Grace Hubbard Fortescue, (née Bell) (November 3, 1883 – June 24, 1979), was an American socialite who orchestrated the kidnapping, beating, and murder of a man who was wrongly accused of raping her daughter, Thalia Massie. After being convicted of manslaughter at her sensational trial, her ten-year sentence was commuted to a single hour by Hawaii's Territorial Governor Lawrence M. Judd.

Early life

Grace Hubbard Bell was born November 3, 1883, in Washington, D.C. 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. The marriage was not as financially successful as she would have wished.

  • 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 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. 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.<!-- As of January 8, 1932, a criminal record indicates that while in Honolulu, Grace Fortescue lived on Kolowalu Street in Manoa Valley, a short distance from her daughter's home on Kahawai Street. -- not really sure the relevance of this -->

References

  • Webpage for The American Experience, "The Massie Affair", retrieved on 2008-06-07.
  • Stannard, David. "The Massie case: Injustice and courage" The Honolulu Advertiser, October 14, 2001, retrieved on 2008-06-07.