An investigation found that the killings had been ordered by Boyle, who had demanded Yablonski's death on June 23, 1969, after a meeting with Yablonski at UMWA headquarters degenerated into a shouting match. In September 1969, UMWA executive council member Albert Pass received $20,000 from Boyle (who had embezzled the money from union funds) to hire gunmen to kill Yablonski. He hired Paul Gilly, an out-of-work house painter and son-in-law of Silous Huddleston, a minor UMWA official, and two drifters, Aubran Martin and Claude Vealey.