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 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 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. 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 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, 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 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 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.
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 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 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 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, 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 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 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.
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 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. 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 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 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
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. 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 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
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
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 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. 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 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 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 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 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 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 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.
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, 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, 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
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 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 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 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 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 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 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, 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, 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, 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, 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 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. 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. 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 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, 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 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
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, 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 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 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
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 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, 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 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 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, 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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
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 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 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 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 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. 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 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 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 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, 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.
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 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. 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 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.
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.
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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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
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,
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. 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 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 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. 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. 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. 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 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
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 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 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, 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 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 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.
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 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, 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 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.
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 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 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 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 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, 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 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 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. 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 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 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 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,
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 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 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 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 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, 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 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 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 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 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 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, 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 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 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 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.
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. 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, 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. 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
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 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 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 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
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 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, 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 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,
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 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. 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, 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 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 on Instagram at History on Trial and on Twitter at
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