Describes the kidnapping of the son of a San Jose, California, department store owner, and tells how a band of vigilantes stormed the town jail and hanged the kidnappers in the town square as ten thousand people watched

Swift Justice: Murder and Vengeance in a California Town

History

Farrell, Harry

Americas

St Martins Pr

In 1933, a nightmare shook the quiet town of San Jose, California, when a young man named Brooke Hart was abducted while leaving his father's department store. In the days that followed, the Harts, local and state police, and J. Edgar Hoover's FBI scrambled to outwit the kidnappers, whose demands kept them at bay until they--and Brook Hart's murder--were at last discovered. Then the unthinkable: A band of vigilantes stormed the San Jose jail and hanged the two criminals in the town square as ten thousand watched. The next day the governor hailed the lynching as "a fine lesson". The San Jose lynching, which divided the nation and haunts the city still, is a chilling tale of fear, fury, and the collapse of justice--of a small American paradise turned inferno.

Swift Justice: Murder & Vengeance In A California Town

St. Martin's: Griffin

Shallow Grave in Trinity County

The award-winning author of Swift Justice explores the tragic story of a small California town rocked by the 1955 murder of fourteen-year-old Stephanie Bryan, whose killer turned out to be college student Burton Abbott, who lived nearby. Reprint. 15,000 first printing.

Biographies & Memoirs

True Crime

Welcome to the Memorial Edition of SAN JOSE and OTHER FAMOUS PLACES~ the Lore and Lure of the South Bay ~ By Veteran Newsman and Long-Time Political Editor of the SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS, Harry G. Farrell. Follow Harry as he witnesses the growth and development of that "other place," San Jose, the toddling town with an "inferiority complex" that grew up in the shadow of its big brother to the north, San Francisco, to become one of the most influential communities in California. Farrell's chronicle stretches from the old neighborhoods - Goosetown, Tar Flat, College Park, Hyde Park, Robertsville, Meridian Corners - to the surge of Silicon Valley, and is peopled with heroes, knaves, cops, robbers, eccentrics and celebrities. Among the most respected and popular news personalities in the Golden State, Harry Farrell moved in the circles of the greatest names in the 20th century, hob-nobbing with presidents, rubbing elbows with celebrities. Keeping his homegrown perspective, he garnered a devoted readership who still speak of him adoringly. SAN JOSE and OTHER FAMOUS PLACES is as much Harry's story, as the story of a city. The adventures and misadventures of a go-getter reporter intertwine with the psychology and ambiance of a unique place, as he and the city cope with the comings and goings of the likes of Richard Nixon, Eldridge Cleaver, and Robert Kennedy. Ride with him as he leads a presidential motorcade on a high-speed chase through the Santa Cruz mountains; listen in as he fields phone messages from a news tipster who claims to get her scoops "straight from God," or as he and Pierre Salinger chat with a political unknown, John Kennedy. Forty years of chronicling the story of San Jose earned him the privilege, in 1983, of producing this book for the San Jose Historical Museum Association. Nobody could have done it better. This Memorial Edition will fill a void on the shelves and in the hearts of those who love all things Californian.

San Jose and Other Famous Places

World

San Jose Historical Museum

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Books by Farrell, Harry

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Farrell, Harry. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Swift Justice: Murder and Vengeance in a California Town

Swift Justice: Murder & Vengeance In A California Town

Shallow Grave in Trinity County

Shallow Grave in Trinity County

San Jose and Other Famous Places