This Day in Crime History: NOVEMBER 26, 1933 : VIGILANTES IN CALIFORNIA LYNCH TWO SUSPECTED MURDERERS

Thousands of peoples in San Jose, California, storm the jail where Thomas Thurmond and John Holmes are being held as suspects in the kidnapping and murder of Brooke Hart, the 22-year-old son of a local storeowner. The mob of angry citizens proceeded to lynch the accused men and then pose them for pictures.

On November 9, Brooke Hart was abducted by men in his own Studebaker. His family received a $40,000 ransom demand and, soon after, Hart’s wallet was found on a tanker ship in a nearby bay. The investigative trail led to Holmes and Thurmond, who implicated each other in separate confessions. Both acknowledged, though, that Hart had been pistol-whipped and then thrown off the San Mateo Bridge.

After Hart’s body washed ashore on November 25, a vigilante mob began to form. Newspapers reported the possibility of a lynching and local radio stations broadcast the plan. Not only did Governor James Rolph reject the National Guard’s offer to send assistance, he reportedly said he would pardon those involved in the lynching.

On November 26, the angry mob converged at the jail and beat the guards, using a battering ram to break into the cells. Thurmond and Holmes were dragged out and hanged from large trees in a nearby park.

The public seemed to welcome the gruesome act of vigilante violence. After the incident, pieces of the lynching ropes were sold to the public. Though the San Jose News declined to publish pictures of the lynching, it condoned the act in an editorial. Seventeen-year-old Anthony Cataldi bragged that he had been the leader of the mob but he was not held accountable for his participation. At Stanford University, a professor asked his students to stand and applaud the lynching. Perhaps most disturbing, Governor Rolph publicly praised the mob. “The best lesson ever given the country,” said Governor Rolph. “I would like to parole all kidnappers in San Quentin to the fine, patriotic citizens of San Jose.”

Article Details:

November 26, 1933 : Vigilantes in California lynch two suspected murderers

• Author

  History.com Staff

• Website Name

  History.com

• Year Published

  2009

• Title

  November 26, 1933 : Vigilantes in California lynch two suspected murderers

• URL

  http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/vigilantes-in-california-lynch-two-suspected-murderers

• Access Date

  November 26, 2015

• Publisher

  A+E Networks

This Day in Crime History: NOVEMBER 25, 1999 : INTERNATIONAL DAY TO ELIMINATE VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

The United Nations General Assembly passes a resolution designating November 25 the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. The resolution, which was introduced by the Dominican Republic, marked the anniversary of the death of three sisters, Maria, Teresa, and Minerva Mirabel, who were brutally murdered there in 1960. While women in Latin America and the Caribbean had honored the day since 1981, all UN countries did not formally recognize it until 1999.

Many organizations, including the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), had been pushing for international recognition of the date for some time.

A year earlier, Noeleen Heyzer, the director of UNIFEM, gave a speech at a fundraising breakfast in Toronto, Canada, encouraging men and women to participate in 16 days of activism against gender violence. The voluntary effort was to begin on November 25 and last through December 10, the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was passed in 1948 as a response to the genocidal terror of the Nazi regime. This 16-day period had particular significance for Heyzer’s Canadian audience, for one of Canada’s most horrific tragedies occurred on December 6, 1989, when Marc Lepine went on a shooting spree at Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal. Lepine had entered the college with a shotgun and murdered 14 female engineering students before turning the gun on himself in what later became known as the “Montreal Massacre.” In his suicide note, Lepine declared his murdering spree to be an attack against feminism.

Women’s organizations worldwide have successfully pulled together for increased awareness and support of their cause. Although this is a sign of positive change in the struggle to end violence against women, statistics show that there is still much work left to do. A report released in 1994 by the World Bank, entitled Violence Against Women: The Hidden Health Burden, estimated that one out of every four women worldwide has been, or will be, raped. The report also said that violence against women is as serious a cause of death and incapacity among women of reproductive age as cancer, and a greater cause of ill health than traffic accidents and malaria combined.

Article Details:

November 25, 1999 : International day to eliminate violence against women

• Author

  History.com Staff

• Website Name

  History.com

• Year Published

  2009

• Title

  November 25, 1999 : International day to eliminate violence against women

• URL

  http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/international-day-to-eliminate-violence-against-women

• Access Date

  November 25, 2015

• Publisher

  A+E Networks

This Day in Crime History: NOVEMBER 24, 1932 : THE FBI CRIME LAB OPENS ITS DOORS FOR BUSINESS

The crime lab that is now referred to as the FBI Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory officially opens in Washington, D.C., on this day in 1932.The lab, which was chosen because it had the necessary sink, operated out of a single room and had only one full-time employee, Agent Charles Appel. Agent Appel began with a borrowed microscope and a pseudo-scientific device called a helixometer. The helixometer purportedly assisted investigators with gun barrel examinations, but it was actually more for show than function. In fact, J. Edgar Hoover, the head of the FBI, provided the lab with very few resources and used the “cutting-edge lab” primarily as a public relations tool. But by 1938, the FBI lab added polygraph machines and started conducting controversial lie detection tests as part of its investigations. In its early days, the FBI Crime Lab worked on about 200 pieces of evidence a year. By the 1990s, that number multiplied to approximately 200,000. Currently, the FBI Crime Lab obtains 600 new pieces of criminal evidence everyday.

Article Details:

November 24, 1932 : The FBI Crime Lab opens its doors for business

• Author

  History.com Staff

• Website Name

  History.com

• Year Published

  2009

• Title

  November 24, 1932 : The FBI Crime Lab opens its doors for business

• URL

  http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-fbi-crime-lab-opens-its-doors-for-business

• Access Date

  November 24, 2015

• Publisher

  A+E Networks

This Day in Crime History: NOVEMBER 23, 1959 : THE BIRDMAN OF ALCATRAZ IS ALLOWED A SMALL TASTE OF FREEDOM

Robert Stroud, the famous “Birdman of Alcatraz,” is released from solitary confinement for the first time since 1916. Stroud gained widespread fame and attention when author Thomas Gaddis wrote a biography that trumpeted Stroud’s ornithological expertise.

Stroud was first sent to prison in 1909 after he killed a bartender in a brawl. He had nearly completed his sentence at Leavenworth Federal Prison in Kansas when he stabbed a guard to death in 1916. Though he claimed to have acted in self-defense, he was convicted and sentenced to hang. A handwritten plea by Stroud’s mother to President Woodrow Wilson earned Stroud a commuted sentence of life in permanent solitary confinement.

For the next 15 years, Stroud lived amongst the canaries that were brought to him by visitors, and became an expert in birds and ornithological diseases. But after being ordered to give up his birds in 1931, he redirected his energies to writing about them and published his first book on ornithology two years later. When the publisher failed to pay Stroud royalties because he was barred from filing suit, Stroud took out advertisements complaining about the situation. Prison officials retaliated by sending him to Alcatraz, the federal prison with the worst conditions.

In 1943, Stroud’s Digest of the Diseases of Birds, a 500-page text that included his own illustrations, was published to general acclaim. In spite of his success, Stroud was depressed over the isolation he felt at Alcatraz, and he attempted suicide several times. The legendary “Birdman of Alcatraz” died in a Missouri prison in 1963 at the age of 73.

Article Details:

November 23, 1959 : The Birdman of Alcatraz is allowed a small taste of freedom

• Author

  History.com Staff

• Website Name

  History.com

• Year Published

  2009

• Title

  November 23, 1959 : The Birdman of Alcatraz is allowed a small taste of freedom

• URL

  http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-birdman-of-alcatraz-is-allowed-a-small-taste-of-freedom

• Access Date

  November 23, 2015

• Publisher

  A+E Networks