William Olin Crowell (1873-1935) was Deputy Sheriff of Waimea from 1900 until his death. His record as a police officer was a credit to himself, his superior, Sheriff William Henry Rice, and his police force. Most notable is Crowell’s participation
William Olin Crowell (1873-1935) was Deputy Sheriff of Waimea from 1900 until his death. His record as a police officer was a credit to himself, his superior, Sheriff William Henry Rice, and his police force.
Most notable is Crowell’s participation on Sept. 9, 1924 in a bloody confrontation known as the “Hanapepe Massacre,” which occurred during the sugar plantation strike of that year.
A day or two before, two non-striking Ilocano men from Makaweli had pedaled their bicycles into Hanapepe and were caught by striking Visayans and held in the strikers’ camp at the Japanese Language School.
Friends called police, and Crowell and one policeman went to the camp to get the men released, but they refused to go.
Suspecting that the men had been intimidated into saying they would not leave, Crowell then got a court order to arrest them for their own protection.
The following morning, Crowell returned to the camp with an arrest warrant, along with several hunters deputized as policemen.
Following negotiations between the strikers and Crowell, the strikers released both men into his custody.
Crowell, his deputies and the two Ilocanos then walked westward through town on Hanapepe Road toward where their cars were parked, with a large crowd of strikers armed with knives, sticks, and a few pistols pressing upon them.
Then, just east of today’s intersection of Hanapepe and Moi Roads, a furious melee erupted, lasting five minutes, in which two policemen climbed a small bluff that still exists and fired their rifles, massacring many strikers as they fled into a nearby banana patch.
The confrontation left 16 strikers killed and nine wounded; three policemen were killed by gunshot, and three, Crowell included, were wounded by knives, one mortally. Its horror effectively ended the strike.
