Episode 23/24: Horror in Honolulu

Part One: The Territory of Hawai‘i v. Ben Ahakuelo, et al.

Part Two: The Territory of Hawai‘i v. Grace Fortescue, et al.

In 1931 and 1932, a dramatic series of legal events changed Hawai‘i forever. First, Thalia Massie, a young white woman, accuses a group of young, nonwhite men of raping her. But the men she accuses all have ironclad alibis. When convicting the men proves harder than expected, Thalia's husband, Tommie, and her mother, Grace, take matters into their own hands, with deadly consequences.

Episode Resources

Episode Transcripts

Download the Part One episode transcript.

Works Cited/
Referenced

Part One (Episode 23):

Grace Hubbard Bell, Thalia Bell Fortescue, George Paul Goeas, and Mamie Anita Maschke, FamilySearch.
“Defense Fails to Shake Officer’s Story at Trial,” The Honolulu Advertiser, November 20, 1931, page 9.
“Hawaiʻi Legal History: Timeline,” William S. Richardson Law School, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, last updated July 13, 2023.
William Haʻehaʻe Heen Sr. and Thomas Hedges “Tommie” Massie, FindAGrave.
“Honolulu and Vicinity Map, 1934 (portion noting Waikiki Park),” Images of Old Hawaiʻi.
Ho‘okahua Cultural Vibrancy Group, “The Overthrow of the Hawaiian Monarchy,” Kamehameha Schools.
“The Island Murder,” American Experience, PBS, April 17, 2018.
Douglas O. Linder, “Map of Honolulu Showing Key Locations Concerning the Massie Case,” Famous Trials.
Kimberly A. Lonsway, Joanne Archambault, and David Lisak, “False Reports: Moving Beyond the Issue to Successfully Investigate and Prosecute Non-Stranger Sexual Assault,” The National Center for the Prosecution of Violence Against Women, 2009.
“The Massie Case and Hawaiʻi: A Timeline,” American Experience, PBS.
“The Men Accused of Assaulting Thalia Massie,” American Experience, PBS.
Nupepa blog, English translations of Hawaiian language newspapers.
JoAnn Ruppert, "Mānoa Valley Timeline," Mālama Mānoa, via Mānoa Heritage Center, last revised August 26, 1997.
Bob Sigall, “Remembering Honolulu’s Hell’s Half Acre and Tin Can Alley of the 1880s – 1960s,” Historic Hawaiʻi Foundation, March 23, 2022.
David E. Stannard, Honor Killing: Race, Rape, and Clarence Darrow’s Spectacular Last Case (New York: Penguin Books, 2005).
“Thalia Fortescue Weds Naval Ensign,” The New York Times, November 25, 1927.
Trial Transcripts, Territory of Hawaiʻi v. Ben Ahakuelo et al, via The Clarence Darrow Digital Collection, University of Minnesota Law Library.
Peter Van Slingerland, Something Terrible Has Happened (New York: Harper & Row, 1966).
Wes Young, “Ahakuelo talks of Massie case: ‘Decided to set things straight,’” Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Jun 14, 1968, page 4.

Part Two (Episode 24):

“Alienists to Aid in Trial,” The New York Times, April 8, 1932, page 4.
Grace Hubbard Bell, FamilySearch.
Ella Margaret Burket, “Fortescue Home Captures Hawaiian Atmosphere,” The Palm Beach Post-Times, September 16, 1956, page 27.
“A Child and Native of Hawai‘i,” Hoku o Hawai‘i, January 19, 1932, page 3, translated to English by Nupepa.
Kathlyn Clore, “He was murdered in one of Hawaii’s most racist cases. Now his descendants are reclaiming his legacy,” SFGATE, February 13, 2021.
“Conversations between D.W. Watson and Ben Ahakuelo at the Honolulu Police Station,” January, 1932.
Clarence Darrow, “The Massie Trial,” in The Story of My Life, originally published in 1932 by C. Scribner’s Sons, New York; reprinted in 1996 by Da Capo Press, New York, 455-483.
Equal Justice Initiative, “Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror,”(3d Ed., 2017).
Kim Farrant and Joy Kahahawai-Welch, ““He Inherited The Very Same Name”: Remembering Joseph Kahahawai,” StoryCorps, June 17, 2022.
Grace Fortescue, “The Honolulu Martyrdom,” Originally published in Liberty magazine in three parts: Part 1 in Vol. 9, No. 31, July 30. 1932, 5-10; Part 2 in Vol. 9, No. 32, August 6, 1932, 10-14; and Part 3 in Vol. 9, No. 33, August 13, 1932, 12-16.
Philip Kinsley, “Massie to Fight Verdict; Defense Prepares Appeal,” Chicago Tribune, May 1, 1932, page 4.
Eliot Kleinberg, “Post Time: Thalia, Part 3: A daughter’s suicide; a mother unrepentant,” The Palm Beach Post, last updated September 3, 2016.
“The Island Murder,” American Experience, PBS, April 17, 2018.
“Murder in Paradise,” TIME, January 18, 1932, pages 12-13.
The Navy and the Massie-Kahahawai Case: A Timely Account of a Dark Page in Hawaiian History Worthy of Study (Honolulu: Honolulu Record Publishing Co., 1951).
Pinkerton’s National Detective Agency, Inc, “Ala Moana” Case Report, unpublished, October 3rd, 1932.
“Police Get No New Evidence,” The Honolulu Star-Bulletin, December 30, 1931, page 3.
Russell Owen, “First Interview With Mrs. Fortescue; Gives Her Reactions to Honolulu Tragedy,” The New York Times, February 8. 1932, pages 1, 3.
Russell Owen, “Mrs. Massie in Court Tears Up Evidence of A Domestic Rift,” The New York Times, April 21, 1932, page 1.
John Rosa, “The legacy of the Massie-Kahahawai case, 80 years on,” The Hawaii Independent, January 8, 2012.
David E. Stannard, Honor Killing: Race, Rape, and Clarence Darrow’s Spectacular Last Case (New York: Penguin Books, 2005).
Trial Transcript, Territory of Hawaiʻi v. Grace Fortescue et al, via The Clarence Darrow Digital Collection, University of Minnesota Law Library.
Peter Van Slingerland, Something Terrible Has Happened (New York: Harper & Row, 1966).
Peter T. Young, “Uakoko,” Images of Old Hawai‘i,” November 27, 2016.
Wes Young, “Ahakuelo talks of Massie case: ‘Decided to set things straight,’” Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Jun 14, 1968, page 4.