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

by Timothy Egan

In politics, the Old Man always said, the only sure way to win an election was with suitcases of “cold, hard cash,” as he’d shown with his bribe attempt in the mayor’s race. He’d spent a quarter of a million dollars getting Jackson the governor’s seat. The same held true in a criminal trial. Throughout October and into November, Stephenson was moving money around the jailhouse. He bribed Sheriff Gooding, giving him enough to pay off the mortgage on his Noblesville house. To show his gratitude, the county’s top cop not only kept the good food coming to the man on trial for murder but also allowed anyone inside his prisoner wanted to see. Women spent the night with him, sharing his fine liquor and home-cooked suppers. While Niblack of the Times had refused the Grand Dragon’s hundred-dollar bill, Stephenson managed to pay off other reporters. It showed in coverage that highlighted the doubts his legal team had raised thus far. But more needed to be done. He had to bring down the sainted Madge. Stephenson planted stories of her personal life, hoping one would be messy enough to send her voice back to the grave. He told people she was part of a plot by his Klan rival, Evans. She was a flapper, a party girl, a lush, begging for Steve’s affections. The poisoning was a clumsy attempt to give herself an abortion.