Thursday, December 05, 2013

VINTAGE SAN JOSE POLICE FACEBOOK ACCOUNT OF THE ST. JAMES PARK LYNCHING IN SAN JOSE, CA 1933

  • IVANO SAYS:  AS YOU MAY OR MAY NOT KNOW I WAS A SAN JOSE POLICE OFFICER FROM 1959 TO 1989. THUS, I ALWAYS CONSIDERED THE HISTORY OF THE SAN JOSE POLICE DEPARTMENT AS BEING PART OF THE "LA NOSTRA COSTA (0UR COAST STORY [LA NOSTRA COSTA (OUR COAST) THE BOOK, PAGES 319-337]   THE HISTORY OF SAN JOSE POLICE IS MOSTLY GOOD, HOWEVER, AS IN ALL BIG CITY POLICE DEPARTMENTS, SOME IS BAD AND ON RARE OCCASION IT IS UGLY.  SOME MIGHT REGARD THE HANDLING OF THE ST. JAMES PARK LYNCHING AS BEING "THE UGLY".  WHAT FOLLOWS IS A PHOTO ACCOUNT OF THE  LYNCHING AS INITIATED BY BOB EMERSON (SON OF  A FORMER SAN JOSE POLICE OFFICER) AS FIRST PUBLISHED ON MY VINTAGE SAN JOSE POLICE FACEBOOK PAGE.
                                               
  • 4 days before Thanksgiving in 1933, 80 years ago, the accused killers of Brooke Hart, heir to the Hart’s Department Store of San Jose, were lynched by a mob in St. James Park. This badge is that of William J. Emig, who had arrested the  (accused. The badge is part of a collection from Harry Farrell, a reporter at the Mercury News, who wrote the definitive book on the subject, "Swift Justice."

  • Via Bob Emerson >John Holmes became fascinated with outlaws and what he saw as, their exciting lives. He frequently mused over dreams of committing the perfect crime. In Henry Farrell's book, Swift Justice, the author said, "He would pore over the newspapers, analyzing the crimes reported and the errors that led to the perpetrator's detection." In his mind, Holmes must have thought he could commit crimes that would make him lots of money and not get caught. He soon found out quickly that crime doesn't pay and he wasn't as smart as he thought about committing crimes.


    • Via Bob Emerson >Thomas Thurmond was taken in by Holmes and with Thomas liking of Holmes idea of making some fast money, they set out using Holmes' inside info on the oil company, they planned the abduction of a courier who worked for Union Oil Company. On September 25, 1933, they kidnapped and robbed the employee. The victim was released unharmed and the two men split $716, which was a large sum of money during the Depression era. Barely one month later, on October 23, Thurmond and Holmes robbed a Shell Oil company messenger and made off with $700. With this kind of money they were hooked and Thomas just followed the orders of John Holmes. Now they were off to bigger crimes.


1 comment:

Ivano Franco Comelli said...

The following regarding the St. James park Lynching, was written by Retired San Jose Police Sergeant Chuck Blackmore, son of the late San Jose Police Chief Ray Blackmore and was first published in the "Farsider", a San Jose Police Benevolent Association Publication, Retired San Jose Police Officer Bill Mattos, Editor.


My father and his partner, Hugh Edes, were in the jail prior to the lynching. Trying to hold off the crowd, they lobbed tear gas from above. Soon after, when they saw that the tear gas was not deterring the crowd, Dad went down and stood by the entry door. When the first of the crowd forced their way into the jail, someone said, "Stand aside, Ray. We're going to take them. Where are they?" Dad pointed to the row of cells.

Shortly thereafter, the mob started to leave the jail with two individuals. Dad stopped them and said they had only one of the kidnappers. The second one was still in his cell.

Earlier in the evening, there were three prisoners in the jail: Thurmond, Holmes and a vagrant. The mob had grabbed Holmes and, by mistake, the vagrant. When the mob first stormed the jail, Thurmond jumped up, grabbed the grating of a ventilation port and pulled himself up close to the ceiling. When the mob looked inside the cells, they only saw Holmes and the vagrant.

When Dad told them they had the wrong person, the mob looked in the cells again and discovered Thurmond still clinging to the vent. The mob pulled him down and, as he fell, his head hit the commode. Dad said that when they carried Thurmond out the door he appeared to be in a coma and was not aware of what was going on around him.

And finally, it was not their feet that were burned as they hung, it was the hair on their scrotum.

It would be technically correct to say I was there, at least for a short period of time. Mom had heard on the radio that a lynch mob had gathered at the jail and knew Dad was there (I don't know how she knew). She put me in a bassinet, placed it in the back seat of the car and drove down to St. James Park. Traffic was so bad, however, that she returned home. I was seven months old at the time, and Dad had been on the Force four years.