Note 487 — Chapter XXIX · Ruef’s Last Refuge Fails.

Commenting upon this the Sacramento Bee, in its issue of February 9, 1912, said: “In an effort to create sympathy for Abraham Ruef, a story was originated at San Francisco, and has found wide publicity as news, that the aged mother of the felon has been kept in ignorance of his imprisonment, and does not even know of his conviction for bribery.

“Yet letters purporting to come from and to be signed by Ruef’s mother, and pleading for his parole, have been received by The Bee and other newspapers for months past. Either these letters were forgeries and fabrications, or this tale of the mother’s ignorance of Ruef’s confinement is mere fiction.

“In either case a contemptible trick has been played by some agency both active and unscrupulous in seeking to promote Ruef’s release. After this the public and the newspapers may well be suspicious of sympathetic stories respecting Ruef and his confinement. If he is personally responsible for the effort to exploit his mother in the manner here related, he is even a more despicable specimen of humanity than the known facts of his career would indicate.”