Byrd saw this law as a key achievement of his administration, and claimed with pride that there had never been another lynching in Virginia. He had just been a candidate for the 1932 U.S. Presidential nomination, was close to Roosevelt, was frequently mentioned as a possible cabinet appointee, and would soon be appointed, then elected Senator from Virginia. "Byrd's ascension to the national political stage was based in part on his reputation as the architect of the nation's strictest anti-lynching law." Thus, local officials "resented" the NAACP's inclusion of Thompson in a list of 1932 lynchings, and "vigorously den[ied]" that he had been lynched. According to the sheriff there had been no lynching in Fauquier County within his memory, and it was an "absolute" case of suicide. Byrd became personally involved, writing and having his friends write the NAACP, insisting that there had not been a lynching. The coroner "issued "immediately" a verdict of suicide," and said Thompson had committed suicide by putting a rope around his neck and jumping from an apple tree: Why, it would be the simplest thing in the world. The tree had one limb running straight out about the size of my leg in diameter and another limb a bit higher running in almost the same direction. Thompson climbed the tree and sat out on the limb while he tied the slip noose around his neck, leaving about eighteen inches slack to break his neck in the fall. After fixing the knots the negro allowed himself to slip off the limb. That's all there was to it. (The Commonwealth Attorney said Thompson jumped off a pile of rocks he had made, so as to break his own neck.) As soon as the coroner's verdict was published, "rumors began to circulate stating that the negro had been lynched by the angry mob that had been scouring through Rattlesnake Mountain the week following the negro's alleged attack and alleged escape, armed with knives, picks, shotguns, ropes and mowing blades. One rumor even stated the date the lynching occurred and gave the number in the lynching party as six men…" The coroner said he paid no attention to these rumors, which were "bare lies". A news story from nearby Martinsburg, West Virginia, where Thompson "at one time" resided, said that there was a bullet hole in his skull, and the body had been mutilated. Early reports said the body was burned before any law enforcement official arrived, and as said above, the first sheriff's deputy to arrive was threatened with a gun so he could not put the flames out.