Brooke Hart

Brooke Hart (June 11, 1911 – November 9, 1933) was the oldest son of Alexander Hart, the owner of L. Hart and Son Department Store in San Jose, California. His kidnapping and murder was reported throughout the United States, and the lynching of his alleged murderers, Thomas Harold Thurmond and John M. Holmes (sometimes erroneously referred to as the last public lynching in California), sparked political debate.

When Hart's body was discovered in San Francisco Bay on the morning of November 26, 1933, word spread instantly throughout northern California. All day long, radio stations announced that a lynching would take place in St. James Park across from the Santa Clara County Courthouse at 9:00 p.m. on Sunday, November 26, 1933, four days before Thanksgiving. The lynching was broadcast as a 'live' event by a Los Angeles radio station. Scores of reporters, photographers, and news camera operators had rushed in with an estimated 3,000 to 10,000 men, women, and children to witness the lynching. When newspaper published photos of the lynching, identifiable faces were deliberately smudged so that they remained anonymous. On Monday, November 27, 1933, the day after the lynchings, Northern California 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 he retired.