Horror in Honolulu: Part Two

It's 1932, and Thalia Massie's husband, Tommie, and mother, Grace, are getting frustrated with what they see as the failings of the Hawaiian justice system. Soon they decide to take matters into their own hands. When events take a deadly turn, will Tommie and Grace's connections help them evade punishment? Or will Hawai‘i itself suffer the consequences of these visitors' actions?

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You are listening to History on Trial, a production of
iHeart Podcasts. Listener Discretion advised, Hello, History on Trial listener.
This is the second part of a two part series.
If you haven't listened to part one yet, you'll want
to begin there. Thank you for listening. The Fortescue family

(00:26):
was used to getting away with things. When Grace Hubbard
Bell later Grace Fordescue was a teenager, she and her
friends roller skated down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, d C.
Completely blocking traffic. Another time, she stole a trolley car.
While others might call these actions criminal, Grace and her

(00:46):
family called them pranks, and thanks to her family connections.
Grace's maternal grandfather, Gardner Hubbard, had founded Bell Telephone alongside
Grace's father's cousin, Alexander Graham Bell, the police always looked
the other way. Grace's future husband, Rolli, was just as mischievous.

(01:06):
While a student at Yale, Rolly fired a gun near
the head of one of his fraternity brothers. Surprisingly, no
one else but Rolly thought this was funny. Rolly was expelled,
but thanks to his family connections, Roly was a Roosevelt.
He was soon admitted to the University of Pennsylvania. Grace
and Rolly passed their unique senses of humor down to

(01:28):
their daughters, and in nineteen twenty seven, their eldest daughter, Thalia,
came up with the best joke of them all. Thaalia's
future husband, Tommy Massey, was visiting the Fortescues on Long
Island that summer, and the lovebirds decided to go see
a movie. In the nineteen twenties, parents attending movies would
leave their babies in theater lobbies. If a baby cried,

(01:51):
an usher would come fetch the parents. Seeing all these
abandoned babies, Tommy and Thalia thought of how absolutely hilarious
it would be to hide one of these babies, making
its parents think it had been kidnapped. If you're not laughing,
neither were the babies distraught parents, who reported the kidnapping
to the police. The police quickly found the baby and

(02:13):
arrested Thalia and Tommy. Surely there would be consequences this time,
but later that night, a judge who knew Thalia's family
dismissed the case, calling Thalia and Tommy's crime only a
quote parlor trick, stealing trolley's, shooting guns kidnapping infants. It
seemed that there was nothing the Fordescue family couldn't get

(02:36):
away with. But in January nineteen thirty two, Grace Fordescue
would test the limits of just how far the law
would stretch to accommodate a well connected white woman. Grace
would find out whether a Fordescue could get away with murder.
Welcome to history on trial. I'm your host, Mira Hayward.

(02:58):
This week the Territory of Hawaii v. Grace Fordescue at al.
When Thalia Massey's rape case ended in a mistrial in
December nineteen thirty one, Admiral Yates Sterling, commandant of the
United States Navy's fourteenth District, thought he knew just who
to blame. I was informed reliably that the vote of

(03:20):
the jury began and remained to the end. Sterling later
wrote seven for not guilty and five for guilty. The
exact proportion of yellow and brown to whites on the jury.
Sterling was not wrong about the proportions, but he was
wrong about race contributing to the decision. There had, in
fact been only one white person on the jury, and

(03:43):
that man had voted to acquit every time the jurors
had never been split along racial lines. The truth didn't
matter to Sterling or to many others. It hadn't mattered
when they had pushed for the conviction of the five
defendants who were obviously innocent, and it didn't matter now.
What mattered was that no one was being punished for

(04:04):
the alleged assault of a white woman. In the weeks
immediately following the mistrial, unrest rippled through Honolulu. On December twelfth,
the Honolulu Times published an article titled the Shame of Honolulu,
which claimed that women were at quote risk of being
assaulted and foully raped by gangs of lust mad youths,

(04:26):
a phrase which echoed prosecutor Griffith White's description of the
defendants as quote lust sodden beasts. The Times mailed a
copy to every sailor at Pearl Harbor. That night, gangs
of armed navy men took to the streets, starting fights
at random. But not all the violence was random. A
group of sailors kidnapped Horace Ida, one of the defendants

(04:49):
Indhlia's trial, at gunpoint. They took Horace to a remote
location and demanded a confession. When Horace refused, they beat
him mercilessly using their belts and guns. The beating only
stopped when Horace pretended to be unconscious. While many condemned
the kidnapping, Hawaii, Chinese news questioned if the kidnappers quote

(05:12):
stupid mob mind accorded with the quote the American principle
that a man is innocent until he has been proved guilty.
Many others celebrated it. Admiral Sterling said that the sailors
had shown restraint in not killing Horace, who Sterling claimed
had confessed Horace, of course, had done no such thing.

(05:33):
The same day that Horace Do was kidnapped, Hawaii became
connected to the United States by radio for the first time.
The Massy story was quickly picked up by mainland news services.
The Navy, hearing reports of these so called epidemic levels
of crime in Hawaii, started to question if they ought
to go forward with a scheduled Pacific Fleet exercise, which

(05:53):
would have brought thousands of navymen and their wives to Hawaii.
In February, it was estimated that the fleet's it would
bring Honulou's merchants more than six million dollars in revenue
or one hundred and thirty five million dollars in today's money.
The territorial government, including Governor Lawrence Judd, desperately wanted that payday.

(06:13):
They hoped that convicting the five defendants in a second
trial would reassure the Navy, but that conviction was looking
less and less likely. On December twenty ninth, Chief of
Detectives John Macintosh held a press conference on the status
of the investigation and revealed that no new evidence had
turned up. Grace Fordescue, already furious over gossip about her

(06:35):
daughter which insinuated that Thalia had made the whole thing up,
was disturbed by Mackintosh's announcement. Under Hawaii law, if defendants
were not convicted after two trials, the charges against them
would be dismissed. Grace was determined not to let this happen,
so she and her son in law, Tommy Massey started

(06:55):
to think about how they might uncover some evidence of
their own. The navyman's kidnapping of Horace Da provided the
spark of inspiration, but Tommy heard from a lawyer that
a confession from a man covered in cuts and bruises
wouldn't cut it in court. Grace and Tommy would just
need to use threats. Of the five defendants, they thought

(07:16):
Joe Kahahai most likely to cave under pressure. But Joe
was a big man six feet tall and heavily muscled,
a former football star and amateur boxer, so Tommy and
Grace decided to enlist helpers. Machinist's mate albert O Jones,
or a deacon as everyone knew them, was their first call.

(07:36):
The Navy had sent Deacon to protect Salia after the
trial while Tommy went out on c duty again. Deacon
didn't like Thalia, who he said had quote the personality
of the bottom of your big toe, but he admired Grace,
who he called a quote tough old gal. Deacon, who
claimed to have participated in Horace DA's kidnapping, was only

(07:56):
too happy to join. Tommy and Grace's plan suggested bringing
on Fireman for his class Edward j Lord, too, another
of Eda's kidnappers. The foursome quickly settled on a plan.
Joe reported to his probation officer at the courthouse. Every
morning at eight am, the kidnappers would wait outside for
him and then use a falsified official summons to get

(08:18):
Joe into their car. Joe had served under a major
named Ross in the National Guard. Now Ross was helping
supervise the Guard's territorial police. The summons could be from Ross,
the kidnappers decided. Grace wrote out the text of the
summons on a piece of paper, and then, to make
things look more official, she pasted a newspaper clipping onto

(08:38):
the sheet. Tommy cut the seal off his Chemical Warfare
School diploma and added that too, there is something so
revealing about the ugly arts and crafts childishness of their forgery.
To me, it's a symbol of how lightly, almost gleefully,
they considered kidnapping a man. On Friday, January eight, Joe

(08:58):
Kahaa and his cousin Eddie Ulie set out for the courthouse.
Joe always tried to be punctual for his probation meetings
and to dress well. Even though Joe knew the charges
against him were false, His father, Joseph Senior, had encouraged
Joe to find the silver lining. These probation meetings meant structure,
and structure could be good for a restless young man.

(09:20):
Joe had just turned twenty two and his future stretched
before him. After a brief check in with William Dixon,
Joe's probation officer. Joe and Eddie headed out into the sunshine.
Eddie noticed a white woman pointing at Joe. It was
Grace Fordescue, signaling Deacon Jones, this was their man. Deacon

(09:41):
hurried after Joe. When Joe and Eddie got close to
the curb, Deacon grabbed Joe's arm and pulled him toward
a car idling at the curb. Tommy Massey sat at
the wheel disguised as a chauffeur. Deacon Wade the summons
in front of Joe's face, saying, get in the car.
Major Ross wants to see you. Joe got in the
back seat and waived for Eddie to join him, but

(10:02):
Deacon shoved Eddie away, flung himself into the back beside Joe,
and slammed the door. The car sped off. Eddie, stunned,
was immediately suspicious. Major Ross and the rest of the
Territorial police were based just across the street. There was
no reason to send a car for Joe with a
pit in his stomach. Eddie remembered how Horace da had

(10:23):
been kidnapped the month before. He sprinted into the courthouse
building and reported that his cousin had been taken. Two
hours later, at ten twenty am, Officer Thomas Kakua and
Detective George Harbottle, one of the detectives who had first
reported to Thalia Massey's house on the night of the
alleged assault, were chatting on the side of Wylai Avenue

(10:44):
when they saw a blue Buick drive by a bee on.
The lookout alert for a blue Buick thought to be
involved in the kidnapping of Joe Caabai had just blared
out of Harbottle's patrol car radio. The two officers stared
hard at the car, noticing that one of the rear
window shapes was pulled down. What were the occupants hiding?
Kikua and Harbottle set off in pursuit, following the buick

(11:07):
towards the coast near Hanama Bay. Harbottle pulled past the buick,
giving Kikua a chance to glance into the rear seat.
What the officer saw there horrified him. Harbottle signaled the
Buick's driver, a grayhaired white woman, to pull over. Instead,
she sped off after pulling a passing patrol car into

(11:28):
the chase. Harbottle managed to force the buick off the road.
The waves of the bay crashed against the shore. As
Harbottle approached, the buick gun drawn and ordered its occupants
to get out. The driver, grace Fordescue, and the passenger,
Tommy Massey, slowly left the car. Edward Lord was seated
in the back. As he swung the rear door open.

(11:50):
What Officer Kaikua had seen through the window became visible
to Harbottle, a bundle of white sheets, a human leg
poking out from the bottom. They had found Joe Cahahaai.
On Saturday, January tenth, Joe Kahavay's body was laid out
at the n Uannu Funeral parlor. The twenty two year old,

(12:12):
so vibrant in life, was silent and still in death.
His father, Joseph Cahahavai, Senor, and his mother Esther and
stepfather Pascual Anido sat by Joe's body all night as
thousands of mourners came to pay their respects. One of
those mourners was David Kama, a Hawaiian man. Four years earlier,

(12:34):
David's brother, William, a police officer, had been murdered by
an American soldier David knew better than most what Joe's
family was experiencing. With tears streaming down his face, David
spoke to Joe, saying, poor Cahahaai. These Howleyes murdered you
in cold blood. They did the same thing to my
poor brother. The Howleies shoot and kill us Hawaiians. We

(12:57):
don't shoot Howley's, but they treat us like this. Never mind,
the truth will come out. You were not wrong. If
you were, they would not catch these murderers. That is
why they were caught. Thank god they were caught. Poor boy,
God will keep you. We will do the rest. David

(13:18):
Comma was right about catching the murderers. Grace Fordescue, Tommy Massey,
Edward Lord, and Deacon Jones were all in custody. But
as for the rest, that was not so straightforward. The
killers had been charged with murder and the evidence seemed conclusive,
but there was the Navy to contend with. Only hours
after the murder, Admiral Yates Sterling showed up at police

(13:41):
headquarters and demanded custody of the prisoners. Sterling's demand had
no legal grounds. A recent agreement between the Navy and
the territorial government gave the civil authorities jurisdiction over murder cases,
no matter if the suspects were military or civilian, But
the territorial government was afraid of further upsetting the Navy.
Attorney General Harry Hewitt said he would agree to Sterling's

(14:04):
request on the condition that the Navy gave them access
to the suspects at any time. Sterling agreed to Hewitt's
terms and transferred the prisoners to the USS Alton, a
decommissioned ship used as a hotel for dignitaries visiting Pearl Harbor. There,
the four killers lived in luxury. At the same time,
the four surviving defendants from the first trial, horas Ida

(14:27):
Ben Ahaquello, David Takai, and Henry Chang sat in the
city jail. The police had told the men that the
jail was the only place they could protect them and
preserve order. Unlike the Navy's prisoners, who had meals cooked
for them by the officer's mess the men in the
city jail were told that their families would have to
bring food for them if they wanted to eat, and

(14:49):
the police weren't shy about exploiting the men's vulnerability. They
soon began conducting interrogations, trying to get the men to
turn on one another and give evidence in the rape.
On January twentieth, twelve days after Joe's death, Officer D. W.
Watson interrogated Ben Ahaquelo, telling him quote, all the howlies

(15:10):
on the mainland are blaming the Hawaiians. Ben, and these
people that killed Joe, blame you, fellows. They got one
Hawaiian and Ben, you are going to be next. They're
going to get you. Joe got off easy. They just
shot him. The next time, Ben, they're going to torture you, fellows.
It's gonna be hell. But even under this enormous pressure,

(15:34):
which each of the men faced in turn, they all
continued to swear their innocence. On board the USS Alton,
Flowers sent by supporters filled the decks, admiring letters poured
in from across the country congratulating the killers. It's hard
to understand this, but, as David Stannard writes in his
book on the case, Honor Killing, quote the unwritten law,

(15:58):
the belief that a man has a right to kill
another man who has assaulted his wife was still widely
subscribed to by Americans, especially when the rape victim was
white and the rapist was not. Some people called this
honor killing, others called it lynching, and oftentimes the victims,

(16:20):
like Joe Kahai, were only suspected of a crime, not
proven to be guilty. This kind of killing was not
just about individual justice. It was also about maintaining a
white supremacist power structure through a campaign of terror and violence.
Many white Americans, if they thought about Hawaii at all,

(16:41):
had thought about it as an idealized, exotic paradise where
friendly Native Hawaiians obediently served white tourists. But now these
same white Americans saw the territory as a place in
need of racial subjugation, thanks to articles like the one
in Time magazine on jail Danuary eighteenth, which called Hawaii

(17:02):
quote a restless purgatory of murder and race hatred fueled
by quote the lust of mixed breeds for white women.
Editorials throughout the country supported Joe's killers. They also advocated
for a crackdown on Hawaii, arguing that its territorial government
was too much in thrall to native Hawaiians and Asians.

(17:25):
This was good news for Navy officials like Admiral Sterling,
who had long called for military control of the territory,
but it was a nightmare to Hawaii's Hawley elite, who
liked the current status quo. Responding to the calls for
martial law or a government reorganization, one territorial senator said, quote,
we must show that we need no legislation in Washington.

(17:47):
We must show that we can clean up our own situation.
To that end, the territorial legislature passed two new bills,
one which made rape a capital offense and another that
removed the corroborating evidence requirement for rape convictions. Politicians hoped
that this would stave off criticism of them being too
soft on crime, But there was one crime that many

(18:09):
prominent Howleyes did not want punished, and that, of course,
was the killing of Jo kah By. The pressure that
these power brokers exerted became clear in the grand jury
hearings in late January, when, despite the obvious case against
Joe's killers, the predominantly white grand jury initially voted nine
to twelve not to indict. The case could have ended there,

(18:34):
but Judge Albert M. Christie refused to accept the jury's
report and told them to deliberate, again reminding them that
it didn't matter quote whether from some inner feeling of
your own, you might have committed the same crime. But
it was not just sympathy blocking the indictment. Many of
the jurors were clearly frightened of the consequences. When jury

(18:54):
even asked Judge Christie if quote, in case the grand
jury is discharged, has any member of the jury the
right to show the records as to how he stood
as a protection for himself and the community in which
he lives. It was only on the second day of deliberations,
after the jurors on editorial in the Honolulu Star Bulletin,
which argued that indictment was inevitable given the evidence, that

(19:18):
the grand jury finally voted to indict. Even then, the
vote was only twelve to eight and several jurors resigned
in anger. Grace Fordescue, Tommy Massey, Edward Lord, and Deacon
Jones would be tried for the murder of Joe Kahahabai,
but many worried if the grand jury had been this difficult,

(19:40):
what would happen at trial. Grace Fordescue, for one, felt
confident about the trial. She still seemed to be treating
this as one of the Fordescue family's famous pranks. In
her first official interview, given to The New York Times
on February seventh, the report described her as joking and

(20:01):
laughing with Tommy Deacon and Edward. Perhaps Grace was right
to relax. Her family connections had always come through for her,
and this time was no exception. Not long after the indictment,
Grace's brother in law managed to recruit one of the
most famous lawyers in America, Clarence Darrow. We've met Clarence

(20:23):
Darrow before in our episode about the Leopold and Loeb trial.
In that case, Darrow had defended unsympathetic wealthy clients on
a murder charge. But there was a major difference between
that trial and this one. This time, the murder victim
wasn't white. Clarence Darrow had long thought of himself as
a champion for racial equality. How could he justify defending

(20:45):
the killers of Joe Cahavai. But as in the Leopold
and Loeb trial, Darrow had a compelling reason to join
the Fordescue case. Money. The Great Depression had wiped out
the Darrow family's coffers after two exhausting years touring the
country as a speaker, Darrow had managed to make enough
money to pay off his adult son's debts, but he

(21:05):
and his wife Ruby were barely keeping themselves afloat. He
told grace Fordescue that he required forty thousand dollars in
payment plus expenses for context Babe. Ruth's salary in nineteen
thirty two was only seventy five thousand dollars. Grace Fordescue,
despite her aristocratic pretensions, had no money of her own,

(21:26):
but fortunately she had dozens of wealthy friends, all eager
to help her out, not to mention the enlisted men
at Pearl Harbor who collected seven thousand dollars for her.
Soon enough, the money was raised and Darrow came on board.
He then immediately tried to back out, stung by his
friend's fury at his decision, But in the end Darrow

(21:47):
wanted the money and he wanted to see Hawaii. George S. Leisure,
a New York attorney and darrow superfan, agreed to join
the case for free in exchange for a chance to
work with his hero. Leisure and Darrow would be facing
John Kelly, the recently appointed Honolulu City and County Attorney.
The forty six year old Kelly, a native Montanan, was

(22:10):
a brilliant, tenacious lawyer, but this would be his first
case in his new role and it would not be
an easy one. Kelly was glad to have the assistance
of Barry Ulrich. Ulrich had been hired by the Honolulu
Chamber of Commerce to assist Kelly with the retrial of
Thalia Massey's alleged rapists. When the Chamber realized that the
murder trial would come first, they pulled their funding for Ulrich,

(22:32):
but Ulrich decided to stay on in an unofficial, unpaid capacity.
Darrow Leisure, Ulrich, and Kelly would be battling in the
court room of Judge Charles S. Davis. After the grand
jury proceedings. The defense had filed claims of bias against
Judge Christie. Christie strenuously denied any bias, but said that
in order to prevent any appearance of impropriety in the

(22:54):
upcoming trial, he would step aside. The forty two year
old Davis was his replacement. On April fourth, jury selection began.
The lawyers immediately encountered a hurdle. No one wanted to
serve on the jury. Aware of the stakes this case
had for Hawaii, and concerned about the impact the wrong
verdict might have on their lives, many jurors tried to

(23:17):
get out of serving by claiming to have fixed opinions
on the case. Fed up after hearing this excuse repeatedly,
Clarence Darrow asked one juror just when he had formed
his fixed opinion night before last, right after being summoned.
The juror replied. Finally, after seven days of jury selection,
a panel was formed. To be more precise, it was

(23:39):
actually more like three and a half days. Throughout the
trial court would adjourn at twelve each day, out of
consideration for the seventy five year old Clarence Darrow's well being. Darrow,
out of consideration for this consideration, spent most afternoons on
the beach. On April eleventh, John Kelly delivered the prosecution's
opening argument. Watching Kelly's adroit presentation, in which he declared

(24:03):
that the crime was premeditated and discussed the evidence you
would use to prove this, you wouldn't have guessed that
the prosecutor was panicking, But Kelly had recently received bad
news when he and Darrow had first met in late March.
Darrow had rejected the suggestion that he was considering an
insanity defense, but on April eighth, Kelly read in The

(24:24):
New York Times that Darrow had hired two famous psychiatrists
to testify. Kelly was furious with himself for falling for
Darrow's charade and was scrambling to find experts of his
own who could get to Hawaii in time. For now,
all Kelly could do was present the best case he had. Fortunately,
for him, that case was a very good one. Kelly's

(24:46):
first witnesses, including Joe's cousin Eddie Ulie, and various police
officers who had arrested the defendants, laid out the timeline
of the abduction, murder, and attempted disposal of Joe's body.
Kelly used these witnesses to bring in a plethora of exhibits.
There were the pictures of grace Fordescue's bedroom with the

(25:07):
sheets missing from the bed and the sheets found wrapped
around Joe's body which were missing, laundry tags, and the
laundry tags a prison matron had found in grace Fordescue's
coat pocket. There was the coil of rope found in
Grace's house, which had a unique purple strand interlaced in it,
and then the identical rope found around Joe's body, And

(25:29):
then there was the gun. The murder weapon had not
been found and never would be. Thirty years later, Ballia's
younger sister, Helene would tell a reporter, Peter Van Slingerland,
that she'd helped hide the gun, throwing it into a
pool of quicksand at an out of the way beach.
So John Kelly had to make do with what he had.
A thirty two caliber bullet casing and the magazine clip

(25:51):
for a thirty two caliber automatic with one bullet missing,
both found on Deacon Jones after his arrest. The clip
had been and the fake summons used to lure Joe
into the car. At trial, Kelly produced thirty two caliber
slug taken from Joe's body and showed that it fit
perfectly into the clip. Throughout the course of three days

(26:14):
and twenty five witnesses, the prosecution meticulously painted a picture
of the crime. After abducting Joe from outside the courthouse,
the defendants had driven him to Grace Fordescu's house, where
they'd interrogated him at gunpoint. At some point one of
them shot him. The lack of injuries on Joe's body
and the angle of his bullet wound. City and County

(26:35):
physician doctor Robert B. Faus testified, indicated that there had
been no struggle and that Joe had been sitting when
he was shot. Then the defendants had wrapped Joe's body
in the sheets from Grace's bed and driven him towards
the coastline, where they planned to dump his body into
the sea. With his last witness, Kelly, imbued this evidentiary

(26:57):
picture with emotion. On the warning of Thursday, April fourteenth,
Joe's mother, Esther Anito, took the stand. Esther identified Joe's
bloodstained clothing, describing how she had mended and cleaned each
garment as the image of a mother lovingly laundering her
son's clothes, unaware that he would soon die in them.

(27:19):
Hung over the courtroom. The prosecution rested. On Friday, April fifteenth,
Clarence Darrow began the defense's case. Darrow was famous for
his courtroom speeches, but to everyone's surprise, he waived his
opening statement and moved straight into testimony, calling Lieutenant Tommy
Massey to the stand. It didn't take long for Darrow

(27:42):
to begin asking Tommy about the rape case. John Kelly
immediately objected. Throughout the trial, Kelly had fought to keep
the rape case out, arguing that quote, as a matter
of law, Joseph Kajahavai could be as guilty as any
man could be, and still that does not provide an
excuse for killing him. Darrow, of course wanted the case
in and now he argued that it was necessary as

(28:04):
part of an insanity defense for quote the one who
shot the pistol. Judge Davis allowed Darrow to continue. At first,
Darrow didn't make it clear just who the one who
shot the pistol was. Instead, he had Tommy tell the
story of Thalia's alleged assault. In Tommy's account, Joe kaha
Bai had been the ringleader, and Thalia had not been

(28:28):
the only one traumatized. Tommy himself suffered for months, unable
to eat or sleep, so concerned was he about his
wife and so angry about the rumors that claimed Thalia
was making it all up. With this history established, Darrow
now revealed to the court that Tommy was the killer,

(28:50):
well not the killer, per se in Darrow's words, quote
the gun was in his hand when the shot was fired.
Whether he knew what he was doing at the time
is another question. According to Tommy's subsequent testimony, the answer
to that question was no, he did not know what
he was doing. Tommy described abducting Joe and interrogating him.

(29:12):
Tommy said Joe had refused to confess until finally, after
being threatened with a beating, which Tommy claimed was only
a bluff, Joe admitted, quote, yes, we done it, And
then Tommy said his mind went blank. He could not
remember anything from that moment until the moment he came
to an hour later on the side of the road

(29:35):
being arrested. He did not know how he had gotten there.
He did not know what had happened to Joe or
to the gun. John Kelly wasn't buying it. For the
rest of the day. On cross examination, he pushed Tommy
on the story, trying to get him to slip up,
but Tommy maintained his composure and claimed to remember nothing.

(29:55):
It was only the next Monday when court resumed that
Kelly finally got under tommy skin. Mister Massey, Kelly asked,
have you ever been implicated in a kidnapping plot before
this case, No, Sir, Tommy said, what about the summer
of nineteen twenty seven when a baby went missing from
a movie theater. Tommy immediately became defensive and tried to

(30:17):
deny the story. When he finally admitted to having been
arrested for kidnapping, he claimed that Thalia had just taken
the baby for a little walk to try to soothe it, which,
sure Tommy's evasiveness on the kidnapping question didn't look good,
but that was about the only point Kelly got over
on him. The rest of the cross examination was uneventful.

(30:38):
With their next two witnesses, the psychiatrist's doctor Thomas j.
Orbison and doctor Edward H. Williams, the defense hoped to
give some scientific legitimacy to Tommy's amnesia claim. Both doctors
claimed that Tommy suffered from a glandular condition that caused
him to experience temporary insanity, which they called dementia, triggered
by the extreme emotions brought on by sale as assault.

(31:01):
Annie Lowry, a columnist for Hirst, summed up many people's
skepticism about this testimony when she asked in an editorial quote,
do people with dementia take a mother in law into
sailors along as a usual thing? But the actual testimony
of the psychiatrists was less important to Darrow than the
opportunity they offered. On cross examination, prosecutor Barry Ulrich asked

(31:25):
doctor Williams, quote, isn't it true that insanity please are
used to introduce evidence that could not be brought in otherwise.
Doctor Williams responded that this did happen sometimes, but never
thinks to doctors only lawyers. Ulrich, sliding his eyes toward
the defense table, said, as in this case, this case

(31:45):
doesn't come into argument at all. Darrow exclaimed. Ulrich had
clearly hit a nerve. This was exactly what Darrow was
doing in this case. Introducing the insanity angle allowed the
defense to discuss the rape case in the context of
Tommy Massey's psychologue background. The rape case, in turn allowed
the defense to appeal to the jury's sympathy for the
Massy family and speak to the unwritten law of avenging

(32:09):
one's wife. Darrow could deny his strategy all he liked.
His next witness confirmed just what he was doing. It
was Thalia Massey. John Kelly objected to Thalia telling the
story of her alleged assault. Judge Davis instructed Thalia to
limit her testimony to things she said to her husband
that might have affected his mental state. Darrow was undaunted

(32:32):
by this limitation, walking Thalia through the entire story. When
Kelly objected, which he did frequently, Darrow would argue that
it went to Tommy's state of mind, and Judge Davis
would allow it. After telling the story of her alleged
assault in emotional detail, Thalia described how Tommy had cared
for her, depicting him as a devoted husband distraught over

(32:53):
her suffering. During a brief recess, she stumbled into Tommy's
arms and he soothed her as she nuzzled her head
head into his neck. Her testimony was enormously moving, many
watching pride. On cross examination, John Kelly took things slow,
asking Thalia about minor details of her story. Then, several

(33:15):
minutes in, he asked Thalia if Tommy was always as
kind to her as she'd testified. Of course he was,
Dahlia replied, pulling out a sheaf of papers. Kelly then asked,
did you have a psychopathic examination at the university last summer. Yes,
Thahlia acknowledged, I went to see Professor Kelly. Professor Lowell

(33:36):
Kelly was the psychologist Thalia had briefly consulted with the
previous summer. Under his care, she had filled out a
long survey about her marriage, detailing how much she and
Tommy resented each other, how unhappy their marriage was, and
how poorly they treated one another. Now, Kelly passed a
copy of this survey to Thalia and asked, is this

(33:59):
your handwriting? There came a transformation, wrote a New York
Times reporter watching in the courtroom, quote from the pathetic
looking figure into a woman who, with low voice but
blazing face, turned on the prosecutor. Where did you get this?
Thlia asked, I'm asking the questions, not answering them. Kelly

(34:20):
shot back, has her husband always been kind to you?
Thalia stared Kelly down, saying, don't you know this is
a confidential communication between doctor and patient. You have no
right to bring this into the courtroom. And then she
began tearing the paper, slowly at first, and then more frantically,
until it lay in shreds beneath her hands. It was

(34:43):
quite the display the white women in the audience began
to applaud John Kelly, less impressed, dismissed Thalia from the stand,
saying quote, thank you, missus Massey, at last you have
shown yourself in your true colors. After getting Judge Davis
to strike Kelly's dig the defense rested, but the case

(35:04):
was not quite over. The prosecution had several rebuttal witnesses.
John Kelly had managed to get psychiatric experts of his own.
The first two experts testified that they did not believe
that Tommy was insane and disputed Williams and Orbison's conclusions.
Their testimony didn't add much. The third expert, doctor Joseph Catton,
was a different story. A personable, well spoken psychiatrist with

(35:27):
a knack for explaining complicated medical concepts. Catton quickly caught
and held the jury's attention. He provided them with a
new narrative of Tommy Massey's actions. He was not insane,
Catton argued, he was just angry. For all of Catton's
persuasive powers, the final witness made the biggest impact. This

(35:49):
was doctor Robert Fauss, the City and County attorney. He
had already testified earlier in the case, but was back
to provide some important medical evidence. Previously, use had explained
that the bullet had penetrated Joe's pulmonary artery, causing massive hemorrhage,
but Kelly wanted Faus to explain what exactly death in

(36:09):
this manner would look like. In your opinion, he asked
how long after Khahabiah was shot would it take before
death would ensue. After Joe was shot, Faus testified he
was likely conscious for three to five minutes and lived
for fifteen to twenty minutes in total. In other words,

(36:31):
the defendants had time to call for help. When Barry
Ulrich delivered the prosecution's first closing argument the next morning,
he was quick to invoke Faus's testimony, saying, quote, Obviously,
the defendants had no way of knowing he was going
to die, that the bullet had pierced a vital spot.
They had a telephone, There are plenty of doctors in town.

(36:54):
Why didn't they do something if they didn't want him
to die? They let him die because they wanted him
to die. The defense has told you a lot about
the presumption of innocence. What presumption of innocence did they
give that Hawaiian boy? After reminding the jurors of the
evidence of premeditation, like the multiple loaded guns the defendants

(37:16):
had brought or the rope they had on hand, Ulrich
reminded jurors of the stakes, saying, far more hangs on
this trial than the fate of these four defendants. Our
power of self government is being questioned you, jurors, the judge.
The people of this territory are on trial, charged with

(37:37):
not being able to govern ourselves. No, twelve people in
the territory are charged with a greater responsibility than you.
But Ulrich was certain that the jury would meet that responsibility,
concluding quote, the defendants are guilty. It is a plain
and obvious fact. They not only admit it, they proclaim it.

(37:57):
The eyes of the world are upon Hawaii, and you
must answer that challenge. We ask you to convict these
four defendants of murder. George Leisure was up next. He
had clearly trained in the Griffith White school of closing arguments.
His brief argument brimmed with overwrought phrases and dramatic imagery.

(38:19):
By the end, he'd worked himself up to the point
of justifying Joe's death, saying his death was just under
the laws of God and a direct consequence of his
own acts. Do you suppose the cruel appetite of this
man would have been satiated by one drunken debauch. No,
his next victim might have been your wife or sister.

(38:42):
Clarence S. Darrow was left to do clean up after
this charming performance. Fortunately, he was a closing specialist, known
for his epic arguments. Like Leisures and Whites, Darrow's arguments
were often based on emotional appeals, but they were less crude,
as David Stanner describes it. Quote at the core of
Darrow's courtroom technique with his insistence that a rigidly, narrow

(39:05):
minded and punitive approach to the law was foolish and cruel,
that true justice demanded an understanding of the facts as
they appeared to the defendants at the time they did
whatever it was they were accused of doing. And while
for the most part I sympathize with this philosophy, it's
hard to apply it in this case. But Darrow did

(39:27):
his best. He portrayed the Massies and Grace Fortesquieu as
beleaguered victims attacked on all sides by the ravages of fate.
Like Barry Ulrich, he reminded jurors of the stakes for
all of Hawaii, but Darrow took a different angle. Convicting
the defendants. He said, would quote place a blot upon
the fair name of these islands, that all the Pacific

(39:50):
seas would never wash away. He urged jurors to listen
to quote every instinct that moves human beings, every feeling
that within you. You can't fight against it. If you do,
you will fight against nature. You are in a position
to heal. Darrow concluded, you are not a people to

(40:11):
take and destroy. I ask you to be kind, understanding, considerate,
both to the living and to the dead. John Kelly
had the last word. Acknowledging everyone's exhaustion, he promised to
be brief, and he was. He attacked Tommy Massey, saying, quote,

(40:33):
the best you can say for Massy is that he
lied like a gentleman and had a very convenient memory.
The defense must take you for a bunch of morons.
Is there going to be one law for strangers in
our midst and another for you and me? And if
Tommy Massey got away with this, what was next? Kelly
asked if the serpent of lynch law is allowed to

(40:55):
raise its head in these islands, Kelly warned, watch out.
He emphasized the cruelty of the killing, saying, quote, three
able men and a cold, calculating woman let that man
bleed to death in front of them, inch by inch.
They let him die. They dragged him into the bathroom

(41:16):
like a dog and let him die. If the defense
wanted to appeal to sympathy, Kelly would do the same.
Mister Darrow has spoken of mother love, Kelly said, repeatedly.
He has spoken of missus Fordescue as the mother in
this courtroom. Well, there is another mother in this courtroom.

(41:37):
Has Missus Fordescue lost her daughter? Has Massey lost his wife?
Kelly gazed at Esther and Pascual Anito and Joseph Cahajave
Senior for a long moment, then turning back to the jury,
he asked one final question, where is cahaha I? Judge

(41:59):
Davis gave the jury careful and thorough instructions. He explained
that they could find the defendants not guilty or in
Tommy's case, not guilty by reason of insanity if they
wished to acquit. If they decided to convict, they could
find the defendants guilty of first degree murder, which required premeditation,
second degree murder, which required malice a forethought, or manslaughter,

(42:20):
which required neither premeditation nor malice a forethought, only unlawful killing.
At four thirty pm on Wednesday, April twenty seventh, Davis
dismissed the jurors to deliberate. The jurors had technically been
sequestered throughout the trial, but they were not completely cut
off from the outside world. The hotel they'd been lodged

(42:42):
at was filled with reporters, and the jurors, many of
whom had connections to the Navy or to Hawaii's powerful
sugar companies, knew all too well the potential consequences for
themselves and their families should they not make the right decision.
With all of that in mind, they embarked on their deliberations,
which rolled through Wednesday evening into Thursday, and then Friday.

(43:08):
By Friday afternoon, Judge Davis was becoming concerned that no
verdict was forthcoming. He told Kelly and Darrow that he
planned to check in with the jurors if they told
him that a verdict was unlikely, He would dismiss them
and declare a mistrial. Clara and Starow pushed back. He
and many others had heard rumors that the jury was
currently ten to two for acquittal. He didn't want to

(43:31):
cut them off before they got all the way there.
At four pm, the jurors filed back into the courtroom.
In response to Judge Davis's question, Jury Foreman Johnstone told
the court that he believed they would reach a verdict.
Davis sent them off to do so. Their decision came
only an hour later. By the time everyone had made

(43:52):
it back to the courtroom, it was five thirty pm.
The bailiff ordered the four defendants to stand. Dalia stood
up beside them. The bailiff told her to sit. Foreman
Stone handed the jury's verdict to the court clerk, who
passed them to Judge Davis. Whence the judge had read them,
he indicated for the clerk to read them aloud. The

(44:13):
defendants each received their own individual verdict. Tommy Massey's came first,
then Grace Fordescu's, then Deacon Jones and Edward Lords. Each
verdict said the same thing. In the death of Joe Kahahaai,
we the jury find the defendant guilty of manslaughter. Leniency

(44:37):
recommended the guilty verdicts, though they might seem inevitable to us,
given the facts of the case, came as a surprise
to almost everyone in nineteen thirty two. Like Clarence Darrow,
most people had expected an acquittal or a hung jury.
They had expected the seven white jurors to block a conviction,

(44:59):
but interviews with the jurors revealed that the deliberations had
been more nuanced than that. While the jurors had initially
voted along racial lines, seven to acquit, five to convict,
none of the jurors believed that Tommy Massey was insane,
nor did they believe that Joe Kahavi's killing was justified.
Whether or not he was guilty, The jurors who wanted

(45:20):
to acquit felt bad for the Massies and did not
believe that the killing was premeditated or committed with malice
of forethought. On the second day of deliberations, a compromise
was reached manslaughter. By the time Judge Davis summoned the
jury to the courtroom on Friday afternoon, the jurors were
eleven to one in favor of conviction. The holdout. Juror

(45:41):
finally agreed for conviction as long as a request for
leniency was included in the verdict. As juror Theodor Char
put it about the compromises they made, quote, Cahavai was killed,
and we could not allow ourselves to be swayed by emotions.
Law and order must prevail for the sake of the
best interests of Hawaii. Many people in Hawaii agreed with Char.

(46:05):
The verdict is regarded here as in strict conformance with
the law, perfectly supported by the evidence, and the best
thing that could happen in the islands, wrote the Chicago
Tribunes Philip Kinsley. Reactions were much less measured. On the mainland.
White commentators were furious and convinced that the verdict proved
the need for martial law in the islands. Write or

(46:28):
why are your representatives in the Senate and the House
to do what they can? Implored NBC radio broadcaster Floyd Gibbons,
not only to knock down that verdict, but to make
life safe for our American women in Hawaii. Congress was
way ahead of Gibbons. Within hours of the verdict, more
than a hundred congressmen had signed a petition urging Governor

(46:50):
Lawrence Judd to pardon the convicted killers. Afraid that Congress
would impose martial law or perhaps a boycott of Hawaiian products,
jud began to con sitter his options. On Wednesday, May fourth,
the defendants appeared in front of Judge Davis for sentencing.
Though the jurors had included a request for leniency in

(47:10):
their verdict, leniency was not within Judge Davis's power, even
should he wish to grant it. The law in Hawaii
mandated ten years of hard labor for manslaughter, and this
is what he sentenced each of the defendants to. In turn,
you'd expect this sentence to sober Grace, Fortescue and the others,

(47:30):
But as confused onlookers noted, the defendants seemed delighted. The
reason for their happiness soon became clear. Forty minutes later,
at a press conference, Governor Judd announced quote, the four
defendants were sentenced this morning, in accordance with territorial law,
to ten years in prison. Acting on a petition of

(47:52):
the four defendants, joined by counsel for the defendants, and
in view of the recommendations of the jury, I am
commuting the sentence to one hour. The remainder of the
defendants so called sentence, was spent taking pictures and chatting
with the reporters behind Iolani Palace. Clarence Darrow made a

(48:14):
point of thanking the press, who quote, have given this
case wide publicity so that it went before a jury
of one hundred million people, most of whom are not
hampered by absurd rules of law and do not believe
statutes are better than human beings. Many in Hawaii, however,
were furious at Judd. Princess Abigail Kavana Nakoa, who had

(48:36):
helped ben Ahaquelo's mother Aggi find a good lawyer, declared, quote,
with this commutation, the verdict of a jury composed of
men with intelligence, sound judgment, and good character, with the
facts and the law before them, becomes a farce. Three
days later, Clarence Darrow was on board Esteemship waving goodbye

(48:57):
to Honolulu. With him were Grace Fordescue, and Tommy and
Thalia Massey. There had been a brief kerfuffle during boarding
when a Honolulu police officer had tried to serve Thalia
with a subpoena to testify in her rape Case's retrial,
but a helpful Navy officer held the police officer off.
Though many people had wanted to see the rape case retried,

(49:20):
including the defendants who wished to clear their names, Darrow
had counseled Thalia not to testify again. He later claimed
he'd done so to protect both Thalia and quote the
island that I had learned to love. But perhaps he
had doubts about Thalia's story. Even then, if he did
doubt Salia, he had good reason to. Several months after

(49:43):
Thalia left Hawaii, John Kelly convinced the territorial government to
hire the Pinkerton Detective Agency to conduct a new investigation
of her case. The Pinkertons undertook a three month investigation
in the summer of nineteen thirty two, interviewing hundreds of
witnesses and review all available evidence. In the end, they
concluded that quote it is impossible to escape the conviction

(50:08):
that the kidnapping and assault was not caused by those accused,
as they quote had no opportunity to commit the kidnapping
and the rape. Moreover, quote, we have found nothing in
the record of this case, nor have we, through our
own efforts, been able to find what in our estimation

(50:29):
would be sufficient corroboration of the statements of Missus Massey
to establish the occurrence of rape upon her. In other words,
none of it was true. Governor Judd tried to suppress
the Pinkerton Report, but John Kelly forced his hand. On
February thirteenth, nineteen thirty three, Kelly filed a motion to

(50:52):
dismiss the charges against the four surviving defendants, Horace Ida,
Ben Ahaquello, Henry Chang, and David ta Kai. Kelly attached
a summary of the Pinkerton Report to his motion. Soon
the report's conclusions were national news. Thalia publicly attacked the
Pinkerton Report, seeming to enjoy the renewed spotlight. She spun

(51:14):
elaborate stories to reporters of a vast Hawaiian conspiracy against her,
which no one took seriously. A year later, Thalia was
back in the news, this time because she and Tommy
were divorcing. She told reporters that Tommy had initiated the divorce,
which was granted on February twenty third, nineteen thirty four,

(51:34):
the same night Thalia attempted suicide. She would attempt suicide
several more times over the next year. For the rest
of her life, she moved across the country, supported by
an allowance from her mother, and racking up a variety
of criminal charges, mainly for public drunkenness, drunk driving, or
once for severely beating her pregnant landlord. Thalia Massey died

(51:57):
from an overdose of barbituates on July seven, nineteen sixty three.
Tommy Massey remarried after his divorce and continued on with
his navy career, but in nineteen forty he started displaying
erratic behavior. Eventually sent to a naval hospital, Tommy was
diagnosed with manic depressive psychosis. He was discharged from the

(52:17):
Navy later that year and lived in San Diego for
the rest of his life. On January eighth, nineteen eighty seven,
exactly fifty five years after Joe Kavy's murder, Tommy Massey died,
aged eighty eight. Whether or not symptoms of Tommy's mania
and psychosis had been present in nineteen thirty two and

(52:38):
played a role in Joe's kidnapping is unknown, but they
certainly did not play a part in Joe's murder, because,
despite the defense's claims, Tommy Massey was not the shooter.
In nineteen sixty six, journalist Peter Van Slingerland interviewed Deacon
Jones for his book on the case, Something Terrible Has Happened.

(53:00):
Deacon seemed delighted to reminisce over the crime and to
provide Van Slingerland with his version of what exactly had happened.
On January eighth, nineteen thirty two, according to Deacon, he
and Tommy Massey had driven Joe back to Grace's house.
While they waited for Edward and Grace to arrive, they
were driving in another car. Deacon and Tommy interrogated Joe.

(53:24):
Although Deacon claimed that quote, I didn't fear the black bastard,
he still kept his gun trained on Joe. Then, Deacon explained,
quote Massey asked him a question, and cahahabe lunged at him.
I say lunged. Somebody else might say he just leaned forward.
And then Van Slingerland asked, I shot him, Deacon said,

(53:47):
echoing Darrow's insanity defense. Van Slingerland asked, did you know
what you were doing when I shot that son of
a bitch? Deacon replied, I knew what I was doing.
Deacon also explained that it had been Clarence Darrow's idea
for Tommy to take the blame, since quote Tommy had
a motive and the reason. After all, it was his wife.

(54:09):
Having already been convicted for manslaughter and served his sentence.
As it was, Deacon Jones would face no consequences for
his confession. Grace Fordescue, too, seemed free of any pangs
of conscience. After leaving Hawaii, she wrote her own account
of the murder and the trial, which she titled and

(54:30):
I wish I was making this up quote the Honolulu Martyrdom. Later,
with her financial troubles ended by a large inheritance, Grace
built a mansion in Palm Beach, which she called Ile
Home because it was decorated in a Hawaiian theme. Grace
Fordescue died on June twenty fourth, nineteen seventy nine, in

(54:52):
Palm Beach. Joe Cahajave's friends and co defendants, Horace Da
Ben Ahaquelo, Henry Chang, and David Takai, did not have
the luxury of moving on so completely. After the initial
burst of news about the Pinkerton Report, stories about the
report's conclusion had been intentionally suppressed, leaving many people unaware

(55:14):
that the men had been comprehensively exonerated. Ben Ahaquillo was
the only one to ever speak publicly about the case,
granting an interview to the Honolulu Star Bulletin in June
nineteen sixty eight. My family has carried the burden of
this for thirty five years, Ben said. He explained that
he'd tried to keep the story from his children, but

(55:35):
that they had learned about it from friends. Another defendant,
David Standard, writes quote was urged on his deathbed to
tell the truth about what really happened. Some of Joe
Cahahavai's family members changed their last name to avoid painful associations.
Though the Massy case is replete with tragedy, it has

(55:55):
its inspiring moments too. Despite pressure from the mainland press
and despite interventions of the local Howy elite, including a
police captain who manufactured evidence, a prosecutor who suppressed facts,
and a governor who commuted a sentence, the juries in
both trials stood by their own consciences, refusing to punish

(56:17):
innocent men or exonerate guilty ones. The events of nineteen
thirty one and nineteen thirty two, writes David's Stannard changed
Hawaii permanently. In the nineteen twenties, Life for most non
whites in the islands had been a nightmare, especially for
those laboring on the plantations or locked away in the slums,

(56:38):
pitted against one another as they struggled to survive. In
the midst of the Massy Fortescue turmoil. However, and especially
after the killing of Joe Kahahavai, krack started to appear
in what for years had been a monolithic social order. Hawaiian, Japanese, Chinese,
and Filipino community leaders began meeting and finding more common

(57:00):
ground than ever before. This new interracial solidarity ushered in
political reforms, labor victories, and a sense of community in
the islands. The changes wrought by the Massy Fortescue trials
are not comprehensive. Native Hawaiians are still fighting to regain
the lands stolen from them by the American government, for example,

(57:21):
but they are profound. In the weeks after Joe Kahahaai's funeral,
rain storms battered Oahu. Nineteen thirty one had been a
dry year. January of nineteen thirty two saw ceaseless rain
in the hills. The dry red soil found itself lifted
and carried downhill, where it slid into streams, coloring them

(57:45):
a deep red. In Hawaiian, this rain is called Uacoco
blood rain. These red waters, spilling over the banks of rivers,
carried with them the memory of violent death, but they
carried promise to enriching the earth so something new and
beautiful could grow. Thank you for listening to History on Trial.

(58:12):
To see images of the people and places in this episode,
check out our instagram at History on Trial. My main
sources for this episode were David E. Stannard's book Honor Killing,
Race Rape, and Clarence S. Darrow's Spectacular Last Case, as
well as the trial transcripts published by the University of
Minnesota Law Library's Clarence Darow Digital Collection. For a full bibliography,

(58:36):
as well as a transcript of this episode with citations,
please visit our website History on Trial podcast dot com,
where you can also subscribe to our newsletter. History on
Trial is written and hosted by me Mira Hayward. The
show is edited and produced by Jesse Funk, with supervising

(58:57):
producer Trevor Jung and executive ducers Dana Schwartz, Alexander Williams,
Matt Frederick, and Mira Hayward. Learn more about the show
at History on Trial podcast dot com, and follow us
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Underscore History on Trial. Find more podcasts from iHeartRadio by

(59:20):
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