A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them

With the blessing of clergy, the Klan gained a foothold in Noblesville, Indiana, a small town just north of Indianapolis. In 1925, all eyes turn to Noblesville as Stephenson’s trial was moved there. A local judge denied Stephenson bail but allowed his legal team access to Oberholtzer’s notarized statement, her dying words accusing the Grand Dragon of kidnapping and rape. Her statement gave weight to the defense since she admitted taking the poison herself and keeping it a secret for six hours. However, the statement also contained Stephenson’s claim that he “could get away with this monstrous crime because ‘I am the law in Indiana’” (243), a claim widely reported by the press. Oberholtzer’s death galvanized the protest movement in a way O’Donnell and Dale had failed to achieve.

Evans scrambled to contain the damage. The hypocrisy of the Klan’s high-profile moralizers—Stephenson, Barr, and Caleb Ridley, its national preacher arrested for drunk driving—began to show. With Klan political influence at an all-time high—its most recent legislative goal was to outlaw the teaching of evolution—Evans tried to disassociate Stephenson from the Klan altogether. He planned a massive rally in Washington, DC, the same day Stephenson’s trial was set to begin.