Francis J. Heney
Encyclopedia
Arizona Territory
The Territory of Arizona was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from February 24, 1863 until February 14, 1912, when it was admitted to the Union as the 48th state....
between 1893 and 1895.
Early years
He grew up in San Francisco where his family relocated in 1863. He worked in his father’s furniture and carpet store while attending high school at night and, later, taught night school while attending the University of CaliforniaUniversity of California
The University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University...
during the day. After graduation, he moved to Idaho
Idaho
Idaho is a state in the Rocky Mountain area of the United States. The state's largest city and capital is Boise. Residents are called "Idahoans". Idaho was admitted to the Union on July 3, 1890, as the 43rd state....
where he served as principal of a high school, but soon realized it was not his calling. He returned to San Francisco, enrolled in law school, and became a member of the bar in 1883.
In 1884, health problems brought him to the Arizona Territory
Arizona Territory
The Territory of Arizona was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from February 24, 1863 until February 14, 1912, when it was admitted to the Union as the 48th state....
. During the next four years, he ran a cattle business with his brother Ben, and operated the trading post at Fort Apache.
In 1889, he moved to Tucson
Tucson, Arizona
Tucson is a city in and the county seat of Pima County, Arizona, United States. The city is located 118 miles southeast of Phoenix and 60 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border. The 2010 United States Census puts the city's population at 520,116 with a metropolitan area population at 1,020,200...
.
The Handy case, 1891
Dr. John Christopher Handy, a skilled and beloved physician, treated his patients with considerably more kindness than he did his wife. Eight years younger than her husband, Mary Ann Page Handy was a fragile woman with serious health problems. After 11 years of marriage and the birth of five children, the relationship between the doctor and his wife was a shambles. Not infrequently, John’s dark side emerged, and Mary Ann suffered the brunt of his violent temper. She confided to friends that she was constantly abused, and in 1888, she filed for divorce. But reacting to the doctor’s ire, she quickly dropped the suit. The following year, John himself filed for divorce — and he let it be known that he would kill any attorney who dared defend Mary Ann. Those who knew John knew it was no idle threat. Intimidated lawyers refused to represent Mary Ann. Francis Heney was not among them. When he agreed to become her attorney, John Handy said to a court clerk, “I will kill him! Mary Ann is a morphine fiend and a common slut. She does not deserve [representation].” In fact, it was well known that the doctor was having an affair with another woman, and that he kept his wife on morphine. It was known as well, that he often chained her to a bedpost when he was away from home. On September 28, 1891, Heney emerged from the courthouse with a lunch hour crowd. Unbeknownst to him, John Handy was waiting across the street. The two came together near the corner of Pennington and Church Streets. The Tombstone Epitaph wrote: “A pistol cracked, the men grappled and fell to the ground. A deputy sheriff dashed [to] the spot where the two were struggling for possession of the gun. Other officers were there in almost no time. Then one of the contenders jumped to his feet and ran toward the courthouse ... for the first time we ... recognized the hurrying man as Frank Heney.” During the melee, Heney reached into his coat pocket for a pistol he carried for protection. John Handy struggled for possession of the weapon and, whether by his hand or Heney's, the gun went off. A bullet lodged in the doctor’s abdomen, and hours later, John Handy died during surgery. Immediately following the shooting, Heney surrendered to authorities. Not surprisingly, he was exonerated. Remarkably, a warm friendship developed between Francis Heney and John C. Handy, Jr., son and namesake of the man Francis killed in self-defense. When the aged attorney died in 1937, the younger Handy served as a pallbearer at his funeral.Heney was Attorney General of the Arizona Territory
Arizona Territory
The Territory of Arizona was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from February 24, 1863 until February 14, 1912, when it was admitted to the Union as the 48th state....
between 1893 and 1895. He then returned to San Francisco.
The Oregon land fraud trials, 1905
Francis Heney, now special federal prosecutor, brought to justice 33 people who had pillaged the federal lands, state school lands, and the timbered resources of the Siletz Indian Reservation in a series of trials known as the Oregon land fraud scandalOregon land fraud scandal
The Oregon land fraud scandal of the early 20th century involved U.S. government land grants in the U.S. state of Oregon being illegally obtained with the assistance of public officials. Most of Oregon's U.S. congressional delegation received indictments in the case: U.S. Senator John H....
. The "King of the Oregon land fraud ring", Stephen A. D. Puter
Stephen A. Douglas Puter
Stephen A. Douglas Puter was a criminal and author from the U.S. state of Oregon. He was instrumental in carrying out the Oregon land fraud scandal, which transferred tens of thousands of acres of federal lands given to the Oregon and California Railroad to private hands, ultimately benefiting...
, wrote in his prison cell Looters of the Public Domain (1908), a tell-all book with portraits of his co-conspirators and copies of documents confirming their criminal acts.
Heney's prosecutions cleaned out many of the personnel of the General Land Office. He twice indicted but failed to convict Binger Hermann
Binger Hermann
Binger Hermann was an American attorney and politician in Oregon. A native of Maryland, he immigrated to the Oregon Territory with his parents as part of the Baltimore Colony. Hermann would serve in both houses of the Oregon Legislative Assembly and as a Republican in the United States Congress...
, former Commissioner of the General Land Office in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
. He obtained prison sentences for U.S. Senator John H. Mitchell
John H. Mitchell
John Hipple Mitchell, also known as John Mitchell Hipple, John H. Mitchell, or J. H. Mitchell was a controversial American lawyer and politician, who served as a Republican United States Senator from Oregon on three occasions between 1872 and 1905...
, Congressman John N. Williamson
John N. Williamson
John Newton Williamson was an American rancher and politician in the state of Oregon. A native Oregonian, he served in both chambers of the Oregon Legislative Assembly representing central and eastern Oregon in the late 19th century...
, and Oregon District Attorney John Hicklin Hall
John Hicklin Hall
John Hicklin Hall was a politician and attorney in the U.S. state of Oregon. A native of the Portland area, he served in the Oregon House of Representatives in the early 1890s before appointment as the United States District Attorney for Oregon...
, though Mitchell died during his appeal, Williamson's conviction was overturned by the United States Supreme Court, and Hall was later pardoned by President William Howard Taft
William Howard Taft
William Howard Taft was the 27th President of the United States and later the tenth Chief Justice of the United States...
.
The San Francisco graft prosecution
While in Oregon, he was approached by Rudolph Spreckels and Fremont OlderFremont Older
Fremont Older was a newspaperman and editor in San Francisco, California for nearly fifty years. He is best known for his campaigns against civic corruption and efforts on behalf of Tom Mooney and Warren Billings, wrongly convicted of the Preparedness Day bombing of 1916.Born in a log cabin in...
, editor of the San Francisco Bulletin, who promised to put up $100,000 to finance an investigation of corrupt city officials, and asked him to come as soon as possible to San Francisco to help investigate and prosecute. Older went to Washington, D. C. and got President Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
to agree to lend special federal prosecutor Heney to the San Francisco D.A. office. In April 1906 he was a member of Mayor Schmitz's Committee of Fifty
Committee of Fifty (1906)
This Committee of Fifty, sometimes referred to as Committee of Safety, Citizens' Committee of Fifty or Relief and Restoration Committee of Law and Order, was called into existence by Mayor Eugene Schmitz during the 1906 San Francisco earthquake...
that tried to manage the city during the crisis following the big earthquake
1906 San Francisco earthquake
The San Francisco earthquake of 1906 was a major earthquake that struck San Francisco, California, and the coast of Northern California at 5:12 a.m. on Wednesday, April 18, 1906. The most widely accepted estimate for the magnitude of the earthquake is a moment magnitude of 7.9; however, other...
and subsequent fire, but the earthquake delayed the graft prosecution for only a short time.
On October 24, 1906, San Francisco D.A. William H. Langdon appointed Heney Assistant D.A. The next day, Acting Mayor James L. Gallagher - the Chairman of the Board of Supervisors ran the city while Mayor Schmitz was traveling around Europe - suspended D.A. Langdon for "neglect of office" and appointed Abe Ruef
Abe Ruef
Abraham Rueff , known as Abe Ruef, was an American lawyer and politician...
Acting District Attorney. Ruef wrote to Heney: “You are hereby removed from the position of Assistant District Attorney of the City and County of San Francisco.” Heney said he did not recognize Ruef as D.A. At 2.a.m. the following morning, Judge Seawell signed an order temporarily restraining Ruef from installing himself as district attorney. He prosecuted Mayor Eugene Schmitz
Eugene Schmitz
Eugene Edward Schmitz was an American politician and the 26th mayor of San Francisco, who became notorious for his conviction by a jury on charges of corruption.-Life and career:...
and Boss Abe Ruef
Abe Ruef
Abraham Rueff , known as Abe Ruef, was an American lawyer and politician...
for bribery. While examining prospective jurors Heney had publicly revealed the fact that one man on the panel, Morris Haas, was ineligible because he had many years earlier served a term in San Quentin Prison. Heney did not need to humiliate Haas publicly in this way; he did so in anger, believing that Ruef was trying to plant the man on the jury. Haas deeply resented Heney’s action and brooded over it for many weeks. While the trial was in temporary recess, Haas approached Heney in the courtroom, whipped out a revolver, and shot the attorney in the head; the bullet lodged behind the jaw muscles, where a difference of a fraction of an inch in any direction would have produced a fatal wound. Heney was carried away on a stretcher, mumbling, “I’ll get him [Ruef] yet.” His place was taken by a bright young assistant named Hiram Johnson
Hiram Johnson
Hiram Warren Johnson was a leading American progressive and later isolationist politician from California; he served as the 23rd Governor from 1911 to 1917, and as a United States Senator from 1917 to 1945.-Early life:...
, and the trial went on.
Haas was placed in a prison cell with a policeman to guard him; but in spite of these precautions he was found dead the following evening, a small pistol beside him. Those who believed Haas had been hired by Ruef to murder Heney now believed, naturally, that some other gangster in Ruef’s employ had done away with Haas so that he could not talk. The chief of police William J. Biggy
William J. Biggy
William J. Biggy was San Francisco Chief of Police 1907 - 08.He was appointed Chief of Police by Mayor Edward Robeson Taylor. Upon elevation to the position of Chief, Biggy declared, as do most new chiefs in San Francisco, that he would "clean up" the department...
was deeply hurt by Heney’s public criticism of him for negligence in the Haas case, so much so that some time later he went overboard from a police launch during a nighttime crossing of San Francisco Bay.
Heney did not die, as he had been expected to, and some days later the trial was concluded. Detective Burns had given Johnson the names of four jurors who, Burns said, had been bribed, and in his summation Johnson called each of them by name, pointed a forefinger at him, and shouted: “You — you dare not acquit this man!” Nevertheless, when the jury retired for its deliberations everyone expected that it would let Ruef go, or would disagree, as had happened in almost every other case growing out of the graft prosecution. While the jury was out Heney telephoned Older to say that he was much recovered, and proposed to come down and pay his respects to the judge. Older, with his usual flair for the dramatic, told Heney not to come until the editor gave the signal. While most of the community was by now against the prosecution, there was a minority on the side of honesty, which had organized a League of Justice pledged to help at a moment’s notice. Older now hastily sent word to dozens of these men, who came and crowded into the courtroom, which was directly under the chamber in which the jury was deliberating. Evelyn Wells
Evelyn Wells
Evelyn Wells was a 20th century biographer and author most known for her biographies of the ancient Egyptian royals of the 18th dynasty, Nefertiti and Hatshepsut.-Biography:...
, in her biography of Older, tells what happened when Heney entered the courtroom on Older’s arm: ""The “minutemen” raised a shout of welcome. Older himself trumpeted like a bull elephant. The rest of the crowd joined in. … It was a cheer of welcome, but to the scared jury on the floor above it sounded like a bellowed demand for lynching. A few minutes later twelve men good and true filed hurriedly into the courtroom. They had hastily made up their minds. All were deathly white. Some trembled. A few were weeping."" But their verdict was “Guilty,” and Ruef was sentenced to fourteen years in prison.
Of all the sentences meted out to leading figures in the whole course of the prosecution, it was the only one that was made to stick. Another municipal election was approaching, and Langdon, the weary and battered district attorney, refused to run again. He was discouraged, with good reason: a key witness, the supervisor who had paid off his fellows on Ruef’s behalf [James Gallagher], had fled the country. In desperation, Heney himself ran for district attorney, and was defeated by a football hero from Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
, Charles Fickert
Charles Fickert
Charles Marron Fickert was lawyer, politician, and American football player and coach. He was the district attorney of San Francisco from 1909 until 1920, best known for prosecuting Thomas Mooney and Warren Billings for the Preparedness Day bombing of 1916.-College and football career:Born in...
, whose liaison with the grafters was notorious. Fickert promptly and contemptuously refused to go on with any of the pending cases against the big businessmen. He pretended not to know the whereabouts of the supervisor who had fled, although everyone else knew that he was rusticating in Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
, British Columbia. William P. Lawlor, the honest judge who had presided in several of the cases, excoriated Fickert and ordered the others to trial; but he was overruled by the court of appeals, which decided that all of the large number of remaining indictments should be quashed. The graft prosecution was over, having ended in almost total failure, with only Ruef in prison."
Other activities
In 1912 he was a Delegate to the RepublicanRepublican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
National Convention from California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
.
In 1914 he ran for the U.S. Senate as a Progressive
Progressive Party (United States, 1912)
The Progressive Party of 1912 was an American political party. It was formed after a split in the Republican Party between President William Howard Taft and former President Theodore Roosevelt....
but lost to Democrat
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
James D. Phelan
James D. Phelan
James Duval Phelan was an American politician, civic leader and banker.-Early years:Phelan was born in San Francisco, the son of an Irish immigrant who became wealthy during the California Gold Rush as a trader, merchant and banker. He graduated from St...
.
In 1921 he acted on behalf of B. H. DeLay
B. H. DeLay
Beverly Homer “B.H.” DeLay was an American aviator, engineer and actor.DeLay was born in Alameda, California, and educated at the Engineering School of the University of California and at the University of Heidelberg in Germany...
during the controversy with C. E. Frey about the ownership of the DeLay Airfield.
Sources
- Bean, Walton, Boss Ruef's San Francisco. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1952.
- Puter, Stephen A. D.Stephen A. Douglas PuterStephen A. Douglas Puter was a criminal and author from the U.S. state of Oregon. He was instrumental in carrying out the Oregon land fraud scandal, which transferred tens of thousands of acres of federal lands given to the Oregon and California Railroad to private hands, ultimately benefiting...
, Looters of the Public Domain (1908).
External links
- Guide to the Francis J. Heney Papers, The Bancroft Library
- Photographs Related to the San Francisco Graft Trial, 1907-1908, The Bancroft Library