 A number of union officials were arrested that same night, and accused of complicity in the bombing.p.76

On the night after the dynamite attack, The following night, nearly 500 people, including most businessmen and city officials, met to decide on a response.After angry speeches, the crowd marched to the jail, removed the prisoners and expelled 23 union members from the town.Suggs wrote that the Citizen's Protective League,

"directed law enforcement, held secret strategy sessions, ordered the arrest and interrogation of suspects whom they held incommunicado, watched incoming trains, and warned union sympathizers to leave town.