accused assailants, but that they must give "the authorities a chance to carry out the law and not interfere." As the case developed, cracks in Thalia's story immediately appeared. In order to have assaulted Thalia – an event so far unproven to have even occurred – it would have been extremely difficult to have then been involved in the near accident across town. The police themselves were split on the case; many of the detectives were locals who saw the case was a sham and, when they were denied access in the courtroom, started to talk directly to the press. Riccio: While the good citizens of Honolulu waited for the trial to begin, rumors began to develop and spread through the city. There were those who whispered that Thalia had not been raped at all. It was said that she was having an illicit relationship with one of the five beach boy suspects, and that she was on her way to a rendezvous with him when she found him in the company of four drunken friends. It was also speculated that Thalia was having an affair with one of Tommie's shipmates. When Tommie came home after the party, so the gossip went, he found his wife and his friend in flagrante delicto and it was Tommie who beat up his wife and broke her jaw. Grace Fortescue, enraged by the stories and what she saw as an attempt to sully the name of her daughter and the family, started a public campaign to attack the defendants. However, the case quickly fell apart in court. After a three-week trial and lengthy jury deliberation, the jurors declared themselves deadlocked and a mistrial was declared. Territory of Hawaii v. Grace Fortescue, et al. Grace was not willing to wait for another trial. She first arranged for the kidnapping and vicious beating of Ida, then talked Thomas into kidnapping Kahahawai, the darkest skinned of the five defendants, with the help of two Navy enlisted men—Albert O. Jones and Edward J. Lord. Kahahawai underwent "interrogation", as Grace, Thomas, and the two Navy men attempted to beat a confession out of him—eventually, one of the group of four shot Kahahawai. Debating what to do, the group eventually decided to dump Kahahawai's body off Koko Head, at the time a desolate area far away from urban Honolulu. Although he would eventually be found, it seemed to them