Book description
In the fall of 1931, Thalia Massie, the bored, aristocratic wife of a young naval officer stationed in Honolulu, accused six nonwhite islanders of gang rape. The ensuing trial let loose a storm of racial and sexual hysteria, but the case against the suspects was scant and the trial ended…
Why read it?
2 authors picked Honor Killing as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
David Stannard is a masterful storyteller, and for me this history of crime in Hawaii was a page turner. As a colonial power, the US treated its subjects under a regime of white supremacy, much like the American South. For immigrants who worked on the plantations from the Philippines, Pacific Islands, and Far East, it was divide and conquer. And the whites in control were mentally ill as well as cruel.
Yet this history has a relevant and salient message for us today. The crime and infamous trial, with Clarence Darrow on the wrong side, led ethnic groups and Native…
In 1931, Thalia Massie, the bored wife of a naval officer stationed in Honolulu, accused six nonwhite islanders of gang rape.
The trial loosed a storm of racist hatred and sexual hysteria nationwide (Hearst papers, I’m looking at you). But the evidence was scant – for one thing, she almost certainly had not been raped – and the trial ended in a hung jury.
Outraged that she hadn’t been believed, Thalia’s husband, mother, and friends then kidnapped and murdered one of the Native Hawaiian defendants as an “honor killing.” Caught in the act, the Massies got Clarence Darrow to defend…
From Eric's list on under-appreciated about Hawai'i.
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