CHARGES OF LYNCHING

Taranaki Daily News, 6 April 1932, Page 9

CHARGES OF LYNCHING

HONOLULU TRIAL BEGINS f FORTY-THREE MEN CHALLENGED. DAY'S TO SELECT. THE JURY. By Telegraph—Press Assn.— Copyright. Honolulu, April 4; The tentative acceptance of six jurors . is the net result of the first session, of the trial arising out of the. alleged lynching of a Japanese. Mrs..Fortescue appeared unconcerned but Lieut. Massie was tense. Lord sometimes , seemed amused and Jones chewed gum. The prosecution and the defence clashed twice over . the. questioning : of jurors regarding the influence of an earlier rape trial on their attitude in’ . this case, the prosecution insisting on keeping the cases separate. Apparently several days will be required to complete the jury as there were 43 peremptory challenges.

Mrs. Granville Fortescue, a rich and socially prominent American, together with her son-in-law, Lieutenant Thomas H. Massie, United States Navy, were arrested early in January on a charge of kidnapping and murdering a native named Joe Kahahawai, who, it was alleged, four months previously took part with four other men in a criminal assault on Lieutenant Massie’s 19-year-old wife, who is Mrs. Fortescue’s daughter. Mrs. Fortescue and Lieutenant Massie are alleged to have been driving a motor-car when they were ordered to halt by the police, who fired at them until they stopped. In the car was the dead body of Kahahawai wrapped in sheets. It is alleged that after luring Kahahawai to a house by means of a forged arrest warrant they stripped him, tied him in a bath tub and shot him; that they then wrapped him in the sheets and were on the way to dispose oi the body in a geyser in another part of the island when they were arrested. Two bluejackets, E. J. Lord and Albert O. Jones, were jointly charged with the other accused. Kahahawai was one of five men who were arrested and tried for assaulting Mrs. Massie on the night of September 12. It was stated at the trial that Mrs. Massie had left a dance hall for a short stroll in the street when she was seized by five meh, dragged into a motor-car and driven to a lonely road, vHiere she was assaulted by each of the five and beaten so severely that both. her jaws were broken. The men were defended by two of the best-known criminal lawyers in Honolulu, and after a sensational trial the jury was unable, to Agree, and the case was dismissed.

On Fcbruaiy 10 a message from Honolulu stated: Evidence is accumulating which tends to show that Joa Kahahawai was not one of those who assaulted Mrs. Massie. Detectives questioned Philip Kemp, alias .Tahiti, who is alleged to have made a confession implicating five different men and clearing the original five (including who were accused: of the assault..