Theon Wright

A very thorough modern account based largely on contemporary local newspaper coverage of the case in which an American Naval officer's wife claimed to have been raped by an technically mixed group of Hawaiian young men. Some were tried and acquitted, and then the alleged victim's mother (a self-annointed southern lady) apparently pushed her daughter's husband into kidnapping, interrogating and shooting one of the suspects, who was aid to ave confessed to the crime before he was killed. Clarence Darrow appeared for the naval officer in his last major case. Wright is clearly sympathetic to the islanders, who apparently had a potentially strog defense. He never offers a serious alternative explanation of what had really happened to the navy wife. It seems clear that someone at least beat her up -possibly one of her husband's fellow officers.… (plus d'informations)

In September, 1931 in Honolulu, Hawai'i, Thalia Massie, the wife of a US Navy officer, accused five young Hawai'ians of kidnapping and raping her. The police immediately arrested five young men and charged them with crime even though the evidence seemed to show they could not have done it. The press, the white power brokers and the politicians all demanded a quick trial and conviction of the accused. A local judge was convinced that they were not guilty and agreed to defend them. Result was he was good and the prosecution who were so convinced they had a open and shut case were not. With the defendants out on bail because of a hung jury, Massie's husband, mother, and two sailors kidnapped one of the young men and killed him. They were found with the body and put on trial for murder. Clarence Darrow of Scopes Monkey Trial fame came to Hawai'i to defend them. They were all found guilty and sentenced to ten years in prison but served only an hour when the Governor of Hawai'i commuted the sentence to one hour. They fled to the mainland and never served their sentence. The racism evident in the police investigation, the coverage by the press, the involvement of the Navy, and the pressure from the local white power brokers was very damaging to Hawai'ian society. The negative publicity this case generated is thought to have been one of the factors that delayed statehood for many years. The author Wright was a reporter who covered the trials and gives a very detailed coverage and analysis of the case even to suggesting what the truth may have been. Fascinating true crime.… (plus d'informations)