Ruef, in Hebbard’s order granting him opportunity to take his case to the Federal Courts, had basis for further struggle in the courts to evade trial. But he undertook a new move. After leaving Hebbard’s courtroom on the afternoon of March 4, Ruef dropped out of sight as completely as though the earth had opened and swallowed him.
For three days the regular peace officers of San Francisco searched San Francisco for him but they did not find him. When Ruef’s case was called for trial in Judge Dunne’s department on the morning following the proceedings in Judge Hebbard’s court, Ruef’s attorney, Samuel M. Shortridge, was present, but not the defendant.
Shortridge was in the position of an attorney in court without a client.[147] After a wait of four hours, to give Ruef every opportunity to make his appearance, Heney moved that the bonds of the absent defendant be declared forfeited, specifying the bonds originally given as well as those furnished in the proceedings before Hebbard.
Judge Dunne, in ruling upon Heney’s motion, stated that he was proceeding as though the proceedings before Judge Hebbard had not occurred. Those proceedings, he announced, he felt were under a species of fraud. He ordered Ruef’s original bonds forfeited and took the question of the forfeiture of the bonds in the proceedings before Judge Hebbard under advisement. He considered it his duty, he said, to proceed with the trial of the case until ordered to desist by the Supreme Court or by the Court of Appeals.
Attorney Shortridge announced to Judge Dunne that in proceeding with the hearing he might find himself in contempt of the Supreme Court of the United States. Judge Dunne stated that that would not embarrass him, and in any event, he would not proceed with the matter until the defendant was in court.
The day passed without the defendant’s whereabouts being discovered. Sheriff O’Neil reported that he had been unable to find the fugitive, but expressed his belief that he would be able to do so eventually. With that understanding court adjourned for the day.
The day following, Ruef’s attorneys appealed to the State Appellate Court[148] for a writ of prohibition to prevent Judge Dunne and others from further proceeding against Ruef in the extortion cases, and to show cause why the writ should not be made permanent. Ruef being in hiding, the application was not signed by the petitioner. The Appellate Court, after twenty-four hours, denied the petition. Ruef’s representatives then went before the State Supreme Court with the same representations. And here, again, eventually, Ruef lost.
In the meantime, Ruef had not been found. The day following his disappearance, Judge Dunne disqualified the Sheriff and named the next officer in authoritative sequence in such matters, the Coroner, W. J. Walsh, as elisor, to arrest Ruef and bring him into court.
Coroner Walsh had no better success than had Sheriff O’Neil. Ruef had disappeared on the night of Monday, March 4. On Friday, March 8, after three days of unavailing search by O’Neil and Walsh,[149] Judge Dunne disqualified Walsh and appointed William J. Biggy[150] as elisor to arrest the fugitive.
Within two hours Biggy, accompanied by Detective William J. Burns, had located Ruef at a road-house in the San Francisco suburbs and had placed him under arrest.[151]