Great Cases of Detective Burns: How Abe Ruef Confessed

"'I'm not authorized by the prosecution to make you any offers of immunity,' I said; 'you must take your punishment in the French restaurant case; but it now depends on yourself whether you'll be pushed to the limit.  The people are not in the mood to stand any trifling.' 

"With this much to meditate on, I left him.  I found it enough to start the ball rolling.  Ruef sent for Henry Ach, his attorney, and began playing for time.  When I saw him again he seemed more receptive; he was a wily one. 

"Meanwhile his friend, State Senator George Keane, was trying to get a bill through the legislature by which Ruef's case could be transferred from Judges Lawlor and Dunne to courts that the corporations could manipulate.  The corporations were in a fix: the Boss was hanging confession over their heads if the change of venue bill was not passed, but they did not dare admit connection with him