'Damned' in Hawaii

The Massies (at right) and their alleged co-conspirators.

By Bill Doughty

Any Sailor or Navy family member who wishes to understand the Navy's relationship with the 50th state – even before it became a state – would benefit from reading about the Massie Case.

Sometime after midnight, Sunday, September 13, 1931, Thalia Massie left a "Navy Night" party at Ala Wai Inn on Kalakaua Avenue. She claimed that while walking alone she was assaulted by a group of men known as the Ala Moana Boys. Later she also said she was raped.

Thalia Massie was the wife of Lt. Thomas Massie, a submariner stationed at Pearl Harbor. Thalia was described as a troubled and troublesome woman known for excessive drinking and flirtatious behavior. She identified native Hawaiian Joseph Kahahawai as the alleged rapist. A trial of the Ala Moana Boys resulted in a hung jury due to insufficient evidence and Thalia's questionable account.

That's when the Lt. Massie, along with Thalia's mother Grace Fortescue and several Sailors from Pearl Harbor, took the law into their own hands. They abducted and  interrogated Kahahawai, who maintained his innocence throughout the ordeal. The group then shot Kahahawai and were caught trying to throw his body in the ocean.

Defending the accused murderers who plotted the death of Kahahawai was retired lawyer of renown, Clarence Darrow, known as "attorney for the damned."

Two books worth reading about the Massie case are "Honor Killing: How the infamous 'Massie Affair' Transformed Hawaii" by David E. Stannard (Viking, 2005) and the more recent "A Death in the Islands: The Unwritten Law and the Last Trial of Clarence Darrow" by Mike Farris (SkyHorse, 2016).

Stannard's book reads like a mystery novel. The author, a University of Hawaii professor, knows the local culture and presents the case intimately from all sides. Understandably but unfortunately, his presentation relies on conjecture and what Farris calls outright "fiction."

Farris is a commercial litigator and entertainment lawyer based in Dallas, Texas. He, like Stannard, tries to present the case as a novel, admitting he took "some liberties with dialogue in scenes..." Those "liberties" detract from an otherwise fascinating presentation of the case, thanks to Farris's extensive sources that include trial transcripts, law school collections, Hawaii State Archives, newspaper reports and a number of books, including the well-written biography "Attorney for the Damned: Clarence Darrow in the Courtroom" edited by Arthur Weinberg (The University of Chicago Press, 1957).

Rear Adm. Yates Stirling

Another Farris source is the autobiography of the Navy admiral who commanded the 14th Naval District (Hawaii), "Sea Duty: The Memoirs of a Fighting Admiral" by Rear Adm. Yates Stirling (Putnam, 1939).

Stirling was an otherwise brilliant naval strategist in the mold of Mahan, but Farris calls him "arguably one of the villains in the whole affair." About Stirling, Farris writes:

"A noted racist, he viewed events through the prism of that racism. When first told of the alleged assault on Thalia, he said, 'our first inclination is to seize the brutes and string them up on trees.' He believed that the hung jury in the rape trial was a miscarriage of justice 'which could have been avoided if the Territorial Government had shown more inclination to sympathize with my insistence upon the necessity for a conviction,' and he justified the killing of Kahahawai by stating that "[t]he dark-skinned citizens have been taught how far the American white man will go to protect his women from brutal assaults by them.'"

From the evidence provided by Stannard and Farris. justice was far from colorblind in Hawaii nearly 90 years ago.

Darrow being treated to an outrigger canoe ride by Duke Kahanamoku and Waikiki Beach Boys.

Clarence Darrow's role as defense attorney was conflicted. Rather than taking the side of the underdog – the local men who were likely falsely accused – Darrow sided with the Massies and the Navy.

Darrow was treated like a celebrity in Hawaii. While in Waikiki he was the guest of Duke Kahanamoku and taken on an outrigger canoe ride in the surf by Duke and the Waikiki Beach Boys.

Why did Darrow come out of retirement at age 74 and travel to the middle of the Pacific to take a case where there was clear evidence against the defendants? Farris contends that Darrow accepted the job because he needed money after the crash of the stock market and his loss of savings.

According to John A. Farrell in "Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned," "Darrow ultimately agreed to go, he told himself, because he might bring healing to the troubled islands. And because he had always wanted to see Hawaii. But most of all he took the case because he needed money."

Farrell writes: "The navy and the Hawaiians had an uneasy relationship, dating back to America's seizure of the islands in the 1890s." The Massie Affair quickly became a national story with racist overtones:

"When five Hawaiians were arrested and charged with Thalia's rape, the news sent navy officials, members of Congress, and many of their constituents into an ugly fury. The islands were portrayed as a steamy hell where brown savages preyed upon the wives and daughters of American servicemen. Naval officials threatened to pull the fleet from Pearl Harbor, a move that would devastate the local economy. In Washington, Admiral William Pratt, the chief of naval operations, declared that indolent Hawaiian officials had sanctioned a plague of sexual assaults on white women..."

Darrow's decision to go to Hawaii "triggered a debate in the civil rights community," Farrell said. Darrow, after all, served on the board of the NAACP.

How the case played out is worth a read by anyone interested in the Navy's early history in Hawaii as well as in the evolution of criminal justice. We see the flaws in otherwise distinguished men like Stirling and Darrow, and we are reminded no one – even an icon – is perfect. We come face to face with racist attitudes in the 1930s and we confront the reaction to allegations of sexual assault. Finally, we see the need for a commitment to civil rights in the decades that followed. Perhaps most important, we see how far we've progressed toward tolerance and "aloha."

Darrow's own recounting of the case in his memoir "The Story of My Life" seems to shade some truth and contort reason, especially in light of the well-researched accounts by Stannard, Farris and Farrell. These books are recommended reads for any Sailor, Navy civilian and Navy family member living in Hawaii, as is Darrow's own "Story."