D.C. Stephenson

David Curtiss Stephenson introduced himself to fellow Hoosiers in 1920 as the son of a wealthy businessman from South Bend. He professed he had quit college to work in the coal business until his patriotism called him to volunteer for the Army during World War I, where he fought the Germans in France. After his valiant work in the war, he supposedly returned home to find himself a millionaire due to the high value of stocks he had bought before the war.

However, this story was a complete fabrication that perfectly highlighted Stephenson’s routine of spouting bold lies and bravado. In reality, he was born in Houston, Texas in 1891, son of a sharecropper. His family later moved to Oklahoma, where he finished his schooling after graduating eighth grade, and then married, lost his newspaper job, abandoned his pregnant wife, and divorced. Stephenson volunteered for the Army and moved to Iowa to work as a recruiter. After the war, he worked as a traveling salesman and married a second time. The couple moved to Evansville, Indiana, and Stephenson began work as a coal salesman [1]. It was in Indiana that he launched his infamous career as a member of the burgeoning Ku Klux Klan (KKK).

By the 1920s, the KKK was at the peak of its power in Indiana. Stephenson became a marketer for the Indiana Klan, raising enormous amounts of funds to increase membership [2]. He commanded political power from the beginning of his membership. Stephenson and the Klan had a controlling hand in Indiana Governor Ed Jackson’s election, and he manipulated state legislators by using his money and the influence of the KKK to push bills that would plant more money in his pockets. Stephenson also helped fund the campaign for the KKK’s handpicked choice for Indianapolis’ mayor [3]. Stephenson used his “natural” charisma and leadership skills to snag increasingly important Indiana Klan positions [4]. On July 4, 1923, nearly 200,000 Klansmembers gathered at Malfalfa Park in Kokomo to celebrate Stephenson’s ascension to Grand Dragon of Indiana. The gathering was the largest Klan rally in the history of the United States. As Grand Dragon, Stephenson entertained U.S. senators, congressmen, judges, governors, and other political leaders on his yacht [5]. His relationship with National KKK Imperial Wizard Hiram Evans, however, quickly soured. The men did not agree on financial matters and Klan priorities, and Stephenson eventually created a new Indiana Klan independent of the national group [6]. Stephenson appeared to be unstoppable. He believed his word was “the law” in Indiana [7].

His glory did not last long. Shortly after his arrival in Indiana, his drunken bouts of violence led to his second divorce. Soon after, he was charged with indecent exposure with his young secretary. Later, he drunkenly threatened and sexually assaulted a hotel manicurist [8]. In 1924, after a young actress relayed her story of being sexually attacked by Stephenson, Imperial Wizard Hiram Evans used Stephenson’s pattern of rape, physical abuse, and drunken violence as evidence against the man who had become his rival in the Klan. He published a fifty-page report on Stephenson’s questionable behavior in the hopes of having him dismissed, but Stephenson only responded that Evans’ accusations were fabricated by the southern Klan [9].

In January 1925, Stephenson met Madge Oberholtzer at a banquet in Indianapolis. After several dinners, Stephenson called her in March and insisted she come meet him at his Indianapolis home before he left for Chicago. He was wildly intoxicated upon her arrival. Stephenson, his chauffeur, and a third man forced Oberholtzer to drink alcohol against her will. Stephenson armed all the men with pistols and told Oberholtzer she had to accompany him to Chicago. She was forced into a car with the men while she begged to call home to her mother [10].

At the train station, Stephenson led Oberholtzer to a private compartment, where he sexually assaulted her, leaving her with bite wounds over her entire body. When they reached Hammond, Oberholtzer asked to leave to buy a hat and rouge to cover her bruises and ghastly bites. She bought mercury tablets instead and took them, intending to end her own life. Stephenson told her he would take her to the hospital if she agreed to marry him. She refused, and Stephenson had Oberholtzer driven 5 hours south to his home. After several days, she was taken to the doctor who discovered that several of her bites were badly infected. She died a few weeks later, after giving a lawyer every detail of her brutal assault. Although the official cause of death was mercury poisoning, her autopsy revealed that her body would have been able to fight the mercury had it not been for the infection in her bloodstream that resulted from Stephenson’s vicious bites [11].

In November 1925, D.C. Stephenson was sentenced to life in prison for her murder. He patiently waited for Governor Ed Jackson to get him out of jail. When Jackson offered no assistance, Stephenson started revealing names of people who were part of the intricate, corrupt web of Indiana Klan politics [12]. Stephenson’s arrest and revelations spread like wildfire, leading to the Klan’s rapid decline in Indiana [13]. By 1928, membership had dropped from half a million to 4,000 [14]. Stephenson was paroled in 1950, but was sent back to prison in Michigan City after breaking parole. Only six years later, he was released [15]. In 1962, he was arrested again for attempting to force a teenage girl into his car. After leading a life of lies, violence, and corruption, he died in 1966 in Tennessee [16]. His home in the Irvington neighborhood of Indianapolis still stands.

[1] Karen Abbot, “’Murder Wasn’t Very Pretty’: The Rise and Fall of D.C. Stephenson,” Smithsonian Magazine, August 30, 2012, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/murder-wasnt-very-pretty-the-rise-and-fall-of-dc-stephenson-18935042/.
[2] Charles C. Alexander, “Kleagles and Cash: The Ku Klux Klan as a Business Organization, 1915-1930,” The Business History Review 39, no. 3 (1965): 359.
[3] Karen Abbot, “’Murder Wasn’t Very Pretty.’”
[4] Velma A. Frame, “Some Patterns of Ku Klux Klan Activities in Delaware County During the 1920’s,” (master’s thesis, Ball State Teachers College, 1947), 19.
[5] Douglas O. Linder, “The D.C. Stephenson Trial: An Account,” Famous Trials, accessed February 15, 2021, https://famous-trials.com/stephenson/74-home.
[6] Douglas O. Linder, “The D.C. Stephenson Trial: An Account.”
[7] “Facts Back Up Dying Story – Remy,” Indianapolis Times (Indianapolis, IN), November 12, 1925.
[8] Karen Abbot, “’Murder Wasn’t Very Pretty.’”
[9] Douglas O. Linder, “The D.C. Stephenson Trial: An Account.”
[10] Stephenson v. State, 179 N.E. 633, 205 (Ind. 141 1932).
[11] Stephenson v. State, 179 N.E. 633, 205 (Ind. 141 1932).
[12] Douglas O. Linder, “The D.C. Stephenson Trial: An Account.”
[13] Charles C. Alexander, “Kleagles and Cash,” 366.
[14] Karen Abbot, “’Murder Wasn’t Very Pretty.’”
[15] “Facts Back Up Dying Story – Remy,” November 12, 1925.
[16] Douglas O. Linder, “The D.C. Stephenson Trial: An Account.”

Student Author: Gwyneth Harris
Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey

PHOTO & VIDEO:
D. C. Stephenson Grand Dragon of the Klu Klux Klan in Indiana, c 1922, Public domain, via Wikimedia commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:D._C._Stephenson_Grand_Dragon_of_the_Klu_Klux_Klan_in_Indiana,_c_1922.jpg