The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-09-25
MURDER AND
ARSON TRIED
Fire and Fight on PunchbowI
Lead Police to Suspect
Such to Be So.

A man with clothing afire, his body.
face and head badly burned, rocking
in agony in the yard; another man
blinded with blood streaming from deep
wounds in the face and head; three
| oil-soaked beds, two of them abIaze,
and plain evidence of an attempt at
arson and possibly an attempt at mur-
der are what the police and firemen
found in answering an alarm Of fire
turned in shortly before eight 'cloek
last night from the corner of Emma
and School streets, the scene of the
attempted arson being the home of
Louis Miranda, 1863 Luso street.
Kamaliikane, the burned man, is in
the hospital and it is doubtful if he
viii recover from his injuries, his en-
tire body, from the belt to the top of
his head being literally cooked The
other injured man, Kaaa, is also in the
hospital, but will recover His injuries
consist of wounds on each temple, a
deep cash in the scalp and cuts on the
back of the head blood stained
hammer found in the house show with
what instrument the blows were dealt
that caused the wounds.
There is an amount of mystery about
the affair that will require considerable
untangling before the actual truth is
arrived at. The story of the fire and
fight, as told by Kamaliikane to the
police, while being taken in the patrol
wagon to the hospital, is as follows:
He is the father-in-law of Miranda,
who is a salesman in the employment
of the Manufacturers Shoe Company,
but who is at present sick on Pacific
Heights, and with Kaaa, another old
Hawaiian and an uncle of Mrs Miriam
da, were occupying the house. A Jap
anese, whose name was not disclosed,
called about half past seven 'clock
to collect the amount of a bill from
Miranda, refusing to take his word that
the man wanted was not in the house
concealed and becoming insolent in his
demands for payment. A row started,
the Japanese picking up hammer and
knocking him down with repeated
blows. The japanese left, going out Of
the back door, but returned within
few minutes, poured oil from bottle
on the three beds in the house and then
threw a lighted lamp upon one of the
oil soaked beds, bed on which Kaaa
was lying asleep from intoxication.
None of the neighbors, apparently,
saw the japanese about the premises,
however, nor heard any loud words of
dispute. Frank Cunha, who lives next
door, was the first one to notice that
the Miranda house was on fire and he
called his sons, Allan and Lawrence,
the first one of whom turned in the
alarm and the other entered the burn
ing house through window to fight
the flames and save the occupants.
When he got inside he found lamp
upset on one of the beds, Kamaliikane,
with blood pouring down his face act
ing in demented way, carrying blaz
ing bed clothes from one room into
another, and no Kaaa in sight. He
partially extinguished the fire, smoth-
cred the blazing lamp with pillow and
took the bleeding man outside. Here,
in the back yard he saw the other Ha
waiian sitting, covered with blazing
rags and unconscious. BY this time
others had arrived and the man 5 cloth
ing was torn off him and the flames
trampled out.
The arrival of the fremen with their
engine soon settled the rest
of the fire, the damage from which was
confined to the two beds. An investiga- |
ton by Chief Thurston and Detective
Harry Lake showed that the third bed
had been soaked with kerosene and an
empty bottle which had contained kero |
sene was found in the kitchen, lying |
on the floor beside tin pail full of
matches. block Of burned matches |
was lying close by. On the bed on |
which the lamp was found, the bed |
clothes were hloodstained, while else !
where through the house were other /
pools of blood.
It was thought at first that the two |
men had quarreled and that the lamp |
had been upset in the fracas, but this
would not account for the oil-s0aked |
bed in an adjoining room, where no fire
had vet reached. Neither would it ac-
count for the fact that the one man
most badly burned was outside when
lelp arrived, while the other with the
hammer wounds on hrs head, who had
yot the worst of any fighting, was still
inside the room where the most fire was.
The police, after taking the two in
ured men to the Queens Hospital, be-
yan an investigation, taking the oil
ind blood soaked sheets, the oil bottle,
ba bIood-Stained hammer and a num-
,er of other articles to the police sta
ion as evidence.
Looking for the japanese.
The police obtained clue last night
IS to the identity of the japanese who
5 suspected of having attempted to
,urn the Miranda place and the two
in it, and a search was made
or him along Nuuanu avenue. Up
o two o o'clock this morning he had
lot been located, however. He had not
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