Thurmond-Holmes Lynching: Real-photo postcard, titled "San Jose, Calif. Nov. 26 - 1933 11:25 P.M. by (Lynching) - 1933

[N.p.], 1933. 1 vols. 3-1/2 x 5-1/2 inches. Fine. 1 vols. 3-1/2 x 5-1/2 inches. Photo of California's Last Lynching, 1933. On Nov 9, 1933, 22-year old Brooke Hart was kidnapped and held for $40,000 ransom. A massive manhunt led to Thomas Harold Thurmond. After six hours of interrogation, Thurmond confessed and named his accomplice, John M. Holmes. They both admitted murdering Brooke and dropping his body into the San Francisco Bay.
On the evening of the 26th, a lynch mob broke into the Santa Clara County Jail and dragged Holmes and Thurmond to the St. James Park where 3000 onlookers from San Jose and the surrounding area, chanted "string them up." Governor 'sunny Jim" Rolf refused to call out the National Guard to protect the kidnappers, and referred to the lynching as a "lesson."
"Thurmond was hung from the limb of a venerable mulberry tree, and, the limb of a great elm a few feet away served as Holmes' gallows a second or two later." - 'History of San Jose' by Clyde Arbuckle.
Souvenir hunters so damaged the trees that they had to be cut down, and not a trace remains of them. This lynching was the last to take place in California, and was the basis for John Steinbeck's short story, "The Lonesome Vigilante."

The photograph depicts the the three limbs of the tree rising from the trunk at center, and the hanging corpses of the two lynched men, Thurmond at left, partly clothed, above a small group of onlookers; Holmes (unclothed) at right.

AN EXTRAORDINARY DOCUMENT OF AMERICAN SOCIAL HISTORY.