Customer Reviews

Honor Killing: Race, Rape, and Clarence Darrow's Spectacular Last Case

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I picked up Honor Killing to read on the beach, and I got so engrossed that I ended up with a terrible sunburn. It's like 2 books wrapped into 1. On the one hand, it's a true-crime page-turner--with rape, murder, colorful characters, unexpected plot twists, and two nail-biting trials. On the other, it transports you back to a Hawaii you never knew existed. I learned about U.S. swashbuckling in the Pacific, the dispossession of Native Hawaiians, slavery-like sugar plantations, and a seething cauldron of race relations. By the end, I had not only been entertained but inspired. I came to think about Hawaii, civil rights, and even American democracy in new ways. Honor Killing is an exceptionally compelling book.

David Stannard's "Honor Killing: How the Infamous 'Massie Affair' Transformed Hawaii" is a powerfully written narrative about an event that has been largely forgotten in both Hawaii and the U.S. Stannard painstakingly recounts the story of Thalia Massie and her alleged rape by four local Hawaiians. Joseph Kahahawai, one of the four accused, was subsequently murdered at the hands of Thalia's vengeful mother and husband after the trial ended in a hung jury. This set the stage for a classic courtroom battle between the renown criminal defense attorney Clarence Darrow and relatively unknown prosecutor John Kelley. Stannard places the Massie Affair within the historical context of the Great Depression and prevalent racial attitudes in both Hawaii and the U.S. Mainland. His poignant conclusion alludes to the tremendous social changes that have made Hawaii into one of the most diverse and accepting States in the U.S. The Massie Affair, like the Sacco-Vanzetti trial and the murder of Emmett Till, were cases whose significance extends far beyond the courtroom or detective novel.

Throughout his account, Stannard makes references to the discrimination and lynching of African Americans in the South. The connection seems difficult to make at first, considering that African Americans were legally prohibited from using the same schools and restrooms as whites, forced to sit at the back of the bus, and the constant target of harassment by rich and poor white alike.

The Hawaiian and Asian populations may not have experienced this degree of overt discrimination, but they were still seen as a major threat, especially by the white oligarchy that had ruled Hawaii since its annexation in 1898. Sugar planters exploited ethnic tensions between their Japanese, Portuguese, and Chinese laborers to keep wages low and discontent from shifting towards them. As more and more plantation workers settled into crowded shantytowns on the outskirts of Honolulu, they joined disenfranchised native Hawaiians and began to forge a culture that transcended racial barriers. The Massie Affair united these formerly disparate groups against the white oligarchy, who was increasingly seen as the source of their repression.

The charges against the three surviving accused rapists were dropped. Thalia's mother and husband, along with two sailors, were convicted by a mixed-race jury, but had their sentences commuted after intense pressure on the local governor. The Massie Affair was soon obscured by the Great Depression, the Lindbergh Kidnapping, and the rise of Hitler. For the people of Hawaii, however, the Massie Affair marked the beginning of a twenty-year long struggle to overturn the dominant white oligarchic elite. Contemporary Hawaii was forged in the courtrooms of the Hale Ali'iolani.

Stannard's concise yet incredibly detailed account of the Massie Affair is a must-read for anyone interested in learning about Hawaii beyond Pearl Harbor, beach boys, or luaus. "Honor Killing" is an invaluable contribution to the story of Race in modern America. It is also a reminder that vigilance, more than ever, is needed to ensure that Justice and the rule of Law are not sacrificed to the fleeting demands of today.

Neearly everyone in Hawaii knows about the Massie trial. Virtually no one on the continent is aware of the trial and its legacy of racism and white privilege. Although there are several journalistic accounts of the alleged rape of Thalia Massie and the lynching of Joe Kahahawaii, Honor Killing now stands as definitive.

Local reader who think they know something about this case will be surprised at the level of detail and nuance that Stannard brings to this well worn tale. A scrupulous and intreprid researcher, Stannard has combed through new sources and re-intepreted old ones, shedding new light on this story locals are already familiar with.

Mainland audiences will be surprised by the twists and turns in this case which in 1931 was the crime of the century. (The case enjoyed an unprecedented level of publicity and press which very nearly set the stage for the next "crime of the century - the Lindbergh kidnapping.) Admirers of Clarence Darrow, defender of the downtrodden, may be chagrined at Darrow's apparent lack of scruples in taking on these clients who readily admitted their guilt. And most Americans will be surprised to learn that the island paradise of Hawaii came close to being a police state.

This book is a page turner, but also reflects a scholarly attention to historical nuance and detail. You may want to read it on the beach, but maybe not a beach in Hawaii.

Although you'll probably find this book in the "True Crime" section of many bookstores, "Honor Killing" is far more than an account of an alleged rape, a murder, and two trials. Instead, Stannard provides a thorough grounding in Hawaiian social history--background without which the significance of this case would be incomprehensible. As Stannard summarizes in the notes, the Massie affair was "a pivotal moment in the history of Hawai'i, one that exposed a white supremacist social order both locally and nationwide."

The facts of the case are complicated; any summary necessarily reduces things to an entry in a police blotter. In 1931 Thalia Massie, wife of a Navy officer (and--this is oddly important--an impoverished relative of Teddy Roosevelt and of Alexander Graham Bell) claimed that she was raped by a gang of five Hawaiians. Almost immediately, five locals (not all of them were even Hawaiian) were rounded up, in spite of their fairly substantial and tight alibis. Their is little doubt that Massie was lying about her experience that night--whatever may have really happened--but the truth of the case became less important than the outrage of the white aristocrats of the island and their American military backers, who rushed to the defense of this young member of one of the nation's leading families.

When the trial of the young men ended in a hung jury, Thalia's husband and her mother, along with two cohorts, conspired to kidnap and murder one of the accused assailants. During the ensuing circus, the remaining four men were locked up in a prison cell to ensure their "safety," while the murder suspects were treated as celebrities by the local politicians and military authorities and given accommodations judged proper for their stations. Eventually, Clarence Darrow arrived to defend the "honor killing"--a performance that sullied his reputation among his usually left-leaning supporters.

What's enviable about Stannard's book is his ability to take this case and transmit its page-turning essence while simultaneously describing the social history of the islands, recounting the alarmingly racist reaction by the mainland media (including, but not limited to, the Hearst newspapers), and conveying the importance of this case in transforming Hawaii's political structure. The retelling of the case itself is so effective that I was stunned by the outcome of the second trial--which is not what the reader is led to expect, but which is, ultimately, all the more shocking.

One might argue that Stannard overstates the case's importance to the eventual overthrow of the white-dominated oligarchy--certainly there were other factors and events changing the social fabric (and the book touches on some of them). But it can not be in doubt that the Massie affair played a galvanizing role; in the short term, many of the organizers (particularly naval officials) on the "wrong" side lost their positions and had to leave the island, the ongoing attempt to militarize the islands failed, and the case helped to unite the previously quarrelling Hawaiian, Japanese, Chinese, and Portuguese communities. In the long term, some of the principals on the "correct" side of the case went on to play prominent roles in Hawaii's "Revolution of 1954"; it is not a coincidence that the territorial Senator William Heen was chief counsel for the defense of the five accused men.

"Honor Killing," then, is something of a marvel: it succeeds as a detective story, a political thriller, and a social history. I couldn't put it down.

I'm a 53 year old Hawaii-born Japanese American. Although I lived through the "Revolution of '54" I was too young to remember or care about it. I remember my dad telling me that when the Pulitzer prize winning author James A. Michener tried to buy a house in the exclusive Kahala district, he was denied because his wife was Japanese. And Dad would laugh when he told me that the only way a Japanese could get into the Pacific Club was through the back doorway to the kitchen. He'd always chuckle when he told me that, and I remember wondering what the Pacific Club was and what joke was about. The last of Hawaii's race-based restrictions were finally dissolving when I was a little kid, and I later just thought of them as archaic conventions fading under the benign light of modernity.

The neighborhood our family moved into when I was 8 years old was definitely ethnically mixed, and although we never had haole (white) neighbors before, they were all very friendly and gracious, and all the kids played together and hung out at each other's houses. We went on to work and drink beer together, and in some cases marry and have kids together.

But Hawaii hadn't always been like that. I studied a bit about our history in college, but I was a music major and more engrossed in the intricacies of Bach's contrapuntal masterworks than I was with something long gone and never to return. I was only distantly familiar with the Massie case, a sensational case about a Navy officers wife who claimed to have been gang raped by a bunch of locals, and the ensuing court proceeding and the murder of one of the locals.

I decided to read David E. Stannard's "Honor Killing" out of a familiarity with him as an academician and socio-political commentator. I wandered around a bit in the History and Sociology aisles looking for the book before being directed to the True Crime section. Honestly, I'm not a big fan of the True Crime section of bookstores -- actually, I don't even like even being seen in the True Crime section. The books in this section always feature lurid pre- and post-mortem photos of unfortunate victims and shocking text detailing the terrible things going on within some psychotic's head. Okay, so I've actually read some True Crime. Thank God for online bookstores.

I wondered what kind of book Stannard had written that would land his book in this kind of company. Thumbing through it, I discovered no bloody photos so I figured it was safe to take to the checkout counter. Once safely in the privacy of my own room, the book revealed itself to be a broad yet detailed picture of a pivotal event in Hawaii's history. And it's not ancient history here, it's set in a year only 20 years removed from my own birth chronologically, and still just down the block geographically.

The book substitutes the True Crime genre's use of gory images and cheap psychological profiling with attention to detail and painstaking research. Although the Massie case has been the basis for a number of books, Honor Killing is the one where the author has thoroughly researched private and public archives, medical records, personal letters, court transcripts, and police reports. Stannard's scholarship and familiarity with Hawaiian history let him take these vast stacks of information and create a broad yet finely detailed picture of the era, an era when Hawaii was ruled by an arrogant white-supremacist oligarchy of corporate and military interests.

The level of detail requires a long book -- the hardcover's text alone is 429 pages, and what may throw some readers is the lack of a straightforward "he was thinking this, then he did that" kind of narrative. But Stannard's method fits the breadth of the book's focus and its narrative is revealed in a series of carefully illuminated points.

And as the book points out, it wasn't the light of modernity that made the old oligarchy fade away, it was the focused and relentless struggle of some brave (and perhaps foolhardy) people. At once enraging and encouraging, vivid and compelling -- it's a great read.

Although this book may indeed be True Crime, I do hope that it will be able to move into a better neighborhood. Maybe next door to Michener's "Hawaii"?

To be honest, I had never ever even heard of the bizarre and extremely unfortunate events that took place in the U.S. territory of Hawaii back in 1931 and 1932. But the truth is that the events depicted in David E. Stannard's "Honor Killing" would over time affect significant changes in attitudes about race relations, crime and punishment, and employer-worker relations not only on the islands, but throughout the nation as well.

"Honor Killing" tells the strange and sordid tale that came to be known as the "Massie Affair". Surely it was a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time for 5 young men of Asian and Hawaiian descent who were suddenly accused of perpetrating a gang rape on an "innocent" young white woman named Thalia Massie. Thalia was the wife of a young naval officer and when news of the alleged crime hit the newspapers all hell broke loose. In those days, Hawaii was a U.S. territory and was largely dominated by the Big Five, five corporations that controlled the lions share of economic activity. And for obvious reasons, there was also an extremely large U.S. military presence in the area. This was the "establishment" and these men had more than a passing interest in the outcome of the so-called "Massie Affair". And they would certainly not hesitate to use any means at their disposal to protect their interests. In the year or so that followed, the story would take any number of unexpected twists and turns. When a deadlocked jury failed to convict the five Asians and Hawaiians in the rape trial, members of Thalia's family decided it was time to take matters into their own hands. What would transpire as a result of their actions will likely infuriate and sicken you.

Author David Stannard has done a superb job in piecing together this complex and remarkable story. The book is extremely well written and equally well researched. "Honor Killing: How the Infamous "Massie Affair" Transformed Hawaii" just might be the best book I have read this year. Very highly recommended!

This was an excellent account of what happened during that period of time in Hawaii. Today you may still see the residual effects of this great in justice to the Hawaiian people. I enjoyed every chapter and look forward to reading it again. It is amazing to me that here in Hawaii this book was rated number one by the Honolulu Advertiser, yet none of the Military Exchanges carry this book in their stores. Every Exchange has the top sellers and a Hawaiian section. You have to wonder whether this type of events are still happening.

I really enjoyed reading this book. Even though I knew how it turned out, before I opened the cover for the first time. `Honor Killing' is so very well written and very well researched, that you really get a feel for time and place and people---many appalling people.

Bryan Burrough, coauthor of `Barbarians at the Gate' and author of `Public Enemies,' says it best in his back-cover blurb: "First-rate history that works as true-crime thriller and as a social and political history. Few books make me genuinely angry, but this one did."

Anger is justified at the incredible miscarriage of justice portrayed in this true story. Injustice, both criminal and social. Stannard paints a wrenching picture of the insidious effects of the waning white / military colonialism that beset the Territory of Hawaii during the first half of the twentieth century, and of its impact on real people and cultures.

And no people, unfortunately, were more real, too real, than that sorrowful, despicable excuse for a young woman: Thalia Massie. I'm not one to ever applaud suicide, but I could truly wish that hers had come some thirty years sooner. What a waste of a person. And I can't think too much more kindly of her mom.

Recommendation: `A riveting, page-turner' (says the Chicago tribune): For all who enjoy their reading real, up-close and personal.

Also recommended, with reference to this same tragedy: `Rape in Paradise,' by Theon Wright; `Honolulu' a novel by Alan Brennert; and `The Massie Affair: American Experience' a PBS Home Video, available from Netflix.

George E. Dawson
Whittier, California
October 17, 2009

HONOR KILLING; Race, Rape, and Clarence Darrow's Spectacular Last Case
By David Stannard

David Stannard's recounting of the Massie Affair is a lively courtroom drama, social and personal history, and examination of the social structure of the Hawaiian Islands during the pre World War II period. It is based on the true story of the alleged rape of a white woman by a group of young Hawaiian men; the kidnapping of and murder plot against one of them; and the legal entanglements that followed. The story reads like a novel, with characters like Admiral Stirling, the head of the Navy establishment; Raymond "Boss" Coll, Editor of Honololu's most influential newspaper; and Clarence Darrow , the famed advocate for the defendant in the Scopes monkey trial. Stannard examines the social interaction between the Native Hawaiian population and the white "haole" business leaders who called the political shots and dominated the economy. Stannard backs up his engaging writing style with thorough research based on contemporary accounts and interviews with people intimately familiar with the case.
In many ways, the issues raised in the Massie Case: elitism; paternalism; isolationism and racism... foreshadowed the Hawaiian Statehood and Independence movement a quarter century later. ****Stars Philip W. Henry/ Rialto, CA

This is a story that deserves to be told and remembered, in the islands and on the mainland. America in the late 20's and early 30s was, as David Stannard points out, very much a racist nation, and its racist values reached out far into the Pacific Ocean. Stannard does a credible job of putting the Massie affair into context, explaining how Hawaii had become a haole-dominated quasi-colonial oligarchy with racial stratification that relegated its original inhabitants to the bottom of the pile. His research into the alleged gang rape of Thalia Massie, the subesquent trials of the five local defendants and of the four accused murderers of one of them, seems to be comprehensive and Stannard's narrative of all of the events making up the "Massie Affair" makes for compelling reading.

There are, however, factual errors and some logical leaps in "Honor Killing" that cast doubt on Stannard's standards of research. His description of the Arizona towns where Honolulu
Adveriser editor Raymond Coll worked before coming to the islands is not accurate. Bisbee is NOT a border town, nor did it flourish briefly at the turn of the century "because of the nearby copper mines at Clifton and Morenci." Bisbee and Douglas are located a far distance away from Clifton and Morenci - two counties distant, to be specific, and Bisbee was itself the location of several of the largest and most productive copper mines in the nation, Douglas served as the smelter site for Bisbee's mines and the regional headquarters for the Phelps Dodge Coproration. Sixty thousand Mexicans DID NOT work in Arizona's mines at the time - while Mexican laborers were allowed to work underground in some mining towns, including Clifton and Morenci, most mining camps in Arizona excluded Mexicans from working in the mines, or fromperforming any work other than the most menial of labor. In Bisbee, during the 1920s and 30s, the miners were mostly Cornish "Cousin Jacks" or Serbs - not immigrated Mexicans as Stannard would have us believe. The author's efforts to compare the socio-politcal-economic structure of early 20th century Arizona with that of Hawaii falls short as well - although each was dominated by white corporate interests and run like private fiefdoms (the 1917 kidnapping and deportation of 1000-plus striking miners at Bisbee is a good example of corporate arrogance and disdain for law in Arizona), the copper mines were not comparable to the Hawaiian plantations - minority laborers didn't vastly outnumber the white ruling class in Arizona as they did in Hawaii. What Stannard does is to unsuccessfully compare rotten apples with rotten oranges - evidence of slipshod research and/or preconceptions creeping into his work.

Other evidence of sloppiness involves the author's frequent use of the term "Pentagon" when referring to the senior officers and bureaucracy of the Navy Department.
The Pentagon wasn't constructed until the U.S. entered the Second World War, and unification of the military services under the Department of Defense didn't happen until after WWII.

The author makes a weak case when he assigns the Massie Affair great weight in changing Hawaii's political and social structure. True, Hawaii's political complextion began changing in the 1932 election from solid Republican to a more equal mix of Democrat and Republican representation - but that change was reflective of a general shift in local, state and federal government throughout the U.S., as voters expressed their dissatisfaction with Republican leadership during the Great Depression. Other factors, such as the coming of age of American-born children of the immigrant plantation laborers, the weakening of the grip of the Big Five oligarchy during World War II when Hawaii was placed under martial law and the emergence of a large class of college-educated non-white locals (many of whom were veterans) who were conscious of their legitimacy as Americans and eager to enter into the political process, would seem to be of greater importance when explaining how a more racially egalitarian Hawaii came to be.

But Stannard seems to be on very solid ground when describing the social conditions in pre-war Hawaii, the racism of the military personnel stationed there and the sensationalism of the local media and the media on the mainland. His descriptions of the events leading up to the trials and of the trials themselves are vivid and carefully constructed. Although the book has its flaws, Stannard does a decent job of telling the story.