“Q. His father?
“The Court—promissory notes to you from Abraham Ruef, and indorsed? A. The promissory notes, your honor, were made out to Mr. Murphy, and he was to turn these over to the third party, indorsed, I presume, to the third party, who I might select. The notes read, ‘One year after date I promise to pay to Frank J. Murphy,’ that is the way the notes read.
“Q. And signed? A. And signed by Mr. Ruef, and then they were countersigned or indorsed by his father and sister.”
Stevens denied this. Stevens was called before the Grand Jury and questioned. He declined to answer on the ground that the relations of attorney toward client cannot be violated. Blake exonerated Stevens from this obligation. But Stevens held that he acted for Murphy as well as Blake. The court held, however, that the communications were not privileged. Stevens in his testimony which followed, denied everything that tended to implicate himself and Murphy in any way with the attempted jury fixing, or with the alleged $10,000 fund.
Among those who testified to Murphy’s good character was Rev. H. H. Wyman, at that time the head of the Paulist Order at San Francisco. Another Paulist priest, Rev. Stark, showed great interest in Murphy’s welfare.
After Murphy’s acquittal a story was current in San Francisco to the effect that at a dinner given soon after Murphy’s acquittal, Murphy had promised a present to the Paulist Church, St. Mary’s, and that Father Stark had announced that a plate bearing Murphy’s name and the date of his acquittal should be placed upon the gift.
However unjustified the story may have been, Murphy did give St. Mary’s a present—a pulpit. On the pulpit was put a plate bearing Murphy’s name and a date. The incident so incensed priests of the Paulist order who were not in sympathy with the course of Fathers Wyman and Stark at Murphy’s trial, that they entered the church with a screw-driver, removed the plate, and threw it into San Francisco bay. Later a second plate was put upon the pulpit. So far as the writer knows, the second plate is still in its place.