The well-known Ranger and surveyor, George B. Erath, was among the committee chosen to travel to the reservation to determine whether or not an attack was imminent. The Indian agents had not yet returned from their Christmas leave in San Antonio, so Erath and the “commissioners” met with Captain T.N. Palmer of the Second Cavalry and others. These men tried to convince the vigilante representatives that the reservations were peaceful. Erath summed up the meeting by saying “more or less was said to little purpose.” When the leaders returned to Stephenville and made this report, most of the vigilantes went home, at least for a time. In reference to Garland’s band, celebrated as heroes along along the Texas frontier, western historian Hubert Howe Bancroft, said the names of these men were doomed to “immortal infamy.” When word of the Choctaw Tom Massacre reached District Judge Nicholas Battle, he began preparations to prosecute Garland’s vigilantes. Judge Battle mistakenly believed that the rage and vigilante hysteria on the frontier could be brought to reason if only the Garland gang could be apprehended and punished. At first he tried to get officials in Palo Pinto County to indict the killers. They refuse and instead they indicted Jose Maria for horse theft. Next Judge Battle appointed E.J. Gurley of Waco as special prosecutor to gather evidence.