Steve’s pilot and wingman, Court Asher, always keen to a new con, had a more cynical explanation for the Klan’s takeover of the Heartland and beyond. No man is a hero to his own valet, as the saying goes. But Asher marveled at his boss’s talent for mass manipulation. “Billy Sunday was a great spellbinder. Steve was a better one.” He was particularly amazed at how many preachers he’d been able to fool, concluding that men of God were easy marks. “Sometimes we’d leave a wild party, slip into the robes, and go into church to pray with a bunch of new Klansmen,” he said. “Stephenson would kneel
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