Notices of the caucus meetings were sent to Ruef precisely as though he had been a member of the Board of Supervisors. At Ruef’s trial for offering a bribe to Supervisor Furey, the following letter of notification was introduced as evidence:
“San Francisco, June 21st, 1906.
“Hon. A. Ruef, San Francisco—Dear Sir: I respectfully beg leave to notify you that the Board of Supervisors will meet in caucus on Sunday evening, June 24th, at 8 o’clock p. m., at Hamilton Hall, Steiner street, near Geary. Your attendance is respectfully requested.
“Yours truly,
GEORGE B. KEANE, Clerk.”
The San Francisco Chronicle in its issue of March 8, 1906, said of the District Attorney’s raids on the gamblers:
“The political push and the underworld generally are astonished at District Attorney Langdon’s unexpected outbreak. He has descended upon them like a thunderbolt out of a clear sky. For the moment even wrath is less in evidence than surprise. It was not expected. It is not what was paid for. It is like being murdered by one’s dearest friend. There is a complete reversal of the usual experience of mankind. In most cities the lid is on and weighed down before election but lifted and thrown away as soon as the votes are counted. To be allowed to run wide open before election and to be closed down and nailed up as soon as the new official is fairly seated is outside of all precedent. And all that after the most liberal contributions. There is a feeling in criminal circles that somebody is guilty of obtaining money under false pretenses. The District Attorney is the one official for whose friendship the lawbreakers have the most earnest longings, and behind their closed doors the idle gamblers are trying to figure out what ‘lay’ this dreadful Langdon is really on, and by what trade he has been induced to ignore all the promises expressed or implied, which those assumed to be able to speak for him dispersed so freely when votes were in demand.
“As for the public, it was for none of these things. Among the decent portion of society the ‘motives’ of the District Attorney do not arouse even passing curiosity. What does interest them is the present vigor of his work, and the probability of his keeping it up.”