The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1926-10-14
THE STEPHENSON VISIT

THE STEPHENSON VISIT
Indianas most spectacular convict has come and
gone-under unusual circumstances.
Fifteen months ago, his word was law in Indiana.
1t was no idle boast when he declared that he
'the law"
His genius for organization and his ruthlessness
and lack Of conscience had given him political pow
er that had been unparalleled in the history of any
State.
He had ruled a political convention almost abso
lutely With one exception, he had named ticket
His selections were in office and in power.
A Legislature had shown a strange subserviency
to his wishes.
His magnetism had permitted him to betray and
misead thousands of persons to strange loyalty
which he turned to his advantage and which he
capitalized into power.
Wealth poured upon him and he spent it with
the avishness of emperor, and the barbarism of
savage
He commanded the men he had made great to
attend upon his orgies and they went His spendor
was limited only by his lack of Imagination and his
degradation of thought
He bound by his secrets and terrorized
them by the fear of their obedience and obliga-
ucns.
And then he became mere convict murderer,
sentenced for life for the murder of girl such
atrocious circumstances that public opinion revolted
and cried out in protest
He was brought back to this city by grand jury
TO be asked to furnish documentary proof of his
political crimes.
There those who might have been led to the
conclusion that if this jury failed to force him to
produce checks and contracts of graft and receipts
for brides, that there had been no graft or corrup-
lion or bribery.
The logic, of course, is simple. If this convict
failed to confess, there had been no crime
But the situation is not quite so simple as all
that.
What Stephenson told this jury, u.s., of course,
secret. 1t will not be known until some authority
releases it and tells court what he said Whether
he gave any documents not is quite properly the
knowledge at ibis time, of the jury which is charged
= with the duty Of probing graft.
But it may be very proper to suggest that what
he said or did not say what he produced or did not
produce s.not important.
What had this convict to fear from defiance Of
any court
He is under life sentence. He can afford to
laugh at the anger of judges the wrath of courts
Sentences to Jail nothing to him. He is already
there for life.
fine would mean nothing He is where he
could spend no money if he had any.
The only fear that might grip him now is the
wrath of his keepers, any strange unusual means
of torturing a human being the solitary dungeon the
Thinking people might stop to ask if they really
think what they would do if they held secrets against
any one and were in his position
Would they deliver them to a jury in a hope for
revenge would they cling them as the one pos
siblf means of finally standing in the sunlight of
freedom.
Would they blat what they knew, deliver keys
to LOCK boxes plead with their private cusodians to
comd forth and vindcate the law or would they
stand the law of the jungle where every one fights
for himself and for his own life?
What obligation would this man have to society
that has banished him forever because he has out
laWed its most sacred conventions?
True, he may have told. That remains for the
future to unfold For the grand jury is on the trail
Of the graft and corruption and brberies which he
Is declared to have said that he could prove
And he may have been silent And neither mat
ters much, unless he should have given proof.
The only reason that any one ever paid any at
tentlon to his" charges was that it was common
knowledge in this State that he was in position to
Know OF such crimes if there were any committed
during the years of his power
The only reason there was any demand for anv
inquiry that his cry from his cell sounded rea-
sonable to too many people for it to be overlooked
May it not be properly suggested that had any
other convict in any other prison made similar
charge that it would not have even amounted to a
whisper where this has been heard from coast to
coast.
When all other questions are answered. perhaps
the people will give the reason for this remarkable
situation.
Perhaps the people will supply the answer-the
people this man msled and fooled and betrayed and
the people who aghast at the magnitude of his
brazen ruthlessness.