Eugene Schmitz

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Eugene Schmitz

26^th Mayor of San Francisco
In office January 8, 1902 – July 8, 1907
Preceded by	James D. Phelan
Succeeded by	Charles Boxton

Born	August 22, 1864 San Francisco, California
Died	November 20, 1928 San Francisco, California
Political party	Union Labor Party
Profession	Musician

Eugene E. Schmitz (August 22, 1864 San Francisco, California - November 20, 1928 San Francisco, California) was an American politician and mayor of San Francisco, California notorious for his conviction by a jury on charges of corruption.

"Handsome Gene" was the son of an Irish mother and a German father. He had played the violin and conducted the orchestra at the Columbia Theatre on Powell Street, and was president of the Musicians' Union, when Abe Ruef chose him to run for mayor on the ticket of the Union Labor Party. He was elected in 1902 and was the mayor of his hometown when the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and subsequent fire destroyed a prodigious amount of the city. On the day of the earthquake, Wednesday, April 18, he invited a cross section of the city's most prominent businessmen, politicians and civic leaders, but none of the members of the Board of Supervisors, to form the Committee of Fifty to help him manage the crisis.

On June 13, 1907 Schmitz was found guilty of extortion, and the office of Mayor was declared vacant. He was sent to jail to await sentence. Shortly thereafter he was sentenced to five years at San Quentin, the maximum sentence the law allowed. He immediately appealed. While awaiting the outcome of the appeal, Schmitz was kept in a cell in the county jail. On January 9, 1908, the District Court of Appeals nullified his conviction; two months later the State Supreme Court upheld the Court of Appeals' ruling, and he was released on bail, pending the resolution of the outstanding bribery indictments. He was brought to trial once more in 1912, on charges of bribery. Ruef was brought from San Quentin to testify, but refused to give evidence. The other key witness, Chief Supervisor Gallagher, had disappeared without leave to Canada, and did not return. Schmitz was acquitted.

Schmitz ran for mayor again in 1915 and 1919, but was soundly defeated due to his past reputation. Elected to the Board of Supervisors in 1921, he remained until 1925. He was married and had two daughters.

[edit] Literature

New International Yearbook for 1907 and 1908

[edit] External Link

Schmitz' famous "Shoot to kill" order at the San Francisco Museum

[edit] References

Walton Bean: Boss Ruef's San Francisco: The Story of the Union Labor Party, Big Business, and the Graft Prosecution (Cambridge University Press, London, 1952; republished Greenwood Press, 1981, ISBN 0-313-23211-3)
Gordon Thomas & Max Morgan Witts: The San Francisco Earthquake (Stein and Day, New York; Souvenir Press, London, 1971; reprinted Dell, 1972, SBN 440-07631)