Klan violence in Caswell County escalated. Klansmen flogged at least 21 black and white Republicans between April 2 and May 15, and murdered Robin Jacobs, a black man from the vicinity of Leasburg, on May 13. The Republican State Senator of Caswell County, John W. Stephens, became increasingly fearful of Klan attack. On May 21 he went to the Caswell County Courthouse in Yanceyville to watch the county Democratic Party host its nominating convention. After watching the proceedings he accompanied Frank A. Wiley to the ground level of the courthouse. Stephens wished to convince Wiley, a Democrat and former sheriff, to seek re-election to the office with his support and thus achieve a political reconciliation in the county. Wiley had secretly agreed to work with the Klan and lured Stephens into a trap; between 10 to 15 Klansmen awaited him on the ground floor and detained him. John Lea, the founder of the local Klan chapter, entered the room where Stephens was being held with more men. One Klansmen, G. T. Mitchell, held a rope around Stephens' neck, while another, Tom Oliver, stabbed him to death. The Klansmen left and locked the room, planning to return to move the body that night. After Stephens failed to return home that evening, his brothers and friends came to the courthouse to look for him. One of them saw a body in the locked room through a window and, after forcing their way inside, identified it as Stephens. The coroner conducted an inquest which included the interviewing of numerous persons, including Wiley and Lea, who lied about their knowledge of the affair. Caswell County Sheriff Jesse Griffith, himself a Klansmen, made no serious attempts to investigate the killing. The coroner's report ultimately concluded that the state senator was murdered by "persons unknown", and the circumstances of the killing remained unclear until Lea's signed confession to participation in the events was published posthumously in 1935. Klansmen and the Conservative press accused black people of committing the murder. Holden's response Holden was disgusted by the murder of Stephens. On May 25, he publicly condemned the killing and offered a $500 reward for information leading to the arrest of the perpetrators. He also wired Abbott and Senator John Pool to ask for federal assistance. The United States Congress passed the Enforcement Act of 1870, authorizing the president and other federal officials to call up the United