Those arrested were subjected to starvation and physical beating in an effort to gain testimony to be used against strike leaders. One such prisoner, a field worker named Alfred Nelson, was hauled from county to county where he was held incommunicado, sweated, starved, beaten, and repeatedly threatened with death unless he confessed to participation in the killings. In Martinez, Nelson was taken from jail to a room in a hotel where he was beaten by a sheriff and a private detective with pistol butts and a rubber hose and threatened with summary execution. Nelson refused to confess and was eventually returned to jail. The treatment of Nelson shocked Martinez District Attorney A.B. McKenzie, who declared Nelson's treatment to have been "one of the biggest outrages that has ever been perpetuated in this state." The Swedish consulate in San Francisco lodged a formal protest on behalf of Nelson, a Swedish national.