A Walking Shadow

Myles Yutaka Fukunaga was a 19-year-old hotel worker in Honolulu. His parents were poor and months behind on their rent, and Hawaiian Trust Company kept pressing them for it. After a heated confrontation over the back rent, Fukunaga fixed his anger on the company and on its vice president, Frederick Jamieson.

On September 18, 1928, Fukunaga went to Punahou School posing as a hospital messenger and told staff that the mother of 10-year-old George Gill Jamieson had been hurt. The boy left with him. Fukunaga killed Gill that day in a kiawe thicket in Waikiki, then sent ransom notes demanding $10,000 and signed them “the Three Kings.” He met the boy’s father and collected $4,000 in $5 bills.

On September 22, a railroad ticket agent recognized some of the ransom money, and Fukunaga was arrested and confessed. His trial began about ten days later; the defense called no witnesses, and his psychiatric examination lasted only about ninety minutes despite signs of mental illness. He was sentenced to death on October 8, 1928. Japanese community leaders argued the case had been rushed because of who the victim was, and appeals failed. Fukunaga was hanged on November 19, 1929. Historians later contrasted his treatment with the 1932 Massie case, in which the killers of Joseph Kahahawai had their sentences commuted.