CHAPTER XIV.
The Source of the Bribe Money.
After the confessions of the Supervisors, the Grand Jurors had definite, detailed knowledge of the corruption of the Union-Labor party administration. The Grand Jurors knew:
(1) That bribes aggregating over $200,000 had been paid the Supervisors.
(2) That of this large amount, $169,350 passed from Ruef to Gallagher and by Gallagher had been divided among members of the board. The balance, the evidence showed, had been paid to the Supervisors direct by T. V. Halsey of the Pacific States Telephone Company.
(3) The amount of each bribe; the circumstances under which it was paid; even the character of the currency used in the transaction.
(4) The names of the corporations benefited by the bribery transactions, as well as the character of the special privileges which their money had bought.
With the exception of the Home Telephone Company, the names of the directors of these benefiting corporations were readily obtainable.[187]
With this data before them, the Grand Jurors proceeded to trace the source of the bribe money.
Naturally, men who had long held places of respectability in the community were slow to admit having given Ruef vast sums, even under the transparent subterfuge of paying him attorney’s fees.[188] Some of them, when haled before the Grand Jury, testified reluctantly, and only under the closest questioning. Others frankly stood upon their constitutional rights, and with pitiful attempt to smooth out with studied phrases the harshness of the only acceptable reason for their refusal, declined to testify on the ground that their testimony would tend to incriminate them.