Subject: Grand Dragon: D.C. Stephenson and the Ku Klux Klan in Indiana._(boo...
Date: 10-FEB-1998 10:23:10
From: Mailer-Daemon@epub.med.iacnet.com
To: amarsh@flash.net

____________________________________________________________________________
Database: Expanded Academic Index Backfile
Key Words: d.c. stephenson
Library: Somerville Public Library
Holdings: 7 years          Held at main library only    Magazine
____________________________________________________________________________


   Source:  Publishers Weekly, May 17, 1991 v238 n22 p51(1).

    Title:  Grand Dragon: D.C. Stephenson and the Ku Klux Klan in
            Indiana._(book reviews)

 Subjects:  Books - Reviews
   People:  Lutholtz, M. William
Rev Grade:  B

  Magazine Collection:  60A5528
  Business Collection:  58X4131
Electronic Collection:  A10827491
                   RN:  A10827491


Full Text COPYRIGHT Cahners Publishing Co. 1991

The Ku Klux Klan, thought to be moribund at the end of the 19th century,
revived after WW I.  It was especially strong in Indiana, where it exploited
prejudices against Catholics, Jews and the foreign-born.  In 1920 David Curtis
Stephenson, an itinerant printer and salesman, arrived in the Hoosier State
and within three years had become the leader of the Klan not only in Indiana,
where an estimated 30% of the white males were members, but in 22 other states
as well.  In 1925 he was convicted of second-degree murder, following the
kidnapping, rape and mutilation of a woman he frequently escorted, Madge
Oberholtzer, who committed suicide after the attack.  Freelancer Lutholtz is
especially successful in recreating the atmosphere of Indiana in the 1920s and
in tracing the rise of Stephenson's enormous political power.  The rape case,
however, has been covered in many books and the author's conjecture that the
Grand Dragon may have been framed is not convincing.  Photos.  (July)

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