the United Railroads, told him that they would
pay him $200 for some bombs. Suspicious of
them, he pretended to accept the proposition.
They made an engagement to meet him a few
days later, when, he said, he would have the
bombs ready. Then out of two small pieces
of pipe he made what looked like bombs, and
according to agreement he met Macey and his
companion and crossed the bay with them. Al-
most as soon as he got off the boat he was ar-
rested by two policemen who locked him up. He
was kept in custody until the city chemist found
that the pipes did not contain explosives. This
was a case of the professional bomb-maker foil-
iner and hoaxinsf the ins^enious detective. When
THE DYNAMITE EXPLOSION 169
Burns was interviewed about this episode he ex-
plained that W'ilhehn had been doing a great deal
of talking about having had his professional
services solicited by the United Railroads, and
that he had hoped to trap him. This explana-
tion was satisfactory to the pro-prosecution
press.
The Ford and Ruef trials being in progress,
every day the pro-prosecution press had some-
thing to say about the dynamite explosion.
This is a specimen from the Call : "While not the
slightest clue has been gained as to the identity
of the perpetrators of the dastardly attempt on
Gallagher's life, every circumstance connected
with the affair points straight to one conclusion
— that it was the work of men hired by men in
desperate dread of Gallagher's testimony."
Again in the same journal was printed the fol-
lowing: "That the dynamiting of former Super-
visor Gallagher's house, by which he and seven
other persons came near to death, was done for
the purpose of keeping Gallagher off the wit-
ness stand in the graft cases seems to be the
practically unanimous judgment. No other
theory seems to hold water." What a wonder-
ful instrument is that which registers the un-
animous judgments of the people!
Every day the Bulletin was uniting its vocif-
erations with those of the Call. And Francis J.
Heney, though engaged in the prosecution of
Ruef, found time to hurl reproaches at the
170 THE REGENERATORS
higher-ups. He is to be found quoted in the
Call of April 24 as follows: "It was obvious that
it was instigated by persons who can be injured
by his testimony in the graft cases. I have
long been expecting this to happen." Heney
was a prophet, and not always for his own
amusement. What he expected he did not al-
ways keep to himself. His powers of vaticina-
tion were employed not so much to predict
catastrophe as to enlighten the people as to how
many and what men he would land in jail. His
favorite pastime was painting his prospective
triumphs "on the cloud-curtains of the future."
"I'll get him !" was his favorite phrase when re-
ferring to any man under indictment. Nor did
he confine his predictions to indicted ones. All
the anti-prosecution editors were to be put into
stripes. For example, here's Heney at the First
Congregational Church in Oakland, as disclosed
by the Bulletin of March 27, 1908: "We will
win despite Dargie and the Oakland Tribune,
and we will persevere until we land Dargie
where he belongs. And that you may not mis-
take my meaning in saying that, I mean that we
will land him behind the bars." Poor Dargie !
God intervened, taking him away from Heney.
Dargie went to his grave in January, 1910, in
a suit of unstriped broadcloth.
Enough of digression. No light was thrown
on the dynamite outrage before the close of
either the Ford or the Ruef trial. Nothing was
THE DYNAMITE EXPLOSION 171
discovered beyond what has been stated : that
Gallagher escaped by a miracle and that Burns
had been dealing with a professional dynamiter.
Yet the pro-prosecution press almost daily ac-
cused the defendants of having had a hand in
the crime. The Bulletin charged that "for
months Gallagher had been selected as a sacrifice
to the terror of those whom his confession could
harm. Within a week after the crime the Bul-
letin appeared with this scare-head : "plot to
MURDER PLANNED BY HIGHER-UPS A MONTH AGO.'^
This was the story of a plot to murder the Bul-
letin's editor, Fremont Older, who, we were told,
"was being shadowed by a thug in the employ of
the United Railroads." For awhile Mr. Older
was in constant dread of assassination, and he
told the readers of the Bulletin almost every day
about plots for his undoing. He printed a whole
series of fac simile anonymous letters threaten-
ing him with instant destruction. On June 2
he published a letter under this headline: mur-
derous HIGHER-UPS AFFIX BLOODSTAINS TO LAT-
EST WARNING LETTER." From Older's stand-
point these were indeed horrific times. But
there were mean cynics who voiced the suspicion
that Burns was Older's correspondent. There
were thousands of people, however, who be-
lieved in Older and sympathized with him. Well
did they remember that he had been kidnaped
by an attorney connected with the defense.
Older often reminded them of that harrowing
172 THE REGENERATORS
experience. True the Bulletin had libeled the at-
torney ; but that was another story, and it was
of no consequence from the editor's standpoint.
True, also, the attorney, who lived in Los An-
geles, kidnaped Older with the assistance of a
sheriff's deputy who had a warrant. True, also,
the complainant knew that as the regenerators
were personally conducting- the whole criminal
department of justice in San Francisco it would
have been useless to swear out a warrant in that
city ; but the fact is that Older was kidnaped in
the sense that he wasn't vouchsafed the privilege
of appearing before the nearest magistrate. The
episode served as the pretext for a great hul-
labaloo promoted chiefly by Detective W. J.
Burns, who himself has since practiced the gentle
art of kidnaping on a large scale. The kidnap-
ing of Older enabled him to pose as a martyr
to the cause of freedom with fine verisimilitude.
And so when he represented himself to be in
danger of assassination there were many people
â– ^ to take him seriously and to shudder at the in-
fernality of the higher-ups.
Notwithstanding the incessant rage and hyste-
ria of the editors after the outrage and miracle
in Oakland ; spite of the agitation which they
personally conducted and all the noise with which
they assailed the ears of men in the jury-box,
Tirey L. Ford was acquitted and the Ruef jury
failed to agree.
Ruef's trial ended May 21, 1908. The jury
THE DYNAiMlTl': EXPLOSION 173
was out forty-three hours, and from the first to
the last ballot they stood six to six.
Between Ruef's first and second trials there
was a long intermission. Gallagher was given
a vacation, and permitted to take a pleasure trip
to New York. Patrick Calhoun had been
clamoring for a trial for two years, and was
still clamoring, but the prosecution felt in need
of a rest ; that is, the attorneys and judges wished
to recuperate from their arduous labors in court.
Besides it was desirable to hammer away at
public sentiment, to generate once more the
mood vindictive. The machinery of justice
might be brought to a standstill, but never for
a moment was a truce declared. Skirmishing-
was continuous, the smoke of battle never lifted,
the nerves of the dear general were always on
edge.
As soon as the Ruef jury was dismissed the
pro-prosecution press worked itself into a fright-
ful fury, communicating its stormy emotions to
all the gallant reformers who had been faith-
fully following the fortunes of the regenerators.
The Bulletin, as always, out-vociferated its con-
temporaries, and hinting at the desirability of a
\'igilance Committee, printed in large type the
names of the six jurors who had voted for ac-
quittal. This was the Bulletin's idea of exact-
ing justice. One day it brought an incendiary
editorial to a close with these words : "Citizens
what are you going to do about it?" The ques-
174 THE REGENERATORS
tion seemed a most pertinent one to the editor
of the Bulletin. It was certainly pregnant with
inspiration ; for the next day the Bulletin con-
spicuously "boxed" the following- paragraphs on
its editorial page —
Citizens:
What ore yon going to do about it?
Dynamiting assassins are pursuing the peo-
ple's principal witnesses against millionaires
who debauched your city.
Honest and fearless judges — Lazvlor and
Dunne — are ridiculed and lampooned for
striding to enforce the /
felons.
Prosecutors of bribe gii'crs are denounced
and â– I'ilified for fighting for decency and
justice.
Jur\-fi.ving is systematically in vogue.
Your upper courts find technicalities ivith
zuhich to free criminals, and never discover
laws that protect society and the State from
the rapacity of boodlers. All your legal
machinery for the punishment of crimes is
seemingly manipulated to frustrate justice.
What are you going to do about it?
What the editor of the Bulletm hoped would
be done about it everybody understood. He was
always passionately hankering for a lynching bee,
at which, of course, it was to be hoped he would
not be on the wrong end of the rope. When the
THE DYNAMITE EXPLOSION 175
Schniitz case was decided by the Court of Appeal
the Bulletin printed the names of the judges and
their home addresses, thus to intimate that they
mig-ht easily be found by a bloodthirsty mob.
Whenever things were not going to suit the Bul-
letin's editor he darkly intimated that the time
was ripe for summary justice.
The Call, though never quite as rampageous
as the Bulletin, was not averse to rousing "the
spirit of the pioneers." On June 2. 1908, the
Call printed a cartoon, the salient feature of
which was a hand holding a noose. It was
entitled "The Law." And this same paper, as
though fearful that the organization of a Vigil-
ance Committee was seriously contemplated, pro-
tested pharisaically, saying: "The Call's faith
is firm in the ultimate triumph of justice.
Dynamite or no dynamite, murder or no murder,
witnesses will testify." In this same editorial,
affirming its faith in the ultimate triumph of
justice, the Call was constrained to confess that
the current reign of terror was "a terrible
thing." To this sentiment color was quickly
given by all the preachers and politicians on
whom the cabal relied whenever a demonstra-
tion or upheaval of any sort was required. The
Rev. William Rader, sometime editorial writer
of the Bulletin, took to the pulpit, and what he
said was thus summarized in Bulletin headlines
of June 8: "Flays People Who Defend Wealthy
Rogues : Rev. William Rader Calls on Good
176 THE REGENERATORS
Citizens to Uphold Law ; Enemies of Decency
Sow the Seeds of Revokttion and Death."
Great is the uproar of the interhide between
trials ! What energy and cunning — yes, what
deviltry — must be involved in this loud raucous
appeal to the unreason of the mob ! One can
almost admire the marvelous exercise of wit in
the evil work.
Think you, good reader, that there was noth-
ing of malign, malevolent genius in all this?
that behind it all was the consuming passion of
patriotism and disinterested love of justice?
Here we see a coterie of reformers industriously
setting a community by the ears, inciting men
to deeds of cruelty and violence, and to what
end? Ostensibly to vindicate justice. Presum-
ably they were striving to strengthen the arm
of government, to prop with moral instruments
the tottering pillar inscribed to human liberty.
But what was the occasion of all this heat and
passion ? Was the situation in San Francisco in
1908 similar to that of 1856 when Cora and
Casey were hanged by the Vigilantes? No, the
two situations were as different as night and day.
In the turbulent days of '56 the Vigilantes were
organized because of the corruption and im-
potency of the municipal government. In 1908
the men who were appealing to passion and
prejudice were the Government. The mayor
and all the supervisors were the puppets of the
regenerators. The district attorney and his
THE DYNAMITE EXPLOSION 177
deputies were representatives of the reform cabal.
The chief of poHce was a man who had been
employed by them, who was appointed to his
office at their instigation, and who at this time
was co-operating" with them. All the cases
which they were prosecuting were in two courts
presided over by judges in deep sympathy with
them. Yet for them, according to their repre-
sentations, the times were out of joint. With
the business of maintaining law and order com-
pletely in their hands, we find them trying to in-
cite the mob to disorder. We have heard them
complain that the machinery of justice was
broken down ; charge that the upper courts were
in league with criminals, and that there was
systematic jury-bribing. Yet the fact is that up
to this time the upper courts had ruled against
them but once. Several writs had been sued out
to thwart them, and in vain. The Schmitz de-
cision was the only decision against them, and
that was a unanimous decision.
The truth is the regenerators were suffering de-
feat right along in the trial courts where they were
masters of every situation. Spite of all their
machinery for sifting juries, spite of the extra-
ordinary latitude they were allowed in their
method of getting juries, and notwithstanding
the fact that every juror from the day he was
sworn was put into the custody of one of their
representatives, they could not convict on the
purchased testimony of informers. Defeat after
178 THE REGENERATORS
defeat did they suffer before juries selected for
them by friendly judges, and they must have well
apprehended the inherent weakness of the prose-
cution, which was nothing more nor less than
the character of their witnesses and the tainted
quality of the only testimony they had to offer.
It is a truism that when men have truth, rea-
son and justice on their side, they reqviire noth-
ing else to strengthen their equipment. Assum-
ing that the regenerators were thus armed, how
singular that with all the other advantages which
they are known to have possessed they should
have been making such a hullabaloo in the spring
and summer of 1908 !
Their activities I have but faintly described.
At this time we find Heney and Langdon ad-
dressing meetings almost every night, exhorting
the populace to come to their aid. Also, for the
purpose at once of personally interesting a great
many people in the prosecution and stirring pub-
lic sympathy, we find the Bulletin begging the
people to subscribe to a fund to support
Heney, who was represented to be growing
poor in the public service, and we find the
Bulletin collecting dimes and quarters for the
little patriot. At the same time Langdon peti-
tioned the supervisors for an appropriation of
$120,000 which, he said, was needed for secret
service men, and which of course was allowed.
Addressing the supervisors he said : "It is no
longer simply a fight of the law against graft
THE DYNAMITE EXPLOSION 1/9
and grafters ; it has become a fight of anarchy
against law. The issue is whether the people
will countenance or conclenni assassination and
murder." A few days later a Law and Order
League was organized under the auspices of the
regenerators. This was probably to indicate
that the police were not powerful enough to
cope with the crisis. But as there was nothing
for the Law and Order League to do, it never
did anything but meet and let off steam.
On June 20 when all the preachers were weary
and the newspaper were becoming monotonous
a timely message was received from President
Roosevelt. It was thus described in headlines
in the Call : roosevelt writes a strong message
AGAINST LOCAL GRAFT; KEEP UP THE FIGHT,
writes president ROOSEVELT TO SPRECKELS ;
EXECUTIVE TELLS GRAFT PROSECUTION TO IGNORE
SLANDER OF ENEMIES." T. R. was alivc to the
situation. As much so as was the Christian En-
deavor L^nion of Sonoma, which contributed to
the literature of the period — a letter to the editor
of the Bulletin : '"We heartily endorse your pub-
lic portrayal of the truth as it exists even though
in so doing you almost take your life in your
hand as it were." This sentiment was of course
apropos of the dynamite' outrage in Oakland.
On that crime light was presently to be shed.
The Bulletin offered a reward of $1,000 for in-
formation that would lead to the arrest of the
perpetrators. It was still assumed, of course,
180 THE REGENERATORS
notwithstanding- what Wilhehn had said about
"a demonstration against Judge Lawlor," that
the higher-ups were guilty of the crime. One
day a newsboy found a letter in the street pur-
porting to have been written by John Claudianes
to his brother Peter Claudianes in the town of
Chico, demanding money. "If you don't send
the money," said the writer, "1 will give you
away, and tell all about the dynamiting." Here
was certainly a clue. It was just such a clue as
a raw hand at dramaturgy might have contrived.
And it was a very good clue. For almost im-
mediately after the finding, of the letter John
Claudianes was in the hands of the man of preter-
natural instinct, Mr. William J. Burns. The let-
ter was found on July 1. It was learned that
on June 29 John Claudianes appeared in the Bul-
letin office and demanded the reward, saying that
he could find the dynamiter. But Mr. Fremont
Older wouldn't believe him. Why Mr. Older
was sceptical in this instance has never been ex-
plained ; nor why he let John Claudianes get
away. But then explanations are a weariness to
the flesh, and it is easy to make them anyway.
As it turned out, Older's scepticism didn't matter ;
nor his carelessness either. John Claudianes was
doomed to be caught. Fate that prepares things
from all eternity had decreed the writing of the
fatal letter ; the loss of it, also, and the sharp
inquisitive glance of a newsboy. John Claud-
ianes in custody, the rest was easy. He was
THE DYNAMITE EXPr.OSION 181
ready to make a confession. JUit like Editor
Older, he, too, was sceptical. Where was the
reward? Claiidianes inquired. Mr. Older pro-
duced one thousand dollars in cash and put it
on a table where Claudianes could feast his eyes
upon it. Then the prisoner confessed that he
and his brother, Peter, had been employed by
Felix Paudevaris to explode the dynamite at
Gallagher's home. According to Claudianes he
was paid by Paudevaris, who got the money
from Abe Ruef, "and," said the prisoner, "I
understood that Ruef got it from Patrick Cal-
houn." Thus was the chain made complete.
But John Claudianes, if he really told this story,
didn't stick to it. It should be explained that
he was a singular individual. A Greek, hardly
out of his teens, illiterate, reared in the slums,
a moral pervert, apparently insensible of the
enormity which he confessed to having per-
petrated, it was evident that for money he would
do or say anything. Indeed, during the first
week of his imprisonment he made it clear
enough that he was an absolutely irresponsible
person. The confession he is said to have made
he stoutly denied. An attorney, engaged for him
by his relatives, shortly withdrew from the case,
and at the time made this statement for publica-
tion : "The feel of a gold piece in his palm means
more to John Claudianes than the truth, more
than the hope of exculpation, more than any-
thing else on earth. I am convinced that he
,y
182 THE REGENERATORS
knows something of the crime, yet I am equally
certain that he had no part in the actual per-
petration of the crime. There have been many
reports to the effect that he implicated several
of the defendants in the graft cases, but from all
that he has told me that is not so. So far as his
personal knowledge extends it does not implicate
any person except his brother Peter. He has
made no statement which drags in the name of
Ruef or any other person. He holds the record
for confessions. He made three complete ones,
to say nothing of several piecemeal narratives."
A few months after the arrest of John Claud-
ianes his brother Peter was arrested in Chicago.
The newspapers were told that he confessed to
Detective Burns that he did the dynamiting at
the instigation of Felix Paudevans. Peter
Claudianes denied that he made the confession.
He was convicted of the crime, however, and the
principal, almost the only, testimony against him
was that of Detective Burns who swore to the
confession which the prisoner disavowed. John
Claudianes was set free. There was no prosecu-
tion of John Claudianes. He had an attorney
who challenged the regenerators to appear in
court and dare prosecute his client. They were
more discreet than daring.
That Peter Claudianes committed the crime
there is but little doubt. Nor is it doubted that
he was hired by Felix Paudevaris. But by
whom was Paudevaris hired ? Here is a mystery
THE DYNAMITE EXPLOSION 183
that has never been solved. There is no testi-
mony to show that there was ever any connec-
tion between Paudevaris and Ruef. The prob-
abiHty is that Paudevaris was hired by one of the
numerous private detectives that fairly httered
the streets of San h>ancisco. If found Paudev-
aris might be wilhng to (hsclose the identity of
his employer, but the search for him. if it was
ever seriously made, was discontinued long ago,
though it was a matter of common notoriety that
he had fled to a town in Italy. The great
American detective, William J. Burns, never
tried to capture Paudevaris. What the inspira-
tion of the crime was we may never know, but
that the purpose was not to eliminate the testi-
mony of Gallagher it is not unreasonable to
presume, for there is nothing more improbable
than Gallagher's story that his home was oc-
cupied by himself and family at the time of the
explosion. If he had said that, contrary to his
usual custom, he and his family were in the back-
yard when the explosion occurred there would be
no reason to suspect collusion between himself
and the dynamiter, but such are the circumstances
that they rather point to that conclusion,
^
IX
THE SHOOTING OF HENEY
An Infuriated Ex-Convict Revenges Himself on the
Virulent Prosecutor and Commits Suicide
Just as Burns is About to Pursue a Clue
When the work of impanehng- the jury
for Ruef's second trial was begun the news-
papers were still raging against the defend-
ant as the instigator of the dynamiting of
Gallagher's home. And hardly had this theme
been worn threadbare when they were af-
forded new and even better material for
the rousing of resentment and indignation. In
the midst of the trial, or rather during a lull in
the proceedings, Francis J. Heney was shot down
as he sat in the crowded courtroom, and for some
hours all San Francisco believed his assass-
ination had been attempted at the instigation
of the defendant. As a matter of fact nothing
worse could have happened to the defendant.
The echo of the pistol shot had scarcely died
away when one of Ruef's attorneys, Henry Ach,
turned to him and said, "This means your convic-
tion." And Ruef knew. No man was more quick
to catch the message that sparked from the bullet
now lodged in the muscles of Heney's neck. No
man, be sure of it, was more profoundly ap-
THE SHOOTING OF HENEY 185
palled by the shooting than Abraham Ruef. Now
were the murmurs of the populace sounding in
his ear, portending- something more to be dreaded
than conviction. Swiftly the startling news is
spreading. Here is the grand pretext for the
press to kindle the flame of popular fury and fan
it into a conflagration. Nor is the opportunity
to conjure the spirit of violence neglected.
Quickly spreads the contagion of public senti-
ment, with increasing velocity and an ever deep-
ening, ever widening sweep of momentum. With-
in an hour of the shooting the League of Justice
— how true to its name ! — gets busy, ostensibly to
stem the torrent of public indignation, its in-
spired orators assuming all the while that Ruef
instigated the shooting. Was there ever such
Pharisaical naivete? And Mayor Taylor — al-
ways ready to lend a hand for the furtherance of
the beneficent designs of the men that raised him
from obscurity to crown their enterprises with
smug respectability — alert was he for the poten-
tialities of the propitious emergency. With pub-
lic indignation foaming under the spur he takes
a hint from the patriots of the League of Jus-
tice, and attends a meeting of them at which it
is decided to hold a great public discussion of
the shooting. A mass-meeting is called for the
following evening. It would have been less dis-