While in Oregon , he was approached by Rudolph Spreckels , president of the First National Bank , and Fremont Older , 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 to agree to lend special federal prosecutor Heney to the San Francisco District Attorneys office . In April 1906 he was a member of Mayor Schmitz 's Committee of Fifty that tried to manage the city during the crisis following the big earthquake and subsequent fire , but the earthquake delayed the graft prosecution for only a short time
big earthquake
1906 San Francisco earthquake
Francis J. Heney