D.C. Stephenson: KKK and Murder

Madge Oberholtzer

Once in Chicago, she managed to slip away long enough to purchase some mercuric chloride tablets which she took in an attempt to commit suicide. She didn’t die but was in agonising pain. Seriously ill, he ordered his accomplices to take her back to Indianapolis. Before leaving she threatened Stephenson with the law, to which he replied – I am the law in Indiana.

Once home, Madge sought urgent medical attention. But it was too late, she was dying. Determined to bring Stephenson to justice she made a deathbed confession. She died on 15 April, 1925, in great pain of kidney failure brought on by mercury poisoning.

David Curtiss Stephenson, was indicted on charges of kidnapping and second-degree murder. He was confident of acquittal, often sneering and smiling in Court. After all, he was the most powerful man in the State, and he had an all white, all male jury, many of whom were or had been members of the Klan. Stephenson had also become a rich man taking as he did $4 from every $10 initiation fee and $4 from every $6 paid for robes and hoods. He could afford the best defence counsel, and he also believed he had the support of the Governor. But as the case unfurled and he was painted as a violent drunkard and hypocrite, his support evaporated. The trial gained national notoriety and with each vile revelation Klan support fell. Klan members were attacked in the street, robes were publicly burned. In Indiana Klan membership fell from 250,000 to below 4,000. Nationally it fell from 6 million to under 120,000. In an attempt to staunch the haemorrhaging of support, Evans publicly disowned Stephenson, but it was to no avail. The Klan was never to be a force again outside of the deep south.

D C Stephenson was convicted of second-degree murder on 16 November, 1925, and sentenced to life imprisonment. He expected Governor Jackson to pardon him. When he did not, Stephenson released the documents that proved that Indiana’s State officials had been on the Klan payroll. A series of indictments followed.

Stephenson was to serve 31 years in Michigan State Prison. At various parole board hearings he was to deny ever having been a member of the Klan. Released in 1956, he was convicted of sexually assaulting a 16 year old girl in 1961. He died in Jonesboro, Tennessee, on 21 August, 1966, aged 74.

Postscript: The Democratic Convention, 1924

Also known as the Klanbake, was held in New York from 24 June to 9 July, 1924. It was to take 103 ballots to decide upon a Presidential Candidate. The Ku Klux Klan had never before or since wielded such political power. It was at the time the fastest growing political force in America. It refused to support the favoured nominee, Governor Al Smith of New York, because he was a Roman Catholic. Instead they threw their weight behind Governor William G McAdoo of California. The result was gridlock. Fist fights broke out on the Convention floor, and hooded Klansmen burned crosses outside the Convention Hall urging violence against negroes and catholics. In the end it took the personal intervention of three times defeated Presidential Candidate William Jennings Bryan, to broker a compromise. John W Davis was nominated instead. Not surprisingly, he lost the election. Had it not been for D C Stephenson, the Democratic Presidential Candidate in 1928, may well have been a Klan member. He might even have been David Curtiss Stephenson.