The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1932-04-04
HONOR DEATH
TRIAL OPENS
IN HONOLULU
Racial Hatred and Politics
Mixed Into Case of Navy
Men and Matron.
BARROW AIDS DEFENSE
Staying of Native After
Attack Turned Attention
of World to Islands.
BY DAN CAMPBELL
United Press stah Correspondent


HONOLULU, April Am attack
on the wife OF young naval Off
Ger, the murder of a native accused
OF participating in the attack, ra-
cial feeling, and Hawaiian politics
were well-miXed today in the trial
of an American matron and three
navy men, accused of murder in
Honolulus honor Staying"
- The defendants, Mrs. Granville
Roland Fortescue, her son-in-law.
Lieutenant Thomas H. MasSie, and
enlisted men, Edward j. Lord and
Albert o. Jones, were defended by
a brilliant legal staff headed by
Clarence DarrOW.
They were indicted for the Sec
ond-degree murder of Joe Kahaha-
wal, a native abducted and killed on
jan 9. He and four other men at
the time awaited a second trial on
charges of having attacked Lieu
tenant Massie's wife.
Evidence Is Circumstantial
The defendants neither have
denied nor admitted their guilt. The
defense has kept silent on plans for
the trial. The police claimed, soon
after the murder, that they had a
string of circumstantial evidence
against the defendants, but no wit
nesses to the crime have been
found
There have been many theories
as to what happened between the
time Kahahawai was enticed into
an automobile in front of the hall
of Justice, where a white man
showed him a document which
looked like a summons, and the
time his body was found.
The body was found in the auto
mobile stopped near Koko Head.
Three defendants were in the car;
the fourth was stationed outside
Mrs Fortescue's residence.
Lieutenant Massie is expected to
outline defense of accidental
homicide. The defense may plead
alarm clock insanity" that under
the strain of believing the Hawaiian
guilty of the attack on Mrs. Massie,
the defendants lost their reason
temporarily.
World Attention on Islands
Circuit Judge Charles S. Davis
indicated that court would be held
only in the mornings. 1t was eX-
pected that selection of a jury
would take up most of the first
week of the trial.
The Staying of Kshahakai, and
subsequent charges that conditions
in the Pearl of the Pacific" were
not safe for white women focused
world attention on Honolulu.
The background of sensational
events there reached from the
depths of Honolulu's underworld to
the uppermost level of American
society.
Mrs. Massie, formerly Thalia
Fortescue, was attacked one night
last September in the Waikiki beach
section of Honolulu. made famous in
songs and stories of Hawaii. She
was brutally and criminally as
saulted.
Five men were arrested and
identified by Mrs. Massie. One was
Kahahawai
Another, Horace Ida, later was
kidnapped on a main street and
beaten. he claimed, by United
States sailors.
Undercurrent of Unrest
The Ave men were released on
bail after the jury disagreed at their
trial. A second hearing was sched-
uled.
Meanwhile feeling between the
foleign residents and natives grew
with other attacks on white women.
Sailors and natives clashed.
On one occasion marines we're
brought from Pearl Harbor to main
tain order.
Sailors from the naval base we're
not allowed to come irto the city.
An undercurrent of bad feeling
broke with the kidnapping and muir
der Of Joe Kahahawai.
According to the police story. they
found evidence that Kahahawai was
killed at Mrs. ForteScue's home,
that his body was wrapped in
sheet and placed in a car, and that
his killer intended to throw the
body into a geyser where it never
would have been found.