HONOLULU CRIME.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 226, 24 September 1928, Page 7

HONOLULU CRIME.

GUARDS CALLED OUT. Protection For Jap Who Confessed Kidnap-Murder. HOSES ON THE MOB. (Australian and N.Z. Press Association.) (Received 12 noon.) HONOLULU, September 23. The shrill call of a siren on Aloha Tower summoned every national guardsman on this island to duty at twilight on Friday to prevent disorders in connection with the arrest of Miles Fukunaga, a Japanese, aged 20.

He was charged with being the kidnapper and murderer of the boy, Gill Ja mieson.

Threatening crowds thronged the streets in the vicinity of the police station where the suspect was being questioned. Fukunaga said: “I have been a bad boy. I want to tell my mother.’’

As the police with their batons protected him from the mob the youth said: “What does it matter? Let the crowd get me. Ido not care.”

A dramatic scene occurred in the police station as Fukunaga related the grim story of how he kidnapped and killed the boy. He said he had a hard time in killing him as he fought fiercely, being almost as strong as his murderer.

Firemen with levelled streams from hoses forced back the infuriated mob while the national guardsmen were mobilised. The city was a scene of pandemonium, with motor cars dashing wildly through the thronged streets and armed men hurrying in from all directions.

Major William Hoopii, commanding the National Guard, stated at 7 p.m. that the situation was under control. He had arranged with the American Legion to render assistance if necessary. Fukunaga had marked September 25 on a calender as the day on which he would surrender.

Fukunaga’s confession revealed premeditation since March. The slayer said that when he was employed at a seaside hotel he discovered a secluded spot in the brush nearby and the thought occurred to him that this would be a fine place to commit some crime. The youth frequently retired to this spot to read and later murdered the boy Gill Jamieson there. It has been revealed that he read widely in fiction, poetry and biography, and is able to repeat long passages of Shakespeare and other poets from memory. He had also read Stevenson’s Kidnapped and news stories of Loeb, Leopold, Hickman and other crimes which he admitted influenced him in the details of his own crime.

He says he has never read the Bible but that he wrote on the ransom letter: “Father forgive them they know not what they do’’ from the sub-title in the cinema picture “Ben Hur.” Fukuiiaga insisted himself that he was sane. Physicians said he was sane but emotionally unstable. There is every indication of a speedy trial and of execution if he is convicted.

The slayer is calm, but continually repeats: “I’m sorry.” His teachers recalled him as a brilliant student.

Fukunaga obtained the signature, “The Three Kings,” which was appended to the ransom letter to the dead boy’s father and to other communications from a cigarette package which he found near the scene of the crime. The motivation appeared to be somewhat obscure, but Fukunaga said he first conceived the crime when the Hawaiian Trust Company, of which Mr. Jamieson is vice-president, pressed Fukunaga’s father for rent. He also said he wanted money to send his parents to Japan. Police officers found in his room an entire plan of the crime, which was evidently carefully prepared. Fukunaga killed the boy about one hour after abducting him and nearly twelve hours before collecting the £BOO of the £2OOO ransom demanded. He said he killed the boy because he had to. “Kidnappings are never successful without killing,” he added.

A cablegram from Honolulu on Saturday stated: The body of a 10-year-old boy named Jamieson was found to-day after a two days’ search, within a few hundred yards of the Waikiki Hotel, where it had been left by kidnappers. The lad had been strangled. The kidnappers had collected £BOO of £2OOO they had demanded as ransom from the boy’s father, Mr. Frederick Jamieson, vice-president of the Hawaiian Trust Company. The boy was lured from school on Tuesday by a white-clad stranger, who told the teachers he had come from a hospital where, he said, the boy’s mother was suffering from injuries sustained in a motoring accident. Fifteen suspects, including several Japanese, were held for investigation. The Chamber of Commerce has offered a reward of £4OOO for the apprehension of the kidnappers. The crime has caused the greatest excitement here of any event since the armistice and business has practically been suspended.