Note 402 — Chapter XXIV · Jury-Fixing Uncovered.
Reading edition
Of these promissory notes Blake, in his statement to the court as published at the time, testified as follows:
“Q. How much money were you to get? A. I was to get $10,000.
“Q. For what? What were you to get that $10,000 for? A. Well, I was to say nothing about this matter, and that my wife would—
“Q. In other words—. A. She was to be provided for. She was to get $100 a month. The Court. How? A. To be taken care of when I was convicted, you know.
“Q. During your incarceration? A. Yes, and I was to have the $10,000.”
Mr. Langdon: “Q. Who told you he would give you $10,000? A. Mr. Murphy.
“Q. What did he say? Just tell us what he said about that. A. The money was to be placed in the hands of a third party, who I would select, provided the one I selected would be satisfactory to them and they felt they could always have confidence in, or something of that kind. That $10,000 was to be turned over to me immediately upon my sentence—just as soon as my sentence was passed the money was to be turned over.
“Q. As soon as the court sentenced you you would receive the $10,000 that Murphy put into the hands of this third person? A. Yes.
“Q. Did he tell you what kind of money it was, or what representative value it was. Did he show you any of that? Did Murphy show you anything? A. Yes, he showed me $7,500, but he did not show me the $10,000 that was put into the hands of the party that I selected. He told me that he had it.
“Q. What was this $7,500 that Murphy showed you? In what form or shape? A. In notes.
“Q. Promissory notes? A. Yes.
“Q. Signed by who? A. Signed by Mr. Ruef.
“Q. Abraham Ruef? A. Yes.
“Q. Who else signed them, if any one? A. They were indorsed by his father and sister.
“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.”