Madge Augustine Oberholtzer (November 10, 1896 – April 14, 1925) was a
white American
White Americans are Americans who identify as and are perceived to be white people. This group constitutes the majority of the people in the United States. As of the 2020 Census, 61.6%, or 204,277,273 people, were white alone. This represented ...
woman whose rape and murder played a critical role in the demise of the second incarnation of the
Ku Klux Klan. In March 1925, while working for the state of
Indiana
Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...
on an adult literacy campaign, Oberholtzer was abducted by
D. C. Stephenson,
Grand Dragon
Ku Klux Klan (KKK) nomenclature has evolved over the order's nearly 160 years of existence. The titles and designations were first laid out in the original Klan's prescripts of 1867 and 1868, then revamped with William J. Simmons's '' Kloran'' of ...
of the
Indiana Klan
The Indiana Klan was a branch of the Ku Klux Klan, a secret society in the United States that organized in 1915 to promote ideas of racial superiority and affect public affairs on issues of Prohibition, education, political corruption, and morali ...
. Holding her captive in his private train car, Stephenson
rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ...
d and tortured her. Oberholtzer died from a combination of a
staphylococcal infection from her injuries and
kidney failure
Kidney failure, also known as end-stage kidney disease, is a medical condition in which the kidneys can no longer adequately filter waste products from the blood, functioning at less than 15% of normal levels. Kidney failure is classified as eit ...
from
mercury chloride Mercury chloride can refer to:
*Mercury(II) chloride or mercuric chloride (HgCl2)
*Mercury(I) chloride
Mercury(I) chloride is the chemical compound with the formula Hg2Cl2. Also known as the mineral calomel (a rare mineral) or mercurous chloride, ...
poisoning, which she took while held captive in an attempt to commit
suicide.
[Daniel O. Linder, "D.C. Stephenson"](_blank)
Testimony, ''Famous Trials'', hosted at University of Missouri Law School, Kansas City
Following the suicide attempt, Stephenson's men returned Oberholtzer to her home, assuming her injuries would soon prove fatal and believing their influential leader was immune to any
prosecution
A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the common law adversarial system or the Civil law (legal system), civil law inquisitorial system. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the ...
. However, Oberholtzer regained consciousness long enough to give a signed statement to police.
She described Stephenson's assaults which led to his conviction at trial and led to the rapid decline of KKK membership in Indiana.
Early life
Born to
German-American
German Americans (german: Deutschamerikaner, ) are Americans who have full or partial German ancestry. With an estimated size of approximately 43 million in 2019, German Americans are the largest of the self-reported ancestry groups by the Unite ...
parents, Madge Oberholtzer grew up in
Indianapolis, where her father worked as a postal clerk and her family belonged to the Irvington Methodist Church.
Oberholtzer studied English, mathematics,
zoology
Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and ...
and logic at
Butler College in
Irvington, but she dropped out at the end of her junior year without saying why. Through her life, she lived with her parents in Irvington.
By the time she met Stephenson, Oberholtzer was the manager of the Indiana Young People's Reading Circle, a special section of the Indiana Department of Public Instruction. However, she heard rumors that her job and the Reading Circle program were about to be eliminated due to budget cuts.
Chronology of the murder
Oberholtzer met Stephenson while attending
Governor
A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...
Edward L. Jackson's inauguration party at the Athletic Club in Indianapolis
on January 12, 1925.
In her dying statement, Oberholtzer claimed he asked her for a date several times after the banquet, but she refused;
she eventually agreed, though, and they had dinner together.
Following that date, Stephenson called Oberholtzer on the phone several times. She finally agreed to meet him for dinner at the
Washington Hotel.
The two began seeing each other more frequently, and Oberholtzer acted as Stephenson's aide during the 1925 session of the
Indiana General Assembly
The Indiana General Assembly is the state legislature, or legislative branch, of the state of Indiana. It is a bicameral legislature that consists of a lower house, the Indiana House of Representatives, and an upper house, the Indiana Senate. Th ...
, carrying messages from his office to his friends.
She also helped him write a nutrition book, ''One Hundred Years of Health''. Using her Reading Circle connections, Oberholtzer intended to help Stephenson sell the book to school libraries throughout the state.
She ended their relationship after attending a party at his mansion. They did not meet again until Sunday, March 15.
About 10:00 pm on March 15, Oberholtzer returned home after an evening with a friend.
Her mother told her that Stephenson's secretary had called and said he was leaving for
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
, leaving a message to call him before he left. Oberholtzer called Stephenson, who told her he would try to protect the Reading Circle program and her job if she agreed to see him.
She changed into a black velvet dress, and a bodyguard she identified as "Mr. Gentry" arrived and escorted her to Stephenson's mansion a few blocks away.
When she arrived, Stephenson, Gentry, and another bodyguard Oberholtzer identified as "Clenck" took her into the kitchen and forced her to drink
whiskey
Whisky or whiskey is a type of distilled alcoholic beverage made from fermented grain mash. Various grains (which may be malted) are used for different varieties, including barley, corn, rye, and wheat. Whisky is typically aged in wooden ...
until she became sick. The four men then took her upstairs, and Stephenson took a
revolver from a dresser drawer and forced her to approach him at gunpoint.
Oberholtzer said the men took her to the garage and forced her into Stephenson's car. Before they left, Stephenson told Clenck to stay behind and tell his associate, Claude Worley, that he was going to Chicago for a business meeting.
When they reached the railroad station, Stephenson and Gentry forced Oberholtzer onto Stephenson's private train to Chicago. No sooner had they entered the train's compartment coach than Stephenson grabbed the bottom of her dress and pulled it over her head. He then grabbed her hands, tore off the rest of her clothes, pushed her into the lower bed, and
rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ...
d her repeatedly. He also bit her all over her body; an examination later revealed deep bite wounds on her face, neck, breasts, back, legs, ankles, and tongue.
Oberholtzer, still intoxicated and unable to resist, eventually passed out.
Upon waking, Oberholtzer confronted Stephenson and said, "The law will get their hands on you!" Because Stephenson's connections to the
Indiana Klan
The Indiana Klan was a branch of the Ku Klux Klan, a secret society in the United States that organized in 1915 to promote ideas of racial superiority and affect public affairs on issues of Prohibition, education, political corruption, and morali ...
gave him tremendous political power, he laughed and replied, "I ''am'' the law in Indiana." Gentry and Stephenson dressed Oberholtzer and told her they would be stopping in
Hammond, where the three checked into the Indiana Hotel.
Stephenson forced Oberholtzer to say that she was his wife so they could share the same room. He forced her to write a
telegram
Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas ...
to her mother, saying she had decided to go to Chicago with him.
While Stephenson was sleeping, Oberholtzer grabbed his revolver to kill herself but changed her mind, fearing it would dishonor her mother.
Instead, she decided to commit suicide by taking poison.
The next morning, Oberholtzer convinced Stephenson to contact another chauffeur, whom Stephenson nicknamed "Shorty", and tell him to come to the hotel so she could purchase a black silk hat.
Upon purchasing the hat, Oberholtzer asked Shorty to drive her to a
druggist
A pharmacist, also known as a chemist (Commonwealth English) or a druggist (North American and, archaically, Commonwealth English), is a healthcare professional who prepares, controls and distributes medicines and provides advice and instructi ...
to buy some
rouge
Rouge is the French word for "red" and may refer to:
Compounds
* Rouge (cosmetics), a cosmetic used to color the cheeks and emphasize the cheekbones
* Jeweler's rouge or iron(III) oxide
* Rouging, a form of corrosion applicable to stainless ...
. She bought an entire box of
mercuric chloride
Mercury(II) chloride (or mercury bichloride, mercury dichloride), historically also known as sulema or corrosive sublimate, is the inorganic chemical compound of mercury and chlorine with the formula HgCl2. It is white crystalline solid and is a ...
tablets.
Oberholtzer returned to her room but, still weakened from the wounds Stephenson had inflicted on her, only managed to swallow three tablets.
She vomited blood throughout the remainder of the day. Stephenson insisted that he would not take her to a hospital unless she agreed to go to a nearby chapel and marry him; however, he panicked and ordered Shorty to drive them back to Indianapolis. When he was asked what had happened, a bodyguard said she had been in a car accident.
Oberholtzer's parents immediately called a doctor, but nothing could be done to save her. On March 28, Oberholtzer explained what had happened to her in a signed statement.
She died on April 14, 1925, from a
staph infection
A staphylococcal infection or staph infection is an infection caused by members of the ''Staphylococcus'' genus of bacteria.
These bacteria commonly inhabit the skin and nose where they are innocuous, but may enter the body through cuts or abrasio ...
from the bites, plus
kidney failure
Kidney failure, also known as end-stage kidney disease, is a medical condition in which the kidneys can no longer adequately filter waste products from the blood, functioning at less than 15% of normal levels. Kidney failure is classified as eit ...
from the mercury poisoning. She was buried at Memorial Park Cemetery in Indianapolis.
Trial
Stephenson was
indicted
An indictment ( ) is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that use the concept of felonies, the most serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that do not use the felonies concept often use that of ...
on charges of rape and
second-degree murder. The doctor who had examined Oberholtzer testified that the injuries she received were sufficient to have killed her, as her wounds developed an infection that reached her lungs and kidneys.
Stephenson's attorney claimed Oberholtzer had committed suicide, saying the rapist could not have anticipated her behavior. The prosecution countered to the effect that, based on medical testimony, prompt medical attention might have saved her life. During closing statements, the prosecutor decried Stephenson as a "destroyer of virtue and womanhood". The jury found him guilty of second-degree murder, rape, and
kidnapping, and the court sentenced him to life in prison. The
Indiana Supreme Court rejected his appeal.
This case is still taught in law schools as showing an enlargement of the causal relationships that define homicide.
Aftermath
The brutal attack on Oberholtzer so outraged most members of the Indiana Klan that entire lodges quit ''en masse'', and membership dropped by the tens of thousands. The scandal destroyed the Klan in Indiana, and in the following two years, the KKK lost more than 178,000 members, nearly disappearing.
Denied a
pardon in 1926, Stephenson started talking to the ''
Indianapolis Times
The ''Indianapolis Times'' was an evening newspaper that served the city of Indianapolis, Indiana, from 1888 to 1965 when the paper ceased publishing.
History
The ''Indianapolis Times'' began as the ''Sun'' in 1888, "the only one cent paper ...
'', giving the names of officials who had accepted
bribe
Bribery is the offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of any item of value to influence the actions of an official, or other person, in charge of a public or legal duty. With regard to governmental operations, essentially, bribery is "Corru ...
s and payments from the Klan, prompting an investigation by the newspaper. The state of Indiana finally indicted several high-ranking officials, including Governor Jackson and the head of the
Republican Party in
Marion County. Other local officials resigned when facing charges. The ''Times'' investigation revealed widespread
political corruption, which helped destroy the Klan in Indiana and nationwide. By February 1928, Indiana Klan rosters had dropped to just 4,000, from a peak of more than 250,000 members in 1925.
Stephenson was
parole
Parole (also known as provisional release or supervised release) is a form of early release of a prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by certain behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated parole officers, or ...
d on March 23, 1950, but he violated the conditions of his parole by disappearing around September 25 of that year. He was captured in
Minneapolis
Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...
on December 15, and was ordered by the court in 1951 to serve another ten years. He was paroled on December 22, 1956, on the condition that he leave Indiana and never return.
In 1961, Stephenson was arrested in
Tennessee
Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...
at age 70 on charges of
sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl, but the charges were dropped on grounds of insufficient evidence. He died five years later.
Representation in other media
*Actress
Mel Harris
Mary Ellen "Mel" Harris is an American actress best known for her role as Hope Murdoch Steadman in the ABC drama series ''Thirtysomething'' (1987–1991), for which she received a Golden Globe nomination in 1990.
Early life and education
Ha ...
portrayed Oberholtzer in the TV
miniseries ''
Cross of Fire'' (1989).
See also
*
List of kidnappings
*
List of solved missing person cases
Lists of solved missing person cases include:
* List of solved missing person cases: pre-2000
* List of solved missing person cases: post-2000
See also
* List of kidnappings
* List of murder convictions without a body
* List of people who di ...
References
Further reading
* Ottinger, Charlotte Halsema; "Madge, The Life and Times of Madge Oberholtzer: the Young Irvington Woman Who Took Down D. C. Stephenson and the Ku Klux Klan," Irvington Historical Society, 2021.
* Lutholtz, M. William; ''Grand Dragon: D.C. Stephenson and the Ku Klux Klan in Indiana''.
* Newton, Michael, and Judy Ann Newton; ''The Ku Klux Klan: An Encyclopedia'', New York & London: Garland Publishing, 1991.
*
"Ku Klux Klan Resources" Indiana State Library
State University of New York at Buffalo
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oberholtzer, Madge
1896 births
1920s missing person cases
1925 deaths
1925 suicides
20th-century American educators
20th-century American women educators
American murder victims
American people of German descent
Deaths from staphylococcal infection
Deaths from kidney failure
Deaths from heavy metal poisoning
Female murder victims
Formerly missing people
History of women in Indiana
Kidnapped American people
Missing person cases in Indiana
People from Indianapolis
People murdered in Indiana
Schoolteachers from Indiana
Suicides by poison
1925 murders in the United States
1925 in Indiana
Ku Klux Klan in Indiana
Victims of the Ku Klux Klan