Darrow Clarence - A death in the islands: the unwritten law and the last trial of Clarence Darrow

Copyright 2016 by Mike Farris

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

Cover design by Rain Saukas

Cover photo credits AP Images, Robert Command

Print ISBN: 9781510712140

Ebook ISBN: 9781510712157

Printed in the United States of America

To Susan: Mahalo for your aloha and support.

Acknowledgments

It was many years ago, while on vacation in Hawaii, when I first stumbled across this tragic story. I knew then that I wanted to write about it, but as is so often the case, procrastination and inertia were my enemies. At long last, though, this book has become a reality. I want to thank my agents, Donna Eastman and Gloria Koehler, for their dedication to finding a publisher for this story. And I want to thank the great people at Skyhorse Publishing for their hard work, which has made this a better book: Joseph Craig, Stacey Fischkelta, and Ashley Vanicek. I also want to thank my advance readers, Kelly Griffin, Jon Griffin, and Steve Baskind. And of course my wife, Susan, for her support, which included reading countless drafts of the manuscript along the way.

UNWRITTEN LAW. See LEX NON SCRIPTA . A popular expression to designate a supposed rule of law that a man who takes the life of his wifes paramour or daughters seducer is not guilty of a criminal offence.

Bouviers Law Dictionary and Concise Encyclopedia (1914)

Of course, all the attorneys for the prosecution, and those for the defense, as well as the judge, knew that legally my clients were guilty of murder. Yet, on the island, and across the seas, and around the earth, men and women were hoping and praying and working for the release and vindication of the defendants. As in similar cases, every one was talking about the unwritten law. While this could not be found in the statutes, it was indelibly written in the feelings and thoughts of people in general. Which would triumph, the written or the unwritten law, depended upon many things which in this case demand the most careful consideration.

Clarence Darrow, The Story of My Life

Contents

PART ONE
THALIA MASSIE AND THE ALA MOANA BOYS

Chapter One: The Woman in Green
Are you white people?

Chapter Two: The Ala Moana Boys
Something terrible has happened.

Chapter Three: The Accusation
A woman was assaulted by a man.

Chapter Four: The Physical Examination
Clean as a new pin.

Chapter Five: Thalias Statement
Now look at your beautiful work.

Chapter Six: Rounding Up the Boys
It was a car like that.

Chapter Seven: The Identification
Our first inclination is to seize the brutes and string them up on trees.

Chapter Eight: The Alibi
Do you know this is Bennie?

Chapter Nine: The Lawyers
The district attorney was too deaf to conduct a trial.

PART TWO
TERRITORY OF HAWAII V. BEN AHAKUELO, ET AL

Chapter Ten: Thalia for the Prosecution
I started to pray and that made him angry and he hit me very hard.

Chapter Eleven: The Prosecution Continues
I was instructed to keep that under cover.

Chapter Twelve: The Prosecution Rests
the prosecution has utterly failed to prove its case.

Chapter Thirteen: The Timeline
A white man was following her.

Chapter Fourteen: Tying Up Loose Ends for the Defense
She said, I am positive they were Hawaiians because of the way they spoke.

Chapter Fifteen: The Defendants Speak
Were you afraid she was going to choke you to death?

Chapter Sixteen: Rebuttal
two men held this arm and she tried to get away from these men.

Chapter Seventeen: Sending the Case to the Jury
The most damnable thing in the history of the Territory

PART THREE
A DEATH IN THE ISLANDS

Chapter Eighteen: Somewhere Over the Pali
The Shame of Honolulu

Chapter Nineteen: The Abduction
Life is a mysterious and exciting affair.

Chapter Twenty: Disposing of the Body
I then noticed a human leg sticking out of the white bundle.

Chapter Twenty-one: A Funeral in the Islands
Poor Kahahawai, these haoles murdered you in cold blood.

PART FOUR
TERRITORY OF HAWAII V. GRACE FORTESCUE, ET AL

Chapter Twenty-two: Turning States Evidence
I never should have pulled that shade down.

Chapter Twenty-three: Judge Cristy and the Grand Jury
God has not left this world for an instant.

Chapter Twenty-four: The Heavyweights
[H]e has a damn fine jury personalitywhen hes sober.

Chapter Twenty-five: The Finger of Doom
Is Joseph alive?

Chapter Twenty-six: Tommies Story
Dont let him get me!

Chapter Twenty-seven: The Man Who Fired the Gun
We can trace those impulses back to the cradle.

Chapter Twenty-eight: Delirium with Ambulatory Automatism
What right does he have to say that I dont love you?

Chapter Twenty-nine: Closing Arguments
Three able men and a cold calculating woman

Chapter Thirty: Custody of the High Sheriff
We, the jury, in the above entitled cause find the defendant

PART FIVE
EPILOGUE

Chapter Thirty-one: The Pinkerton Report
It has been shown that the five accused did not have the opportunity to commit the kidnapping and rape described by Mrs. Massie.

Chapter Thirty-two: What Really Happened?
Blasted careers, ruined lives, tragedy, and death.

Introduction

In the wee hours of the morning on Sunday, September 13, 1931, two events occurred nearly simultaneously in Honolulu which, although reported separately to the police, set in motion a series of events that included lies, deception, mental illness, racism, revenge, murder, and one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in United States history. It nearly tore apart the peaceful islands of Hawaii as it reverberated from the tenements of Honolulu to the hallowed halls of Congress, and right into the White House. And it ultimately left a stain on the legacy of one of the greatest legal minds of all time.

This is the story of the Ala Moana Boys, as they came to be known, and the last trial of Clarence Darrow.

I first became acquainted with this story more than twenty years ago while vacationing with my wife in our favorite vacation destination: Hawaii. We were in a small bookstore in downtown Hilo, on the Big Island, where I picked up a copy of a small paperback book that had a title that leaped out at me from the cover: Rape in Paradise by Theon Wright, published in 1966.

On the back cover, it contained this intriguing teaser:

A white woman claims she is raped by a gang of non-whites; white authorities attempt to push through a swift justice. Ugly race hatred bursts out into open violence. The community divides into two angry factions, prompting the federal government to consider sending in troops to maintain order.