Occupation BoxerGuardsman Criminal status Trial Other names "Joe Kalani" | Nationality American Parents Esther Anito Resting place Puea Cemetery Name Joseph Kahahawai | |
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Known for Rape suspectHomicide victim Died January 8, 1932, Honolulu, Hawaii, United States | ||
Stations of the cross honors joseph kahahawai
Joseph "Joe" Kahahawai Jr. (25 December 1909 – 8 January 1932) was a Native Hawaiian prizefighter accused of the rape of Thalia Massie. He was abducted and killed after he was freed following an inconclusive court case that ended with a hung jury mistrial.
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Early life
Joseph Kahahawai was born in rural Maui, 25 December 1909. His family moved to Honolulu and Kahahawai′s parents divorced. He lived with his mother, who later remarried, while Kahahawai remained in contact with his father. After elementary school, Kahahawai attended Saint Louis School through an athletic scholarship to play for the high school football team, building up a positive reputation. Due to the Great Depression, Kahahawai never graduated and worked various jobs. He also enlisted in the Territorial National Guard. As a boxer, Kahahawai fought both professionally under the name Joe Kalani and as a member of the 298th Infantry Regiment.
Abduction and murder
With a hung jury – stymied by conflicting evidence – resulting in a mistrial, Kahahawai was kidnapped by Thalia Massie's mother and husband, Grace Fortescue and Navy Lieutenant Thomas Massie respectively, and two Navy enlisted men, Albert O. Jones and Edward J. Lord. While Thomas Massie was questioning him in an attempt to force a rape confession, Kahahawai reportedly lunged at Massie, and Jones shot him.
Massie, Fortescue, Jones and Lord were charged with murder. The jury found them guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter, and they were each sentenced to 10 years in prison. The white population, heavily weighted by the American citizens of Naval Station Pearl Harbor and the businesses supporting it, was enraged. Under pressure from Rear Admiral Yates Stirling, Jr., Commandant of the US Navy's 14th Naval District (including N.S. Pearl Harbor), Territorial Governor Lawrence M. Judd commuted the 10-year sentences of the convicted killers to one hour, to be served in his office. The four convicted killers left Hawaii just days after sitting through their one hour sentence.