Nieto, according to Heney, had endeavored to make it appear that race prejudice entered into the prosecution of Ruef. Heney, in an affidavit filed in the case of The People vs. Calhoun et al., No. 823, tells of Nieto’s interference even when the Oliver Grand Jury was being impaneled. Heney says: “During the latter part of October or the first week in November, 1906, while said Grand Jury was being impaneled, Dr. Jacob Nieto introduced himself to me in the court room of Department No. 10, where I had noticed that he was a constant attendant and close observer of the proceedings connected with the impaneling of the Grand Jury.
“Some days after he had introduced himself to me he stepped up to me, just as court had adjourned and after I had been examining some of the grand jurors as to their qualifications, and said in substance:
“‘Mr. Heney, it seems to me that you discriminate somewhat against the Jews in examining jurors, and I think that in your position you ought to be more careful not to exhibit any prejudice against a man on account of his religion.’
“I asked what in particular I had done to cause him to criticise my conduct in that way, and he referred to some question which I had asked a grand juror, but which I cannot now recollect. I then said to him in substance:
“‘Why, Doctor, you are supersensitive. Some of the best friends I have in the world are Jews, and some of the best clients I ever had in my life were Jews, and I have no prejudice against any man merely on account of his religious belief. I am sorry that you have so misapprehended the purpose and motives of my questions to jurors.’
“On a subsequent day, during the time the Grand Jury was being impaneled, Dr. Nieto again approached me after an adjournment of the court and again reproached me for having again shown prejudice or discrimination against some grand juror of the Jewish faith by the questions which I asked him * * * and I said to him in substance, in a very emphatic tone of voice: ‘Dr. Nieto, I have heretofore told you that I have no prejudice against any man whatever on account of his religion. All I am trying to do in this matter is to get fair grand jurors, and I am just as willing to trust honest Jews as honest Christians, but I want to make sure that a man is honest, whether a Jew or Christian, and it looks to me as if you are trying to find some excuse to line up in opposition to this prosecution. I do not see why you need to seek for excuses if that is what you want to do. I am conscious of my own singleness of purpose and purity of purpose in examining grand jurors, and it is wholly immaterial to me, therefore, what you or anybody else may think of my method of questioning them.’”
As a matter of fact Jews not only sat on the Oliver Grand Jury, but were among the most earnest and effective in sifting the graft scandal to the bottom. But that the false cry that Ruef was persecuted because he was a Jew influenced many of his fellow Jews in his favor is unquestionably true.
This case was numbered from the indictment, 305. Schmitz was indicted jointly with Ruef in this indictment, and later was convicted under it and sentenced to five years in the penitentiary. See Chapter XVI. The testimony at the Schmitz trial showed that Ruef had taken the extortion money from the French-Restaurant keepers, after Schmitz had acted with him to imperil the French-Restaurant keepers’ liquor licenses, and had given part of the proceeds of the enterprise to Schmitz.