Authorities indicted fourteen men, most with Ku Klux Klan connections, to be tried for the attack on the Dahmer home. Thirteen were brought to trial, eight on charges of arson and murder. Four were convicted and Billy Roy Pitts (Sam Bowers' bodyguard), who had dropped his gun at the crime scene, entered a guilty plea and had his gun turned in as state's evidence. Billy faced just three years of his federal sentence. However, three out of four of those convicted were pardoned within four years. In addition, eleven of the defendants were tried on federal charges of conspiracy to intimidate Dahmer because of his civil rights activities. Former Ku Klux Klan Imperial Wizard Sam Bowers, who was believed to have ordered the murder, was tried four times and each time invoked the Fifth Amendment. Each trial ended in a mistrial.