Brooke Hart
| Brooke Leopold Hart | |
|---|---|
| Born | June 11, 1911 |
| Died | November 9, 1933 (aged 22) |
| Education | Bellarmine College Preparatory |
| Alma mater | Santa Clara University (BS, 1933) |
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Known for | Family department store; his kidnapping and subsequent murder |
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, and the lynching of his alleged murderers, Thomas Harold Thurmond and John M. Holmes, sparked political debate. 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 lynching cannot be confirmed in any printed news publications.
When Hart's body was discovered in San Francisco Bay on the morning of Sunday, November 26, 1933, word of a lynch mob spread quickly throughout northern California. That evening, a crowd gathered in St. James Park across from the Santa Clara County Courthouse. The lynching was broadcast as a 'live' event by a Los Angeles radio station. Scores of reporters, photographers, and news camera operators, along with an estimated 3,000 to 10,000 men, women, and children, were witness to the lynching. When newspapers published photos of the lynching, 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.
Hart had worked in his family's department store during much of his youth and was well-known and liked by the local community. After he graduated from Santa Clara University, his father made him a junior vice president in the store and began grooming him to take over when his father retired.
Just before 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, November 9, 1933, the 22-year-old Hart was kidnapped while retrieving his 1933 Studebaker President roadster, a graduation present from his parents, from a downtown San Jose garage. According to later confessions, two men had plotted to kidnap Hart: John Holmes and Thomas (Harold) Thurmond. When Hart stopped his car near the exit of the parking lot, Thurmond slipped into the passenger seat and forced Hart to drive, at gunpoint, to what is now Milpitas, about seven miles north of San Jose. There they abandoned the Studebaker for another waiting car, which had been driven to the rendezvous point by Holmes, and the group of three drove to the San Mateo Bridge.
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Wikipedia