The populace was outraged, believing this maneuver was intended to benefit the holders of the now worthless bonds, by re-obligating the county to pay those same bonds. The county attorney, a judge of the county court, and a third man involved in the scandal were shot and killed while on a train stopped between Bryson, Missouri and Paola, Kansas. (It was in or near what is now known as Gunn City). Afterward some 41 men were arrested as suspects and prosecuted for these killings, but none was convicted. At the time of the shootings, a related mob burned a Republican newspaper owned by Porter J. Coston, in Harrisonville, Missouri.