Horror in Honolulu: Part One

Horace's older sister, Haro had a beautiful light tan model a Ford, which she'd saved up for for years, and that night she told Horace he could borrow it. She was going to be working and didn't need the car. As long as Horace promised to be careful, he could take his friends out in it. Horace was delighted. This was a rare treat. He put on a white silk shirt and dark trousers and headed out into the humid Honolulu night to find his friends. At a speakeasy, he

ran into David Takai and Ben Ahacuelo. The three young men had grown up together in Sunday School. A missionary who'd taught them remembered they'd been mischievous and scrappy. Now all in their early twenties, they were settling down. Horace had just spent a year working in Los Angeles, David was about to do the same, and Ben's girlfriend was pregnant. But they weren't too old to have fun. On a Saturday night, They spent a while at the speakeasy, then

considered where to go next. Ben knew about a luau nearby, so the crew headed over and gorged themselves on roast pig and beer. But there weren't many young people at the luau, so they decided to check out a dance at Waikiki Park. Horace spent the next two hours driving various friends to and from the luau and the dance. He didn't mind playing chauffeur. Driving Hariyo's car was such a joy. Eventually, two other childhood friends, Henry Chang and

Joe Cahahavai, joined Horace. At midnight. When the dance ended, Horace, Henry, Joe, David, and Ben huddled outside Waikiki Park thinking of where to go next, their main criteria being free food and beer. The group decided to go back to the luau once more, driving down Bartania Street, they ran into a car full of friends, and the two cars drove side by side for a while, their occupants chatting. But by the time the men got to the luau around twelve thirty, the

party had ended. It was time to call it a night. Horace dropped David off first, Then as he pulled out onto Lileha Street, Horace narrowly avoided colliding with another car. A woman in the other car shouted at Horace to watch where he was going. Joe shouted back, telling the driver to get out of his car. Joe was a champion boxer and football player and thought he could easily take the driver, a middle aged white man. But it was not the driver who got out of the car.

It was the passenger, his irate wife, Agnes Peeples. Agnes, a formidable Hawaiian woman whose daughter described her as quote built like a Sherman tank, wasn't afraid of some tipsy young men. When Joe stepped towards her, she shoved him. He swung back, clipping her ear. Agnes grabbed Joe's throat with one hand and punched him with the other. Horace Ida groaned, it had been such a nice night, and now this e and Henry pulled Joe back into the car.

Agnes's husband, Homer, calmed her down and everyone drove off. Horace hoped that that was the end of the issue and dropped Henry and Joe off at their homes. But two hours later, when Horace was fast asleep in his bed, someone knocked loudly on the front door of the house he shared with his sisters and mother. It was the police. They were taking him in for questioning. This seemed ridiculous

to Horace. It had only been a brief fight, no one had really been injured, and anyway, that woman had hit Joe first, but he agreed to come to police headquarters. While he waited to be questioned at the station, Horace must have rude ever accepting Harrio's gift. What a price to pay for a single night out with his friends. But even then, Horace had no idea what truly lay

in store for him. Earlier that night, a young white woman named Thalia Massey had reported to police that she had been kidnapped and raped by a group of men near Waikiki. The police had quickly connected Thalia Massey's attack with the police report filed by Agnes Peeples about her fight with Joe. In both cases, the suspects were a group of young men in a car. Horace was not in the police station to answer questions about a road rage run in. He was there to answer questions about

the assault of Thalia Massi. Horace denied knowing anything about this assault. So did David Takai, Ben Ahaquelo, Joe Cahahavai, and Henry Chang. They had never seen Thalia in their lives, the young men said at the time she had been attacked. They had been driving down Bartania Street. People had seen them. They had alibis. But in the face of a political establishment that was determined to get convictions for Thalia Massey's rape, would the truth be a good enough defense. Welcome to

History on Trial. I'm your host, Mira Hayward. This week The Territory of Hawaii v. Ben Ahaquelo et al. On the evening of September twelfth, as Horace Ida gleefully started up his sister's ford, Thalia and Tommy Massey got ready to go out. The Das and the Massis only lived a few miles apart as the crow Flies, but their

neighborhoods were worlds apart. Horace Da lived in the part of Honolulu then known as Hell's Half Acre, a teeming, densely populated slum inhabited by a mix of ethnic groups, including Japanese, Chinese, and Filipino immigrants, as well as native Hawaiians. Tammi and Thalia Massi lived in Manoa Valley, a lush, lovely neighborhood that climbed up into the mountains northeast of Waikiki. Manoah had once been a favorite retreat for the Hawaiian

royal family. Now restrictive racial covenants meant that almost all Manoa residents were white. Orderly bungalows lined the valley's streets, filled with Navy men and their wives. Twenty year old Thalia Massi was not popular in Manoa. She refused to socialize with other Navy wives, believing them to be beneath her.

After all, Thalia was a Roosevelt. Yes, her father, Rollie Fortescue, was the illegitimate child of Robert Barnwell Roosevelt, but Robert had eventually married Rolli's mother, and the Roosevelts counted Rolly as one of their own. He had fought in the Spanish American War with his cousin Teddy, and then worked as Teddy's aid in the White House. And Thalia's mother, Grace,

came from equally illustrious stock. She was a Belle as an Alexander Graham Bell and Belle Telephone later at and t Falia and her two younger sisters had grown up on grand estates. It was true that Rolli's drinking and refusal to work had left the Fortescuez in dire financial straits, and the Fortescue daughters were notoriously ill behaved. But despite all of this, Thalia and her sisters had been instilled with the belief that their heritage made them superior to others.

So when the other Navy wives invited Thalia to their teas and luncheons, she declined, and she wasn't shy about telling them why. Even when she did attend the occasional dinner party, her behavior was appalling. She would drink heavily, tell inappropriate stories, and criticize everything around her, from the house's decorp to the hostess's dress. Tommy Massew regularly confided in his friends about how terrible his marriage was. Things

hadn't always been like this. When Tommy had first met Thalia four years earlier, when she was a sixteen year old high school student and he was a twenty two year old cadet at the Naval Academy, life had been sunny. Tommy had spent a blissful summer with the fortesc Us at the Roosevelt estate on Long Island, charming the whole

family with his affable personality. Tommy might not have come from as well known a family as Thalia's, but the Massis were a prominent family in Kentucky, and his stable career in the Navy meant that he would be able to provide for thee. When Tommy and Thalia married on November twenty fourth, nineteen twenty seven, their future had looked bright, and for a little while all was well. Tommy had

several postings on the East Coast. People who knew the Massies then said they seemed happy, though there were rumors about Thalia being unfaithful. The couple tried to start a family, but Thalia miscarried. Thalia's health was poor. She had an untreated thyroid condition which caused weight loss, anxiety, and vision problems. To compensate for the frequent loss of vision in one of her eyes. Falia had developed a distinctive gait. She walked with her head tilted down into the side, and

Tommy endured some professional setbacks. He dreamed of being a pilot, but at barely five foot five, he was rejected four times for being too short. When he finally got a heighth waiver, he failed the psychological exam, with the examiner calling him temperamentily not qualified, perhaps due to his quick temper and what some Annapolis classmates had called his quote cynical attitude. But Tommy had accepted the decision and pivoted

his focus to submarines. In May nineteen thirty, he graduated from the Navy's Submarine School and was assigned to Squadron four, based at Pearl Harbor. To most people, this posting would have been a dream. In the nineteen twenties, a Hawaiian craze had swept the United States. Hawaiian inspired music played on the radio, theaters staged moch hula shows, and Hollywood studios filmed movie after movie on the island's beautiful beaches.

At the same time, as tourists flocked to Hawaii, the United States Navy was increasing its presence there, massively expanding Pearl Harbor. Many of the military men who came to Awe who at this time, were disturbed by the level of racial integration on the island, which was comparatively higher

than in the rest of the United States. One need only talk for five minutes with the average naval officer, wrote reporter Lilyan Symes around this time, to realize that he is straining at the leash to put Hawaii's brown and yellow peoples in their place. Nonetheless, most sailors still found Honolulu a lovely place to live, but not Tommy and Thalia Massey. As Thalia's bad behavior became more outrageous, Tommy too began to fall apart. He started drinking heavily.

The couple fought loudly and sometimes violently. When Tommy went out on sea duty, Thalia would invite other men over. In the summer of nineteen thirty one, in the latter stages of pregnancy, Thalia lost the baby and fell into a depression that manifested itself in increasingly hostile behavior towards Tommy. She briefly saw a psychologist, doctor E. Loowel Kelly, but After Kelly recommended to Tommy that Thalia receives psychae care, Thalia stopped seeing him. In August, Tommy told Dalia that

he wanted a divorce. Thalia begged him for another chance, not because she loved him, but because she did not want to have to go back and live with her parents. Tommy relented, but only conditionally. Thalia had three months to try harder or else he was done. He called it probation. Thalia promised to do her best. Agreeing to go out with Tommy and some of his Navy friends on September

twelfth was part of her reform efforts. Thalia hated nights out like this, surrounded by drunken Navy officers and their boring wives, but knowing what was at stake, she slipped on a long green silk dress and matching jacket. She pasted a smile on as Tommy's friends and their wives arrived. After an hour of drinking, the group headed to the Aluwai, in a Navy haunt in Waikiki. When they arrived between nine thirty and ten te pm, Tommy split off to

talk to some of his shipmates. Irritated at his abandonment, Thalia went upstairs, where she circulated and drank, waiting for Tommy to come find her. He never did. Around eleven thirty, Thalia got into a fight with a Navy officer who wanted her seat. After the man called Thalia alous, she slapped him. Tommy was summoned to calm her down. The couple talked for a little while, then Tommy went back downstairs. This night was clearly not going as either of the

Massies had hoped. Around one am, Tommy decided to head out. Salia was nowhere to be found, but since she often left parties when she was upset, Tommy assumed she'd already gone home. He tried calling the house, but no one answered, so Tommy and a friend drove back to Manoah headed to a friend's house where they'd heard a party was happening. When they got there, though, the host was not yet home,

so Tommy and his friend decided to wait. Ten minutes earlier, at twelve fifty a m. Eustace Bellinger was driving his wife and their friends, the Clarks, down Ala Moana Road to get a late night snack. Suddenly, a woman appeared in front of the car, alarmed Bellinger pulled over. The woman, whose face looked swollen, told the Bellingers and Clarks that her name was Thalia Massey. She said that she'd been at a party earlier that night, but left around midnight

to get some air. As she walked down john Ena Roade, Thalia said some men had grabbed her and pulled her into a car. They'd beaten her and then abandoned her in a deserted clearing off of Ala Moana. Missus Clark immediately suggested that they take Thalia to the police station or to a hospital, but she said she only wanted to go home. Just as Thalia got home, the phone rang. It was Tommy calling from his friend's house. Thalia picked

up the phone and cried, something awful has happened. Come home. At one forty seven a m. Honolulu Police received a call from Tommy Massey requesting assistance. A woman had been assaulted, he said. Detective John Jardine, in charge of the night shift, dispatched two detectives, George Harbottle and William Fortado, to go to the Massie's home. Police had gone to the house before, usually responding to noise complaints from neighbors. When the massies fought.

This call out was different. Thalia had not wanted Tommy to call the police in. When detectives Harbottle and for Todo arrived, they found her lying on a couch, crying and wearing a nightgown. Haltingly, Thalia told the detectives that four or five Hawaiian men had snatched her off the road, driven her to a remote spot, and then beat and

raped her. For Toado and Harbottle were shocked. In the entire history of white settlement in Hawaii more than one hundred years, there had never been a recorded case of a Hawaiian man sexually assaulting a white woman. The detectives walked Thelia carefully through her account, trying to get more information. Nothing helpful was forthcoming. Alia said the night was so dark she could not see the men's faces and doubted

she could identify them. However, when pushed by Fortado, she said she was certain that all the men were Hawaiian, not Chinese or Japanese. She could only describe their car as being old and dark with a torn cloth top. She had not seen a license plate. The night had been dark. She said. She did not mention that her bad eyesight rendered her nearly blind when she didn't wear her glasses, glasses that she had left at home that night.

As Detective Harbottle continued the questioning, detective for Toado called Detective Jardine to report in Fortato, and Jardine agreed that Thalia's story reminded them of a case they had caught earlier that night. At twelve forty five am, Agnes Peeples had come to police headquarters to report that she'd had an altercation with a car full of young men, and that one of them, a Hawaiian, had assaulted her. Two incidents involving a group of young Hawaiian men seemed unlikely

to be a coincidence, the detective's thought. As Thalia was taken to a nearby hospital to be examined, a car was dispatched to the Ida house. Unlike Salia, Agnes had seen a license plate five eight nine eight five, which the police had been able to trace to the Eda's car.

Horace Ida denied having anything to do with Thalia's rape and initially refused to name the men he had been out with, but after hours of relentless interrogation, Horace identified his friends as the police brought in the other men, Joe Cahahavai, Ben Ahaquelo, David Takai and Henry Chang, and interrogated them. In turn, a problem emerged. The men's accounts

of their night were consistent. Moreover, they could provide the police with the names of many other people who had seen or see spoken with them between ten pm and one am. There was no time for them to have committed the attack, which Thalia claimed had happened between midnight and twelve forty five. The men's strong alibis were not the only issue. Thalia had repeatedly said that she was

sure that her attackers were all Hawaiian. Joe and Ben were Hawaiian, and Henry was half Hawaiian and half Chinese, but Horace Da and David Takai were both Japanese, and Haruya DA's car didn't match the description Thalia had given of an old, dark colored car with a ripped top. Haruyo's car was only two years old, with a light hand exterior and a pristine cloth top. But fortunately for

the detectives, Thalia now seemed flexible on details. When John McIntosh, the chief of detectives, interviewed Thalia, at police headquarters after her exam, she now told Captain Macintosh that she had seen a license plate five eight eight oh five that was only one digit off from haruyo Eda's plate. Later at trial, a possible explanation for Thalia's sudden memory was provided.

Throughout the early morning of September thirteenth, a police dispatcher had repeatedly broadcast a be on the lookout alert for a car with license plate five eight eight nine five which had been involved in an assault on a woman. The dispatcher was referring to the assault on Agnes Peoples, but a lay listener would not know that these broadcasts had blared from police car radios stationed right outside the

exam room. Thalia Massi was in an exam room with open windows when Captain McIntosh brought Haryo's car to the Massie's house around nine am on the thirteenth, identifying it to Thalia as quote the suspect's car. Thalia said that while she couldn't be certain that this was the exact car, it was quote a car like that, and when Macintosh brought jo Henry, David and Horace in front of Thalia later that day, she identified all of them except for

David Takai, as being her assailants. By that time, news of Thalia's rape was public and causing an enormous uproar. No one was angrier than Admiral Yates Sterling, commandant of the fourteenth Naval District, an outspoken racist and an advocate for complete military control of Hawaii, Sterling was furious to hear about the attack. Notably, Sterling had been much less angry about the two sexual assaults committed by white sailors

against Hawaiian women in the past five months. There is no record of the Navy punishing these men after demanding custody of them from the local police, But now Sterling called for quote quick action and adequate punishment for these quote dark skinned criminals. Sterling quickly organized a meeting with Honolulu's power brokers, including the mayor, the district attorney, the Navy's shore patrol commander, and the territorial governor, Lawrence Judd.

The forty four year old jud had been governor for

two years. This was an appointed position. The men who made the appointment were members of a small white or Howley elite, the descendants of the white missionaries and planters who had wrested power and land away from Native Hawaiians over the course of the nineteenth century, culminating in the eighteen ninety three overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy, the eighteen ninety eight annexation of Hawaii, and the establishment of the United States Territory of Hawaii in nineteen hundred, all despite

strenuous protests by Native Hawaiians. By nineteen thirty one, though there was an elected territorial legislature, the true political power in Hawaii belonged to the sugar cane corporations known as the Big Five, who appointed governors who would do their bidding. Governors like Laurence jud But the United States Navy had all so began to play an increasingly important role in the territory. Thanks to the Great Depression, revenue from tourism,

sugar and pineapples was down. The Navy, which planned to invest millions into Pearl Harbor, offered economic relief, and so writes historian David Stannard in his book on the Trial, This first meeting between Sterling and jud Quote set the tone for all that were to follow. The Admiral was used to giving orders the governor was used to taking them. Before long, a full bore prosecution was underway. Judd and

Sterling had the benefit of a compliant media environment. Two of Oahu's largest English language newspapers, the Honolulu Advertiser and the Honolulu Star Bulletin, were closely intertwined with the military and business elite's interests. Assisted by the police who readily provided them with information, these papers began conducting a trial by press, depicting the case against the five men as watertight.

Behind the scenes, the case was anything but. The timeline made it almost impossible for the suspects to have committed the crime, and though Thalia's story now better fitted the suspects, the police lacked physical evidence to support this story. When police investigator's finger printed Haryo DA's car, they found plenty of prints, but not a single one belonging to Thalia Massey. And more troublingly, the police were struggling to find proof that Thalia had been raped at all. I will mention

here that false reports of rape are very uncommon. The rate of false reports is difficult to measure since there are many ways to define false, such as stories that were proven false, suspected to be false or unable to be substantiated or to meet the threshold for prosecution. But the most comprehensive research indicates a rape of false rape reports in the United States to be between two and

eight percent. We cannot know what exactly happened to Thalia Massey that night in nineteen thirty one, but the physical evidence did not corroborate her story of being beaten and raped multiple times. At her exam only several hours after the alleged attack, a doctor and nurse found that the only injury Thealia suffered was a facial one. Her jaw was broken, she had no vaginal abrasions or lacerations, and

no seamen was present. Thalia told the doctor that she had douched after arriving home, but no seamen was found on any of the clothes that Thalia wore that night either. Her clothes were in fact nearly pristine. Besides a few drops of blood on the shoulder, likely from Thalia's split lip, the clothes looked, according to doctor Thomas Mossman, the assistant City and County physician, like they had just come from

the dry cleaners. Even her shoes were not scuffed. It was hard to imagine that thealia could have been abducted, beaten, dragged through the woods, and raped without sustaining a single stain or rip or scuff. The lack of physical evidence was a particular problem for the prosecution because Hawaii had a law that required corroborating evidence in rape cases. A victim's testimony alone was not enough, but prosecutors, led by Assistant City and County Attorney Griffith White, were not deterred

by these obstacles. Driven by increasing pressure from the Navy and an outraged public, White was determined to get a conviction, and when the men's trial began on November sixteenth, nineteen thirty one, the lengths to which White would go to get his conviction would be revealed. When ben Ahaquelo's mother, Aggie, heard that her son had been arrested, she was terrified, so she did what any mother would do. She called

a princess. As David's Darren explains, although the ravages of it introduced disease and consequent political upheaval did much to change Hawaiian cultural norms following European contact, one characteristic that endured was the expectation by rulers and rules alike that rulers were obliged to care for the common people. So Princess Abigail Kavana Nakoa, the current leader of Hawaii's deposed royal family, did not hesitate to answer Aggie Ahaquelo's call.

The princess listened to Aggie's story and then said that she would contact one of her friends, the accomplished attorney William H. Heen, to see if he could help. William Heen was prominent in Hawaii's legal and political circles. Half Chinese and half Hawaiian, the forty eight year old Heen had worked as a prosecutor, a defense attorney, and a judge. He was currently balancing his law practice with his duties as a senator in the territorial legislature. Keen agreed to

look into the case for Princess Kavana and Nakoa. Aware of the racial aspects of the case, he decided to recruit a white attorney to assist him. Bill Pittman was the perfect fit. An excellent atonejourney, the Mississippi born Pittman was passionately anti racist. He also happened to be a descendant of Francis Scott Key, who was decidedly more racist, as we saw in episode three of History on Trial.

Heen and Pittman wanted to be sure that they had a solid case, so they conducted vigorous interrogations of the defendants. At the end, the lawyers were convinced that the men were innocent and decided to represent them. They divided up the defendants, with William Heen representing Ben Ahaquello and Henry Chang, and Bill Pittman representing Horace da and Joe Cahahavai. Robert Murakami later joined the defense as well, representing David Takai.

Hawaii's Howley Elite were disturbed by the news that such formidable lawyers had signed on. They began to question whether Griffith White was the right man to lead the prosecution. After all, the forty one year old had only four years experience as a lawyer. But White insisted he could handle the case, and the prosecution also had to reason to hope that the judge would be sympathetic to their cause.

Judge Alva E. Steedman, thirty seven, had married into one of the Big five Sugarcane families right before the trial. Steedman announced that this would be his last trial, as he would be accepting a job with his wife's family company. The defense worried that Steadman, about to leave the bench, would be less concerned with impartiality than he would be with satisfying the Big Five and the Navy. Their fears seemed to be confirmed. As the trial began. Steadman denied

nearly all of the defense's motions. Most critically, he denied their motion to get a bill of particulars, which would enumerate exactly what crimes each defendant was charged with. This ruling was a particular blow to David Takai. Thalia Massey had always denied that he was one of her attackers, and Takai had no idea what he was even on trial for. At ten thirty am on November eighteenth, Griffith White delivered a brief opening statement, focusing on the heinousness

of the crime. Then he called Thalia Massey to the stand. Thalia was dressed conservatively and spoke softly. Her testimony was emotional. When she began describing the attack, she broke into tears, prompting Judge Stadman to call the recess. Her testimony was also thorough and precise. She provided detailed descriptions of her assailants, who she now said had referred to each other by

name during her assault. She described seeing the license plate and the car, both of which she had initially claimed not to have seen, and these weren't the only changes to her story. Thalia now said that she might have left the alloway in as early as eleven thirty five p m. The most moving part of her testimony came when Thalia spoke of discovering a month after the alleged assault that she was pregnant. In truth, Thalia had only suspected she was pregnant when she went to the hospital

and had a dilation and curetage performed. No evidence of pregnant she was discovered, but that fact never emerged at trial, and the horror of her ordeal moved many in the court room. On cross William Heen gently but insistently pushed Thalia on the details of her attack and on the timeline.

When he asked about the discrepancies between her testimony and her initial report to the police, such as the ethnicity of her assailants or the description of the car, Thalia claimed she couldn't remember what she'd said when with Thalia's testimony entered. Griffith White now worked to introduce corroberative evidence. He called Thalia's personal physician, doctor John Porter, to describe the injuries to Thalia's face. Then he presented a series

of police officers. The first police witness was Detective John C. Clooney. Clooney had been one of Horace DA's arresting officers. Shortly after bringing Horace in, Clooney said Boris told him that quote one of the boys in his cars struck Missus Peeples, but as far as the striking of this white woman, he said he didn't know anything about it at the time. White asked Clooney, had you mentioned to him that a white woman had been struck? I had not. Clooney said

the implication was clear. The only way that Horace DA could have known about the attack on Thalia at this point was if he had committed it. William Heen was shocked. He had never heard any mention of this exchange on cross. He asked Clooney if he had written a report that night. Clooney said he had, but that he didn't have the report on him, so the detective was excused to fetch the report In the meantime, White called his next police witness,

officer Claude Benton. Benon had conducted a search of the crime scene in the early hours of September thirteenth, shortly after the assault was reported. At the scene, Benton had found several items that Thalia Massey identified as hers, including a pocket mirror and a pack of cigarettes. But Benon had also found something much more important. He now revealed on the stand tire tracks three good Rich Silverton Chords and one good Year all Weather. Benton explained, with the

Goodyear tire on the left rear. These were, of course the same tires as those on Haruo DA's car. Benon had even taken Horace Da in his sister's car to the crime scene to compare the tracks. White clarified when the comparison visit had happened Sunday morning, he asked, Benon said, yes, William Heen knew how damaging this testimony sounded, but he thought he might be able to undermine it. His first

step was asking for Benton's written report. Keen received it right before he began his cross examination of Benton that afternoon and had to quickly scan it. Then he began questioning Benton. After reviewing the tire evidence, Heen asked Benon what exactly he had found at the crime scene. Benon walked through the event, recalling the brands of the cigarettes found, the various matchboxes, and the pocket mirror. It was clear that he was a detail oriented, methodical officer, unlikely to

miss things or make mistakes. Having established this, Heen dropped the hammer. Now, mister Betton, why didn't you include the tire marks in your written statement? Keen read Benton's report aloud in court. There was no mention of the tire tracks. Benen could only offer vague explanations, saying that he didn't realize the tire tracks mattered until he knew about harya

IA's car. On redirect, Griffith White tried to clean things up by asking more questions about the visit Betton had made to the crime scene with Horace da It had only been a few hours after his first inspection of the scene been confirmed. This redirect didn't add much to Beton's damage credibility, and worse was still to come, but for now, Officer Bennon was dismissed and Detective Clue Pony returned he told the court that he was unable to

find his report. This would become a pattern. The defense would ask for a police report, only to be told it was missing. However, in this case, Keen could still question Clooney about the contents of his report. He asked Clooney if he had recorded Horace DA's reference to a white woman anywhere. Clooney said he had not. When he asked why, Clooney admitted it was because quote, I was instructed to keep it under cover. Who had instructed him

to do this? Griffith White, the prosecutor, Clooney said. Clooney also admitted that he had only remembered the alleged exchange five weeks after Horace Edo was first brought in. Clooney's suspicious recollection of this exchange aside, this story was much less damaging than it sounded. When Clooney had brought Horace to the police station, he had briefly left Horace alone

while he searched for Captain Macintosh. Police officer Cecil Rickard would later admit, months after the trial ended, that he had approached Horas during this period and asked him about the assault. So Horace had a legitimate reason to know that the victim was a white woman. After White introduced a few more police witnesses who had helped administer Thalia's identification of the suspects, Keen asked for Officer Benton to

be recalled to the stand. His questions this time around focused on Benton's visit to the scene with Horace da White had made a point of having Benton emphasized that his visit had been on Sunday morning, only hours after his first visit, the implication being that the only way the tire tracks could have gotten there was during the commission of the crime. But he now asked, hadn't this second visit actually happened on Monday morning? Yes, Beton admitted.

Not only had Betton omitted the supposedly crucial tire marks from his report, he had now also been caught lying on the stand. The prosecution's other main police witness, Captain John McIntosh, proved to be no more helpful than Benten or Clooney had been. As Chief of Detectives, McIntosh had

supervised the investigation almost from the beginning. A veteran of colonial police forces in South Africa and New Zealand and a former sugarcane plantation overseer McIntosh had been brought onto the police force, in his own words, quote by the business interests and the politicians. McIntosh provided little new evidence

during his direct examination. His cross, however, was illuminating. Under questioning by Heen, McIntosh admitted that Thalia's fingerprints had not been found in her ruyo Eda's car, that no seamen had been found on Thalia's clothing or on the defendant's clothing, and that there were a number of discrepancies between the story that Thalia had first told and the one that

she had told on the stand. White's only other witnesses were a few police officers who had helped administer Thalia's identification of the defendants, none of whom had much to add. After three days and twelve witnesses, White rested the prosecution case. White's case was flimsy at best, but as we've seen so often, what is happening outside the courtroom can have

an enormous impact on a jury's decision. Though Judge Deadman instructed jurors to avoid reading press coverage of the trial, it would be difficult for them to avoid it entirely. Many papers put the case on the front page of every issue, and often their reporting was highly biased towards the prosecution. The Honolulu Advertiser, for example, titled a story on Heen's cross examination of Benton quote, defense fails to shake officer's story at trial. Not every newspaper was so biased.

George Wright, a reporter who managed the English language section of the Japanese language newspaper Hawaii Hochi, for example, had been questioning the predominant narrative of the case from the start.

As David Stanner describes, quote, two completely different accounts of what happened to Thalia Massey on Saturday night, September twelfth made their way through the homes and streets and workplaces of Honolulu, which, rendition, people believed dependent in large part on the newspapers they read, and what they read was a consequence of who and what those people were. The split in opinion that now was emerging cut right down the middle. Howley's on one side, almost everyone else on

the other. Even if most of the jurors were not white themselves, all of them depended on the how the elite for their livelihoods, and they were aware of how badly their bosses wanted a conviction. As Ben Ahacuello later noted, quote all the big guys in town, the guys working for the big firms, came and sat in court and stared at the jury. What they were saying with their eyes was that if this doesn't come out right, you're

going to get fired. So despite the seeming weakness of the prosecution's case, the defects still had a battle ahead of them. Fortunately they came prepared to fight. On the afternoon of Monday, November twenty third, nineteen thirty one, William Heen delivered the defense's opening statement. His argument was simple,

these defendants could not have committed this crime. To prove this argument, the defense presented dozens of witnesses who testified to the whereabouts the defendants on the night in question. These witnesses, who had either spoken to or seen the defendants, could account for almost every minute of the men's movements between ten pm and one am. What was more, the defense also had witnesses who had likely seen Thalea that night at the very time she claimed she had been abducted.

George and Maimie Goas had attended the dance at Waikiki Park, then walked down john Ina Road for a late night stack at five, ten minutes after midnight, they saw a white woman in a green dress who appeared drunk walk past them. Like Thalia, this woman had a distinctive gait. She walked with her head tilted down and to the side. A white man in a dark suit walked several paces

behind her. Alice Aramaki, who worked in a barber shop on john Ena Rooade, saw what looked like the same man and woman a little further down the road a few minutes later. The goas and Aramaki also testified that they had provided this information to both the police and Griffith White as soon as they learned of the attack on Thalia. They had provided sworn statements, but the prosecution

and the police never investigated further. He now followed the thread of police incompetence, recalling Captain John Macintosh to the stand. Though he had already succeeded in seriously undermining Officer Benton's testimony about the tire tracks, Keen had one last blow to deliver. He asked Macintosh whether he had gone to the scene of the crime after Officer Benten first examined it.

Macintosh tried to evade the question, but when Heen would not relent, he admitted, quote, after I left Massey's home, I went down to the premises with Eda's car. Did you drive the DA car into these premises? Keen asked, I did not. Macintosh replied, but then continued, Sato drove the car in there. Henri Satto was the patrolman who had driven Macintosh to the scene. Those tire marks that the prosecution had made so much of they had been

made by the police. Keen also asked Macintosh about two witnesses, Tatsumi Matsumoto and Robert Vieira. Matsumoto and via were in the car that Horace had pulled alongside on Bartania Street around twelve fifteen a m. On the thirteenth. Police had spoken to both men early in the investigation. Keen wanted to know how the police had learned of Matsumoto and Vieira. Macintosh said that Griffith White had told police to question the men. So William Heen called Prosecutor Griffith White to

the stand. White was an unhelpful witness. He acknowledged that he must have heard about Matsumoto and Vieira from one of the defendants, but claimed that he couldn't remember which one, but what White actually said didn't matter so much. It was the principle of it. White was admitting on the stand that from the very beginning of the investigation he had been aware of numerous witnesses whose sworn testimony made it very unlikely that the defendants could have committed the crime,

and yet he had still continued with the prosecution. If White thought that having to testify in a trial he was prosecuting was rock bottom, there was still lower to sink. While cross examining Joe Cahabai, one of the defendants, White asked Joe about what Horace Eat was wearing on September twelfth. Failia had claimed to recognize a leather jacket when identifying Horace. When Joe denied that Horace had worn this jacket, White brought a transcript of Joe's statement, in which Joe had

apparently said that Horace had worn the jacket. Do you remember saying that? White asked, smugly, that is what you put in there? Joe shot back, flustered, White said, not what I put in here and tried to change the subject. William Heen was only too happy to return to this exchange during his redirect. After confirming with Joe that Horace had not been wearing a leather jacket, Keen asked, how did you happen to say to mister White that he

did well? Joe said, he put it in the statement, and then after I signed the statement, I scratched it out. Keen turned to White and asked to see his copy of Joe's interview. White, caught in his own net, handed over the paper, admitting, quote, it is scratched out. Another example of White tampering with the defendant statements soon emerged,

thanks once again to White himself. Defended, David Takai testified that he was the one to tell White about seeing Matsumoto on cross White asked, quote, why didn't you put in the fact that you saw Matsumoto's car in the written statement? I told you this matter, David replied, then you told her the stenographer not to put it down.

Another brilliant own goal by Griffith White. By now, Keen had clearly shown prosecutorial and police misconduct, but he also wanted to show that many police officers involved with the case would back up the defense's account. Not all of these police witnesses were enthusiastic about testifying for the defense, but they were forthright. After Captain Macintosh had taken over the case, he had replaced all the non white detectives

with white officers. Those replaced included the four detectives who had responded to the initial call out to the Massy house. All four of these men testified to Thalia's original statement in which she said she could not see any faces or any details of the car, and Detective Lucciano Machado revealed that Thalia had been unsure of her identifications when ben Ahacuello was brought in front of her. Thalia had only confirmed he was one of her assailants after Captain

Macintosh whispered to her that he was. After a week of testimony from fifty two witnesses, the defense was satisfied that they had proven not only that the defendants could not have committed the crime, but that the police and the prosecutor had lied and manufactured evidence. Given this, Griffith White would need to appeal to emotion, not evidence in his closing argument, delivered on the morning of December first, and emotion White could do this is one of the

worst cases we have ever had. He began describing how Thalia Massey, a quote, young inexperienced girl, had just been taking a walk when quote she was assaulted by beasts. Would the jury further victimize Thalia by rejecting her testimony and labeling her a quote unmitigated liar. He knew they would not. They would quote be men, he insisted, and they would consider what they would want done if their

wives were harmed. You would want to go down and shoot the men, White said, to avenge not just Thalia, but Tommy Massey too. They must find the defendants guilty. All three defense lawyers gave closing arguments. Robert Murakami, representing David Takai, focused on the defendant's alibis, saying that in the face of the timeline quote, I doubt that the prosecuting attorney, as a reasonable man, can honestly believe that these are the men. In his closing Bill Pittman was

less generous towards the prosecute. This entire case, Pittman stated, is a frame up. A prosecutor's job was to seek truth, not a conviction that any costs. He continued and though he thought rape was a terrible crime, Pittman thought that there was quote a worse crime, one more heinous, and that is sending innocent men to the penitentiary. Pittman concluded, by exhorting the jurors not to commit this crime. You cannot if you are honest and upright men, convict these men.

I know these men are innocent, and I know this jury will not swerve from its duty of acquitting them. William Heen gave the final defense closing, he combined Murakami and Pittman's approaches, walking through all the evidence that proved his clients were innocent and incapable of committing the crime. The only crimes that this trial had proven, Keen said, were those committed by the police officers like Officer Ben,

who had perjured themselves. They had only done so, Heen believed, because of quote the public clamor to crucify the defendants on a cross of prejudice and sentiment. He pointed out that other police officers had resisted this pressure and testified honestly. Wasn't their word worth as much as anyone else's? Or? He asked, quote, are we to disregard the testimony? Of these witnesses simply because they are Hawaiian, Chinese, Japanese or Portuguese.

He concluded by asking the jurors to be quote honest and courageous in reaching your verdict and return a verdict of not guilty. Griffith White came out swinging in his rebuttal. If anyone has been crucified, he said, it is this lovely girl who crucified herself to protect other women of Honolulu. White briefly addressed the evidence again, calling the officers who testified for the defense quote traders and said that Off

Benton's testimony quote still stands unchallenged. But for his final message to the jury, he fell back on emotional appeals. What we call upon you, the gentlemen of the jury, for White said, is to vindicate Hawaii, to show that you will protect your women, stand together for a true verdict, and thus justify your manhood. The jury received the case around nine pm on Wednesday, December second. People thought it would be a quick deliberation, but for very different reasons.

Many navymen and other Howleys thought that the prosecution had it in the bag. Many others thought acquittal would be immediate. Both groups were wrong. The jury deliberated for nearly one hundred hours. Tempers got so heated that several jurors got into a physical fight. William Heen called for a mistrial. Judge Steadman admonished the jurors. Eventually, they claimed they could

not reach a verdict. Stedman told them to keep trying, but finally, at ten p m. On Sunday, December sixth, nineteen thirty one, he accepted that the jury was deadlocked. In the case of the Territory of Hawaii v. Ben Ahacuello at Al, Judge Deadman declared a mistrial. Chaos irrupted at the news of the mistrial. Some people were thrilled

with the outcome, others were furious. Admiral Yates Sterling called the result quote a stupid miscarriage of justice which could have been avoided if the territorial government had shown more inclination to sympathize with my insistence upon the necessity of the conviction. The defendants, he concluded, were not men who should have been given the benefit of a reasonable doubt.

Grace fordescue Thalia's mother, vehemently agreed. She had traveled to Hawaii shortly before the trial and had been horrified by what she saw as immoral racial integration. She had made a habit of calling the police on her Hawaiian neighbors and had requested that only white nurses treat thelia. The mistrial, in grace Fordescue's mind, was yet another symptom of the dangerous erosion of white supremacy in the territory. She could not bear the thought of a second trial ending without conviction.

If the legal system could not guarantee her the outcome she wanted, she thought she'd just have to take matters into her own hands, and so grace Fordescue bought a gun and she began to plot to find out what happens next. Join me next week for part two of the Massy Case. Thank you for listening to History on Trial. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a rating or review. It can help new listeners find the show. To see images 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 on Our Killing, Race, Rape and Clarence Darrow's Spectacular Last Case, and the trial transcripts published by the University of Minnesota's Clarence Sterow Digital Collection. For a full bibliography, as well as a transcript of this episode with citations, please visit our website History on Trial podcast dot com. History on

Trial is written and hosted by me Mira Hayward. The show is edited and produced by Jesse Funk, with supervising producer Trevor Young and executive producers Dana Schwartz, Alexander Williams, Matt Frederick, and Mira Hayward. Learn more about the show at History on Trial podcast dot com and follow us on Instagram at History on Trial and on Twitter at

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