San Francisco graft trials
The San Francisco graft trials were a series of attempts from 1905 to 1908 to prosecute public officials in the city of San Francisco, California, for graft and other political corruption. Among those implicated were Mayor Eugene Schmitz, political boss Abe Ruef, and various members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, all of whom had taken bribes from business owners. Ruef was at the center of the corruption; while acting as Schmitz's attorney, he approved all city contracts and received hundreds of thousands of dollars in payment from business owners, keeping a portion for himself and distributing the remainder to the Mayor and Supervisors.
The "Big Four" graft prosecutors (left to right): Francis J. Heney, William J. Burns, Fremont Older, and Rudolph Spreckels.
Workers on the San Francisco waterfront in 1901.
A strikebreaking teamster is escorted by a San Francisco policeman during the strike of 1901. On the side of the wagon is the name of the company, McNab & Smith.
Lawyer Abe Ruef was the political boss behind the graft at the center of the prosecution.
Eugene Edward Schmitz, often referenced as "Handsome Gene" Schmitz, was an American musician, musical director, and politician. He was the 26th Mayor of San Francisco, who was in office during the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
Members of the first Labor Party ticket in San Francisco in 1901. Back row: E. E. Schmitz
Schmitz surveying the city following the earthquake
Portrait of Schmitz in the San Francisco Bulletin, 1925
