JULY 1967

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PAaFIC lVORTHW£ST .QUARTERLY

VOLUME 58 NUMBER 3 lurderJ RapeJ and Carpetbaggers

An Essay-Review of Three Recent Books on the Massie Case

Y CHARLES H. HUNTER

THE TRUTH of what transpired on the night of napped by persons unknown and was badly ptember 12, 1931, at the Ala Wai Inn on the beaten in. an apparent attempt to extort a con­ fay to Waikiki or on the Ala Moana Road fession. "hich paralleled the shore on the way to down­ Captain Ward ""ortman of Submarine Squad­ own Honolulu) will probably never be known. ron Four, part of the Pacific Fleet' to which That the wife of Lieutenant Thomas Massie, Massie was attached, was not under the jurisdic­ -nited States avy, was beaten, was evident; tion of Rear Admiral Yates Stirling, Jr., who that she was raped was not dearly shown; that headed the 14th Naval District. Wortman re­ the five Hawaiian youths indicted for rape were ported the incident to the Navy Department in not guilty was probable; and that she had asked such a fashion as to indicate that he deliberately or trouble the evidence shows. Who was the intended to mislead the Secretary of the Navy man whom witnesses saw with the woman in a (which Governor Lawrence Judd of Hawaii be­ een party dress on John Ena Road that night? lieved) or that he was grossly misinformed. Wort­ nly Thalia Massie could have identified him man's report was responsible for much of the and she is dead, while he is not apt to tell. early misunderstanding in Washington of the It would seem that nothing could be gained Hawaiian situation. by reciting the whole sordid story all over again, Although Admiral Stirling did not approve of but Mrs. Massie's death in 1963 removed the Wortman's dispatch, his own reports were little nger of her bringing suit and reawakened in­ better. Stirling did wire the Navy Department erest in the case. The three books under review that the sensational accounts being published on appeared almost simultaneously; others have the mainland were unwarranted and that there been denied publication. Each of the three re­ had been no rioting. On the basis of the dis­ counts the essential elements of the case: the patches from Honolulu, Admiral William V. ineptitude-if not worse-of the Honolulu Po­ Pratt, Chief of Naval Operations, informed his lice Department and the enforcement agencies subordinates at Pearl Harbor that "American in general; testimony withheld by the public men will not stand for the violation of their prosecutor as to the nature of the gathering at women under any circumstances. For this crime we Ala Wai Inn and the intoxication of naval they have taken the matter into their own hands officers. The five defendants (two Hawaiian, two repeatedly when they have felt wat the law has Japanese, and a Chinese-Hawaiian) pleaded not failed to do justice." Yet he ordered naval coop­ ~ilty, and the jury, after deliberating for more eration with the civilian authorities to "clean up than four days and remaining hopelessly dead­ conditions in the community." locked, was dismissed. Less than a week later, one of the defendants, Horace Ida, was kid- The Massie Case. By PETER PACKER and BOB THOMAS. (New York: Bantam Books, 1966. vi, 186 pp. 75 cents) CHARLES H. HUNTER is professor of history at the Univer- Rape in Par·adise. By THEON WRIGHT. (New York: Haw· ity of Hawaii. His edition of the third and final volume thorn Books, 1966. 3L6 pp. Epilogue, illustrations, end­ of the late R. S. Kuykendall's definitive history of the paper map.. 5.95) Hawaiian' monarchy was published this summer. He is Something Terrible Has Happened. By PETER VAN SUNG­ currently working on a history of the era of Hawaiian ERLAND. (New York: Harper and Row, 1966. xii, 328 annexation. pp. Illustrations. maps: 5.95)

JULY, 1967 LSI There is no proof that Massie saw Admiral ham based nine bills, none of which was ey Pratt's dispatch with its reference to the "un­ passed, inasmuch as Hawaii promptly correct written law," but the best guess would be that the laxness that was evident. either he did see it or that he heard about it Despite the efforts of Clarence Darrow "F from Wortman. At any rate, the sensational Ala the Defense," the jury, on the evidence, co Moana rape case gave way on January 8, 1932, only find the four defendants "guilty" of the to the supersensational "Massie" murder case. murder of Kahahawai. Each received a pris On that date Joseph Kahahawai, one of the Ala sentence of ten years. By a commutation (not Moana defendants, was kidnapped and killed by pardon), Governor Judd reduced the terms Massie, his mother-in-law (Mrs. Grace Fortescue), one hour, and Hearst's Floyd Gibbons boast and two sailors, Albert O. Jones and Edward J. that letters to Washington from readers of thr­ Lord. Three of them were captured when they Hearst press had forced the Hawaiian politiciam were attempting to dispose of the body (Jones to relinquish the four defendants. He was close was not with them at the time). The evidence to the truth. More than a hundred members of against the quartet was so complete that the de­ Congress petitioned for a full pardon. It woul fense made no attempt at denial during the have been a very brave governor-and a foo trial that followed. hardy one-who would have refused to act und Although newspaper editors on the mainland the circumstances, even if he had not been di­ had few actual facts to work with, they did not rected to do so by the Secretary of the Interior. let that bother them. From their accounts it Ray Lyman Wilbur. appeared that there was "Lust in Paradise," that the tramp of soldiery sounded through the city streets and that "Bayonets Rule Honolulu as EACH OF THE AUTHORS has approached the gen­ Races Boil." The newspapers gave the impres­ eral story in his own unique way. But their sion that Mrs. Massie had positively identified claims that they have presented "new" materials. her assailants and- that there was no question as shed new light, or produced a solution to the to their guilt. Therefore, there should have been case are pure nonsense. Even the Pinkerton re:­ a conviction. The failure to convict was due to port, of which much is made, offers nothing new two factors: the City and County prosecutor in evidence or theory. In no sense can these was incompetent, and the jurors were swayed by three volumes be considered products of profes­ race prejudice. Later, the Pinkerton National sional research and scholarship. They were hur­ Detective Agency, which had been called in to riedly researched and written in as sensational a determine the feasibility of a retrial, concluded manner as possihle in order to cater to the that it was "impossible to escape the convic60n "blood and thunder" taste of the lower half that the kidnapping and assault was not caused million. When these writers attempt to provide by those accused, with the attendant circum­ ess~ntial- historical background-which is sel­ stances alleged by Mrs. Massie." dom-something terrible, indeed, has happened. On January 9, 1932, Admiral Pratt issued a: Even when the reader has a thorough knowledge summary of the interservice correspondence on of the sources, it is difficult to tell which were the case. This material, which was released im­ used by the authors and which were never seen mediately after the killing of Kahahawai, was at all. Obviously, the authors have too often re­ seized upon by unscrupulous writers and editors. sorted to "poetic license" or dragged their mate­ and it convinced many mainlanders-in and out rial in by the hair. The core of any study of the of Congress-that Massie was justified in taking case must be the testimony taken during both the law into his own hands and should not be trials. -Rehearsal of the testimony and the selec­ punished for having done so. Not all the emo­ tion of portions to be presented verbatim in tionalism was on the mainland by any means. these works are based on individual predilec­ Many of Hawaii's white residents agreed thor­ tions and thus result in some strange conclu­ oughly with the navy view and urged that a sions. There are even three different versions of commission government be established in the what Mrs. Massie told her husband when she Islands. In order to forestall the hotheads in asked him to come home! Congress, Hiram Bingham of Connecticut ("Ha­ All three volumes fail to grasp the nature and waii's Senator") quickly introduced resolutions significance of the events which transpired in for investigation of administration and law en­ the nation's capital. Senator Bingham's resolu­ forcement in the Territory. The result was the tion had asked the United States Attorney-Gen­ so-called Richardson Report upon which Bing- eral to investigate law enforcement (not "sex

152 PACIFIC NORTHWEST QUARTERLY ~

...... ,.....'-.:'1I UP! Photo Chief Defense Counsel Clarence Darrow, Edward J. Lord, Albert O. Jones, High Sheriff Gordon C. Ross, Mrs. Grace Fortescue, Mrs. Thalia Massie, Lieutenant Thomas H. Massie.

.mes") in Hawaii. Assistant Attorney-General is the most apt to g-ive an appearance of truth. th W. Richardson was given the assignment. Like Packer and Thomas, he translates the in­ is staff had collected a mass of revealing nermost thoughts of the participants into words. ta, but little use is made of this information His maps have the Ala Wai Inn on the wrong }' the authors. Apparently, none of them real­ side of the street, and a key intersection is not izes that Bingham was on Hawaii's side and was numbered. He has sugar cane fields and irriga­ -orking to forestall 'more radical action by Sen­ tion canals where there were none. He confuses or McKellar and others. They all note the the first Sino-Japanese War with the Russo-Japa­ Britten bill in the House which called for com­ nese War. He puts 5,700 Chinese in Hawaii in ission government, but none reports the Guinn 1900 (there were 26,000). He repeatedly ties rilliams bill which could have been used to Walter Dillingham, local financier, in with the lock it. Strangely, too, none of them detects the "Big Five" as their spokesman at a time when nd of Secretary Wilbur in the case, nor has any they were bitterly antagonistic toward him. He them checked Navy Department records in then announces that FDR made WaIter Dilling­ \'ashington. There wen~ many army wives in ham "czar" of the sugar and pineapple industries, Hawaii, but at no time did they appear in the when in fact the man had little to do with either. e as the navy wives did-and not one of the Van Slingerland's generalizations about the uthors wonders why. Van Slingerland claims period from 1932 to 1941 are far from the truth. t Briant H. Wells had his troops at Schofield For example, his claim that interracial conflict d Shafter armed and ready to move into Hono­ receded is ill-founded; J apanophobia was never ulu. Wells himself said, "I called my officers in more rife than at that time. Furthermore, Con­ 3.Dd told them to tell their wives that if any of gress did not put Hawaii under martial law on em started acting like the navy wives were, they December 7, 1941. ew,what would happen to their husbands." On the positive side, Van Slingerland gives a Van Slingerland has the most vivid imagina- clearer picture of Admiral Stirling than do 'on of the authors of these three books, and he Packer and Thomas or Wright, and he credits

LY, 1967 153 him with more common sense than most of those press. Furthermore, he is not justified in sayina who have commented on Stirling's part in the that the case "lay untouched" and that it delayed affair. He correctly notes that the stumbling and statehood or that Ala Moana Park was created to fumbling of Thalia Massie was not due to emo­ erase the shame of the Massie case. tion, but to the fact that without her glasses she Packer and Thomas quote the sensational and could barely see. His character sketches are good, ignore basic materials. They do not show thal especially those of Sheriff Patrick Gleason and Admiral Pratt, after his first uninformed out­ James Gilliland, the deaf City and County attor­ burst, completely reversed himself. The autho ney. His piece de resistance is an interview with have two versions of Admiral Yates Stirling's pan the sailor, Albert Jones (now dead), who claimed in the case, and one' wonders if they know thal to have shot Kahahawai. jones's story sounds like this was the prohibition era. Obviously, the~ that of an old man who is remembering through have not seen Manoa Valley in Honolulu or the mists of time and magnifies his exploits. This Waikiki. They have moved the Judiciary Build­ is the "he-man" approach; Jones reveals disg"ust ing onto the Palace grounds and have trouble at the beating of Horace Ida (the sailors at Pearl understanding the racial relationships in the done it); he, Jones, pulled the trigger, and Islands. There is no sweet reasonableness here­ Thalia's sister later threw the murder weapon the book attempts to stir racial hatred to the into the sea. But internal evidence bears Jones highest pitch. Unlike the other authors, Packer out; he had done the killing. and Thomas blame the Massie murder case on Theon Wright's father was the English editor of Thalia's mother, Mrs. Fortescue, who forced the Hawaii Hochi, which gave the best coverage Lieutenant Massie to follow her stronger will. of the crime of any local newspaper. Wright They have the Bingham and Britten bills COI1­ bases the Massie incident on the breakdo,wn in fused and seem never to have heard of the Secre­ society, the excessive paternalism of the "Big tary of the Interior or of the situation in Wash­ Five," and the underlying tensions of race rela­ ington. There is no table of contents, no bibliog­ tions. His volume, filled with "atmosphere," is raphy, no index, and no list of sources~and a the easiest to read and presents the essentials of number of their statements are ridiculous. the case with the fewest number of errors. As a Some of the authors are aware that Mrs. For­ local boy, he is able to offer a fairer presentation tescue published three articles about the' Massie of race relations in Hawaii as well as the "confu­ case in Liberty magazine. Apparently none of sion" in the police department of Honolulu. them knows that Mrs, Massie brought suit against Wright is the only one to make any mention Libel'ty to prevent the first two of five (which of his sources, but he relies too heavily on a Mrs. Fortescue had written because she needed Walter Dillingham memorandum. The haste to the money) from being published as an invasion publish is most noticeable in the misspelling of of the right of pr.ivacy. There is agreement that Hawaiian names, although there are other obvi­ the Massies were divorced in 1934 and that both ous errors. Mrs. Massie's father was not a West later remarried. Massie, Mrs. Fortescue, and the Point graduate, and Queen Liliuokalani was sailor, Lord, are still alive. Mrs. Massie died on overthrown in 1893-not 1898. Wright is also July 3, 1963, from an overdose of barbiturates. wrong in blaming the Hawaiian delegate in Had this not occurred, these books probably Washington for the country's lack of informa­ would not have appeared at this time. The best tion; the delegate could not have known all the summation of the three volumes would seem to facts, and, in any case', true accounts which ap­ be the statement published in the New York peared in the New York Times and in a few Times, in April, 1932: "A sensation seems to other papers were ignored by the sensational have been overdone."

Hi4 PACIFIC NORTHWEST QUARTERLY