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

One Sunday evening, an intoxicated Stephenson summoned Oberholtzer to his compound on “urgent business.” Once there, Stephenson forced her to drink, and when she tried to get away, he ordered her to accompany him to Chicago. Oberholtzer was kidnapped at gunpoint and forced onto a train at midnight. In a private sleeping car, Stephenson raped her, chewing on her flesh until she passed out.

They disembarked in Hammond, Indiana, where Stephenson checked them into a hotel under assumed names. Desperate to communicate with her mother, she begged Stephenson to let her send a telegram. He consented, but he dictated the message—“Everything’s fine.” When he fell asleep, Oberholtzer took his gun but realized that killing him would only turn the wheels of justice against her. She considered taking her own life, and when Stephenson’s chauffeur took her to a pharmacy for her wounds, she bought poison and ingested it in the hotel room. When she refused to go to the hospital (posing as his wife), they headed back to Indianapolis. Oberholtzer was dying, and she begged to be taken to a hospital, realizing that suicide was a mistake. Back at his compound, Stephenson ordered Oberholtzer to marry him. She refused, and when her screams woke Stephenson’s neighbors, his chauffeur drove her back home and left her there.