Sunny Skies, Shady Characters
Sunny Skies, Shady Characters

Author: James Dooley

Publisher: University of Hawaii Press

Published: 2015-08-31

Total Pages: 249

ISBN-13: 0824857054

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For thirty years starting in the mid-1970s, the byline of Jim Dooley appeared on riveting investigative stories of organized crime and political corruption that headlined the front page of Honolulu’s morning daily. In Sunny Skies, Shady Characters, James Dooley revisits highlights of his career as a hard-hitting investigative reporter for the Honolulu Advertiser and, in later years, for KITV television and the online Hawaii Reporter. His lively backstories on how he chased these high-profile scandals make fascinating reading, while providing an insider’s look at the business of journalism and the craft of investigative reporting. Dooley’s first assignment as an investigative journalist involved the city housing project of Kukui Plaza, which introduced him to the “pay to play” method of awarding government contracts to obliging consultants. In later stories, he scrutinized bloody struggles over illicit gambling revenue, the murder of a city prosecutor’s son, local syndicate ties to the Teamsters Union, and the dealings of Bishop Estate. His groundbreaking coverage of the forays by yakuza into Hawaii and the continental United States were the first of its kind in American journalism. As Dooley pursued stories from the underside of island society, names of respected public figures and those of violent criminals filled his notebook: entertainer Don Ho, U.S. Senator Daniel Inouye, Governors George Ariyoshi and Ben Cayetano, Mayor Frank Fasi, and notorious felons Henry Huihui, Nappy Pulawa, and Ronnie Ching. Woven throughout is the name of Big Island rancher Larry Mehau—was he the “godfather of organized crime” in Hawaii as alleged by the FBI, or simply an ex-cop who befriended power brokers in the course of doing business for his security guard firm? The book includes a timeline of Mehau’s activities to allow readers to judge for themselves.

Murder in Paradise
Murder in Paradise

Author: Chris Loos

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 2003-07-29

Total Pages: 396

ISBN-13: 9780060093464

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The shocking true story of the murder of 23–year–old Dana Ireland and the nine–year investigation that became Hawaii's most publicised murder case. By all accounts, 23–year–old Dana Ireland would have been successful at whatever she chose to do with her life. But she didn't get that chance. On Christmas Eve, 1991, this blonde–haired, blue–eyed young woman set off on her bicycle. As she was riding back to the holiday meal, three local youths decided to celebrate Christmas in a different way. They followed her in their car, then rammed her bike, kidnapped, raped, and beat her, and left her for dead on an isolated spot overlooking the ocean. In a community where many residents left their doors unlocked, people were shocked and terrified by this random, brutal act of violence. Worse still was that if the authorities hadn't taken so long to get to the victim, she might have lived. As months and years went by, frustration turned to outrage when police failed to arrest anyone for Dana's murder. But from his home in Springfield, Virginia, John Ireland started his own dogged investigation and crusade for justice. And nine years after his daughter's murder, after one of the most complicated cases the state had ever seen, three men were convicted. Here is a dramatic true story.

Honor Killing
Honor Killing

Author: David E. Stannard

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2006-05-02

Total Pages: 500

ISBN-13: 9780143036630

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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 in a hung jury. Outraged, Thalia’s socialite mother arranged the kidnapping and murder of one of the suspects. In the spectacularly publicized trial that followed, Clarence Darrow came to Hawai’i to defend Thalia’s mother, a sorry epitaph to a noble career. It is one of the most sensational criminal cases in American history, Stannard has rendered more than a lurid tale. One hundred and fifty years of oppression came to a head in those sweltering courtrooms. In the face of overwhelming intimidation from a cabal of corrupt military leaders and businessmen, various people involved with the case—the judge, the defense team, the jurors, a newspaper editor, and the accused themselves—refused to be cowed. Their moral courage united the disparate elements of the non-white community and galvanized Hawai’i’s rapid transformation from an oppressive white-run oligarchy to the harmonic, multicultural American state it became. Honor Killing is a great true crime story worthy of Dominick Dunne—both a sensational read and an important work of social history

Hell-Bent
Hell-Bent

Author: Jason Ryan

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2014-11-04

Total Pages: 317

ISBN-13: 1493016296

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World-class beaches, fragrant frangipani, swaying palms, and hula girls. Most folks think of Hawaii as a vacation destination. Mob-style executions, drug smuggling, and vicious gang warfare are seldom part of the postcard image. Yet, Hawaii was once home to not only Aloha spirit, but also a ruthless, homegrown mafia underworld. From 1960 to 1980, Hawaiian gangsters grew rich off a robust trade in drugs, gambling, and prostitution that followed in the wake of Hawaii’s tourist boom. Thus, by 1980—the year Charles Marsland was elected Honolulu's top prosecutor—the honeymoon island paradise was also plagued by violence, corruption and organized crime. The zeal that Marsland brought to his crusade against the Hawaiian underworld was relentless, self-destructive, and very personal. Five years earlier, Marsland’s son had been gunned down. His efforts to bring his son’s killers to justice—and indeed, eradicate the entire organized criminal element in Hawaii—make for an extraordinary tale that culminates with intense courtroom drama. Hawaii Five-O meets Wiseguy in author Jason Ryan’s vigorously reported chronicle of brazen gangsters, brutal murders, and a father’s quest for vengeance—all set against an unlikely backdrop of seductive tropical beauty.

Honolulu Homicide
Honolulu Homicide

Author: Gary A. Dias

Publisher: Bess Press

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 228

ISBN-13: 9781573061568

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Retired Honolulu Police Department major Gary A. Dias and Honolulu advertiser reporter Robbie Dingeman provide inside information about some of Oahu's most disturbing crimes.

Crime Statistics for Honolulu, Hawaii
Crime Statistics for Honolulu, Hawaii

Author: Mutinda Jackson

Publisher: GRIN Verlag

Published: 2020-06-22

Total Pages: 10

ISBN-13: 3346186776

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Research Paper (undergraduate) from the year 2017 in the subject Sociology - Law and Delinquency, grade: A, Kenyatta University, course: Criminology, language: English, abstract: While it remains evident that Hawaii has been regarded as one of the safest states in the US; characterized by low violent crime rate, different studies have demonstrated that some time back, this state continued to have one of the highest total crime rates, mainly because of high property crime rates. However, in accordance with recent reports by the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), there has been a considerable decrease in the violent crime rate ever since its early 1990s crest (Pyrooz et al, 2016). Hawaii has in the past years been observed to attract a great number of people wanting to relocate and begin a new life; some of the determinants behind this relocation being high crime rates in their former states and widespread poverty, plus Hawaii’s high concentration of cultural and entertainment attractions, affordable housing and low unemployment. Generally, Hawaii currently stands as the 38th most dangerous state, when it comes to violent crime such as murder, robbery, rape and aggravated assault. Unlike in many other states in the US, which measure crime rates by city, Hawaii is known to collect its crime data county by county. In a 2016 report, referred as the Crime in Hawaii, which was published by the state Attorney General’s office, it was noted that Honolulu County accounted for a significant 69.8% of the state’s population and approximately the same percentage of crime. Of all the crimes in 2015, property crimes accounted for 92.7% while violent crimes accounted for 7.3% (Pyrooz et al, 2016). Moreover, of the violent crimes that were reported in 2015, aggravated assault accounted for 49.6%, robbery accounting for 36.8% and rape accounted for 13% while murder accounted only for 0.6% (Pyrooz et al, 2016). The murder rate in the year 2015 was the lowest in the entire state, with only fifteen murder cases reported. Imperatively, property crime rate has been going down almost every year since the 26.1% in 2006. While the city enjoys a low-crime state in regard to violence, of all the index offenses, larceny has remained the only offense that the city has consistently had a higher crime rate compared with the entire nation ever since 1975 (Dillon, 2014). Furthermore, burglary and auto theft rates have sometimes been lower and sometimes higher compared with the national average. The burglary rate of the City and County of Honolulu measured the lowest in Hawaii and even the lowest in the entire nation.