all their clothing and there, reportedly, raped by 20 white men. After the sexual assault, they were given bacon, molasses, and a sack of flour and told to leave the None of the mob members was masked, but, according to a claim by some newspapers, none could be identified due to the As was reported by the McCurtain Gazette, July 10, 1920, Ernest Christian Steen (1892–1960), office deputy for Choctow County Sheriff Ben Fitzgerald (né Robert Benjamin Fitgerald; 1886–1967), was present when the Arthurs were burned to death. He said that he was within of the pyre. He said that he would never again witness such a scene, that it was too terrible. With respect to the assaults on the three sisters, in 2018, historian Hollie A. Teague wrote, "It is difficult to imagine a scenario in which some of those twenty White men were not jailers, police officers, or sheriff deputies. Indeed, it is impossible to imagine a scenario in which those officials would not at least be aware of the prolonged assault taking place or who was participating in it. Yet, not only was the assault allowed to continue, no arrests were made [immediately] afterward. This stands in stark contrast to the reaction that followed attacks on white women or children". The next day, July 7, 1920, McCurtain County Sheriff John William DeWitt (1872–1933) of Valliant told the news media that Lamar County Sheriff William Everett "Eb" Clarkson (1875–1945) had confided in him—while in Idabel the night before searching for the those who he thought were the actual killers—that he was sure that one, if not both, of the lynched Arthur brothers would have been found innocent. Clarkson insisted that one of the lynched victims was not the murderer and that the other could not be There was also a claim that the Arthur brothers likely acted in self-defense following two armed provocations, both by William Hodges (accompanied by his father), who allegedly, during the second incident, fired the first gunshots. Herman Arthur, a World War I was reportedly a skilled Ensuing protests, disciplinary actions, and criminal proceedings The NAACP sent a telegram to Acting Governor Willard Arnold Johnson (1862–1923) (de) on July 8, 1920, protesting the lynching and urged the Governor to take immediate action to apprehend and punish members of the A policeman identified as being part of the mob was dismissed from the Paris Police