Rusk suggested a memorial service to honor Hose, saying: "We hope something good will come after so many years by paying our respects to Sam Hose". The article in the "Newnan Times-Herald" on 6 February 2007 started off a firestorm of controversy in Newnan, attracting a flood of highly negative letters to the editor calling Hose a murderer and rapist who was justly lynched by the white community of Newnan. Rusk felt Skinner was responsible for the backlash, noting that he had omitted from the article the part in the interview which he stated that Hose was probably innocent and instead presented it as a fact that Hose was guilty of the crimes of which he was accused of. In his article, Skinner wrote: "On 12th of April 1899, Hose hit his employer in the head with ax, killing him. He then raped the landowner's wife and injured their infant child". Rusk felt that there were mitigating circumstances for Hose killing Cranford and that Hose was innocent of the charges of rape. In response, Skinner replied to Rusk that in Newnan it was accepted as fact that Hose was a murderer and rapist and it was disrespectful to the Cranford family to present the story any other way.