This may surprise some of you.

I have reached the conclusion that Mike Miske was a lot of things, but he was not a killer.

There has been no lack of stone-cold killers in Hawaii’s gangland past. During the struggle for power and control of Hawaii’s underworld during the 1960s and 1970s there at least 50 gangland killings, and more unsuccessful attempts. Many of these were executions carried out up close and personal, although others involved less personal methods such as car bombs.

Miske was too young to have been part of that scene. There’s no question that he relied on violence to maintain his position of power, keep unhappy customers and competitors at bay, and cement his reputation on the streets. But he did this for years by outsourcing his violence, hiring others to provide “muscle” on request. Trial testimony by former victims, members of Miske’s muscle crew, witnesses and police officers described how the victims were assaulted and beaten at Miske’s direction. People were beaten, sometimes hospitalized, or they were threatened with similar treatment, but they didn’t disappear.

Trial testimony named several of them who were involved in violent assaults, including Miske’s brother, John Stancil, Alfredo Cabael, Andrew Kim, Michael Buntenbah, Hansen Apo, and Jacob “Jake” Smith. Some were part of a shadow group of unregistered security guards and bouncers at Miske’s M nightclub who operated under his direct control but were not ever listed among the club’s regular employees. This group was separate and distinct from the bouncers who were employees of the club registered with the Honolulu Liquor Commission. It’s members were not charged when they ate and drank at the M, as long as they provided the muscle Miske regularly needed.

Although Miske was often present and reportedly threw a punch now and then during the assaults carried out by this group, his main role was ordering and observing the beatings, which cemented his reputation for violence.

Mike Miske may have had murderous thoughts and rhetoric, but the record shows he was not a hands-on guy when it came to murder. He left the dirty work to others who, by and large, proved to be equally inept or unwilling to actually pull the trigger.

Miske ordered and paid for a number of “hits” intended to eliminate several others who he perceived as threats. Most of these plots fizzled out without anyone being harmed.

In late 2015 or early 2016, Miske, who had survived at least four federal investigations without being charged, learned from his sources that yet another investigation was underway, and began trying to eliminate people who might put him at additional risk. Miske decided that a Waimanalo man from his past had become a confidential source for law enforcement and was feeding damaging information about Miske and his operations to the FBI. Miske directed one of his closest associates at the time, Wayne Miller, to find someone to kill the suspected informant.

Miller took $10,000 from Miske and paid most of it to another Miske associate, Harry Kauhi, with a promise of more when the job was done. But Kauhi testified that he took the money but did nothing further.

Miske, frustrated by the delay and apparently lacking contacts with anyone he believed capable of murder, then asked for an introduction to Lance Bermudez, who had a reputation as a “shooter.” After the meeting, Bermudez agreed to take the contract. He and several others then armed themselves and reportedly set up an ambush outside the intended victims Waimanalo home. But they never saw their intended victim, although they returned more than once. Eventually Miske rescinded the contract.

Several other contracted “hits” were equally unsuccessful. Victims were stalked, plans were made, but the episodes ended without anyone being hurt.

The only person to die was Johnny Fraser, a 21-year old friend of Miske’s son, Caleb.

The two young men were both critically injured in an auto accident in November 2015. Caleb died several months later as the result of complications of his injuries. Fraser survived. Miske mistakenly believed Fraser had been driving at the time of the accident, and mistakenly blamed him for Caleb’s death, providing the motive for the murder.

It’s clear that he had numerous opportunities to kill Johnny Fraser himself if he was so inclined. But that didn’t happen.

Although Miske had dispatched several of his thugs to beat up Fraser after a Rolex watch was taken from Miske’s office, he again asked Miller to find someone willing to kill Fraser. At least two people turned down the contract, and Miller then apparently stalled, hoping that Miske would get over his rage and drop the idea. But at the end of July 2016, a few months after Caleb’s death, Fraser suddenly disappeared and is presumed dead. After Miller balked, Miske appears to have made his own arrangements, although the jury was never presented a coherent theory of how or by whom Fraser was killed.

But again, even with this most personal and intimate of grievances, Miske appears to have relied on hired help to carry out the murder.