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content The Case File  % A young Navy wife, Thalia Massie, left
a Honolulu party late on September 12, 1931. What happened that
night triggered rape charges, protests of innocence, and a trial
in the media spotlight that would end with the five suspects,
all non-whites, being freed.  But the story didn't end there.
Navy personnel took matters into their own hands. In early 1932,
Massie's husband, Tommy, and mother, Grace Fortescue, kidnapped
and killed one of the suspects, Joseph Kahahawai. Their actions
would be defended as an "honor killing," and mostly supported by
white, mainstream Americans.  What exactly did happen to Thalia
Massie? And how did the killers justify their revenge crime?
Explore the case file, and read quotes from eyewitnesses and
participants in the Massie affair.  Thalia Massie's Alleged
Assault Saturday night, September 12, 1931  Joseph Kahahawai's
Murder Friday, January 8, 1932  page created on 4.7.05 back to
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