Freeman interviewed both Sheriff Fleming and the judge who presided over the trial; each said that he did not deserve blame for the lynching. A schoolteacher who had known Washington told Freeman that the young man was illiterate, and that all attempts to teach him to read had been futile. Freeman concluded that white residents were generally supportive of Washington's lynching after his conviction, although many were upset that he had been mutilated. She determined that the mob that took him from the courtroom was led by a bricklayer, a saloonkeeper, and several employees of an ice company. The NAACP did not publicly identify them. Freeman concluded that Washington killed Fryer, and suggested he had resented her domineering attitude towards him.