TO him (Ach) and 1T
would hurt his practice; that while he
was willing TO do anything he could
he did not want to ruin himself alto
gether; that he had already made a
great sacrifice for Ruef and had not
been adequately paid. that he had lost
great deal of money by neglecting
other work in looking after Ruef's af-
fairs. then arranged with him to bring
and Ach again advised Ruef that he
thought he should carry out the agree
ment as it had been made.
BARBERED FOR COURT
On the morning of May Is Ruef sent
for his barber and got q shave and
haircut and announced his readiness to
go into court. Accordingly Ruef en-
tered the court as described is the af-
fidavit OF Mr.. Heney (p. 126 to line Z.
p. 129. both inclusive), all of which af-
fidavit.. appertaining thereto l have
read and declare the same to be true
in substance as / remember it
On May 10. 1907. Mr.. Heney requested
me to bring Ruef to his office to go
over his testimony in the French res
taurant extortion cases. | have read
Mr. Heney's affidavit beginning with
page 141 and ending on line 13, page
143, and was present at that interview
and know the same as therein set
forth to be true. When l took Ruaf
back to his place. / upbraided him se-
verely for his lying in that matter. On
May %, 1907, / again took Ruef to Mr.
Heney's Office, at Heneys request, and
/ have read Mr.. Heney's affidavit be-
ginning with page IA and ending with
page Lac and the same is true and is
4 III substance djlu cllcCl DIS remember
| it.
| About a week later ] again took
| Ruef to Mr.. Heney's office, this time
| at Ruefss request. and when l told Mr.
Heney that Ruef was downstairs and
wanted to see him Mr.. H,eney ordered
me to take him away. and said he had
not time to waste talking TO him and
that he (Heney) did not want to have
anything more to do with Ruef.
When we reached the putting in of
evidence on the trial of Schmitz for
extortion, / urged Mr.. Heney to use
| Ruef as a witness. which he declined
to do, and stated that he would have
nothing to do with Ruef. DR.. Kaplan
worked very hard with Ruef in an ef-
! fort to have him tell the truth. Ruef
/ on several occasions would say, in the
presence of d. Kaplan: II am willing
| to go as far as / can for you, and
/ while don't remember it that way. /
will say it." l stopped him at once
and DR.. Kaplan knows that l called
his attention to this statement and
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