After Stephenson’s conviction, people were leaving the Klan by the thousands. Across the country, other Klansmen were being charged with cases of sexual assault. The rising mountain of scandals had led to an organizational collapse. Some states and politicians started making Klan activity illegal.

In prison, Stephenson remained hopeful of receiving a pardon. He believed his stockpile of political secrets would give him the necessary leverage to nudge the governor. At the same time, Will Remy was still doing everything he could to expose the full extent of political corruption the Klan was responsible for. In October of 1926, he brought Stephenson before a grand jury.

Stephenson’s ammunition would not save him, however. After filing for parole, the governor refused his request, and Stephenson aimed to repay the betrayal. He asked his business partner to give Will Remy two black boxes that contained papers, gifts, and checks tracing the Klan’s history of political corruption. Governor Jackson, Mayor Duvall, and many other politicians were indicted on bribery charges. At Jackson’s trial, Stephenson acted as the star witness and willingly gave complete accounts of his bribery schemes. Governor Jackson got off on a technicality.

In a different place, another court case was leading to an outpour of more revelations. Klansmen were coming forward and testifying about the racial violence and murders that they had done and witnessed under direct orders from the Klan. Before this, many people defended the Klan as a harmless and purely ideological brotherhood. Now, that image was dissolving.

Still, while the rule of the Klan had ended, the racial violence in America would prove a different story. In 1930, a mob in Indiana gleefully murdered two innocent Black teenagers and tortured another. There was outrage, but ultimately the grand jury refused to issue any indictments.