Madge Augustine Oberholtzer (10 November 1896 – 14 April 1925 )
was an American schoolteacher who was born in Clay City, Indiana
, grew up in Fulton County, Indiana , and worked in an Indiana
state program to combat illiteracy . She was a key figure in the
downfall of the 1920s Ku Klux Klan Events of the case On 15
March 1925 , David Curtiss Stephenson , a powerful political
figure (then a member of the Republican Party , earlier a member
of the Democratic Party , and “Grand Dragon” (state leader) of
the Ku Klux Klan, kidnapped Oberholtzer after enticing her from
her parents' home to his. Stephenson took her onto his private
train car and forced her to drink. He then raped her while the
train went towards Chicago. Stephenson also chewed and bit
Oberholtzer all over her body. A doctor who examined her later
on said that these injuries and the resulting infection could
have itself been fatal. One historian described her condition as
akin to having been “chewed by a cannibal”. On the second day of
her ordeal in