Lightning Strikes and Murder

My paternal grandparents had 14 children and outlived 10 of them!  Only my dad (Afton LeRoy), my aunts Leona and Alene, and my uncle Alonzo LaFayette (“LaFay”) lived past 40 and were alive when Grandpa passed away.  I don’t know much about the rest of my paternal aunts and uncles other than what Grandpa wrote in his biography:

“Our daughter Mae died November 1, 1940, at the age of 26, and is buried in Oroville. Ruth died tragically December 14, 1948, at the age of 27 in Guam, and is buried in San Francisco. Laurence Elmer died October 22, 1959, at the age of 32 and is buried in Tucson. Lester Burt died March 31,1965 and is buried in Mesa. Of the children who died while we were in Mexico, Carl, Florence and Grant are buried in Colonia Garcia; Alma Ray in Pacheco. Little Vera was laid to rest in El Paso, and Julia in Tucson.”

Back in the early 20^th Century, because medicine and access to doctors was not as readily available as they are today, large families often lost children to illnesses or accidents that occurred.  That is what happened to Carl, Grant, Florence, Alma, Vera and Julia.  Growing up, I did hear a few stories about some of my aunts and uncles that fascinated me, though.  For instance, when they were boys, my Uncle Carl and Uncle Grant were at a dance when lightning struck Grant and killed him.  That alone is very unusual.  What made Uncle Grant’s story fascinating to me is that we were told it was the 2^nd time he had been struck by lightning in his short life!

My Aunt Ruth’s death was the most tragic, though, in my opinion.  She was raped, beaten, and murdered on the island of Guam shortly after World War II.  The crime made international news, created all kinds of racial tensions in the US, brought attention to an up-and-coming lawyer who would later be the first African-American Supreme Court Justice (Thurgood Marshall), and became the subject of two different books that came to two different conclusions as to whether justice was served or not.

The first of those two books is “Please Don’t Cry For Me”, by Robert Leland Athey.  Here is a short overview of that book:  

Guam, Marianas Islands, December 11, 1948 at 2020 hours.  Ruth Farnsworth (soon to be married to a Staff Sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps), was working part time in the MARBO area Jade Shop.

During that evening a tragedy countdown clock began ticking.  There were five distinct count down times running on the clock before she was brutally beaten unconscious and taken to the jungle where she was raped and left to die.  Beginning at 1900 hours and ending at 2135 hours, a few minutes of time or a changed routine could have saved Ruth’s life.  She lost all five chances for life and never regained consciousness to tell what happened to her.

The subject of a forty-hour search, Ruth Farnsworth’s bloody unconscious body, gasping for air, was found in a jungle clearing at 1100 hours on December 13, 1948.  Ruth died eight minutes after midnight on December 14, 1948 at the 22nd Army Hospital, Guam, Marianas Islands.

A month later in January 1949, three U.S. Air Force airmen were apprehended and charged with the rape murder of Ruth Farnsworth a 27-years-old U.S. Navy civil service worker. The murder and courts-martial (three separate trials) in May and June of 1949 made national news coverage from December 1948 through 1954.

Now over seventy years later, unpublished official data related to the murder and trials, obtained under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act can be told. The story is based on information from 5,000 pages of official documents (many formerly classified as confidential or secret) and a construction supply supervisor who worked on the Andersen Air Force Base, Guam Project.

The setting for the crime and trials was Guam, the largest and most populated of the mid-pacific Marianas Islands.  The island was a land of coral reefs, jungles, barren land, fertile valleys, military airfields and bases, and sunken World War II ships in harbors.  A United States Possession it fell into Japanese hands on December 12, 1941 and was liberated by the landing of U.S. Marines on July 20, 1944.     

In less than two years after the defeat of Japan, with the threat of the cold war, it was the site of massive military construction of airfields and deep-water harbors.  However, the civilian population of the United States, tired of war, paid little attention to the construction of strategic airfields, missile launching sites and harbors in the mid-pacific islands.

As unincorporated territory of the United States its 1948 population was estimated at 55,000 to 58,000 persons.  Of the total population 27,000 were Guamanian and Filipino ancestry and most of the remaining being American military and civilian workers. Even though the WWII occupation by Japan had ended several years earlier a small number of Japanese soldiers, who never surrendered, remained in the hills and jungles.  Guam, an outpost of the American system of defense had been administered by a U.S. Navy Governor since early 1899 following the Spanish American War.

The second book is “The Tracks of His Tears: The Herman P. Dennis Story”, written by Mr. Dennis’ sister, Lucy Dennis.  This is the overview of that book:

His story: Herman P. Dennis Jr. joined the Army Air Field in 1946 (now The Air Force) because he loved working on airplanes, something he did while in his home town. He was convinced once joining the military he would have a chance demonstrating his expertise and in doing so, help his country. After so many tries and being turned away, Herman soon found himself on the island of Guam where his nightmare began.

His father the late Herman P. Dennis taught his son to stand up for what he believed in and with taking that to heart, young Dennis stood up against Jim Crow laws in both the country and especially the Armed Forces. Of course with this stance, he made many enemies.

One evening in December of 1949 Private Herman and a friend walked to the theater to enjoy a movie. Upon arriving, he was greeted by the ticket person who sold him his ticket. Once inside, he sat down with several of his airmen, with one asking for a cigarette. After the movie, he walked back to the barracks with Sgt. Scroggins.

Nine miles away in Agana, a crime was taking place as the movie was playing. Ruth Farnsworth was beaten and placed less than 70 yards from the Jade Shop she worked at. It is rumored with some evidence in the court records that the reason the young lady was killed was because she had found out some information about drug smuggling and had threaten to expose the person whom the shop belonged to. In the court records it was found strange that the owner of the shop always slept at the shop, but that night he was nowhere in the area. Also, the other woman who worked with her, just so happened had somewhere to go and left early that evening.

Weeks passed before Herman was picked up and days passed before he was able to talk and speak to anyone. While being held, he was beaten and threatened if he did not sign a confession. He had a choice, to live or die at the hands of the Marines who were ordered to beat him by Lt. Hackett and Riedel. After weeks of beating he conceded to signing a confession. He wrote that he and his brother Calvin Dennis raped and murdered Ruth Farnsworth (even with evidence suggesting that they could not determine if she was indeed raped. Calvin Dennis, along with Robert Burns, was also implicated in this crime.

Calvin Dennis and Herman Dennis were not brothers, they were not even related. Herman thought if he was to write that, the confession would not be admissible. Of course, so many other terrible things happened to my brother. A lot of evidence proves he was innocent. An example, his counselor, Daly, once the military learned that he had evidence proving my brother’s innocence, was threatened with an Article 125 if he did not resign from the military. Lt. Hackett on the witness stand in front of six white jurors, testified that he told others that he beat the confession out of my brother.

My brother was hanged for a crime he did not commit because he wrote and spoke out against racism and Jim Crow Laws. Thurgood Marshall was his defense attorney, along with Reeves and Carter. Even they could not free him from the net of injustice when they went before the Supreme Court — the three justices, Black, Frankfurter and Douglas had strong dissent and asked that the case be re-opened. Unfortunately, after speaking to the staff under Franklin Roosevelt, the President did not even address the case and my brother was hanged, January 27, 1954 at the age of 24.

I must admit that even after reading the first book that was, in my opinion, quite a tedious read at times, I was left with more questions than answers.  Some of my questions are the same as those raised by Ms. Dennis.  I guess we’ll never know all the answers.  We probably won’t know until all is revealed at the end of time.  But then, it won’t really matter.  God will have already served justice perfectly, and all that will be left is love.