The Stephenson Jury Delivers Its Verdict

Concluding the trial of D. C. Stephenson and his bodyguards, Earl Gentry and Earl Klinck. . . 

With the jury finally selected, the trial began in earnest. Emotions were running so high that Hamilton County Sheriff Charles Gooding took to sitting behind the defendants to ensure their safety, something he’d never done before.

Although nothing violent took place in the courtroom, sparks did fly when prosecuting attorney Ralph Kane called one defense witness a liar. The man warned Kane he’d better not say that “on the street.”

Coincidentally, Kane showed up the following day sporting a black eye. (He claimed he’d acquired it by falling on his basement stairs. Hmmm.)

My impression from reading the newspaper accounts is that there were a LOT of liars at that trial.

Madge Oberholtzer’s dying declaration stated that she’d been introduced to Stephenson at a banquet that January. She spoke of dining with him twice after that and described a casual friendship with a man whose power, influence and respectful conduct had attracted her.

The defense produced several witnesses who claimed Oberholtzer had known Stephenson longer than that and that their relationship was far more “affectionate.”

They portrayed Oberholtzer, who lived with her parents and worked for the Young People’s Reading Circle of Indiana, as a party girl with a fondness for gin. (This was the middle of Prohibition, but you’d never have known it.)

Considerable time was spent quizzing medical personnel about the effects of bichloride of mercury, the poison Oberholtzer had swallowed.

That was because the question before the jury was not whether Stephenson was responsible for Oberholtzer’s injuries (that seems to have been an established fact,) but rather whether her death was due to poison, or an infection caused by her injuries.

The former meant she was a suicide, which let Stephenson off the hook. The latter made him guilty of murder.

The defense implied that Oberholtzer had accompanied Stephenson and Gentry of her own free will, and suggested there were occasions when she could have escaped and asked for help if that weren’t true.

Maybe . . .  if she hadn’t been dizzy from the liquor (possibly drugged) they’d forced on her, didn’t know Stephenson and Gentry were armed, or had any idea who in law enforcement she could trust.

She was right to be wary of the law. Four Marion County deputy sheriffs testified that Klinck, a deputy sheriff himself, was transporting prisoners to the State Penal Farm at the time he was said to have taken Oberholtzer home.

The prosecution brought in those prisoners and the clerks responsible for checking them in at the prison. They all denied knowing Klinck.

Moreover, as Kane pointed out, most women planning an overnight trip would take cosmetics, toiletries and a change of clothes. Oberholtzer had none of those.

The case went to the jury on Nov. 14. They were instructed to render a verdict of either first degree murder, second degree murder, manslaughter or acquittal. (Why the defendants weren’t also charged with kidnapping and assault is a mystery to me.)

It took about five and a half hours to return a verdict of second degree murder for  Stephenson. Gentry and Klinck were acquitted and got off scot-free.

Following Stephenson’s conviction, Klan membership dropped like a rock. People who’d fallen for the organization’s propaganda promoting patriotism and Christian (i.e. Protestant) values began to realize they’d been exploited by a corrupt sexual predator who was more interested in amassing unlimited power and a personal fortune than in protecting “100% Americans” from the wave of Catholic immigrants flooding into the country at that time.

I printed the names of the 12 ordinary Hamilton County residents on the jury in the previous column because they’re the real heroes here. They dared to stand up to the man who declared himself “the law in Indiana,” and deliver an impartial verdict based on facts, not fear. They deserve to be remembered.

Thanks to them, the Klan — at least the 1920s version — essentially died here. THAT’S the association with the KKK for which this county should be remembered.

Paula Dunn’s From Time to Thyme column appears on Wednesdays in The Times. Contact her at younggardenerfriend@gmail.com