Crime News Stories
Crime News Stories
February 20, 1847
Daily Sentinel and Gazette, Milwaukee Wisconsin
Two murderers were hung on the gate of the fort at Honolulu, August 14. [Submitted by S. Williams]
January 6, 1852
Wisconsin Statesman, Madison Wisconsin
SANDWICH ISLANDS
Advices have been received at San Francisco from the Sandwich Islands to Oct. 25th.
A revolt took place among the prisoners at Honolulu on the 22d of October. The prisoners after
making their escape broke into a magazine and got possession of arms and ammunition and loaded the large guns to
their muzzles, and pointed them upon the town. The promptness and energy of the Marshals and Sheriff soon quelled
the revolt, and the ringleaders being placed in irons, the fears of the populace subsided. [Submitted by S. Williams]
1931
Thugs Attack Hawaii Woman
Honolulu, Sept. 14 -- Mrs. Thomas H. Massie, 25, wife of a naval lieutenant, was in Queens Hospital in a serious
condition today, and seven suspects were under arrest as a result of an attack Saturday night... She was stopped
by two men, who seized her, stifled her screams and severely beat her, fracturing her jaw. They forced her into
an automobile and drove to Ala Moana road where she was attacked several times...
-- [unknown newspaper], September 15, 1931
Police Frame-Up is Charged
Pittman Says 5 Defendants are Innocent -- Scores Methods of Officers, and Asserts Department is Full of Cobwebs...
Charges of criminal assault against five youths alleged to have kidnapped and outraged a 20 year old matron on
the Ala Moana, Saturday night, September 12, will, in all probability, reach the hands of a jury in Judge A. E.
Steadman's court late this afternoon...
-- Honolulu Star-Bulletin, December 1, 1931
1932
Honor Killing in Honolulu Threatens Race War
Bayonets Rule Honolulu as Races Boil in Killing -- Woman's Avenging Kin Held Safe on Warship... National Guardsmen
patrolled the streets of Honolulu tonight, and the entire island was virtually under martial law. The case... has
aroused racial feeling to the boiling point. Throughout the island, nervous women were locking their doors in fear
of intruders.
-- [New York] Sunday News, January 10, 1932
Mrs. Granville Fortescue and her daughter, the wife of Lieut. Thomas H. Massie, U. S. Navy, are two of the central
figures in a murder in Honolulu. Mrs. Fortescue, who is a niece of Alexander Graham Bell, and her son-in-law, Lieut.
Massie, together with Alexander Jones, an enlisted man, are held for the slaying of Joseph Kawahawai, one of five
Hawaiian natives charged with a serious crime against Mrs. Massie. After the jury disagreed, Kawahawai's body was
found in a car in which Mrs. Fortescue and Lieut. Massie were riding.
[Unknown Date - Submitted by Foxie Hagerty]
Honolulu Battles Navy for Chance to Hang 4
The battle line was drawn today between civil and naval authorities... while civil authorities announced they would
demand the death penalty for all four prisoners involved -- including Mrs. Granville Fortescue... the naval authorities
announced they intended to retain custody... On one front stand the incensed naval personnel, backed by strong
statements by high naval officers. Aroused at recent attacks upon white women, the navy attitude is "that
under no circumstances will we stand for the violation of our women." Besetting the navy in this position
are the prowling gangs from "Hell's Half-Acre," out of whose shadows came the thugs who assaulted Mrs.
Massie, and who, according to naval officers, are trying "to show their equality with the white." ...
The Honolulu Police Department, in particular, is charged with conniving with the gangs which prey on unprotected
women...
-- [New York] Daily News, January 11, 1932
