Grace Hubbard Fortescue, (''née'' Bell) (November 3, 1883 – June 24, 1979), was a
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
socialite who
murdered a man, later proven innocent, who was accused of raping her daughter. After being convicted of
manslaughter at a sensational trial, her ten-year sentence was commuted to a single hour by Hawaii's Territorial Governor
Lawrence Judd.
Early life
Grace Hubbard Bell was born November 3, 1883, in
Washington, D.C.
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Her father
Charles John Bell was first cousin of inventor
Alexander Graham Bell. Her mother was Roberta Wolcott Hubbard Bell (1859–1885). Her maternal grandfather
Gardiner Hubbard was the first president of
Bell Telephone Company.
When her mother died in childbirth in 1885, her father married her mother's sister, Grace Hubbard.
The family lived at
Twin Oaks, their estate in the Cleveland Park neighborhood of Washington, D.C.
Newspaper reports indicate that Grace could be classified a prankster: as a youth, she and her friends stole a trolley car for a joy ride through the streets of Washington and, on another occasion, she blocked traffic on Pennsylvania Avenue by joining hands with friends and roller-skating down the avenue.
Personal life
In 1910, she married U.S. Army Major
Granville "Rolly" Fortescue (1875–1952), one of the sons of
Robert Barnwell Roosevelt. Her husband was first cousin of U.S. President
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...
. The marriage was not as financially successful as she would have wished.
She was the mother of three daughters:
*
Thalia Fortescue Massie (1911–1963), who married Thomas Hedges Massie (1905–1987), a Navy lieutenant.
* Marion Fortescue (1912–), who married Daulton Gillespie Viskniskki in 1934.
* Kenyon Fortescue (1914–1990), better known as actress
Helene Whitney; she married J. Louis Reynolds in 1936.
Outwardly, the Fortescues appeared to be wealthy country gentry. In reality, financial affairs became a primary concern for them after Granville's final retirement from the army. With the exception of a short stint as a fiction editor for ''
Liberty
Liberty is the ability to do as one pleases, or a right or immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant (i.e. privilege). It is a synonym for the word freedom.
In modern politics, liberty is understood as the state of being free within society fr ...
'' magazine in 1930, he did not have steady employment, preferring to wait for the fortune his wife would inherit at the death of her parents.
Murder trial
In 1932, Grace Fortescue was charged with murder and convicted by a jury of
manslaughter for the death of
Joseph Kahahawai, one of the defendants in the alleged rape of her daughter Thalia in Hawaii in 1931.
[David E. Stannard, ''"Honor Killing"'', Viking Penguin, 2005 (illustration number 28, entitled ''Mug Shots and arrest file of Grace Fortescue'') ] Also charged and convicted with Fortescue were two sailors, Edward J. Lord and Deacon Jones, and Fortescue's son-in-law, Thomas Massie, who participated in the abduction and murder of Kahahawai.
Attorney
Clarence Darrow
Clarence Seward Darrow (; April 18, 1857 – March 13, 1938) was an American lawyer who became famous in the early 20th century for his involvement in the Leopold and Loeb murder trial and the Scopes "Monkey" Trial. He was a leading member of t ...
defended Fortescue, Jones, Massie, and Lord. He subsequently obtained a commutation of their sentence (ten years' imprisonment for manslaughter) to a one-hour confinement in the executive chambers of Territorial Governor
Lawrence M. Judd.
In 1966, while being interviewed by author Peter Van Slingerland, Albert O. Jones admitted that he was the one who shot Joseph Kahahawai.
References
External links
Webpage for ''The American Experience'', "The Massie Affair" retrieved on 2008-06-07.
retrieved on 2008-06-07.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fortescue, Grace Hubbard
1883 births
1979 deaths
People from Washington, D.C.
Politics of Hawaii
Roosevelt family
American people convicted of manslaughter