WEBVTT - Horror in Honolulu: Part One 0:00:01.000 --> 0:00:06.080 You're listening to History on Trial, a production of iHeart Podcasts. 0:00:06.680 --> 0:00:12.680 Listener Discretion advised. Hello listeners, I'm starting a newsletter which 0:00:12.720 --> 0:00:16.880 will contain episode bonus content, reading and podcast recommendations, and 0:00:17.040 --> 0:00:20.959 other fun history related tidbits. To sign up, please visit 0:00:20.960 --> 0:00:31.200 our website History on Trial podcast dot com. On September twelfth, 0:00:31.320 --> 0:00:35.640 nineteen thirty one, Horace Da received a gift that would 0:00:35.640 --> 0:00:38.840 turn out to be a curse. It happened like this. 0:00:39.560 --> 0:00:44.080 Horace's older sister, Haro had a beautiful light tan model 0:00:44.120 --> 0:00:48.040 a Ford, which she'd saved up for for years, and 0:00:48.159 --> 0:00:52.120 that night she told Horace he could borrow it. She 0:00:52.320 --> 0:00:54.480 was going to be working and didn't need the car. 0:00:54.800 --> 0:00:57.320 As long as Horace promised to be careful, he could 0:00:57.320 --> 0:01:01.240 take his friends out in it. Horace was delighted. This 0:01:01.520 --> 0:01:04.319 was a rare treat. He put on a white silk 0:01:04.360 --> 0:01:07.520 shirt and dark trousers and headed out into the humid 0:01:07.640 --> 0:01:11.840 Honolulu night to find his friends. At a speakeasy, he 0:01:12.000 --> 0:01:16.440 ran into David Takai and Ben Ahacuelo. The three young 0:01:16.480 --> 0:01:20.039 men had grown up together in Sunday School. A missionary 0:01:20.040 --> 0:01:24.759 who'd taught them remembered they'd been mischievous and scrappy. Now 0:01:24.880 --> 0:01:28.440 all in their early twenties, they were settling down. Horace 0:01:28.480 --> 0:01:31.560 had just spent a year working in Los Angeles, David 0:01:31.640 --> 0:01:35.000 was about to do the same, and Ben's girlfriend was pregnant. 0:01:35.840 --> 0:01:37.960 But they weren't too old to have fun. On a 0:01:38.000 --> 0:01:41.440 Saturday night, They spent a while at the speakeasy, then 0:01:41.520 --> 0:01:45.280 considered where to go next. Ben knew about a luau nearby, 0:01:45.760 --> 0:01:48.960 so the crew headed over and gorged themselves on roast 0:01:49.000 --> 0:01:51.960 pig and beer. But there weren't many young people at 0:01:51.960 --> 0:01:54.480 the luau, so they decided to check out a dance 0:01:54.560 --> 0:01:58.520 at Waikiki Park. Horace spent the next two hours driving 0:01:58.640 --> 0:02:01.720 various friends to and from the luau and the dance. 0:02:02.320 --> 0:02:06.200 He didn't mind playing chauffeur. Driving Hariyo's car was such 0:02:06.280 --> 0:02:11.080 a joy. Eventually, two other childhood friends, Henry Chang and 0:02:11.200 --> 0:02:18.000 Joe Cahahavai, joined Horace. At midnight. When the dance ended, Horace, Henry, Joe, David, 0:02:18.040 --> 0:02:21.560 and Ben huddled outside Waikiki Park thinking of where to 0:02:21.600 --> 0:02:25.919 go next, their main criteria being free food and beer. 0:02:26.360 --> 0:02:28.919 The group decided to go back to the luau once more, 0:02:29.840 --> 0:02:32.839 driving down Bartania Street, they ran into a car full 0:02:32.919 --> 0:02:35.880 of friends, and the two cars drove side by side 0:02:35.960 --> 0:02:39.720 for a while, their occupants chatting. But by the time 0:02:39.800 --> 0:02:42.800 the men got to the luau around twelve thirty, the 0:02:42.880 --> 0:02:46.280 party had ended. It was time to call it a night. 0:02:47.320 --> 0:02:50.840 Horace dropped David off first, Then as he pulled out 0:02:50.840 --> 0:02:55.160 onto Lileha Street, Horace narrowly avoided colliding with another car. 0:02:55.800 --> 0:02:58.040 A woman in the other car shouted at Horace to 0:02:58.080 --> 0:03:01.359 watch where he was going. Joe shouted back, telling the 0:03:01.440 --> 0:03:04.280 driver to get out of his car. Joe was a 0:03:04.360 --> 0:03:07.679 champion boxer and football player and thought he could easily 0:03:07.760 --> 0:03:10.840 take the driver, a middle aged white man. But it 0:03:10.880 --> 0:03:12.760 was not the driver who got out of the car. 0:03:12.919 --> 0:03:18.240 It was the passenger, his irate wife, Agnes Peeples. Agnes, 0:03:18.360 --> 0:03:21.920 a formidable Hawaiian woman whose daughter described her as quote 0:03:22.080 --> 0:03:25.760 built like a Sherman tank, wasn't afraid of some tipsy 0:03:25.880 --> 0:03:29.400 young men. When Joe stepped towards her, she shoved him. 0:03:29.680 --> 0:03:33.480 He swung back, clipping her ear. Agnes grabbed Joe's throat 0:03:33.520 --> 0:03:36.480 with one hand and punched him with the other. Horace 0:03:36.640 --> 0:03:40.400 Ida groaned, it had been such a nice night, and 0:03:40.480 --> 0:03:44.160 now this e and Henry pulled Joe back into the car. 0:03:44.800 --> 0:03:48.920 Agnes's husband, Homer, calmed her down and everyone drove off. 0:03:49.600 --> 0:03:51.480 Horace hoped that that was the end of the issue 0:03:51.800 --> 0:03:54.760 and dropped Henry and Joe off at their homes. But 0:03:54.840 --> 0:03:58.240 two hours later, when Horace was fast asleep in his bed, 0:03:58.600 --> 0:04:01.440 someone knocked loudly on the front door of the house 0:04:01.440 --> 0:04:05.119 he shared with his sisters and mother. It was the police. 0:04:05.800 --> 0:04:10.120 They were taking him in for questioning. This seemed ridiculous 0:04:10.120 --> 0:04:12.960 to Horace. It had only been a brief fight, no 0:04:13.040 --> 0:04:15.920 one had really been injured, and anyway, that woman had 0:04:16.000 --> 0:04:19.880 hit Joe first, but he agreed to come to police headquarters. 0:04:20.920 --> 0:04:23.679 While he waited to be questioned at the station, Horace 0:04:23.760 --> 0:04:27.520 must have rude ever accepting Harrio's gift. What a price 0:04:27.600 --> 0:04:29.840 to pay for a single night out with his friends. 0:04:30.640 --> 0:04:34.760 But even then, Horace had no idea what truly lay 0:04:34.839 --> 0:04:38.039 in store for him. Earlier that night, a young white 0:04:38.080 --> 0:04:41.320 woman named Thalia Massey had reported to police that she 0:04:41.400 --> 0:04:43.680 had been kidnapped and raped by a group of men 0:04:43.760 --> 0:04:48.080 near Waikiki. The police had quickly connected Thalia Massey's attack 0:04:48.200 --> 0:04:51.480 with the police report filed by Agnes Peeples about her 0:04:51.520 --> 0:04:55.440 fight with Joe. In both cases, the suspects were a 0:04:55.480 --> 0:04:58.680 group of young men in a car. Horace was not 0:04:58.839 --> 0:05:01.680 in the police station to answer questions about a road 0:05:01.800 --> 0:05:05.600 rage run in. He was there to answer questions about 0:05:05.640 --> 0:05:11.560 the assault of Thalia Massi. Horace denied knowing anything about 0:05:11.560 --> 0:05:16.800 this assault. So did David Takai, Ben Ahaquelo, Joe Cahahavai, 0:05:16.960 --> 0:05:21.160 and Henry Chang. They had never seen Thalia in their lives, 0:05:21.200 --> 0:05:24.080 the young men said at the time she had been attacked. 0:05:24.160 --> 0:05:28.120 They had been driving down Bartania Street. People had seen them. 0:05:28.440 --> 0:05:32.520 They had alibis. But in the face of a political 0:05:32.640 --> 0:05:37.160 establishment that was determined to get convictions for Thalia Massey's rape, 0:05:37.640 --> 0:05:41.919 would the truth be a good enough defense. Welcome to 0:05:42.000 --> 0:05:46.280 History on Trial. I'm your host, Mira Hayward. This week 0:05:46.400 --> 0:05:52.120 The Territory of Hawaii v. Ben Ahaquelo et al. On 0:05:52.200 --> 0:05:55.800 the evening of September twelfth, as Horace Ida gleefully started 0:05:55.880 --> 0:05:59.880 up his sister's ford, Thalia and Tommy Massey got ready 0:06:00.080 --> 0:06:03.320 to go out. The Das and the Massis only lived 0:06:03.320 --> 0:06:06.440 a few miles apart as the crow Flies, but their 0:06:06.480 --> 0:06:11.080 neighborhoods were worlds apart. Horace Da lived in the part 0:06:11.120 --> 0:06:15.200 of Honolulu then known as Hell's Half Acre, a teeming, 0:06:15.400 --> 0:06:19.800 densely populated slum inhabited by a mix of ethnic groups, 0:06:19.839 --> 0:06:24.760 including Japanese, Chinese, and Filipino immigrants, as well as native Hawaiians. 0:06:25.480 --> 0:06:29.880 Tammi and Thalia Massi lived in Manoa Valley, a lush, 0:06:30.040 --> 0:06:34.039 lovely neighborhood that climbed up into the mountains northeast of Waikiki. 0:06:34.839 --> 0:06:37.440 Manoah had once been a favorite retreat for the Hawaiian 0:06:37.480 --> 0:06:42.120 royal family. Now restrictive racial covenants meant that almost all 0:06:42.279 --> 0:06:47.280 Manoa residents were white. Orderly bungalows lined the valley's streets, 0:06:47.560 --> 0:06:51.520 filled with Navy men and their wives. Twenty year old 0:06:51.560 --> 0:06:55.919 Thalia Massi was not popular in Manoa. She refused to 0:06:55.960 --> 0:06:59.880 socialize with other Navy wives, believing them to be beneath her. 0:07:00.920 --> 0:07:06.200 After all, Thalia was a Roosevelt. Yes, her father, Rollie Fortescue, 0:07:06.680 --> 0:07:10.960 was the illegitimate child of Robert Barnwell Roosevelt, but Robert 0:07:11.000 --> 0:07:14.720 had eventually married Rolli's mother, and the Roosevelts counted Rolly 0:07:14.800 --> 0:07:17.080 as one of their own. He had fought in the 0:07:17.080 --> 0:07:20.559 Spanish American War with his cousin Teddy, and then worked 0:07:20.560 --> 0:07:24.600 as Teddy's aid in the White House. And Thalia's mother, Grace, 0:07:24.840 --> 0:07:28.960 came from equally illustrious stock. She was a Belle as 0:07:29.000 --> 0:07:33.200 an Alexander Graham Bell and Belle Telephone later at and 0:07:33.280 --> 0:07:37.000 t Falia and her two younger sisters had grown up 0:07:37.040 --> 0:07:41.200 on grand estates. It was true that Rolli's drinking and 0:07:41.360 --> 0:07:45.840 refusal to work had left the Fortescuez in dire financial straits, 0:07:45.920 --> 0:07:50.560 and the Fortescue daughters were notoriously ill behaved. But despite 0:07:50.600 --> 0:07:53.600 all of this, Thalia and her sisters had been instilled 0:07:53.600 --> 0:07:57.200 with the belief that their heritage made them superior to others. 0:07:57.960 --> 0:08:00.840 So when the other Navy wives invited Thalia to their 0:08:00.920 --> 0:08:05.480 teas and luncheons, she declined, and she wasn't shy about 0:08:05.520 --> 0:08:09.000 telling them why. Even when she did attend the occasional 0:08:09.000 --> 0:08:13.880 dinner party, her behavior was appalling. She would drink heavily, 0:08:14.080 --> 0:08:18.320 tell inappropriate stories, and criticize everything around her, from the 0:08:18.360 --> 0:08:23.520 house's decorp to the hostess's dress. Tommy Massew regularly confided 0:08:23.560 --> 0:08:27.120 in his friends about how terrible his marriage was. Things 0:08:27.160 --> 0:08:30.600 hadn't always been like this. When Tommy had first met 0:08:30.640 --> 0:08:33.440 Thalia four years earlier, when she was a sixteen year 0:08:33.440 --> 0:08:35.679 old high school student and he was a twenty two 0:08:35.760 --> 0:08:39.440 year old cadet at the Naval Academy, life had been sunny. 0:08:40.000 --> 0:08:42.640 Tommy had spent a blissful summer with the fortesc Us 0:08:42.679 --> 0:08:46.160 at the Roosevelt estate on Long Island, charming the whole 0:08:46.240 --> 0:08:50.160 family with his affable personality. Tommy might not have come 0:08:50.200 --> 0:08:53.160 from as well known a family as Thalia's, but the 0:08:53.240 --> 0:08:56.640 Massis were a prominent family in Kentucky, and his stable 0:08:56.720 --> 0:08:58.959 career in the Navy meant that he would be able 0:08:59.000 --> 0:09:03.000 to provide for thee. When Tommy and Thalia married on 0:09:03.080 --> 0:09:07.760 November twenty fourth, nineteen twenty seven, their future had looked bright, 0:09:09.000 --> 0:09:12.319 and for a little while all was well. Tommy had 0:09:12.360 --> 0:09:15.440 several postings on the East Coast. People who knew the 0:09:15.440 --> 0:09:19.080 Massies then said they seemed happy, though there were rumors 0:09:19.080 --> 0:09:23.079 about Thalia being unfaithful. The couple tried to start a family, 0:09:23.200 --> 0:09:27.480 but Thalia miscarried. Thalia's health was poor. She had an 0:09:27.600 --> 0:09:32.559 untreated thyroid condition which caused weight loss, anxiety, and vision problems. 0:09:33.160 --> 0:09:35.800 To compensate for the frequent loss of vision in one 0:09:35.840 --> 0:09:39.800 of her eyes. Falia had developed a distinctive gait. She 0:09:39.920 --> 0:09:43.480 walked with her head tilted down into the side, and 0:09:43.559 --> 0:09:47.920 Tommy endured some professional setbacks. He dreamed of being a pilot, 0:09:48.000 --> 0:09:51.200 but at barely five foot five, he was rejected four 0:09:51.280 --> 0:09:54.120 times for being too short. When he finally got a 0:09:54.160 --> 0:09:58.199 heighth waiver, he failed the psychological exam, with the examiner 0:09:58.240 --> 0:10:02.720 calling him temperamentily not qualified, perhaps due to his quick 0:10:02.760 --> 0:10:06.600 temper and what some Annapolis classmates had called his quote 0:10:06.880 --> 0:10:11.440 cynical attitude. But Tommy had accepted the decision and pivoted 0:10:11.440 --> 0:10:16.120 his focus to submarines. In May nineteen thirty, he graduated 0:10:16.120 --> 0:10:19.520 from the Navy's Submarine School and was assigned to Squadron four, 0:10:19.880 --> 0:10:23.760 based at Pearl Harbor. To most people, this posting would 0:10:23.800 --> 0:10:27.480 have been a dream. In the nineteen twenties, a Hawaiian 0:10:27.520 --> 0:10:31.760 craze had swept the United States. Hawaiian inspired music played 0:10:31.800 --> 0:10:36.280 on the radio, theaters staged moch hula shows, and Hollywood 0:10:36.320 --> 0:10:40.240 studios filmed movie after movie on the island's beautiful beaches. 0:10:41.240 --> 0:10:44.200 At the same time, as tourists flocked to Hawaii, the 0:10:44.280 --> 0:10:48.600 United States Navy was increasing its presence there, massively expanding 0:10:48.640 --> 0:10:51.880 Pearl Harbor. Many of the military men who came to 0:10:51.920 --> 0:10:54.520 Awe who at this time, were disturbed by the level 0:10:54.559 --> 0:10:58.280 of racial integration on the island, which was comparatively higher 0:10:58.280 --> 0:11:01.200 than in the rest of the United States. One need 0:11:01.320 --> 0:11:04.520 only talk for five minutes with the average naval officer, 0:11:04.679 --> 0:11:08.640 wrote reporter Lilyan Symes around this time, to realize that 0:11:08.720 --> 0:11:12.120 he is straining at the leash to put Hawaii's brown 0:11:12.200 --> 0:11:18.160 and yellow peoples in their place. Nonetheless, most sailors still 0:11:18.160 --> 0:11:23.000 found Honolulu a lovely place to live, but not Tommy 0:11:23.080 --> 0:11:27.800 and Thalia Massey. As Thalia's bad behavior became more outrageous, 0:11:28.120 --> 0:11:32.000 Tommy too began to fall apart. He started drinking heavily. 0:11:32.559 --> 0:11:36.679 The couple fought loudly and sometimes violently. When Tommy went 0:11:36.720 --> 0:11:40.280 out on sea duty, Thalia would invite other men over. 0:11:41.080 --> 0:11:43.559 In the summer of nineteen thirty one, in the latter 0:11:43.600 --> 0:11:47.360 stages of pregnancy, Thalia lost the baby and fell into 0:11:47.360 --> 0:11:52.200 a depression that manifested itself in increasingly hostile behavior towards Tommy. 0:11:53.040 --> 0:11:56.800 She briefly saw a psychologist, doctor E. Loowel Kelly, but 0:11:56.880 --> 0:12:00.640 After Kelly recommended to Tommy that Thalia receives psychae care, 0:12:01.040 --> 0:12:06.240 Thalia stopped seeing him. In August, Tommy told Dalia that 0:12:06.320 --> 0:12:10.440 he wanted a divorce. Thalia begged him for another chance, 0:12:10.880 --> 0:12:13.040 not because she loved him, but because she did not 0:12:13.160 --> 0:12:15.480 want to have to go back and live with her parents. 0:12:16.160 --> 0:12:20.560 Tommy relented, but only conditionally. Thalia had three months to 0:12:20.640 --> 0:12:24.800 try harder or else he was done. He called it probation. 0:12:25.760 --> 0:12:30.080 Thalia promised to do her best. Agreeing to go out 0:12:30.080 --> 0:12:32.600 with Tommy and some of his Navy friends on September 0:12:32.600 --> 0:12:36.880 twelfth was part of her reform efforts. Thalia hated nights 0:12:36.880 --> 0:12:40.200 out like this, surrounded by drunken Navy officers and their 0:12:40.280 --> 0:12:44.160 boring wives, but knowing what was at stake, she slipped 0:12:44.200 --> 0:12:47.840 on a long green silk dress and matching jacket. She 0:12:47.960 --> 0:12:51.400 pasted a smile on as Tommy's friends and their wives arrived. 0:12:51.960 --> 0:12:54.760 After an hour of drinking, the group headed to the Aluwai, 0:12:54.880 --> 0:12:59.000 in a Navy haunt in Waikiki. When they arrived between 0:12:59.080 --> 0:13:01.800 nine thirty and ten te pm, Tommy split off to 0:13:01.840 --> 0:13:05.400 talk to some of his shipmates. Irritated at his abandonment, 0:13:05.800 --> 0:13:10.160 Thalia went upstairs, where she circulated and drank, waiting for 0:13:10.200 --> 0:13:14.760 Tommy to come find her. He never did. Around eleven thirty, 0:13:14.840 --> 0:13:17.320 Thalia got into a fight with a Navy officer who 0:13:17.360 --> 0:13:21.480 wanted her seat. After the man called Thalia alous, she 0:13:21.720 --> 0:13:25.640 slapped him. Tommy was summoned to calm her down. The 0:13:25.679 --> 0:13:28.920 couple talked for a little while, then Tommy went back downstairs. 0:13:29.679 --> 0:13:32.680 This night was clearly not going as either of the 0:13:32.760 --> 0:13:36.880 Massies had hoped. Around one am, Tommy decided to head out. 0:13:37.720 --> 0:13:40.800 Salia was nowhere to be found, but since she often 0:13:40.880 --> 0:13:43.960 left parties when she was upset, Tommy assumed she'd already 0:13:44.000 --> 0:13:47.120 gone home. He tried calling the house, but no one answered, 0:13:47.559 --> 0:13:50.320 so Tommy and a friend drove back to Manoah headed 0:13:50.320 --> 0:13:52.520 to a friend's house where they'd heard a party was happening. 0:13:53.080 --> 0:13:55.520 When they got there, though, the host was not yet home, 0:13:56.040 --> 0:14:00.439 so Tommy and his friend decided to wait. Ten minutes earlier, 0:14:00.679 --> 0:14:04.160 at twelve fifty a m. Eustace Bellinger was driving his 0:14:04.240 --> 0:14:07.800 wife and their friends, the Clarks, down Ala Moana Road 0:14:07.960 --> 0:14:11.360 to get a late night snack. Suddenly, a woman appeared 0:14:11.400 --> 0:14:15.640 in front of the car, alarmed Bellinger pulled over. The woman, 0:14:15.720 --> 0:14:19.000 whose face looked swollen, told the Bellingers and Clarks that 0:14:19.080 --> 0:14:22.840 her name was Thalia Massey. She said that she'd been 0:14:22.880 --> 0:14:25.800 at a party earlier that night, but left around midnight 0:14:25.840 --> 0:14:29.040 to get some air. As she walked down john Ena Roade, 0:14:29.160 --> 0:14:32.160 Thalia said some men had grabbed her and pulled her 0:14:32.200 --> 0:14:35.320 into a car. They'd beaten her and then abandoned her 0:14:35.360 --> 0:14:38.840 in a deserted clearing off of Ala Moana. Missus Clark 0:14:38.920 --> 0:14:42.000 immediately suggested that they take Thalia to the police station 0:14:42.240 --> 0:14:45.280 or to a hospital, but she said she only wanted 0:14:45.320 --> 0:14:49.560 to go home. Just as Thalia got home, the phone rang. 0:14:50.320 --> 0:14:54.320 It was Tommy calling from his friend's house. Thalia picked 0:14:54.400 --> 0:14:59.000 up the phone and cried, something awful has happened. Come home. 0:15:00.760 --> 0:15:03.920 At one forty seven a m. Honolulu Police received a 0:15:03.920 --> 0:15:08.920 call from Tommy Massey requesting assistance. A woman had been assaulted, 0:15:09.000 --> 0:15:12.680 he said. Detective John Jardine, in charge of the night shift, 0:15:12.880 --> 0:15:17.280 dispatched two detectives, George Harbottle and William Fortado, to go 0:15:17.360 --> 0:15:20.800 to the Massie's home. Police had gone to the house before, 0:15:21.040 --> 0:15:24.920 usually responding to noise complaints from neighbors. When the massies fought. 0:15:25.600 --> 0:15:30.200 This call out was different. Thalia had not wanted Tommy 0:15:30.240 --> 0:15:33.400 to call the police in. When detectives Harbottle and for 0:15:33.520 --> 0:15:36.880 Todo arrived, they found her lying on a couch, crying 0:15:36.960 --> 0:15:41.360 and wearing a nightgown. Haltingly, Thalia told the detectives that 0:15:41.480 --> 0:15:44.360 four or five Hawaiian men had snatched her off the road, 0:15:44.720 --> 0:15:47.880 driven her to a remote spot, and then beat and 0:15:48.000 --> 0:15:52.280 raped her. For Toado and Harbottle were shocked. In the 0:15:52.480 --> 0:15:55.800 entire history of white settlement in Hawaii more than one 0:15:55.880 --> 0:15:59.120 hundred years, there had never been a recorded case of 0:15:59.120 --> 0:16:03.280 a Hawaiian man sexually assaulting a white woman. The detectives 0:16:03.320 --> 0:16:07.320 walked Thelia carefully through her account, trying to get more information. 0:16:08.000 --> 0:16:11.560 Nothing helpful was forthcoming. Alia said the night was so 0:16:11.760 --> 0:16:14.360 dark she could not see the men's faces and doubted 0:16:14.400 --> 0:16:18.000 she could identify them. However, when pushed by Fortado, she 0:16:18.080 --> 0:16:20.720 said she was certain that all the men were Hawaiian, 0:16:20.960 --> 0:16:25.080 not Chinese or Japanese. She could only describe their car 0:16:25.120 --> 0:16:28.640 as being old and dark with a torn cloth top. 0:16:29.320 --> 0:16:32.200 She had not seen a license plate. The night had 0:16:32.240 --> 0:16:35.360 been dark. She said. She did not mention that her 0:16:35.400 --> 0:16:38.640 bad eyesight rendered her nearly blind when she didn't wear 0:16:38.680 --> 0:16:42.080 her glasses, glasses that she had left at home that night. 0:16:43.160 --> 0:16:46.880 As Detective Harbottle continued the questioning, detective for Toado called 0:16:46.920 --> 0:16:50.920 Detective Jardine to report in Fortato, and Jardine agreed that 0:16:50.920 --> 0:16:53.640 Thalia's story reminded them of a case they had caught 0:16:53.680 --> 0:16:57.640 earlier that night. At twelve forty five am, Agnes Peeples 0:16:57.680 --> 0:17:00.160 had come to police headquarters to report that she'd had 0:17:00.160 --> 0:17:02.960 an altercation with a car full of young men, and 0:17:03.040 --> 0:17:06.600 that one of them, a Hawaiian, had assaulted her. Two 0:17:06.680 --> 0:17:10.040 incidents involving a group of young Hawaiian men seemed unlikely 0:17:10.119 --> 0:17:13.800 to be a coincidence, the detective's thought. As Thalia was 0:17:13.840 --> 0:17:16.720 taken to a nearby hospital to be examined, a car 0:17:16.800 --> 0:17:20.920 was dispatched to the Ida house. Unlike Salia, Agnes had 0:17:20.920 --> 0:17:24.920 seen a license plate five eight nine eight five, which 0:17:24.960 --> 0:17:27.440 the police had been able to trace to the Eda's car. 0:17:28.040 --> 0:17:31.200 Horace Ida denied having anything to do with Thalia's rape 0:17:31.520 --> 0:17:33.760 and initially refused to name the men he had been 0:17:33.760 --> 0:17:38.520 out with, but after hours of relentless interrogation, Horace identified 0:17:38.520 --> 0:17:42.280 his friends as the police brought in the other men, 0:17:42.600 --> 0:17:47.520 Joe Cahahavai, Ben Ahaquelo, David Takai and Henry Chang, and 0:17:47.720 --> 0:17:52.920 interrogated them. In turn, a problem emerged. The men's accounts 0:17:52.960 --> 0:17:56.919 of their night were consistent. Moreover, they could provide the 0:17:56.960 --> 0:17:59.440 police with the names of many other people who had 0:17:59.480 --> 0:18:01.879 seen or see spoken with them between ten pm and 0:18:02.040 --> 0:18:04.840 one am. There was no time for them to have 0:18:04.880 --> 0:18:08.560 committed the attack, which Thalia claimed had happened between midnight 0:18:08.640 --> 0:18:12.480 and twelve forty five. The men's strong alibis were not 0:18:12.680 --> 0:18:16.320 the only issue. Thalia had repeatedly said that she was 0:18:16.359 --> 0:18:19.840 sure that her attackers were all Hawaiian. Joe and Ben 0:18:19.880 --> 0:18:23.000 were Hawaiian, and Henry was half Hawaiian and half Chinese, 0:18:23.440 --> 0:18:27.280 but Horace Da and David Takai were both Japanese, and 0:18:27.359 --> 0:18:30.879 Haruya DA's car didn't match the description Thalia had given 0:18:30.960 --> 0:18:33.560 of an old, dark colored car with a ripped top. 0:18:34.119 --> 0:18:36.960 Haruyo's car was only two years old, with a light 0:18:37.040 --> 0:18:41.399 hand exterior and a pristine cloth top. But fortunately for 0:18:41.480 --> 0:18:46.640 the detectives, Thalia now seemed flexible on details. When John McIntosh, 0:18:46.800 --> 0:18:50.240 the chief of detectives, interviewed Thalia, at police headquarters after 0:18:50.280 --> 0:18:54.000 her exam, she now told Captain Macintosh that she had 0:18:54.160 --> 0:18:59.639 seen a license plate five eight eight oh five that 0:18:59.800 --> 0:19:04.879 was only one digit off from haruyo Eda's plate. Later 0:19:05.200 --> 0:19:09.760 at trial, a possible explanation for Thalia's sudden memory was provided. 0:19:10.520 --> 0:19:13.959 Throughout the early morning of September thirteenth, a police dispatcher 0:19:14.000 --> 0:19:17.320 had repeatedly broadcast a be on the lookout alert for 0:19:17.359 --> 0:19:20.359 a car with license plate five eight eight nine five 0:19:20.720 --> 0:19:23.280 which had been involved in an assault on a woman. 0:19:24.240 --> 0:19:27.560 The dispatcher was referring to the assault on Agnes Peoples, 0:19:27.840 --> 0:19:31.920 but a lay listener would not know that these broadcasts 0:19:31.920 --> 0:19:35.840 had blared from police car radios stationed right outside the 0:19:35.920 --> 0:19:39.760 exam room. Thalia Massi was in an exam room with 0:19:39.880 --> 0:19:44.560 open windows when Captain McIntosh brought Haryo's car to the 0:19:44.600 --> 0:19:48.159 Massie's house around nine am on the thirteenth, identifying it 0:19:48.200 --> 0:19:52.439 to Thalia as quote the suspect's car. Thalia said that 0:19:52.480 --> 0:19:55.280 while she couldn't be certain that this was the exact car, 0:19:55.480 --> 0:19:59.480 it was quote a car like that, and when Macintosh 0:19:59.480 --> 0:20:02.840 brought jo Henry, David and Horace in front of Thalia 0:20:02.920 --> 0:20:06.480 later that day, she identified all of them except for 0:20:06.560 --> 0:20:11.320 David Takai, as being her assailants. By that time, news 0:20:11.320 --> 0:20:15.600 of Thalia's rape was public and causing an enormous uproar. 0:20:16.480 --> 0:20:20.679 No one was angrier than Admiral Yates Sterling, commandant of 0:20:20.720 --> 0:20:25.040 the fourteenth Naval District, an outspoken racist and an advocate 0:20:25.080 --> 0:20:29.320 for complete military control of Hawaii, Sterling was furious to 0:20:29.359 --> 0:20:33.600 hear about the attack. Notably, Sterling had been much less 0:20:33.680 --> 0:20:36.800 angry about the two sexual assaults committed by white sailors 0:20:36.840 --> 0:20:40.320 against Hawaiian women in the past five months. There is 0:20:40.400 --> 0:20:43.440 no record of the Navy punishing these men after demanding 0:20:43.480 --> 0:20:47.320 custody of them from the local police, But now Sterling 0:20:47.400 --> 0:20:52.000 called for quote quick action and adequate punishment for these 0:20:52.280 --> 0:20:57.399 quote dark skinned criminals. Sterling quickly organized a meeting with 0:20:57.400 --> 0:21:01.359 Honolulu's power brokers, including the mayor, the district attorney, the 0:21:01.440 --> 0:21:05.760 Navy's shore patrol commander, and the territorial governor, Lawrence Judd. 0:21:06.680 --> 0:21:08.960 The forty four year old jud had been governor for 0:21:09.000 --> 0:21:12.880 two years. This was an appointed position. The men who 0:21:12.880 --> 0:21:15.560 made the appointment were members of a small white or 0:21:15.720 --> 0:21:19.879 Howley elite, the descendants of the white missionaries and planters 0:21:19.920 --> 0:21:23.200 who had wrested power and land away from Native Hawaiians 0:21:23.240 --> 0:21:26.479 over the course of the nineteenth century, culminating in the 0:21:26.520 --> 0:21:30.480 eighteen ninety three overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy, the eighteen 0:21:30.560 --> 0:21:33.920 ninety eight annexation of Hawaii, and the establishment of the 0:21:34.000 --> 0:21:38.240 United States Territory of Hawaii in nineteen hundred, all despite 0:21:38.359 --> 0:21:43.360 strenuous protests by Native Hawaiians. By nineteen thirty one, though 0:21:43.400 --> 0:21:47.840 there was an elected territorial legislature, the true political power 0:21:47.840 --> 0:21:51.040 in Hawaii belonged to the sugar cane corporations known as 0:21:51.080 --> 0:21:55.040 the Big Five, who appointed governors who would do their bidding. 0:21:55.760 --> 0:21:59.679 Governors like Laurence jud But the United States Navy had 0:21:59.760 --> 0:22:02.480 all so began to play an increasingly important role in 0:22:02.480 --> 0:22:06.520 the territory. Thanks to the Great Depression, revenue from tourism, 0:22:06.640 --> 0:22:11.040 sugar and pineapples was down. The Navy, which planned to 0:22:11.080 --> 0:22:15.879 invest millions into Pearl Harbor, offered economic relief, and so 0:22:16.160 --> 0:22:19.080 writes historian David Stannard in his book on the Trial, 0:22:19.640 --> 0:22:23.560 This first meeting between Sterling and jud Quote set the 0:22:23.600 --> 0:22:27.200 tone for all that were to follow. The Admiral was 0:22:27.359 --> 0:22:31.760 used to giving orders the governor was used to taking them. 0:22:32.040 --> 0:22:37.080 Before long, a full bore prosecution was underway. Judd and 0:22:37.200 --> 0:22:41.120 Sterling had the benefit of a compliant media environment. Two 0:22:41.240 --> 0:22:45.520 of Oahu's largest English language newspapers, the Honolulu Advertiser and 0:22:45.560 --> 0:22:49.639 the Honolulu Star Bulletin, were closely intertwined with the military 0:22:49.680 --> 0:22:53.800 and business elite's interests. Assisted by the police who readily 0:22:53.840 --> 0:22:57.920 provided them with information, these papers began conducting a trial 0:22:58.040 --> 0:23:02.240 by press, depicting the case against the five men as watertight. 0:23:03.200 --> 0:23:07.200 Behind the scenes, the case was anything but. The timeline 0:23:07.240 --> 0:23:09.959 made it almost impossible for the suspects to have committed 0:23:10.000 --> 0:23:13.640 the crime, and though Thalia's story now better fitted the suspects, 0:23:14.040 --> 0:23:17.880 the police lacked physical evidence to support this story. When 0:23:17.880 --> 0:23:22.080 police investigator's finger printed Haryo DA's car, they found plenty 0:23:22.119 --> 0:23:25.959 of prints, but not a single one belonging to Thalia Massey. 0:23:26.800 --> 0:23:30.240 And more troublingly, the police were struggling to find proof 0:23:30.440 --> 0:23:33.840 that Thalia had been raped at all. I will mention 0:23:33.920 --> 0:23:37.320 here that false reports of rape are very uncommon. The 0:23:37.400 --> 0:23:40.080 rate of false reports is difficult to measure since there 0:23:40.080 --> 0:23:43.240 are many ways to define false, such as stories that 0:23:43.280 --> 0:23:46.480 were proven false, suspected to be false or unable to 0:23:46.520 --> 0:23:50.239 be substantiated or to meet the threshold for prosecution. But 0:23:50.280 --> 0:23:53.720 the most comprehensive research indicates a rape of false rape 0:23:53.720 --> 0:23:56.320 reports in the United States to be between two and 0:23:56.480 --> 0:24:00.399 eight percent. We cannot know what exactly happened to Thalia 0:24:00.480 --> 0:24:03.760 Massey that night in nineteen thirty one, but the physical 0:24:03.800 --> 0:24:06.879 evidence did not corroborate her story of being beaten and 0:24:07.000 --> 0:24:11.600 raped multiple times. At her exam only several hours after 0:24:11.640 --> 0:24:14.479 the alleged attack, a doctor and nurse found that the 0:24:14.520 --> 0:24:17.800 only injury Thealia suffered was a facial one. Her jaw 0:24:17.920 --> 0:24:21.880 was broken, she had no vaginal abrasions or lacerations, and 0:24:22.040 --> 0:24:25.240 no seamen was present. Thalia told the doctor that she 0:24:25.280 --> 0:24:28.639 had douched after arriving home, but no seamen was found 0:24:28.680 --> 0:24:31.359 on any of the clothes that Thalia wore that night either. 0:24:31.920 --> 0:24:36.320 Her clothes were in fact nearly pristine. Besides a few 0:24:36.400 --> 0:24:39.760 drops of blood on the shoulder, likely from Thalia's split lip, 0:24:40.240 --> 0:24:43.760 the clothes looked, according to doctor Thomas Mossman, the assistant 0:24:43.800 --> 0:24:46.720 City and County physician, like they had just come from 0:24:46.720 --> 0:24:50.879 the dry cleaners. Even her shoes were not scuffed. It 0:24:51.000 --> 0:24:54.080 was hard to imagine that thealia could have been abducted, beaten, 0:24:54.320 --> 0:24:57.680 dragged through the woods, and raped without sustaining a single 0:24:57.720 --> 0:25:01.800 stain or rip or scuff. The lack of physical evidence 0:25:01.880 --> 0:25:05.399 was a particular problem for the prosecution because Hawaii had 0:25:05.440 --> 0:25:09.240 a law that required corroborating evidence in rape cases. A 0:25:09.320 --> 0:25:13.800 victim's testimony alone was not enough, but prosecutors, led by 0:25:13.840 --> 0:25:17.520 Assistant City and County Attorney Griffith White, were not deterred 0:25:17.520 --> 0:25:21.639 by these obstacles. Driven by increasing pressure from the Navy 0:25:21.800 --> 0:25:25.840 and an outraged public, White was determined to get a conviction, 0:25:26.720 --> 0:25:30.600 and when the men's trial began on November sixteenth, nineteen 0:25:30.720 --> 0:25:33.959 thirty one, the lengths to which White would go to 0:25:34.000 --> 0:25:41.280 get his conviction would be revealed. When ben Ahaquelo's mother, Aggie, 0:25:41.480 --> 0:25:45.080 heard that her son had been arrested, she was terrified, 0:25:45.640 --> 0:25:48.639 so she did what any mother would do. She called 0:25:48.680 --> 0:25:54.359 a princess. As David's Darren explains, although the ravages of 0:25:54.400 --> 0:25:58.359 it introduced disease and consequent political upheaval did much to 0:25:58.480 --> 0:26:03.520