While Strang held many progressive ideas such as the conservation of woodlands, many judged his autocratic rule intolerable. One edict, for example, prescribed the clothing of Strangite women (see bloomers). Two women refused obedience and Strang had their husbands flogged, an act that was rendered more tolerable after one of them was discovered in the act of adultery. While recovering from their floggings, the husbands conspired against Strang. On June 16, 1856, the US naval gunboat entered the harbor of St. James and Strang was invited aboard. As Strang walked along the dock the two conspirators shot him from behind and then ran in the gunboat, which departed and disembarked the men in Mackinac Island. Neither man was arrested or convicted of the murder.