A death in the islands
Subtitle: the unwritten law and the last trial of Clarence Darrow
By: Mike Farris
Published: 2016
Language: eng
Number of pages: 317
ISBN-13: 9781510712140
Subjects: Trials (Rape); Race relations; Trials, litigation; Trials (Murder); History
Description: "Lies, murder, and a legendary courtroom battle threaten to tear apart the Territory of Hawaii. In September of 1931, Thalia Massie, a young naval lieutenant's wife, claims to have been raped by five Hawaiian men in Honolulu. Following a hung jury in the rape trial, Thalia's mother, socialite Grace Fortescue, and husband, along with two sailors, kidnap one of the accused in an attempt to coerce a confession. When they are caught after killing him and trying to dump his body in the ocean, Mrs. Fortescue's society friends raise enough money to hire seventy-four-year-old Clarence Darrow out of retirement to defend the vigilante killers. The result is an epic courtroom battle between Darrow and the Territory of Hawaii's top prosecutor, John C. Kelley, in a case that threatens to touch off a race war in Hawaii and results in one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in American history. Written in the style of a novel, but meticulously following the historical record, A Death in the Islands weaves a story of lies, deception, mental illness, racism, revenge, and murder-a series of events in the Territory of Hawaii that nearly tore apart the peaceful islands, reverberating from the tenements of Honolulu to the hallowed halls of Congress, and right into the Oval Office itself, and left a stain on the legacy of one of the greatest legal minds of all time"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 305-311) and index.
Table of contents: title: Thalia Massie and the Ala Moana boys. The woman in green ; The Ala Moana boys ; The accusation ; The physical examination ; Thalia's statement ; Rounding up the boys ; The identification ; The alibi ; The lawyers; title: Territory of Hawaii v. Ben Ahakuelo, et al. Thalia for the prosecution ; The prosecution continues ; The prosecution rests ; The timeline ; Tying up loose ends for the defense ; The defendants speak ; Rebuttal ; Sending the case to the jury; title: A death in the Islands. Somewhere over the Pali ; The abduction ; Disposing of the body ; A funeral in the Islands; title: Territory of Hawaii v. Grace Fortescue, et al. Turning state's evidence ; Judge Cristy and the Grand Jury ; The heavyweights ; The finger of doom ; Tommie's story ; The man who fired the gun ; Delirium with ambulatory automatism ; Closing arguments ; Custody of the High Sheriff; title: Epilogue. The Pinkerton report ; What really happened?