“It was the damnedest factor I ever noticed,” says the aide to the nice man, “how this man might unfold the bunk and make the hicks eat it up.” Readers might be forgiven for pondering this quote refers to Donald Trump, circa 2023, however in actual fact it’s spoken by Court docket Asher, a strongman and bootlegger “all the time eager to a brand new con,” describing his boss, DC “Steve” Stephenson, Grand Dragon of the Indiana Ku Klux Klan in 1923.
Like Trump, Stephenson aspired to be President, although the latter is now all however forgotten, together with the thousands and thousands of American Klansman he impressed within the first half of the Roaring Twenties. Of this mass amnesia, Timothy Egan writes in A Fever within the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan’s Plot to Take Over America, and the Girl Who Stopped Them, “When the grandchildren of those main residents later found hoods within the attic, or membership lists that included their kin, they may not fathom how such a factor had come to move.” Egan’s guide explains all of it.
The bold Stephenson’s central epiphany was “he might make far more cash from the renewable hate of on a regular basis white individuals than he might ever make as an sincere businessman or a member of Congress.” A drifter and con man from Texas, he winds up in Evansville, Indiana, simply throughout the border from Kentucky, however one in all Egan’s main issues is to point out that within the Nineteen Twenties, the true energy of the Klan was not within the South however within the “Heartland” of the guide’s title, and within the West as nicely: California, Colorado, and Oregon all show their justifiable share of racism and violence.
The primary half of the guide charts Stephenson’s rise within the Klan, so that he’s second solely in energy to the Imperial Wizard, a dentist from Dallas named Hiram Wesley Evans. The hypocrisy of the Klan is gorgeous, particularly as it’s practiced by Stephenson. Whereas the “fraternal order” claims to be the nice protector of white womanhood, Stephenson is a serial rapist who particularly delights in biting his victims till they bleed. He will get away with this as a result of, as he tells everybody, because of his masterful manipulation of state and native politicians, “I’m the legislation.”
Lastly, nevertheless, he reaches too far. Madge Oberholtzer, a younger lady who lives on the identical road in Stephenson’s prosperous Indianapolis suburb, will get to know Stephenson in an effort to put in writing a guide about vitamin for Indiana’s colleges. By all accounts — besides these of Stephenson and his cronies — the connection is chaste, with Madge cautious of “the Previous Man,” however hopeful that he might help advance her profession.
However Stephenson will not be occupied with Madge’s ideas on vitamin. As an alternative, he and two henchman kidnap her at gunpoint then stow her on the night time prepare to Chicago, the place Stephenson beats and rapes her and bites her so savagely that she later develops sepsis. Stephenson and his crew deboard the prepare simply earlier than it crosses the Illinois state line, the place they proceed to carry her captive till, in desperation, she swallows six tablets of bichloride of mercury, “a extremely poisonous poison and family disinfectant.” Finally, she is returned to her mother and father’ dwelling, however it’s clear the injury has been accomplished: she is dying a gradual, painful demise. Earlier than she dies, although, she provides an in depth witness assertion, which is later used towards Stephenson in courtroom.
The trial itself looks like one thing out of a film, with the suave but shady protection lawyer up towards the nervous however scrupulously sincere prosecutor. These pages might go on a bit lengthy, particularly because the guide’s title, and the truth that Stephenson is now unremembered, sign the decision. However, after all of the horror “Steve” has inflicted on those that fought towards him, it’s satisfying to see his comeuppance.
“Democracy was a fragile factor, secure and regular till it was damaged and trampled,” Egan writes, summarizing the aftermath of Stephenson’s 4 years of corruption and cruelty. “A person who didn’t care about shattering each conference, after which discovered new methods to vandalize the contract that allowed free individuals to control themselves, might do unthinkable injury.” Once more, the similarity to the reign of Donald Trump is unmistakable, and within the guide’s epilogue, Egan lastly comes out and says what’s been apparent all alongside: “What if the leaders of the Nineteen Twenties Klan didn’t drive public sentiment, however rode it? A vein of hatred was all the time there for the tapping. It’s there nonetheless, and explains a lot of the insanity threatening American life 100 years after Stephenson made a mockery of the ethical rules of the Heartland.”
Within the late summer time of 2023, we’ve got no manner of realizing whether or not David C. Stephenson’s destiny presages the autumn of Trump, or will function a counterexample that good triumphs over evil. We are able to solely hope that after once more our fellow residents will come to their senses earlier than it’s too late.
This evaluate initially appeared within the California Overview of Books.
