The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1932-01-19

After six years Of elaboration,
the Indiana supreme court today
ruled that d. c. Stevenson, former
Ku-Klux Khan dragon and political
car, must spend the remainder of
bis life in the state prison for the
murder of Miss Madge Oberholt-
yer Of indianapolis.
Since the death Of the girl and
Stephenson's subsequent trial at
Noblesville, the state and nation
have awaited the high courts
ruling.
In view of the decision, Stephen
son has only one channel remain
ing by which he might escape the
life sentence. That is a petition for
writ Of error coram nobis, still
pending before the high court.
Stephenson was found guilty of
the death of Miss Oberholtzer,
%, by a jury at Noblesville, on
Nov. IA, 1925. The young woman
had died at her parents home, in
Irvington, on April IA, 1925.
At the time of her death. the man
who had boosted ne was the law in
Indiana" was at liberty under $25.-
600 bonds. He had been arrested
April Q, on affidavits sworn out by
the girls father, George Oberholtzer.
They charged the millionaire Khan
organizer with assault and battery,
with intent to kill, kidnapping, and
conspiracy to commit felony.
Klinck, Gentry Indicted
Earl Klinck, since sentenced on
another charge, and Earl Gentry.
Stephenson neutenants, also we're in
dicted. They were freed by the
jury which convicted the former
dragon.
Upon the death of Miss Ober-
hotter, murder charges we're
brought and the case taken to
Noblesville on change of venue, from
Marion criminal court.
Judge viii M. Sparks, Rushville,
was chosen as special judge for the
case.
The trial attracted the attention
of the nation and became one of the
most historic in Indiana court an
nails.
Two hundred and twenty-eight
prospective talesmen were examined
before the jury was selected and the
trial got under way Oct. %, 1925.
Stephenson failed to take the
stand in his own behalf. In numer-
GUS legal actions he has attempted
since that time, he has charged that
he was afraid to do so and that his
life was threatened. He attributes
the entire affair to plot fostered
by Wizard Hiram Evans, Atlanta,
Ga. national head of the Ku-Klux
Khan, with whom he had quarrelled.
Attacked on Train
Conviction was based largely on
a dying statement of Miss Ober-
hotter, in which she charged she
had been kidnapped, drugged and as
saulted on trip to Hammond, Ind
The fatal affair had its inception
when she was enticed to the Steph-
enson Irvington mansion on the
night of March Is, the statement
said.
/ After being forced to drink some
thing at the Stephenson home, she
was taken to the Union station in
an automobile, and put on board a
Pullman, it continued En- route to
Hammond, she was attacked brutally
and bitten by the one-time Khan
chief, she charged.
The next morning she was taken
to the Indiana hotel, at Hammond,
her statement related. Here she pro-
cured forty-f1ve grains of bichloride
of mercury and took it in her room
She attempted suicide because Of
humiliation, she declared.
Suffering great torment and
pleading to be permitted to die by
the roadside, she was driven back to
Indianapolis in an, automobile, the
statement said. Arriving at the
Stephenson home, she was kept over
the garage during the next night
and brought home in a pitiable con-
dition the next day by Klinck, it
continued.
Refused Medical Aid
Throughout the trip, she said,
Stephenson drank whisky constantly.
He refused to get her medical aid.
She never recovered.
At the trial, her death was at
tributed largely to infection from
the bites which covered her body.
1t was this which caused the jury
men to return the second degree
murder verdict.
Stephenson went to prison ex-
pesting clemency from Governor Ed
Jackson, whom he helped elect and
whose campaign he had financed
largely. Jackson had made a speak
ing tour of the state in Stephenson's
car.
After spending some months be-
hind the bars, he grew restless and
threatened to make disclosures
which would rock the foundations
of the Hoosier political world.
1t was admitted that Stephenson
had backed Arthur R. Robinson for
the appointment by Jackson to the
United States senate. When the
threats reached the outside world
through the late Thomas H. Adams,
then editor of the Vincennes Com
mercial, and Boyd Gurley, editor of
The indianapolis Times, politicians
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