Madge Oberholtzer

Madge Augustine Oberholtzer (November 10, 1896 – April 14, 1925) was an American schoolteacher who worked for the state of Indiana on adult literacy. She was kidnapped by D. C. Stephenson, Grand Dragon of the Indiana Ku Klux Klan, and held in a private train car, where he repeatedly raped her. She died of a combination of a staph infection and kidney failure from self-inflicted poisoning, which she took to try to escape him.

In a deathbed statement, Oberholtzer vividly described Stephenson's assaults on her. Her testimony led to his conviction at trial. The scandal contributed to the rapid decline of KKK membership in Indiana, with tens of thousands of members leaving. The decline was hastened by Stephenson's talking to the press in 1926-1927 about government officials who had accepted payments and bribes from the Klan; the organization lost its reputation as law-abiding and upholding morality.

Early life

Madge Oberholtzer was born to German American parents in Clay City, Indiana. She grew up in Fulton County. After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree, she taught in a state program for adult literacy. She lived with her parents in the Irvington area of Indianapolis.

Events of the case

In 1924, Oberholtzer attended a dinner at the Governor's mansion. She met David Curtiss Stephenson, who quickly invited her out. She dated Stephenson twice. On their second date, he revealed that he was Grand Dragon (state leader) of the Indiana Branch of the Ku Klux Klan. Oberholtzer ended the relationship.

On March 27, 1925, Stephenson invited her to his mansion to discuss a job. When she arrived, he overpowered her and forced her to drink whiskey until she became ill. Two of his bodyguards carried her to his car, where she fainted. She awoke on Stephenson's private train on its way to Chicago. He raped her several times, wounding her with bites, and she passed out.

In Hammond, Indiana, Oberholtzer convinced Stephenson to let her go to a drug store to purchase feminine hygiene items. Despite his bodyguards, she purchased mercuric chloride tablets and swallowed six of the potentially poisonous pills. She had earlier threatened Stephenson, saying, “The law will get their hands on you!” He laughed and replied, “I am the law in Indiana.” Stephenson's Klan connections gave him tremendous political power.

That night Oberholtzer began vomiting blood. When she had not recovered by the next day, Stephenson's bodyguards drove her home to Indianapolis. Approached by a boarder who asked what was going on, one of the bodyguards said that Oberholtzer had been in a car accident.

Her parents immediately called a doctor, but there was little he could do to save her. On March 28, she recounted what Stephenson had done in a deathbed statement. Madge Oberholtzer died on April 14, 1925 from a staph infection, combined with kidney failure from the mercury poisoning. She was buried in Memorial Park Cemetery in Indianapolis.

Trial

Stephenson was indicted on charges of rape and second-degree murder. At his trial, the doctor who had examined Oberholzer testified that the injuries she received were sufficient to have killed her, as her wounds developed an infection that reached her lungs and kidneys. He described her wounds as similar to having been "chewed by a cannibal."

Stephenson's attorney defended him on the basis of Oberholtzer having committed suicide, saying he could not have anticipated her behavior. The prosecution said that, based on medical testimony, prompt medical attention might have saved her. During closing statements, the prosecutor decried Stephenson as a “destroyer of virtue and womanhood”. The jury found him guilty of second degree murder and the court sentenced him to life in prison. His appeal was rejected by the State Supreme Court.

Aftermath

The case so outraged many members of the Klan that entire lodges left the organization, and membership quickly dropped by the tens of thousands. The scandal destroyed the KKK in Indiana. Within the following two years, the Indiana KKK lost more than 178,000 members, nearly closing altogether.

Denied a pardon in 1926, Stephenson started talking to the Indianapolis Times, revealing names of officials who had accepted bribes and payments from the Klan. The Times investigated the Klan in the state. The state indicted several high-ranking officials, including Governor Ed Jackson and the head of the Republican Party in Marion County. Other local officials resigned when facing charges. The Times investigation revealed widespread political corruption which contributed to destroying the Klan in Indiana and nationwide. By February 1928, Indiana Klan rosters had decreased to 4,000, from a peak of more than 250,000 members in 1925.

Stephenson was paroled on March 23, 1950, but violated parole by disappearing on or before September 25, 1950. On December 15, 1950, he was captured in Minneapolis. In 1951, he was directed to serve a further 10 years in prison. On December 22, 1956, Stephenson was paroled on condition he leave Indiana and never return.

In 1961 in Tennessee, he was arrested at age 70 on charges of sexually assaulting a sixteen-year-old girl. The charges were dropped on grounds of insufficient evidence. He died in 1966.

Representation in other media

• Actress Mel Harris portrayed Oberholtzer in the TV mini-series Cross of Fire (1989).

See also

• Indiana Klan

Further reading

• Lutholtz, M. William; Grand Dragon: D.C. Stephenson and the Ku Klux Klan in Indiana.
• Newton, Michael, and Judy Ann Newton; The Ku Klux Klan: An Encyclopedia, New York & London: Garland Publishing, 1991.
• "D. C. Stephenson Collection, 1922-1978, Collection Guide" (PDF). Indiana Historical Society. October 20, 1997. Retrieved November 2, 2012.
• "Ku Klux Klan Resources", Indiana State Library
• "STEPHENSON v. STATE - Supreme Court of Indiana", State University of New York at Buffalo