The lynching of murderers Thurmond and Holmes November 26, 1933 *Bob Greenhouse - Take note that our friend Jackie Coogan makes an appearance in this post as well.. Brooke Hart (June 11, 1911 – November 9, 1933) was the oldest son of Alexander Hart, the owner of Leopold Hart and Son Department Store at the corner of Market and Santa Clara Street in downtown San Jose, California. His kidnapping and murder were reported throughout the United States, and the lynching of his murderers, Thomas Harold Thurmond and John M. Holmes was well publicized. On the afternoon of Thursday, November 9, 1933, the 22-year-old Hart was kidnapped while retrieving his Studebaker roadster from a downtown San Jose garage. He was driven in the car by his captors to what is now Milpitas, about seven miles east of San Jose. There they abandoned the Studebaker for another car, drove to the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge, where Hart was hit over the head with a concrete block and dumped into San Francisco Bay. At the time, the tide was out and there was only a few feet of water at the base of the bridge, so Thurmond and Holmes shot Hart, killing him. A few hours later, the Hart family was telephoned by Thurmond and Holmes, who demanded $40,000 for Harts return, with further instructions to follow. It did not take long before the pair was apprehended and placed in jail. Early in the morning, because of lynch threats, the Santa Clara County sheriff moved Thurmond and Holmes to the Potrero Hill police station in San Francisco for safekeeping. At 1 oclock the next afternoon, Holmes signed a confession admitting that he and Thurmond kidnapped Hart and threw him into San Francisco Bay. Later, the Santa Clara County District Attorney advised the press that, unless corroborated by independent evidence of the crime, confessions by Thurmond and Holmes in which each blamed the other for the crime were not admissible in a court of law. Police officers from Santa Clara County, San Mateo County, and Alameda County began searching the bay around the bridge, hoping to find Harts body. On November 26, two duck hunters from Redwood City discovered a badly decayed and crab-eaten body about a mile south of the bridge. Harts body was identified by one of his friends later that day. After the discovery of Harts body the next day, word went out immediately throughout northern California. Meanwhile, local newspapers reported that Holmes and Thurmond had met with psychiatrists and would attempt to plead not guilty by reason of insanity. All day Sunday and into the evening, radio stations issued inflammatory announcements that a lynching would occur that night in St. James Park in San Jose. By 9:00 p.m., a mob estimated by the press to range anywhere from 5,000 to 15,000 men, women, and children were jammed into the park, with an estimated 3,000 abandoned vehicles left on streets nearby. Governor Rolph was in regular telephonic communication with Raymond Cato, whom he had appointed to head the California Highway Patrol. Cato was ensconced in the home of a Rolph political ally and neighbor in the mountains west of San Jose with an open phone line to the jail. As the assault on the jail commenced about 9:00 p.m., Governor Rolph canceled a planned trip to the Western Governors conference in Boise, Idaho to prevent his chief political rival, Lieutenant Governor Frank Merriam, from calling out the National Guard to stop the lynchings. By midnight, November 27, thousands had gathered outside the jail, while the sheriffs deputies fired tear gas into the crowd in an attempt to disperse them. However, the crowd became angrier and larger. The crowd found materials to make a battering ram. Emig ordered his officers to abandon the bottom two floors of the jail, where Thurmond and Holmes were being held. The mob, by this time estimated at 6,000-10,000 (other reports are of 3,000-5,000), stormed the jail, took Holmes and Thurmond across the street to St. James Park, and hanged them. Child movie star Jackie Coogan, a close friend of Brooke Hart from Santa Clara University, was one of the mob that prepared and held the rope for lynching. ~ Donna Photo 1 - Thurmond and Holmes Photo 2 - The victim Brooke Hart
Posted on: Thu, 09 Oct 2014 01:46:35 +0000