Alia admitted that he has been in Chicago, St. Louis and other eastern cities, but disclaimed any knowledge or connection with anarchists in any of these cities. No anarchist literature was found in his room. He gave different explanations for the attack. Michele Presutto notes that the murder occurred at a time of anti-anarchism and anti-Italian prejudice. Presutto attributes Alia's anti-clericalism to a rivalry between the Catholic and Waldensian churches in Sicily. In the wake of the widely reported murder of Heinrichs and the attempted assassination of Chicago Chief of Police George M. Shippy, there was a crack down on anarchists, with police departments in larger cities seeking to identify and restrain them. Secretary of Commerce and Labor Oscar Straus ordered immigration inspectors to work closely with local police and the United States Secret Service to find, arrest and deport immigrants with Anarchist political beliefs under the terms of the Anarchist Exclusion Act. Father Leo's cause for beatification was opened in 1938 and his grave continues to be visited by pilgrims. Ten years after Heinrichs' death, a Franciscan school in his former posting of Croghan was named the Father Leo Memorial School. (The school having closed, the building is now the American Maple Museum.) In his native city of Erkelenz, there is a street named for Fr. Leo Heinrichs.