Of Blake’s negotiations Kelly testified: “Mr. Blake began about this way: He said, ‘Now, John, I have got a proposition to make to you, and I don’t know how you will take it. If you like it, all right, if you don’t, just keep it quiet.’ He says, ‘There is a chance for you to make a little money.’ He said, ‘You are drawn to serve on the Ruef jury.’ I was surprised to hear that. I told him, ‘I know I am on some panel in Judge Lawlor’s Court, but didn’t know it was the Ruef jury.’ I said, ‘How did you find out?’ ‘Oh,’ he said—I think he said a friend of his told him, or something like that; but anyhow he said, ‘Now, it is this way; there is $500 in it for you if you will get on that jury and vote to acquit Mr. Ruef.’ I says, ‘Well, Mr. Blake, I have never done anything like that, and it is a pretty big chance to take. I don’t want anything like that’; and he began to urge it on me. I said, ‘Now, give me a chance to think it over.’”
Kelly testified that his first impulse was to denounce Blake. But instantly he reflected that the denunciation would do no good. Besides, he reflected, it was possible that Blake might be trapped.
As soon as Blake left the office, Kelly told what had occurred to his employer, Snyder, and within an hour was in consultation with District Attorney Langdon and Burns.
Judge Sturtevant, at the investigation which followed, showed himself not at all clear as to details. Finally Murphy asked him:
“Q. Judge, do you remember that I said to you that I had information that one of the jurors was willing to sell his vote for $1,000 and someone had come to me with that?
“A. I remember, Mr. Murphy, you mentioned the amount of $1,000 regarding one of his statements, but I would not go further than that; I don’t remember what this man had agreed to do for the thousand dollars. That is my general recollection that that is about the substance of the statement you made to me.”
Murphy’s testimony on this point was as follows: “On a day between the 20th of July and the 1st day of August, I went to the office of Mr. Newburgh. Mr. Newburgh was then engaged in defending Mr. Ruef on a preliminary examination had in one of the Parkside cases. We were discussing generally the Ruef cases and the graft prosecution, and a man came into the office who was introduced to me by Mr. Newburgh as E. A. S. Blake. This present jury panel had been drawn, and we were discussing the Ruef cases generally, and finally I made a remark that the trial of Mr. Ruef in one of these cases—referring to 1436, 1437 and 1438, would proceed as soon as the Police Court examination was finished, and I stated that a jury had been impaneled, or a jury had been drawn, I had a list of the jury in my pocket, and I pulled it out and said to both Mr. Newburgh and to Mr. Blake: ‘Perhaps you might know some of these people.’ Mr. Blake glanced at the list, and he came down to the name of Mr. Kelly, and he said, ‘I know Mr. Kelly; I have known him for a number of years; I used to work at Shreve’s jewelry store with him; and he is an intimate acquaintance of mine.’ Then I said, having in mind the decision of your Honor in the contempt case of W. J. Burns and others—”
The Court: (interruption): “Did this occur after that decision?”