A (Real) Lynching in San Jose
November, 1933
Trigger warning: there are disturbing facts in here.
The San Francisco Examiner on November 27, 1933 ran this front page headline:
LYNCH HART KILLERS!
WOMEN CHEER AS PAIR IS HANGED;
SLAIN YOUTH’S BODY IS FOUND IN BAY
What??? A lynching right here in California, not Mississippi or Alabama? And only 91 years ago? Why haven’t I heard about this?
This event has inspired books and been made into multiple movies, and of course it’s in Wikipedia. John Steinbeck wrote a short story loosely based on it, although in his fictional version the victim was black, whereas in reality there were two victims and they were white. There aren’t many new facts in this post (a lot that’s not in Wikipedia, though), but quite possibly you’ve never heard of it at all. It’s not something people like to talk about. There is also a (remote) connection to Kamala Harris.
I went to the site of the lynching, in downtown San Jose. The trees have been cut down, and it looks like any urban park now.
This book is out of print and it’s not on Kindle. You have to buy it used:
It’s interesting that Mr. Farrell came to the same conclusion as I did about spelling the word “kidnaping” and “kidnaper” : they just look wrong to us, so we change them to “kidnapping” and “kidnapper” when we see them.)
What Happened?
There’s much to be said about the crime and the victim, but that’s not what this post is about. Briefly, the 22-year old Brooke Hart, heir to the L. Hart & Son department store, was abducted and killed. L. Hart & Son was one of the best-known businesses in San Jose, at the corner of Market and Santa Clara, and Brooke seems to have been universally admired. He was a graduate of Bellarmine Prep and Santa Clara University, and had everything going for him. His Studebaker was later found off Evans Road in Milpitas, which was way out in the country at the time.
The kidnappers, who were extraordinarily amateurish, demanded ransom from the family but they had already killed Hart in a particularly cruel manner, throwing him off the east end of the San Mateo bridge. You can read the details in the Wikipedia page. Harold Thurmond and John Holmes were eventually arrested, and they confessed to the killing. The kidnapping and killings were national news.
Although I said I wasn’t going to get into the crime details too much, I can’t help noting these facts for those of us who live in the Bay Area:
Thurmond lived at 262 Leigh Ave., Campbell; Holmes at 1070 Bird Ave., San Jose. It’s also worth noting that Thurmond was the first to confess, after a lengthy interrogation by police which methodically undid all of his alibis. Holmes later confessed in San Francisco; both confessions were without benefit of counsel.
In the initial investigation, Marshall Hall, a new lawyer, sailed a yacht out of the Alviso marina up to the bridge to look for the body. Later it was joined by larger police boats with experience in dragging the bottom of the Bay. The body was eventually found by two duck hunters near the mouth of Alameda Creek, south of the San Mateo Bridge. This removed any lingering uncertainty about whether Hart was dead. That same day as the news spread, the lynch mob gathered outside the jail. Everyone knew what was coming. Sheriff Emig told his men to put away their guns, and to rely on tear gas alone. Radio stations whipped up their listeners with stories about the lynching that was about to happen.
Holmes was represented by Vincent Hallinan, who later served six months in prison for contempt of court, and was disbarred. He appealed his disbarment. In 1952 he ran for President on the Progressive Party ticket. He was later convicted for income tax evasion. His son, Terrence, ultimately became San Francisco District Attorney, after having initially been refused admittance to the California Bar for his frequent fistfights. (I remember him especially for Fajitagate, and the Diane Whipple dog-mauling case.) Kamala Harris worked in his office, and later defeated him for reelection in her first run for elective office.
The public was outraged and lynching was feared almost from the start. The suspects were at first taken up to San Francisco to avoid the growing crowds. J. Edgar Hoover in Washington took note of the lynch talk, and wired his agent in the area to make sure it didn’t happen.
Let’s go straight to what happened at the lynching, and then we’ll cover the aftermath. In some ways, that’s even more interesting and appalling.
The San Francisco Examiner’s Page 1 Story
MOB BATTERS DOORS DOWN, STONES POLICE; TEAR GAS BOMBS FLY
The confessed kidnappers and killers of Brooke Hart were lynched at San Jose last night: A snarling, growling, hate-maddened mob snatched Jack Holmes and Harold Thurmond from the sheriff and his deputies, dragged them from the Santa Clara county jail and hung them to trees in St. James' park, across the street from the court house.
WOMEN CHEER EXECUTION.
While women screamed encouragement and applause, and lifted up their children to see the first lynching in California in 13 years, expertly-tied nooses were slipped around the necks of the men who abducted and killed the young son of a wealthy San Jose merchant. Fifteen thousand set up a shriek of triumph as Holmes and Thurmond were hauled from the ground to twitch briefly at the end of their ropes and then dangle, limp and still.
DOORS BATTERED DOWN.
The mob had battered down the jail doors, had plunged headlong into clouds of tear gas, and had laid a protracted barrage of rocks and cobblestones before capturing the men. Finding of the body of young Hart yesterday in the marshes of Alameda by two duck hunters had fanned public feeling to white heat.
Holmes was the first of the two prisoners to be delivered up to the shrieking mob. He fought like a fiend as his captors bustled him out of the ineffective shelter of his cell. He enduring a terrific beating, as men fought for an opportunity to land one more blow upon the reputed originator of the plot to kidnap Hart.
CLOTHES RIPPED FROM BODY.
His face had been pummeled into an unrecognizable, pulp-like thing before he reached the park. His clothes had been ripped from his body. He was entirely nude as the rope was slipped around his neck. As he was manhandled into place beneath an overhanging limb, he begged for mercy. "For God's sake," he sobbed, "give me a chance. I admit I'm Jack Holmes. But for God's sake, give me a chance to explain my part in this thing."
DRAGGED DOWNSTAIRS.
Meanwhile, Thurmond had been dragged from his cell, dragged headforemost down the stair with a rope around his neck. He had seen the mob as it gathered around the jail screaming for his death. He had closed the cell window, in a vain attempt to shut out the cries. He had cowered in a corner of his cell while the attack penetrated the jail and made its way upstairs. Then they got him and threw the noose about his neck. He was paralyzed by fear, half conscious. By the time he had been dragged across the street he was nearly dead. Thurmond was hanged at 11:20.
APPEALS MET BY TAUNTS.
Although Holmes had preceded him into the park, his execution came six minutes later. The delay was caused by inability of his captors to find a suitable limb over which to toss the rope. As Holmes begged for mercy, he was answered by shouts announcing the lynching of Thurmond.
"We've got his partner," a wildly screaming courier shouted in Holmes' ear. "We've strung up Thurmond. Let Holmes see what we've done to his buddy."
WEAKENED BY BEATING.
Weakened by the ferocious beating that marked his progress to the square, Holmes, stark naked, was lifted to the shoulders of the mob. But his battered head dropped to his shoulder, and he apparently caught no glimpse of Thurmond's still form, dangling at a rope's end 100 yards away. A few minutes later—and Holmes, too. dangled at a rope's end.
For almost an hour, the two forms swayed in the slight breeze that swept the park. At 12:15, both bodies were cut down by State highway patrolmen.
STRANGE COINCIDENCE.
And by a strange coincidence, the lynched pair were taken to the same San Jose undertaking parlor whither the body of their victim had been brought earlier in the day.
The mob that worked its vengeance on Holmes and Thurmond was terrible in its manifestations. Laughter and cheers mingled with hate-choked howls as the two men were given up to the rioters. The screams of women and children rose above the awful rumble of men's voices.
And Holmes and Thurmond were hanged to an accompaniment of shouted "wisecracks"—cries of "We-want-a-touchdown," "Block that kick" and "Hold that line."
The crowd began collecting early in the day. As soon as word reached young Hart's home town that his body had been found. men began gathering around the jail.
CROWD GROWS HOURLY.
At first it was a crowd of a few hundred, apparently peaceful. giving vent to its emotions in whispers and low murmurings Hourly the assemblage grew, and betrayed its temper by restlessness. Whispers gave way to shouted threats.
The situation became so tense that authorities took emergency measures. Barricades were thrown up across the three alleys leading to the jail entrance. A score of deputy sheriffs mobilized in the jail office, at the call of Sheriff W. J. Emig.
STATE POLICE AT SCENE.
Six State highway patrolmen, led by Capt. Warren McGrury, took posts in the courtyard between the jail and the courthouse, to act as "shock troops." City policemen were stationed in the Sheriff's office in the courthouse.
Tear-gas bombs were placed in readiness as authorities listened to the swelling chorus of blood-lust.
But the mob was determined. It had grown to about 3.000 when the first overt act occurred — and it had swelled to double that number when the pitched battle began. It was a fiercely fought encounter, leaving a large casualty list in its wake.
It began shortly after 9:30. The crowd had been pressing stronger and stronger against the harrier which kept it from the courtyard. Under pressure from the hundreds behind, those in front broke through the barricade.
GAS FAILS TO HALT RUSH
Nick Torres, State traffic policeman, attempted to take them into custody. The crowd surged around him. Torres, armed with a tear-gas gun, fired into the ground. Clouds of acrid gas temporarily halted the rush. Then the crowd went forward again. Gasping and choking, the men who wanted Thurmond and Holmes, drove toward the jail door.
Torres snatched two tear-gas bombs from deputy sheriffs who leaned out the window of the jail office. He hurled them into the onrushing thousands. The attack was repulsed—temporarily.
FRANTIC CALLS FOR AID.
Meanwhile, Sheriff Emig's men. taking up defensive positions inside the jail. sent out frantic calls for reinforcements. San Francisco and Oakland police were asked to send men and tear-gas. Emig asked the Governor to send troops. But before the new forces could arrive, the mob had had its way.
It was lashed to a frenzy of action by an unidentified youth of 17, who declared he was a university student. Brandishing a crowbar, he stood up in St. James Park and exhorted the mob. He pleaded for volunteers—"men with guts enough to follow me, while we go in and get those ———
His harangue produced results. Fifty men—all in their teens or early twenties; and most of them students—followed this wild, flashing-eyed youth. They armed themselves with clubs. They deployed into a lot adjoining the court-house, where the new postoffice is under construction, and there obtained ammunition in the form of cobblestones and rocks.
SHOWERS OF ROCKS
Then they hurled themselves into the charge, meeting clouds of tear-gas with showers of rocks. One rock smashed the courtyard lamp, leaving the battlefield in darkness. Another crashed through the window of the jail office, extinguishing the light there.
Five casualties occurred at this stage of the fierce fighting. Nick Ladern, highway patrolman. was seriously burned by a tear-gas bomb. Patrolman Elliott Marrs of the city police was painfully bruised by a cobblestone. Three newspapermen, caught in the courtyard between the defenders and attackers, were struck by flying missiles.
So Then What?
This reads like something out of a movie (as I said, there were movies). Why didn’t anyone stop it, especially when everyone saw it coming? And this lynch mob wasn’t the Ku Klux Klan in the Deep South; these were people from a (formerly) sleepy town in California. Surely someone got prosecuted for their part in this double murder? Well, yes, but not convicted.
The Governor
James "Sunny Jim" Rolph Jr. was the governor of California. Previously, he had been the longest-serving mayor of San Francisco in its history. He had refused to send National Guard troops to protect the prisoners, and even postponed a trip out of state because that would have left the Lieutenant Governor in charge and he might have sent troops.
The day after that story, this was the headline:
Lynchers Will Go Free! Hart's Slayers Deserved Hanging, Rolph Declares
Incredibly, the Governor was publicly in favor of the lynching:
Executive 'Considers' Paroling Others to San Jose
`BEST METHOD'
Governor Tells Why He Refused Plea for Troops
Little Wonder Citizens Arose For Vengeance, Governor Says
Executive's Statement Points to Brutality of Brooke Hart Kidnaping, Slaying
After informally discussing his attitude toward the lynching of the slayer-kidnapers of Brooke L. Hart during the day, Governor Rolph wrote the following statement last night for The Examiner:
By JAMES ROLPH Jr. Governor of California
The kidnaping and murder of Brooke Hart was one of the most atrocious crimes ever committed in the State of California. Not only was Brooke Hart kidnaped, but it was contemplated at the time of the kidnapping that he would be murdered and that thereafter ransom would be demanded of his father upon the assumption that his son was still alive, and, in the event of payment of the amount demanded, would be returned to his family unharmed.
From the facts ascertained it is within the realm of probability that upon receipt of the ransom from the father they intended to likewise murder him. The killing by the kidnappers of their victim was singularly brutal. Taken in an automobile under threat of gunfire if resistance were offered, young Hart was conveyed to a secluded spot on the San Mateo Bridge. Without according him the slightest opportunity of self-protection, they struck him on the head with a brick, fracturing his skull, bound him hand and foot with wire, weighted him with blocks of concrete and while he was still alive tossed him into the waters of San Francisco Bay.
His pleas for mercy were cruelly disregarded. Before his body thus bound and weighted receded below the waters into which he was cast, one of his captors fiendishly emptied his revolver at the disappearing form.
Having thus accomplished the killing of Brooke Hart, they concentrated their efforts towards obtaining from the grief-stricken family the ransom, the believed payment of which inspired their crime.
When captured by the vigilant law enforcement officers apparently with little hesitation and remorse they detailed their criminal activities, each in an endeavor to save his own life regardless of that of his associate, attempting to fix responsibility for the conception of the crime upon the other. It is little wonder that the people of the community in which the murdered man and his family resided arose in their wrath and took vengeance on Brooke Hart's slayers. The people of California are both law-abiding and peaceable. They are unwilling, however, to permit this great State of ours to become infested or crime-ridden with kidnappers. While the law should have been permitted to take its course, the people by their action have given notice to the entire world that in California kidnaping will not be tolerated.
This is the park now. You can see the government building across the street. The hanging trees have been cut down, but I thought I remembered the book saying they were near the McKinley statue. Reading it again, I see I was wrong and they were to the left of it.
A Lyncher Tells All
Having been assured that the Governor would pardon them if they were convicted, and realizing that probably no jury would convict them anyway, some of the people in the crowd admitted their role publicly. The story above referred to “an unidentified youth of 17, who declared he was a university student.” An 18-year old man named Anthony Cataldi claimed that was him. He later disavowed that statement.
The Examiner also quoted an anonymous “San Jose businessman” who claimed that he had organized a vigilance committee. Later on, the name “Spencer” is used, apparently referring to that person.
Nonetheless, the sheriff, police, and district attorneys were quick to announce that no action would be taken, due to “the impossibility of identifying the ringleaders.” Newspaper stories had carefully smudged the faces of the people in the mob.
Cataldi and six other men were eventually arraigned for their participation in the lynching, according to this news story, at the active instigation of the American Civil Liberties Union. Apparently the ACLU had said, “What do you mean, you can’t identify anyone? Someone identified himself!” As far as I can tell, the men were never tried, and charges were dropped.
Governor Rolph would not have been able to pardon them if they had been convicted, since he died of a heart attack barely eight months after the lynching.
According to this story,
The repercussions of San Jose justice extended overseas as well. But perhaps none were so telling as comments made by the Nazi Party, who in 1933 was just beginning their satanic rise to power in Germany. In their national magazine, published in 1934, the Nazis published photographs of the lynchings in St. James Park and used the killings as examples of the decadence of American life.
Why This Murder?
It’s easy but facile to just say, “Well, this just shows how evil people can be!” What lies behind this behavior? After all, there are always a lot of homicides, and most of them don’t lead to lynchings.
Let’s look at what the Mayor of San Jose, Angelo Rossi, said:
MAYOR ROSSI
Organized violence is deplorable at any time and any place. Yet I feel the crowd that precipitated the scene of violence and death in San Jose Sunday night was not a mob, but a gathering of respectable citizens whose feelings were outraged beyond control by what was probably the most atrocious crime ever committed in this part of the State.
Kidnapping has made a companion of murder, and the two, hand in hand, have surged over this country until every father and mother must live in fear. Some direct action is necessary to demonstrate that California citizenry will not tolerate the flouting of the fundamental right of every citizen to peace and security.
There is no doubt in my mind but that Santa Clara County authorities would have seen to it that the ends of justice were served, and that those guilty of the Brooke Hart kidnapping and murder paid the extreme penalty. Regrettable as it may he that the people saw fit to take the law into their own hands, I nevertheless feel that their action will serve as an announcement to the entire world that deliberate organized crime can never rear its ugly head in California.
Where was President Roosevelt?
Although these victims were white, to most people “lynching” meant white people lynching black people in the Deep South. Here’s a map (courtesy of FDR Archives):
(Note the one dot in California: that’s this case)
Eleanor Roosevelt, FDR’s wife, was actively campaigning for a federal anti-lynching law (same source as above). FDR refused to support it, because that would have cost him Southern votes in the Senate, and he needed those. The most he would do is denounce it, which he did in a December radio address:
This new generation, for example, is not content with preachings against that vile form of collective murder - lynch law - which has broken out in our midst anew. We know that it is murder, and a deliberate and definite disobedience of the Commandment, "Thou shalt not kill". We do not excuse those in high places or in low who condone lynch law.
You Have the Right to Remain Silent
Nowadays when you watch a cop show and they make an arrest, they always say words to this effect:
“You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you. Do you understand the rights I have just read to you? With these rights in mind, do you wish to speak to me?”
This is called the Miranda warning, after a famous case Supreme Court case Miranda v. Arizona (1966). This was 33 years later, of course. The Chief Justice for that case was Earl Warren.
At the time of the lynchings, Warren was District Attorney for Alameda County. He said,
These two lynchings come as a direct result of the laws of this nation against serious crimes not being adequately enforced. Our government simply has not measured up to its responsibility as far as protecting life and property are concerned …. I cannot help but believe that if the public were adequately protected against murder and kidnapping, the people would never take the law into their own hands in such matters.
Was Kidnapping Increasing?
Notice that the San Jose mayor called out “kidnapping.” In fact, there was an epidemic of it at the time. This article says:
As the false glitz of the 1920s yielded to the crushing poverty of the 1930s, kidnappings became so frequent in the United States that newspapers could scarcely keep up with them, as evidenced by a front-page article in the New York Times on Tuesday, July 25, 1933. The article reported the arrest of several Chicago gangsters for the kidnapping of a St. Paul, Minnesota, beer mogul who had been freed after a ransom payment. The article noted that lawmen expected to link the gang to another Midwest kidnapping. And it alluded to an attempted kidnapping on Long Island.
The article was continued on page 4, a “jump page” in newspaper parlance. There was also an article on page 4 about the kidnappings of an Oklahoma oil tycoon and the son of a politician in Albany, New York. There was a report about a Philadelphia real estate broker who was shot dead in a bungled kidnapping attempt. Finally, there was a list, rather like a scoreboard, of some recent cases in which victims were rescued and suspects were apprehended:
Mrs. E. L. (Zeke) Caress, Los Angeles; Dec. 20, 1930, three in prison for life, twenty-two, and ten years.
Sidney Mann, New York; Oct. 13, 1931; three in prison for life, fifty, and twenty years.
(12 more)
Kidnapping a rich person and holding him or her for ransom was a popular crime, especially when criminals could see that Prohibition was being repealed, so that revenue opportunity was disappearing. The Depression made for desperate times. This was the same era that brought John Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde, Machine-Gun Kelly, and Pretty Boy Floyd to fame.
The Lindbergh Kidnapping
On the night of March 1, 1932, the twenty-month-old son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh was kidnapped. Lindbergh had flown a plane solo from New York to Paris, making him a national hero. It didn’t hurt that he was dashingly handsome. Time Magazine made him its first Man of the Year in 1928.
It’s difficult for us now to understand why flying solo across the Atlantic was such a big deal back then, but it was. Lindbergh was one of the most famous people in America, and this was the biggest kidnapping in U.S. history.
The baby’s body was found on May 12, 1932. In the response to the public outcry, Congress passed the Federal Kidnapping Act that summer, allowing Federal authorities to intervene if a kidnapping victim was taken across state lines. This was nicknamed the Lindbergh Law, and a “Little Lindbergh Law” was passed in California soon after.
There were a lot of kidnappings back then:
The day after the Lindbergh kidnapping, a New York Times article offered a partial list of the most recent kidnappings in various states: Illinois, 49; Michigan, 26, California, 25; Indiana, 20. And so on. The following day, attributing its figures somewhat vaguely to "authorities," the paper reported that more than two thousand persons had been abducted in the country in the previous two years.
This last mention of “authorities” is worth calling out: there were no authoritative crime statistics nationally at the time. That’s what J. Edgar Hoover would eventually create with the FBI.
Explaining is not excusing. We can understand that San Jose citizens were tired of people being kidnapped for ransom, and that Brooke Hart was a fixture on the local scene, and that the killers had already confessed. But as FDR said, it is murder.