“I had a talk with Halsey in the Mills Building. I can’t exactly tell the date, but it was on a Saturday, in and around noon time. I can’t exactly fix the date. It was some time, I think, in the month of February. We caucused on the Sunday night, and it was Saturday, either the week prior to the caucus or the day before the caucus. This caucus was the Sunday prior to the passing of the ordinance to print which was on a Monday. I went to the Mills Building by telephone invitation of Mr. Halsey. When I got down there I took the elevator and went up on, I think, the seventh floor at the extreme end of the building, on one of the rooms facing on Bush street, and the other on Montgomery street. I found Mr. Halsey there and no one else with him. To the best of my recollection there was either a box or a chair and a table, and a telephone in there, and no other furniture at all in the room. Mr. Halsey when I went in, said, ‘Good day, Mr. Coffey.’ Said I, ‘How do you do, Mr. Halsey?’ I says, ‘Did you telephone for me?’ He says, ‘Yes, I want you to be friendly with the company,’ and stepped into another room, the door leading into the Montgomery street entrance, and then came out with a parcel, a bundle, and handed it to me, and says, ‘I would like to have your friendship for the company.’ I did not open the package at that time. Nothing was said then about the Home Telephone Company’s application for the franchise. I took this package that he handed me home and put it in a box in the room. I did not open it when I got home, not at that time. Subsequently I did. When I opened it I found in it five thousand dollars in United States currency. That was very shortly after I had been in the Mills Building on that occasion. I think it was a few days after that. After putting this money in the box I kept it there.”
GALLAGHER’S ORDER REMOVING LANGDON FROM OFFICE OF DISTRICT ATTORNEY.
(October 25, 1906.)
“To the Board of Supervisors of the City and County of San Francisco:
“Gentlemen—Pursuant to the provisions of the Charter of the City and County of San Francisco, and especially in pursuance of Sections 18 and 19 of Article XVI thereof, I, James L. Gallagher, Mayor of the City and County of San Francisco, do hereby suspend William H. Langdon, District Attorney of the City and County of San Francisco, and an elected officer thereof, for cause, as hereinafter assigned and specified, and I hereby notify you of such suspension and the causes therefor, which are as hereinafter assigned and specified.
“Said cause is contained in the following specifications, which specifications I hereby also present to you as the written charges against said William H. Langdon, District Attorney as aforesaid, and I hereby present said specifications of causes of such suspension as written charges against said William H. Langdon, District Attorney, suspended by me as aforesaid.
“Specification 1:
“Neglect of Duty.
“In this, that for a period of about 30 days prior to the presentation of these charges the said William H. Langdon, District Attorney as aforesaid, has absented himself from the City and County of San Francisco, without leave, and has neglected his official duties, being during that time engaged in the canvass and campaign for the office of Governor of the State of California.
“That during said time, owing to the recent disaster, a large number of acts of violence have occurred at the hands of criminals congregated in said city, resulting in an excessive and unusual number of murders, maimings, assassinations, assaults and other crimes of violence, tending to render the city unsafe and to injure its reputation, yet the said District Attorney wilfully, without permission from any of the public authorities of said city and county, did absent himself a greater portion of said time from said city and county, and so negligently conducted and performed the duties of his said office as District Attorney as to render no active or efficient assistance to said city and county in the proper prosecution, detection or preventing of any of said crimes, and during the main portion of said period did leave his said office without the aid of his superintendence, direction or service, thereby being guilty of inefficiency in such public office and being negligent and inattentive in the performance of his public duties at a time when the unusual activity of those engaged in crimes of violence demanded and required his personal presence and greatest personal activity to aid in preventing or attempting to prevent, detecting or attempting to detect or punish the said crimes or the persons guilty thereof.