Langdon, not having decided at the time to appeal from the Appellate Court decision to the Supreme Court, finally yielded to the importunities of the two clergy-men and stated to Judge Dunne that Ruef wanted to make a motion to withdraw his plea of guilty in the extortion case. Judge Dunne replied that he would not consider such motion.[359]
This closed the incident so far as dismissal of the case before the Supreme Court could pass upon it, was concerned. But it did not stop Ruef’s insistence that not only should he be allowed to withdraw his plea of guilty, but that he be given complete immunity from prosecution of all the charges against him.
Langdon, even before he had spoken to Judge Dunne about permitting Ruef to withdraw his plea, had become convinced, as Heney had become convinced long before, that Ruef was not playing fair with the prosecution. Ruef, when confronted with charges of holding back evidence, shifted and evaded, until Langdon, losing patience, charged him with falsehood.
About the middle of January, evidence came into Langdon’s possession[360] which convinced him beyond a shadow of a doubt that Ruef, instead of observing the immunity contract, was, as a matter of fact, dealing with and assisting his co-defendants, advising them of every move.
Langdon[361] at once called Ruef before him and notified him that the immunity contract was canceled.[362]
The abrogation of the immunity contract brought open break between Ruef and the prosecution. Ruef set up claim that under his immunity contract all the graft cases were to be dismissed against him, including that under which he had plead guilty to extortion. He insisted that he had lived up to his part of the agreement and charged that the prosecution was breaking faith.
In this position, Ruef was backed up by Rabbis Kaplan and Nieto, who for months had been clamorously active in his behalf. Indeed, long before the open breach had come, so persistent had the Rabbis become in their insistence that Ruef be released, that Heney had found it necessary to request Kaplan to remain away from his office.[363] When Ruef finally broke with the prosecution, the two Rabbis were to the fore backing up his contention that the prosecution was not keeping faith with him.[364]
Kaplan soon after filed an affidavit setting forth that under the agreement with the prosecution, Ruef was to have had complete immunity, and be allowed to withdraw his plea of guilty in the extortion case. Later on, Nieto, “Ruef’s diplomatic middle man,” as he was called, filed an affidavit to the same effect. Ruef, on his part, filed a voluminous affidavit, purporting to cover all his transactions with the prosecution, in which he not only set up the claim that he was to have been given complete immunity but alleged that Langdon, Heney and Burns, were guilty of subornation of perjury in having endeavored to get him to swear falsely against Schmitz and Ford.
Rabbis Kaplan and Nieto, in their affidavits gave versions of the meetings with Judges Dunne and Lawlor, when the Judges stated their confidence in the District Attorney and his assistants, which differed from the accounts contained in the affidavit of Heney and the judges.[365] This brought the trial judges as well as the assistant prosecuting attorney into the controversy.
The members of the Grand Jury that had indicted the graft defendants had already had their trials in open court;[366] petit jurors and witnesses had, in effect, been on trial also. And now District Attorney and trial judges were placed on their defense.[367]