"Honour Slaying” Trial Brought to Abrupt Close

Manawatu Times, Volume LV, Issue 6840, 22 April 1932, Page 7

"Honour Slaying” Trial Brought to Abrupt Close

MRS. MASSES TELLS HARROWING STORY TO JURY. New York Times Broadcast. HONOLULU, April 20. Clarence Darrow, master lawyer, today brought the defence of Lieutenant Thomas H. Massie, his mother-in-laAv, Mrs. Grace Hubbard Fortescue, and two naval enlisted men to an abrupt and startling close after the young naval officer’s wife, Thalia Massie, had told a harrowing story of a criminal attack. Breaking into tears and near collapse, the little blonde navy wife brought into a croAvded courtroom all her precious possessions—privacy, reputation and dignity—as a sacrifice to her ideal of loyalty. During her story, punctuated with tears and sobs, she detailed the story of a terrible beating and criminal assault which led to Honolulu’s famous “honour slaying” trial.

Mrs, Massie in the Box AN EMOTIONAL SCENE. HONOLULU, April 20. Mrs. Tlmlie Massie, the iinal witness for the defence in Vc Honolulu trial, told in tears of the assault of which Kahahawai and others were accused. She described her husband's worry, culminating in the shooting of Kahahawai. A flash of temper by Mrs. Massie brought applause from the women in the Court, calling forth a severe reprimand from the Judge. The prosecutor was attempting to question her on the mental test she had undergone at the University of Hawaii. She refused to answer on the ground that it was confidential. When the prosecutor porsistod, she tore up the record of the examination, which tended to show estrangement. Sobbing she embraced her husband, saying: “He had no right to ask me that. Everybody knows I love you.”