Brooke Hart
Actor
Brooke Hart (June 11, 1911 – November 9, 1933) was the eldest son of Alexander Hart, the owner of Leopold Hart and Son Department Store at the southeast corner of Market and Santa Clara Street in downtown San Jose, California. His kidnapping and murder were reported throughout the United States. The subsequent lynching of his alleged murderers, Thomas Harold Thurmond and John M. Holmes, sparked widespread political debate and public horror. The lynchings were carried out by a mob of San Jose citizens in St. James Park across from the Santa Clara County Jail, and were broadcast as a 'live' event by a Los Angeles radio station. The killings of the suspects were tacitly endorsed by the governor of California, James Rolph, Jr., who said he would pardon anyone convicted of the lynching. Scores of reporters, photographers, and newsreel camera operators, along with an estimated 3,000 to 10,000 men, women, and children, were witness to it. When newspapers published photos, identifiable faces were deliberately smudged so that they remained anonymous; the following Monday, local newspapers published 1.2 million copies, twice the normal daily production. This incident is sometimes referred to as "the last lynching in California", though the last California lynching is said to have occurred on January 6, 1947, in Callahan, but the name of the victim has never been released and the event cannot be confirmed in any printed news publications.
Brooke Hart (June 11, 1911 – November 9, 1933) was the eldest son of Alexander Hart, the owner of Leopold Hart and Son Department Store at the southeast corner of Market and Santa Clara Street in downtown San Jose, California. His kidnapping and murder were reported throughout the United States. The subsequent lynching of his alleged murderers, Thomas Harold Thurmond and John M. Holmes, sparked widespread political debate and public horror.
The lynchings were carried out by a mob of San Jose citizens in St. James Park across from the Santa Clara County Jail, and were broadcast as a 'live' event by a Los Angeles radio station. The killings of the suspects were tacitly endorsed by the governor of California, James Rolph, Jr., who said he would pardon anyone convicted of the lynching. Scores of reporters, photographers, and newsreel camera operators, along with an estimated 3,000 to 10,000 men, women, and children, were witness to it. When newspapers published photos, identifiable faces were deliberately smudged so that they remained anonymous; the following Monday, local newspapers published 1.2 million copies, twice the normal daily production.
This incident is sometimes referred to as "the last lynching in California", though the last California lynching is said to have occurred on January 6, 1947, in Callahan, but the name of the victim has never been released and the event cannot be confirmed in any printed news publications.