Evening star., 1939-08-27
Stephenson, Once
Indiana Boss, Fights
Again for Freedom
old Man Hos Fought
II Legal Actions and
Has AIwoys Lost
~ the Associated Press.

Has AIwuys Lost
~ the Associated Press.
INDIANAPOLIS. Aug. 23.-Pudgy
little David Curtis Stephenson,
political overload of all he surveyed
in Indiana when the Ku Klux Klan
was In its heydey, will begin his
last-ditch legal fight for freedom
from the State Prison on Octo-
Der 4.
'The old man"-as he was best
known, although only about IS
now-has fought II major legal &C
tions in the State and Federal
courts. He always has lost.
Now he is scheduled to return
TO the shabby little circuit court
room at Noblesville, where on a
dreary fall afternoon IA years ago
he heard a Jury condemn him. to
life imprisonment for the murder
Of Madge Oberholtzer, a pretty en-
ploye in the State House, where
the old man" was credited with
being Governor in fact, although not
In name.
Stephenson's plea is for writ
OF error coram nobis. If 1t is
granted he will receive a new trial
and presumably will tawe the stand
for the defense he says he was pre-
vented from making at the original
trial, because he feared for his life.
Became Grand Dragon.
A one-time linotype operator,
stephenson came to Southern In
diana as salesman. He became
q Klan organizer, and as his profits
from memberships mounted, there
was a proportionasely rapid rise in
his political influence until he be-
came grand dragon of the white
sheeted order.
Steve as intimates and later,
newspaper headline writer's called
him, developed into a supersales-
man typical of the turbulent 20s.
Theodore Roosevelt, Alexander the
Great, Napoleon (he kept a bust
OF the Little Corporal in his private
Office were his heroes.
Florid of face, he usually was a
hail fellow we'll met and had an
undoubted personal charm he could
turn on and off at will, as circum-
stances dictated.
He smoked expensive cigars, af-
fected black hat like cartoonists
assign to carlcatures of elder states
men and the old-time frontier mar
shals and made frequent airplane
business flights when such trips were
not as commonplace as today.
Built From Ground Up.
Stephenson was a thoroughgoing
organizer and built from the ground
up. Klansmen were made con-
stables and justices of the peace.
The State and local police forces were
honeycombed with appointees given
the personal approval of "the old
man"
AS Stephenson's political influ-
ence burgeoned, the Klan reached
into the higher brackets of Official
dom-through the Legislature, into
the Governors Office and even to the
United States Senate.
If somebody wanted something"
AN appointment perhaps, or a lu-
erative State contract-it generally
was understood among the politi-
cally-wise that the thing to do was
to "see the old man"
One March week end in 1925 Steph-
enson, the two burly bodyguards who
always accompanied him. and Miss
Oberholtzer boarded a train here for
Chicago.
They stopped in hotel at State
hne Hammond, Ind. however, after
Stephenson apparently decided not
to lay himself open to q Mann Act
charge.
Theer was great deal of drinking
and some time during the week end,
Miss Oberholtzer swallowed some
poison tablets obtained in the hotel
drug store.
The State contended in the trial
following her lingering death and
Stephensons subsequent indictment
that she was denied medical treat
ment by "the old man" and his
oodyguards when her suicide attempt
was discovered.
At any rate, Miss Oberholtzer was
brought back to Indianapolis to the
servants quarters over a garage at
Stephenson's East Side home and
then removed to her home, where
she died.
Vitality Weakened by Poison.
The prosecution argued in the
trial at Noblesville, where the case
was taken on change of venue, that
the girls death resulted from COM
blnation of vitality weakened by
ehe poison dose and streptococcic and
straphylOcoccic infections caused by
bites Stephenson was alleged to have
made on her body
Defense witnesses testified for
Stephenson that he had been unable
to persuade the girl to accept med
tcal treatment for the poison.
An impressive array of pathologists
and toxicologists argued pro and
con over the poison effect and
whether the alleged mayhem could
have caused her death.
Meanwhile, "the Old Man" sat
mute. He was afraid, he said, that
If he took the stand in his defense
he would be killed. He insisted
doggedly then and since his convic-
ton that mob hysteria was at too
high a pitch for him to testify safely
and has hinted that he had knowl-
edge of a plot to take his life if he
talked.
Immediately after "the Old Mans"
conviction there began a frenzied
hunt for the black box" the re-
pository of Stephenson's papers
which plrportedly contained grand
jury ammunition against numerous
high officials
The BLACK box" finally was found.
There is considerable mystery to this
day as to just what it contained, but
1t caused panic in high places.