Events of The Case
In 1924, Oberholtzer attended a dinner at the Governor's mansion. She met David Curtiss Stephenson, who quickly invited her out. She dated Stephenson twice. On their second date, he revealed that he was Grand Dragon (state leader) of the Indiana Branch of the Ku Klux Klan. Oberholtzer ended the relationship.
On March 27, 1925, Stephenson invited her to his mansion to discuss a job. When she arrived, he overpowered her and forced her to drink whiskey until she became ill. Two of his bodyguards carried her to his car, where she fainted. She awoke on Stephenson's private train on its way to Chicago. He raped her several times, wounding her with bites, and she passed out.
In Hammond, Indiana, Oberholtzer convinced Stephenson to let her go to a drug store to purchase feminine hygiene items. Despite his bodyguards, she purchased mercuric chloride tablets and swallowed six of the potentially poisonous pills. She had earlier threatened Stephenson, saying, “The law will get their hands on you!” He laughed and replied, “I am the law in Indiana.” Stephenson's Klan connections gave him tremendous political power.
That night Oberholtzer began vomiting blood. When she had not recovered by the next day, Stephenson's bodyguards drove her home to Indianapolis. Approached by a boarder who asked what was going on, one of the bodyguards said that Oberholtzer had been in a car accident.
Her parents immediately called a doctor, but there was little he could do to save her. On March 28, she recounted what Stephenson had done in a deathbed statement. Madge Oberholtzer died on April 14, 1925 from a staph infection, combined with kidney failure from the mercury poisoning. She was buried in Memorial Park Cemetery in Indianapolis.
Read more about this topic: Madge Oberholtzer
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