Gascoyne's investigation caused a press frenzy. The output of the writers and publishers of Grub Street emboldened opinions about the case, and in some instances reinforced long-held stereotypes of "wicked Gypsies and a poor innocent girl refusing to yield her honour". The Canningites stirred up anti-gypsy sentiment with a range of pamphlets and advertisements, one of which named the now deeply unpopular Gascoyne "the King of the Gipsies". Reports began to emerge, of sinister goings-on; one such claimed that several men on horseback threatened that "they would burn all the people's houses, barns and corn thereabouts", should Squires be hanged.