Joseph Kahahawai was 22 when he was killed. Before the Massie case, he had been a popular boxer and enlisted in Hawaii's Territorial National Guard. The story – and portrayals of it – have been difficult for Kahahawai-Welch and her family to grapple with.
He represented the Territory of Hawaii in the Amateur Athletic Union – or AAU – boxing championships at Madison Square Garden in April 1931. Both Ahakuelo and Kahahawai were portrayed as towering brutes in editorial cartoons. Two of the other accused men, Horace Ida and David Takai, descended from Japanese families.
Joseph "Joe" Kahahawai Jr. (25 December 1909 – 8 January 1932) was a Native Hawaiian prizefighter accused of the rape of Thalia Massie.
Joseph Kahahawai was 22 when he was killed. Before the Massie case, he had been a popular boxer and enlisted in Hawaii's Territorial National Guard. The story – and portrayals of it – have been difficult for Kahahawai-Welch and her family to grapple with. For many years, it simply wasn’t discussed.
Newspapers nationwide reported the scandal in bombastic fashion. Startling to Kahahawai-Welch was her family’s tie to the case: Her great uncle Joseph Kahahawai and four of his close friends were the men wrongly accused, arrested and put on trial. The jury in the rape case deadlocked and a mistrial was declared.
More than 2,000 people attended the 22-year-old’s funeral in 1932. Kahahawai-Welch and her relatives regularly tend to his gravestone in the Puea Cemetery in Kalihi, bringing flowers and leis after family celebrations.
Jordan Kahahawai-Welch and her cousins Nakoa Farrant and Vance Farrant are the first of their generation to speak publicly about the case. Their grandfather, a beloved Kailua High School athletic director and football coach, Joe Kahahawai, is the half-brother of the murdered Joseph Kahahawai.
Like Kahahawai, Ben Ahakuelo was also Native Hawaiian and a boxer. He represented the Territory of Hawaii in the Amateur Athletic Union – or AAU – boxing championships at Madison Square Garden in April 1931. Both Ahakuelo and Kahahawai were portrayed as towering brutes in editorial cartoons. Most Popular.
In January 1932 came the most devastating development: Jordan’s great uncle, Joseph Kahahawai, was abducted, shot and killed by four white vigilantes, including the husband and mother of the accuser, Thalia Massie. The killers were caught driving to dump Kahahawai’s body at the Halona Blowhole. Joseph Kahahawai was 22 when he was killed.
The group left Oahu four days later, never to return. Thalia Massie, left, with the Massie's lawyer, Clarence Darrow , center, and her husband Lieutenant Tommie Massie, right, on the Matson Liner Malolo in San Francisco.
Joseph Kahahawai Murdered by Naval Officer Tommy Massie and Grace Fortescue in Hawaii After Hung Jury for the Alleged Gang Rape of Thalia Massie (1931) | MILITARY JUSTICE FOR ALL.
The two were on their way to a location where they could have dumped Joseph’s body and he would never be found again. Tommy Massie and Grace Fortescue were both arrested for the homicide of Joseph Kahahawai. The Navy personnel, spouses, and other white people treated them as if they were celebrities.
They convicted them of manslaughter and sentenced them to 10 years. Unfortunately, the Governor of Hawaii pardoned them and reduced the sentence to 1 hour in jail. They were freed after abducting and murdering a man they were not even really sure was a perpetrator.
All of them were placed in a line-up together and Thalia Massie was asked to choose the men she thought were the ones who raped her. She picked two of the five men. Regardless the police charged all five men with rape and took them to trial.
Honolulu, HA, 1931: When the young aristocratic wife of a Naval Lieutenant is discovered bruised and beaten by the side of a dark road, a hackneyed scheme and a trigger-happy hand will lead to the most sensational murder trial in Hawaii’s history. -Investigation Discovery. Like this:
But what they didn’t consider is that Thalia’s identification of the accused was not credible because she could not see well without her glasses, it was dark that night, and she was only able to identify two of five individuals in a flawed police line-up.
After taking Kahahawai to Fortescue's house, the Honolulu Civil Beat reports that Kahahawai was shot in the chest after refusing to confess. In 1966, Jones admitted that he murdered Kahahawai because he " had no use for him .". While trying to dispose of the body, Fortescue, Massie, Jones, and Lord were pulled over and arrested.
However, " The Massie Case ," notes that Kahahawai was likely "targeted because he was the darkest colored of the rape suspects. ". On January 7th, 1932, Jones grabbed Kahahawai as he was leaving the judiciary building and after waving a fake military summons in his face, they ordered him into a car at gunpoint.
Considering the fact that the altercation with the Peeples happened roughly a 10-minute drive away from the site of the alleged gang rape, there would have been little-to-no time for a gang rape to have been committed by Kahahawai and the others.
Congress was especially concerned about the incident due to "Hawaii's strategic importance in the Pacific," according to " The Massie Case ," but they also wanted to address the rumors of a crime wave and the claim that in the past year alone, hospitals in Honolulu alone had reported at least 40 rapes.
But in the end, Kahahawai was the one who lost his life to vigilant violence that was essentially condoned in both the courtroom and the court of public opinion. This is the tragic true story of Hawaii's Massie murder.
Territory of Hawaii v. Ben Ahakuelo, et al. Shutterstock. On November 16th, 1931, the trial against Kahahawai, Ahakuelo, Ida, Takai, and Chang began. However, the prosecution's case had a glaring weakness that became apparent throughout the trial: there wasn't much time in which the rape could have occurred.
The Tragic True Story Of Hawaii's Massie Trial. In 1932, Joe Kahahawai Jr., a Native Hawaiian, was murdered after being acquitted of raping a white woman. Although there was never any evidence to support the idea that Kahahawai or his four co-defendants were responsible for assaulting Thalia Massie, many in the white community ...