The Board of Inquiry was presided over by police magistrate A. H. O'Kelly and was deeply compromised from the start – its three members being hand-picked to maximise damage control; J. C. Cawood, Government Resident of Central Australia, and Murray's immediate superior, being one of them. Cawood revealed his own disposition in a letter to his departmental secretary shortly after the massacre: "…trouble has been brewing for some time, and the safety of the white man could only be assured by drastic action on the part of the authorities … I am firmly of the opinion that the result of the recent action by the police will have the right effect upon the natives."