Biggy afterwards became Chief of Police of San Francisco.
Ruef was with one of his henchmen, Myrtile Cerf, when arrested. Long after, when he had plead guilty to one of the extortion charges, Ruef stated in an interview published in the San Francisco Call, May 16, 1907, that it had been his purpose “to wait until the Legislature had acted on the Change of Venue Bill,” which was considered in a previous chapter, and which at the time of Ruef’s flight was being engineered through the Senate by George Keane in his capacity as Senator. Ruef, in his interview, stated further: “We had expected that this bill would go through. Naturally we were surprised when we learned that Campbell, the Mayor’s (Schmitz’s) attorney, was at Sacramento lobbying against the bill. What his object was I do not know. He even went to George Keane, who had charge of the bill, and tried to switch him to the other side.”
During the period of Ruef’s disappearance, his attorneys had insisted that they were unaware of his whereabouts. Myrtile Cerf, his companion in flight, refused to say before the Grand Jury with whom he had telephonic communication while at the roadhouse, on the ground that such testimony might incriminate him.
Ruef’s arrest threw the administration into the greatest confusion. Supervisor Wilson testified at the trial of The People vs. Ruef, No. 1437, Part 3, Vol. 7, p. 3175, that at 2 o’clock of the morning following Ruef’s capture, he went down to Henry Ach’s apartment to ascertain if the rumor that Ruef had been found were true.
Of the procedure which made possible Ruef’s long technical fight to escape trial, the San Francisco Chronicle on November 10, 1906, said:
“The disgraceful condition of our criminal laws permits guilty men to put off their doom almost without limit. Where money makes unscrupulous talent available that course is invariably taken by those caught in the toils of justice. There are many objects to be gained by these delays. Witnesses may die or be spirited away. Most important of all the public becomes wearied and finally forgets or loses its zest for the enforcement of the law. When that stage is reached the ‘pull’ comes into play. By the connivance of the District Attorney, and especially of the Judge, continuance after continuance can be granted until proof becomes impossible and the case is dismissed. The adoption of such a course by any accused person of bad reputation is moral evidence of guilt which is conclusive with the public. We have had in this city many disgraceful criminal trials. We have had many obvious miscarriages of justice. There have been wealthy men whom everybody feels should be in the penitentiary who have hardly ceased for a day to flaunt their faces in decent society. We have never had a case in which the obstruction to the cause of justice began so early as Ruef began it, or was conducted with such brazen effrontery. It is not within our recollection that any accused person of whose guilt there was reasonable doubt had adopted such a course. Its adoption is the recognized sign of guilt.