The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1908-10-13
DESPERATE MAN
IS CAPTURED

HILo, Hawaii, October 1O.-Fukuda
Tessuji, who committed double muir
der at Honokaa on last Christmas eve,
has been captured on the Island of
Maui. That was the information re.
ceived early last Monday morning by
wireless message by Sheriff keolanui
from Sheriff Safferey of Maui.
The japanese had the reputation of
being notorious gambler, and he once
lived in Hilo, where, it has been said,
he bought wife. She left him and
went to live at a Japanese hotel in
Honokaa, kept by Sugioka, who had
also been resident of Hilo.
Tetsuji met the woman on Christmas
eve and she refused to return to his
family fireside, whereupon he drew his
revolver and fired two shots at her, one
of them being fatal, and the woman
dying immediately. The hotel proprie-
tor, Sugioka, was attracted by the noise
and went to help the woman, but Tet-
sui fred a third shot at him, then
rushed upon him and stabbed him with
his knife, Sugioka dying from his
wounds about three-quarters of an hour
later.
The murderer escaped, but Y. G. Nit
su, an accessory before the fact, was
brought to Hilo. He had been on trial
here on charge of extortion, the case
being dismissed on directed verdict
of the jury.
A reward of $50 was offered for the
capture of the murderer, and this was
subsequently increased by the Board of
Supervisors, at Kealanui's request, to
$3.50. The Maui police may be entitled
to the reward. Officer Yotaro was to
have been sent from here tomorrow to
bring Fukuda Tetsuji to Hilo, but he
arrived yesterday on the Mauna Kea
in charge of a Maui officer.
''The Woman Tempted Me-
KAHULUI, Maui, October l0.-Fu-
kuda, the murderer arrested on Maui
this week for the murder of Sugioka,
made a statement here to the Maui
Shinbun, the local Japanese newspaper,
acknowledging the murder but stating
that his crime should bring him credit
among the japanese, all of whom hated
the man he had killed. He was in
cited to the crime through his love for
woman, he stated, adding that wo-
men had been his particular ruination
from the time he landed in Hawaii
eighteen years ago, being thirteen
| years old at the tine. Since arriving
| at manhood he had had three wives.
During his thirteen years in the Islands
| he acknowledged having worked for
twenty-six days, but found gambling
! easier.
1 A Ill 4 g.
Fukuda states that he fled into Kona,
but found the police there too vigilant
for him. He accordingly returned to
Hilo and went from there to Mahukona
leaving Hawaii on the first trip of the
Mauna Kea. On Maui he hid in the
country between Kailua and Puunene
hiding by day and coming out to the
japanese camps at night to gamble.
Many times he considered suicide as
a means of escape from his pursuers
but never reached the point of ending
his life. He had luck at the gambling
table, although when he ran up against
Korean game once at Kailua he went
down to the tune of $40. When ar.
rested he had $500 in gold, all won
from the Maui japanese.
He was always on the lookout fol
the police and kept himself armed with
a revolver and japanese sword. He
resolved to sell his liberty dearly, think
ing that with his weapons he could kill
three or four policeman and then es
cape finally by the suicide route. AS
it happened, on the night of his cap
ture, he had stripped off his clothes
and left them in another room, being
weaponless when the five policemen
pounced on him in his sleep and showed
their guns in his face, leaving him nc
alternative but to surrender.
The Goddess of Luck had deserted
him, he felt, and with the desertior
came encouragement. He realized that
death by hanging faced him, but he hat
resolved to face his trial and die like
a man. Otherwise he would have es
capped on the way to Wailuku, having
had several good chances. He fear
!, that possibly he will be sent to Kalau
! papa, because of his withered hands, al
though the whitening came as the resul
of poison, administered by an enemy
J He fears Molokai more than he doe
, the gallows.
He promised during his trial to clea
f., the name of his friend who had len
, him the revolver with which he hat
KILLED Sugioka, the weapon having BEEF
lent him innocently