A Death in the Islands: The Unwritten Law and the Last Trial of Clarence Darrow
332A Death in the Islands: The Unwritten Law and the Last Trial of Clarence Darrow
332eBook
Available on Compatible NOOK devices, the free NOOK App and in My Digital Library.
Related collections and offers
Overview
In September of 1931, Thalia Massie, a young naval lieutenant’s wife, claims to have been raped by five Hawaiian men in Honolulu. Following a hung jury in the rape trial, Thalia’s mother, socialite Grace Fortescue, and husband, along with two sailors, kidnap one of the accused in an attempt to coerce a confession. When they are caught after killing him and trying to dump his body in the ocean, Mrs. Fortescue’s society friends raise enough money to hire seventy-four-year-old Clarence Darrow out of retirement to defend the vigilante killers. The result is an epic courtroom battle between Darrow and the Territory of Hawaii’s top prosecutor, John C. Kelley, in a case that threatens to touch off a race war in Hawaii and results in one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in American history.
Written in the style of a novel, but meticulously following the historical record, A Death in the Islands weaves a story of lies, deception, mental illness, racism, revenge, and murdera series of events in the Territory of Hawaii that nearly tore apart the peaceful islands, reverberating from the tenements of Honolulu to the hallowed halls of Congress, and right into the Oval Office itself, and left a stain on the legacy of one of the greatest legal minds of all time.
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9781510712157 |
---|---|
Publisher: | Skyhorse |
Publication date: | 11/08/2016 |
Sold by: | SIMON & SCHUSTER |
Format: | eBook |
Pages: | 332 |
File size: | 960 KB |
About the Author
Table of Contents
Introduction xiii
Part 1 Thalia Massie and the Ala Moana Boys
Chapter 1 The Woman in Green "Are you white people?" 3
Chapter 2 The Ala Moana Boys "Something terrible has happened." 8
Chapter 3 The Accusation "A woman was assaulted by a man." 14
Chapter 4 The Physical Examination "Clean as a new pin." 25
Chapter 5 Thalia's Statement "Now look at your beautiful work." 34
Chapter 6 Rounding Up the Boys "It was a car like that." 47
Chapter 7 The Identification "Our first inclination is to seize the brutes and string them up on trees." 55
Chapter 8 The Alibi "Do you know this is Bennie?" 63
Chapter 9 The Lawyers "The district attorney was too deaf to conduct a trial." 69
Part 2 Territory of Hawaii V. Ben Ahakuelo, Et Al
Chapter 10 Thalia for the Prosecution "I started to pray and that made him angry and he hit me very hard." 79
Chapter 11 The Prosecution Continues "I was instructed to keep that under cover." 93
Chapter 12 The Prosecution Rests "… the prosecution has utterly failed to prove its case." 102
Chapter 13 The Timeline "A white man was following her." 115
Chapter 14 Tying Up Loose Ends for the Defense "She said, 'I am positive they were Hawaiians because of the way they spoke.'" 121
Chapter 15 The Defendants Speak "Were you afraid she was going to choke you to death?" 131
Chapter 16 Rebuttal "… two men held this arm and she tried to get away from these men." 146
Chapter 17 Sending the Case to the Jury "The most damnable thing in the history of the Territory …" 152
Part 3 A Death in the Islands
Chapter 18 Somewhere Over the Pali "The Shame of Honolulu" 165
Chapter 19 The Abduction "Life is a mysterious and exciting affair." 172
Chapter 20 Disposing of the Body "I then noticed a human leg sticking out of the white bundle." 186
Chapter 21 A Funeral in the Islands "Poor Kahahawai, these haoles murdered you in cold blood." 194
Part 4 Territory Of Hawaii V Grace Fortescue, Et Al
Chapter 22 Turning State's Evidence "I never should have pulled that shade down." 205
Chapter 23 Judge Cristy and the Grand Jury "God has not left this world for an instant." 214
Chapter 24 The Heavyweights "[H]e has a damn fine jury personality-when he's sober." 226
Chapter 25 The Finger of Doom "Is Joseph alive?" 232
Chapter 26 Tommie's Story "Don't let him get me!" 236
Chapter 27 The Man Who Fired the Gun "We can trace those impulses back to the cradle." 246
Chapter 28 Delirium with Ambulatory Automatism "What right does he have to say that I don't love you?" 257
Chapter 29 Closing Arguments "Three able men and a cold calculating woman …" 266
Chapter 30 Custody of the High Sheriff "We, the jury, in the above entitled cause find the defendant …" 274
Part 4 Epilogue
Chapter 31 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 " 285
Chapter 32 What Really Happened? "Blasted careers, ruined lives, tragedy, and death." 294
Source Notes 305
Bibliography 309
Index 312