disappeared. The district court ordered a grand jury to convene and investigate the riots, and a grand jury was impaneled on October 8. After a six-week session, the grand jury issued a report that criticized the Smith administration for ineffective leadership and police incompetence. Army witnesses testified to their belief that more prompt police action could have controlled the riot. One hundred and twenty indictments were handed down for involvement in the riots. Of the 120 persons indicted for involvement in the riot, most were never successfully prosecuted, and all were eventually released after serving no term of imprisonment. IWW accusations General Wood initially blamed the disturbance on the Industrial Workers of the World, as part of the Red Scare then prevalent in the U.S. This interpretation was not supported by the evidence, however. Newspapers Reverend Charles E. Cobbey, the pastor of the First Christian Church, blamed the Omaha Bee for inflaming the situation. He was reported to have said, "It is the belief of many that the entire responsibility for the outrage can be placed at the feet of a few men and one Omaha paper." The inflammatory yellow journalism of the Bee is credited by several historians for stoking emotions for the riot. The U.S. Army was critical of the Omaha police for their failure to disperse the crowd before it grew too large. Other critics believe the Army was slow to respond to the crisis; this was a result of communications problems, including the crisis caused by President Woodrow Wilson's having been incapacitated by a stroke. (Requests by the governor for federal military assistance had to go to the President's office.) Tom Dennison Many within Omaha saw the riot within the context of a conspiracy theory, the direct result of alleged conspiracy directed by Omaha political and criminal boss Tom Dennison. A turncoat from Dennison's machine said he had heard Boss Dennison boasting that some of the assailants were white Dennison operatives disguised in blackface. According to local historian Orville D. Menard, Dennison fomented the riot in the Gibson neighborhood near South Omaha. Dennison's scheme was corroborated by police reports that one white attacker was still wearing the make-up when apprehended. As in many other Dennison-related cases, no one was ever found guilty for their participation in the riot. A later grand jury trial corroborated this claim, stating "Several reported assaults on white women had actually been