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Biography of Abraham Ruef
Name: Abraham Ruef
Birth Date: September 2, 1864
Death Date: February 29, 1936
Place of Birth: San Francisco, California, United States
Nationality: American
Gender: Male
Occupations: politician
Abraham Ruef
An American political boss in San Francisco, Abraham Ruef (1864-1936) was convicted of bribery in a famous antigraft trial.Abraham Ruef, the son of French-Jewish immigrants, was born in San Francisco, Calif., Sept. 2, 1864. A precocious young man, he graduated in 1883 from the University of California with high honors. He studied at Hastings College of Law in San Francisco and was admitted to the bar in 1886. Cultivated, moderately well-to-do, and dynamic, he was first attracted to politics as a reformer, but reform proved too uncertain an avenue to power.About 1888 Ruef shifted his loyalties to San Francisco's corrupt Republican political machine. As "Boss Ruef," leader of the Latin Quarter (North Beach) district, he became an engaging campaign speaker and fully mastered the fine points of ward politics.Ruef's desire for power and advancement led him to break with the Republican leadership in 1901. He first tried to defeat the organization in primary elections …showed first 150 words…
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…showed last 150 words…of money to distribute to the pliant supervisors.In 1906 a small group led by Fremont Older of the San Francisco Bulletin brought legal indictments against Ruef. After a spectacular, and sometimes bizarre, trial Ruef was convicted of bribery in 1908. When his appeals were turned down, he entered San Quentin Penitentiary in 1911. Largely owing to the efforts of former enemies such as Older, Ruef was paroled in 1915 and pardoned in 1920. Avoiding politics, he tried his hand at real estate investments. He prospered in the 1920s but went bankrupt during the Depression years. He died in San Francisco on Feb. 29, 1936. Associated Organizations Further Reading The colorful story of Ruef's career is told in vivid detail by Walton Bean, Boss Ruef's San Francisco (1952). See also Lately Thomas, A Debonair Scoundrel (1962).Bean, Walton, Boss Ruef's San Francisco: the story of the Union Labor Party, big business, and the graft prosecution, Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1981.
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