Customer Reviews

Swift Justice: Murder & Vengeance In A California Town

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I'm a native of San Jose, and when I grew up there in the 1950's the tale of the Hart kidnapping and its aftermath was still fresh in people's memories -- but it was told only in whispers. (My mother, who was at church downtown on the evening of the lynching, vividly remembered the "feeling in the air" and the groups of men gathering on street corners, but always spoke of the lynching itself as something shameful.) So I found this book fascinating, not only for illuminating a dark corner of history, but for the vivid picture it paints of San Jose in an era when it was still, in essence, a small town. The fact that many of our most distinguished public figures shared a dark secret was, I'm sure, important in our civic psyche, and Farrell effectively conveys the repercussions of the lynching for the city as a whole. I knew him to be a good reporter and writer (having read his articles in the Mercury News all my life), but in this book he outdoes himself. This is not only a well-told story but a fine work of social history, and doubly important now that Silicon Valley has all but obliterated the traces of what San Jose used to be.

I'm not ashamed to stay I stayed up all night reading this book. I thought I'd read a few chapters before bed and...well, I just couldn't put it down. Brooke's murder is particularly brutal -- I could hear his final calls for help inside my head. The description of the lynching is so vivid you feel as if you're there, shouting and manning the battering ram with the rest of them. My only complaint was that the "after the lynching" section seemed to drag a bit. All in all a wonderful book, which I would highly recommend to any fan of true crime.

While I grew up in San Jose in the 1960's and 1970's, I never heard of this "historic" incident. However, so many references acquired during my childhood came to life as I read this wonderful book, that I felt a great many puzzle pieces had fallen into place. I immediately purchased copies of this book to give to all my family members, as each had their own connection to various elements (including cited sources, streets, businesses, community groups, etc.).

Not only does this book provide a gripping story that stands on its own, it also provides those who care about the local history of San Jose, the criminal justice system, and California politics with a much better understanding of society in the 1930's and beyond.

Read this book--it is so good that you'll finish it too quickly, wishing for more.

This book was interesting from cover to cover. The author lays out the story well and gives you the real feeling of being there. Those who have spent considerable time in the Santa Clara Valley will be impressed with the references to specific landmarks, roads and events. Harry Farrell describes the politics and lifestyle of the area so well that the reader receives a local history lesson as well as a great factual crime story. It is obvious that the author went to great lengths to obtain accurate details of the event. This no easy task considering the time that has elapsed since the event took place. I highly recommend the book for those who enjoy crime stories and particularly for those who are fascinated by San Jose's past. -John Spicer, San Jose, CA.

Swift Justice is more than a story about the murder of Brooke Hart, the son of a prominent San Jose businessman in 1933. It is about vigilante justice in its worst form--lynching.

Farrell starts the book off with Brooke Hart and the events that led up to his kidnapping and murder. He points out that most of his material was gathered from witnesses and/or people who wish to remain anonymous to this day. So, he cautions the reader about the accuracy of his story. The detail in which he describes the body and the lynching is gruesome. It works with the story, though, because I got the sense why the citizens of San Jose flew into a rage at those two men and the justice system. Brooke Hart and his family were revered by many, and in their eyes, what those two men did was unforgivable. The sheriff's department started receiving anonymous threats against those men and alerted the police chief. When the threats became more severe, he brought in more deputies to secure the area while the police chief did nothing. Then a small crowd gathered outside the station house. Slowly, it grew into a large mob. At eleven o'clock that night, they stormed the jail, dragged the men out of their cells, and hung them on two trees in St. James Park.

Farrell did an excellent job in depicting this scene. I felt like I was right there in the sheriff's office while he pleaded for those men to confess to their crime. I felt his desperation and terror of the crowd outside, and the adrenaline rush when he and his deputies fled for their own lives. He was a man on his own; however one firefighter helped another prisoner escape. Other than that, nobody helped them. Then there was the mob, itself. As I read those pages, I couldn't believe how good, decent citizens turned into bloodthirsty savages. But there they were, chanting and raving as the men were dragged out by their peers. The lynching was a spectator event, and everybody who knew or heard of the Harts attended with their babies and children. It was appalling and sickening. The authorities didn't arrive until it was time to gather the bodies and clean up the mess.

The St. James Lynching of 1933 was the last to occur here in San Jose. Since then, the penal system has made several improvements; however, the system leans more toward the civil rights of the criminals than to the victims. The pendulum always swings left and right, never landing in the middle. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in San Jose's history and/or the justice system. With all terrible tragedies, there is something to learn.

Farrell's book rises above the usual boilerplate standards of true crime writing. The style is literate, the narrative crisp, the results fascinating. I'm not surprised that this grisly episode has been hushed up for years in the san Jose area. I grew up close to the infamous Ludlow massacre of striking coal miners in Colorado circa 1913, and heard nothing about it. Civic pride can cover a multitude of crimes. What distinguishes this sorry episode is the generally respectable standing of the parties involved. Surprisingly, the kidnappers were local, middle-class non-itinerants, while the lynch mob - far from the usual redneck cast - comprised solid citizens of the day, including students from pious Santa Clara University. One wonders how many other gruesome murders occurred in that same area that failed to arouse even the passing interest of this same upstanding citizenry. Anyway, this is a worthwhile read for anyone interested in America's hidden past., and it should be noted that a riveting 1950 movie, "Try and Get Me", was based on the Hart kidnapping. It features perhaps the most dramatic lynch scenes ever staged by Hollywood, and is out on video.

This was a great book. It is up there with In Cold Blood, My Dark Places, and ever other classic true crime book. This is a telling book about a telling time. To read and feel the mob form is perhaps one of the most chilling things I have read. This book will make you look at crowds a different way. Read and enter a day when passion overtook law.

Mr. Farrell did a remarkable job of capturing the era and the night of the lynching. When I finished reading the book (in about two sittings!) I felt that I had been there. His insight into the media and its role in perhaps inciting people was fascinating. You could see the way the psychology of a society can shape events then and even now if we don't learn lessons that history teaches us. I was relieved in the aftermath of the book to learn that not everyone at that time was carried away by the mass hysteria that was encouraging more lynchings and could have broken down our justice system. I hope this book could be made into a really good movie, it has great dramatic potential.

This is one of the best crime books ever, right up there with 'In Cold Blood.' I'm blown away by Farrell's writing--clean, to the point, and unbiased. I highly recommend it to those with strong stomachs.

This is a book that sociology and philosophy students should read and openly discuss. I was reminded or the great Henry Fonda vehicle, "The Ox-Bow Incident," where Western 'justice' was carried out by a brutal gang of vigilantes who condemn the wrong man. True, in "Swift Justice" it looks like the vigilantes killed the right men, but in no way does it justify the actions of a few dozen outlaws caught up in a frenzy of 'mob rule' and violence. Still more shocking is the revelation that the Governor of California accepted the violence and that The Fourth Estate encouraged it. 1933 is not that long ago. This is a difficult book to stomach, but one well worth the trip.