Brooke Hart

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Brooke Hart (June 11, 1911 - November 9, 1933) was the eldest son of Alexander Hart, owner of Leopold Hart and Son Department Store in the southeast corner of Market and Santa Clara Street in downtown San Jose, California. His kidnappings and murders were reported throughout the United States, and the death sentences for the alleged assassins, Thomas Harold Thurmond and John M. Holmes, sparked political debate. This incident is sometimes referred to as "the last death sentence in California", although the termination of the death penalty in California was mentioned on January 6, 1947, in Callahan, but the victim's name was never released and the event could not be confirmed. in a printed news publication.

When Hart's body was discovered in San Francisco Bay on the morning of November 26, 1933, the words of the lynch mass spread rapidly throughout northern California. That afternoon, the crowd gathered at St. James Park is opposite the Santa Clara Courthouse. The termination was broadcast as an 'live' event by Los Angeles radio station. Dozens of journalists, photographers and news camera operators, along with about 3,000 to 10,000 men, women, and children, watched. When newspapers publish photos, identifiable faces are deliberately colored so they remain anonymous; The following Monday, the local newspaper published 1.2 million copies, twice the normal daily production.

Hart had worked in his family's department store during 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 at the store and began taking care of him to take over when his father retired.

Video Brooke Hart

Kidnapping and killing

Just before 6:00 am. on Thursday, November 9, 1933, the 22-year-old Hart was kidnapped while taking the road of President Studebaker in 1933, a graduation gift from her parents, from a garage in downtown San Jose. According to later confessions, two men, John Holmes and Thomas (Harold) Thurmond, had planned to kidnap Hart. When Hart stopped his car near the parking lot exit, 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 left Studebaker for another waiting car, which had been pushed to the meeting point by Holmes, and a group of three drove to San Mateo Bridge.

At the bridge, Hart was ordered out of the car, and one of the kidnappers hit him twice in the head from behind with a beam of concrete until he was unconscious. They then tied their hands with wire blades before throwing them into San Francisco Bay. The tide was out and there were only a few feet of water at the base of the bridge, so the kidnappers shot Hart, killing him. A few hours later, they made a phone call to the Hart family demanding $ 40,000 for Hart's return, with further instructions to follow.

Witness account

Hart was kidnapped at the exit of the parking lot behind the family department store. Half an hour later, a mother and daughter on a farm immediately south of Milpitas witnessed a long dark hooded sedan with three men inside stopping near their warehouse. A few minutes later, a convertible (maybe the President Studebaker roadster) with three people (two on board and one driver) stopped near the sedan. Their description of a convertible, sleek man with light-colored hair, fits Hart's description, as well as Studebaker as his car. Hart was driven out of a bigger car. One of the groups followed in Studebaker. The mother did not report the incident until the following Monday (November 13), when she visited relatives and learned about the kidnapping. The researchers disagree on the truth of the story, which is inconsistent with the number of kidnappers of the recorded confessions.

Separately, after midnight, a man living in Milpitas spotted a leftist car left with a light outside their home; his wife reported that it had been there since 7 pm. night of November 9th. The car was confirmed as Hart's by Sheriff Emig and a deputy.

Two collectors said they heard shouting for help from a bridge near the Alameda beach on the night of November 9, but they found no one after the search, nor did they hear the shots that night.

Ransom request

At 9:30 pm on November 9, Aleese Hart, older than Hart's two sisters, answered the phone and was told by a "soft-spoken man" that Hart had been kidnapped and that instructions for her return would be granted later.. At 10:30, what sounded like the same person called and told the other sister, Miriam, that her brother would be returned after payment of US $ 40,000 (equivalent to $ 756,000 in 2017). Delivery instructions will be given the next day.

The San Jose Police Department, Santa Clara County Sheriff's office, and the US Investigative Division (FBI pioneer) were quickly incorporated into the case. Phone calls were tracked to locations in San Francisco. Hart's wallet had been found in San Francisco at the guard fence of a tanker that had fueled the Matson Lines passenger vessel Lurline, and assumed the wallet was thrown from the ship's window on the liner.. Lurline was stopped and searched in Los Angeles on arrival on November 11th, but nothing was found. The police then proposed an alternative theory: since Pier 32, from where the Lurline has gone, is close to a sewerage, a highly laden tanker may have dipped below the surface and taken a wallet from that place. discharged from the drain, lifting it out of the bay once the amount of sufficient fuel has been lowered. One of the passengers detained during a three-hour search was Babe Ruth, traveling to Los Angeles to watch a soccer match between Southern California and Stanford.

A "compromise compromise" telegram from Sacramento arrived on Nov. 12, indicating that US $ 20,000 (equivalent to $ 378,000 in 2017) would be enough. However, the family was not contacted again until Monday, November 13, when a letter, postmark in Sacramento, arrived at the post at a family department store. It instructed Hart's father, Alex Hart, to put up a radio in Studebaker (which already has a radio), because ransom instructions will be broadcast on NBC radio station, KPO. The kidnapper also instructed Alex Hart to be ready to drive Studebaker to send a ransom, but Alex Hart never learned to drive.

On Tuesday, a second ransom note arrived, this time being postmarked in San Francisco. It instructed Alex Hart to place a ransom in a black bag and go to Los Angeles. That night, Hart received a call from a man claiming to be a kidnapper of his son who instructed him to take a night train to Los Angeles. Authorities lurked the railway station and mistakenly arrested a bank teller for an afternoon stroll. The next day, a sign was placed in Hart's store window stating that Alex Hart was not driving. The call was received that night again demanding that Hart drive to give a ransom. Hart demanded proof that his son was with the caller. The caller states that Brooke Hart is being held in a safe location. Since a telephone tap had been placed on Hart's phone, the call was traced to a garage in downtown San Jose, but the caller was lost by the time the authorities arrived.

Capture and recognition

Another ransom request arrived the next day, again ordering Alex Hart for ransom. That night, another call was received and a request that Hart drive was repeated. The Sheriff captures Thomas Harold Thurmond by a pay phone in a 150-foot (46 m) parking garage from the San Jose Police Station at about 8 pm. At 3:00 AM, Thurmond, after hours of questioning, signed a confession in which he claimed to have tied Brooke Hart with a wire and tossed it from San Mateo Bridge to San Francisco Bay around 7:00 and 7:30 on the night of the abduction. He identifies an unemployed salesman, John Holmes, separated from his wife and two children, as his accomplice. Holmes was arrested in the SRO room at the Hotel California near the San Jose Police Station at 3:30 pm. According to Thurmond's confession, Holmes approached him with a scheme six weeks earlier, after he separated from his family.

At 1 pm on November 17, Holmes signed a confession confessing that he and Thurmond kidnapped Hart and threw him into the San Francisco Bay. Later, the Santa Clara County District Attorney notified the press that, unless supported by independent evidence of crime, the confession by Thurmond and Holmes in which each blames the other side for the crime is not accepted in court.

Meanwhile, local newspapers reported that Holmes and Thurmond had met with a psychiatrist and would attempt to plead not guilty by reason of insanity. Thurmond claims he has been "crazy" for more than a year, since his girlfriend married another man, and Holmes plans to deny his confession, which his lawyer claims is "forced from him by a third-rate method," including threats against "handing it to the masses for death if he did not confess. "After hearing the rumors about the possibility of insanity on Thurmond's side, law enforcement authorities directed two psychiatrists from Agnews State Mental Hospital in Santa Clara, California to examine the two men to block such a defense. After a cursory examination on their cells in Santa Clara County prison in San Jose, with the mob outside in the prison yard, the two men were declared sane.

Search for body

Police officers from Santa Clara, San Mateo, and Alameda County began searching the bay around the bridge, hoping to find Hart's corpse. Track evidence, including bridge stains, "blond hair on bricks" and other signs convincing authorities that confessors have honestly depicted the sequence of events, including throwing Hart.

The first physical guidance was unearthed on November 18th. Two 22-pound bricks (10.0 kg) and a clear blood stain are found on the San Mateo Bridge. The pillowcases used to cover Hart during a car ride to the bridge were found, along with Hart's hat, on November 20th. The discovery of the hat ended the family's last hope that Hart would be found alive. The hook-studded apparatus was used to drag the bay, without success. A weighted doll is planned to be dropped from the bridge on November 21 in an effort to see where it will float. Workers building the Bay Bridge dock reported seeing the body floating in the water during the night of November 22, prompting a search by Oakland and a San Francisco police boat, including the nearby Goat Island coast. Alex Hart announced the prize of US $ 500 (equivalent to $ 9,500 in 2017) on November 24, hoping to "seek public assistance in the search." At that time, the corpse's search involves a hot air balloon from Sunnyvale, a police boat from Oakland and San Francisco, US Marines and a hydraulic pump to dredge the mud from under the San Mateo Bridge.

The official search for Hart's body ended on 25 November. The next day, two duck hunters from Redwood City found a rotten and rotting body eaten about 0.5 miles (0.80 km) south of the bridge. Hart's body was identified by the coroner and Hart's friends and employees later that day, with some personal effects with the body matched to Hart's known possession.

Maps Brooke Hart

Lynching of Thurmond and Holmes

Alerts

Due to the threat of capital punishment, Sheriff Santa Clara County Emig transferred Thurmond and Holmes to the Hill Potrero police station in San Francisco for safekeeping immediately after their arrest. A San Jose newspaper carried front page editor Holmes and Thurmond "human demons" and called for "mass violence." After they returned to San Francisco prison from interrogation, their "lynch" shouts were heard from the crowd around the prison. On November 21, Holmes and Thurmond remain in jail, and the fear of officials led by vigilantism announces that they will be held "indefinitely." Reportedly, "20 influential friends from Hart's socially reputable family" have formed a committee to "call for immediate and drastic punishment for detainees." The prosecutor refused to seek a grand jury hearing in fear that the indictment would incite vigilance. Despite these fears, the couple were indicted on extortion charges, using letters for extortion, and conspiracy, and returned to San Jose prison on the night of November 22. On November 23, California Governor James Rolph announced to surprise reporters that he would refuse to send the National Guard to protect Thurmond and Holmes.

Let the sheriff handle this problem. He can appoint as many deputies as he wants; he has power. I will not call the guard to protect the kidnappers who deliberately kill a boy like that. Let the law take its course.

After a $ 10,000 cash payment - an astonishing amount in 1933 - by the father of Jack Holmes, San Francisco attorney Vincent Hallinan agreed to represent his son. Thurmond was defended by J. Oscar Goldstein of Chico. With a mob that is easy to change during the day and night outside the prison on Saturday, November 24, Hallinan calls Rolph and asks that he call the National Guard if any attempt is made to punish his client. Rolph replies that he will "forgive the criminals".

Overnight lynching 26-27 November

The authorities "estimate the problem if and when the missing corpse is found." After Hart's body discovery on Sunday, Nov. 26, the word comes out soon throughout northern California. Throughout Sundays and into the evenings, radio stations issued announcements about inflammation that the death penalty would happen that night at St. James Park in San Jose. By 9:00, the mass estimated by the press ranges from 5,000 to 15,000 men, women, and children sandwiched in the park, with about 3,000 vehicles left in the streets nearby. Governor James Rolph made regular telephone calls with Raymond Cato, whom he appointed to lead the California Highway Patrol. Cato took refuge in the home of a Rolph political ally and neighbor in the mountains west of San Jose with an open phone line to the prison. Though the crowd was marked as "good-natured" the previous day, periodically there was an unpleasant song from "Eleven o'clock!".

At around 9:00, Rolph canceled a trip to the Western Governor's Conference in Boise, Idaho, to prevent his political rival, Lieutenant Governor Frank Merriam, calling on the National Guard to stop the chase. Sheriff William Emig contacted Rolph at 10:30 pm, requesting that the National Guard be deployed to protect the detainees. Rolph refused. The attack in prison starts around 11 pm.

At midnight, thousands of people gathered outside the prison; the sheriff's deputy fired tear gas into the crowd in an attempt to disperse them. However, the crowd became more angry and bigger. The nearest construction site at the post office (meant to replace the previous post office, which is now the San Jose Art Museum) was raided for materials to make batons. Emig ordered his officers to leave the bottom two floors of the prison, where Thurmond and Holmes were arrested. It was later discovered that the two cells had been occupied by other notable killers: Thurmond cells on the third floor by David Lamson, and Holmes's cell on the second floor by Douglas Templeton. The mass, currently estimated at 6,000-10,000 (other reports say 3000-5000), stormed the prison, bringing Holmes and Thurmond across the road to St. James Park, and hang them. Some of the women in the gang are alleged to have encouraged violence, apparently forgetting their previous advice to let the law "take its course". Child star Jackie Coogan, a friend of Brooke Hart from Santa Clara University, is reported to be one of the masses who prepare and hold the ropes for the death penalty without trial.

Instantly

Thurmond is buried in an unmarked plot at Oak Hill Memorial Park on November 29, the same cemetery where Brooke Hart was buried on November 27. Holmes was cremated in Oak Hill on 29 November.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, on December 2, after a special meeting of city council heard testimony to support leaving the tree as a monument and warning to criminals, the council approved the cutting of elm cork by city workers. The police were asked to avoid crowds of souvenir seekers who searched for branches or branches of the famous "gallows" tree, bark and lower branches had been hacked and stripped for mementos.

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Impact case

The avoidance is unique in the history of American political and criminal justice because it marks the first time that the termination of the death penalty is a media event. It is also unique because of the political involvement of state governors and the desire by civil and business leaders and law enforcement to allow for the cessation of two persons who are not indicted, dragged, tried, or punished for crimes in a court of law. Many modern historians conclude that the two men are indeed guilty.

Royce Brier, a staff writer for the Chronicle , will then win the 1934 Pulitzer Prize for Reporting for his report on the death penalty without trial. According to a prize quote, Brier worked for 16 hours along with several assistants who mingled with lynch mob and phoned updates from the garage across the street from the prison before composing the story in three hours starting at 12:30 am in the morning. November 27th.

Mob lynch prosecution

Governor Rolph praised the action, stating that California had sent a message to future kidnappers, and promised to forgive anyone involved in the death penalty without punishment. However, Rolph died on June 2, 1934, before the indictment was filed in this case.

District Attorney Alameda County Earl Warren is a strong supporter of the prosecution for the death penalty without trial. Santa Clara County Assistant District Officer Herbert Bridges was quoted as saying he "does not regret [the death penalty] took place in San Jose." The Santa Clara District lawyer, Fred Thomas, doubts anyone can be found to testify against the traitorous leaders, characterizing stories local youths say as "arrogant" but not acknowledged. The American Civil Liberties Union declared that they had found eyewitnesses who were ready to identify members of the mob lynch in December 1933, but the citizens of San Jose had been outspoken in their opposition to the "outsider" disorder. Eventually seven people were arrested for hanging, but no one was punished. California does not specifically define the death penalty as a crime, although crimes committed during capital punishment such as rioting, assault, and murder can potentially be prosecuted.

A youth was indicted for participating in the death penalty without trial after he publicly claimed credit for leading the masses, but the charge was dropped. The grand jury in Santa Clara County met the following year, but despite thousands of witnesses, sources of journalists, and hundreds of photographs, the jury found that no witness could identify anyone from the death penalty, so no charges were filed.

Public critic

In the aftermath of the death penalty without trial, Governor Rolph was publicly condemned by former President Herbert Hoover, then at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. Rolph instantly retaliated, accusing Hoover of calling the US Army against the World War I "Army Bonus" gathered in Washington, D.C. in 1932 to protest the lack of assistance to the war veterans. President Roosevelt also condemned the death penalty without punishment.

Civil settings

Holmes's parents sued Governor Rolph for his role in contempt of their son, along with KQW radio station and several others, but the suit was dropped when the governor died of a heart attack in 1934. Holmes's widow sued Sheriff Emig and several deputies, citing their carelessness and negligence because it failed to protect it. The Thurmonds did not act on his behalf and reportedly never again talked about problems among themselves.

Ator - Herr des Feuers / Ator - L'invincibile / Brooke Hart ...

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Family

Hart has three sisters, Jeanette, Miriam, and Aleese, and a brother, Alexander Joseph Jr.

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Modern coverage

In 1983, Harry Farrell, a columnist for San Jose Mercury News, wrote about termination in two series. After he retired, he proceeded with a book on the same subject, Swift Justice , published in 1992. Swift Justice was praised by Walter Cronkite and won the Edgar Award in 1993., defeating the expected winner, Ann Rule.

John Murphy criticized Farrell's approach, noting that by accepting recognition as a basic truth and adhering to the "conventional history" that leads to mass justice, Farrell has found conversation and created an impossible motivation to strengthen and polish inconsistencies. Murphy pointed out a phone call then placed to make the ransom demand come from a physically adjacent pay phone, culminating in Thurmond's arrest on a 150-foot (46 m) public phone from the San Jose Police Headquarters. Murphy will continue to write books, Jury Rigging at Public Opinion Courts (published in 2007), and write and produce films, Valley of the Hearts Delight about the 1933 case.