Photograph courtesy of Harry Farrell
Author and journalist Harry Farrell
Local author gives a talk at library's Friday Forum
Upon hearing the book title Swift Justice: Murder and Vengeance in a California Town, readers might assume these violent events had to have taken place "somewhere else." In this case, however, the murder and vengeance took place right next door to Los Gatos--in San Jose.
The book and the history behind it will be the topic for the Friends of the Los Gatos Library's next Friday Forum, which takes place Nov. 16 at 7 p.m. in the Los Gatos Town Council Chambers. This month's guest is Harry Farrell, the San Jose resident and longtime San Jose Mercury News reporter who penned Swift Justice as well as Shallow Grave in Trinity County, another nonfiction crime novel set in California.
In Swift Justice, Farrell retells the story of a 1933 incident in which Brooke Hart, son of a wealthy and prominent department store owner, was kidnapped and held for ransom. Police captured the kidnappers while the whereabouts of Hart, alive or dead, were still unknown.
After Hart's body turned up floating in the San Francisco Bay, an angry mob broke into a downtown jail, dragged out the kidnappers and held what was then called a "necktie party"--a lynching--in nearby St. James Park. The book earned Farrell the Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Award in 1993 for the best true crime novel.
"This crime was an event that blackened San Jose's name, spawned an effort to impeach the governor, who condoned the mob hanging, involved two presidents of the United States in a nationwide moral debate and set off a demonstration in the British House of Commons," relates Rita Baum, a member of the Friends of the Los Gatos Library.
At the Friday Forum, Farrell will also discuss his 1999 book, Shallow Grave in Trinity County. Set in the 1950s in Berkeley, it details the kidnap and subsequent murder of a 14-year-old girl who vanished while walking home from school. An interesting twist to the story is the fact that a reporter covering the case ended up discovering the girl's body and confronting the killer before the police did.
Farrell, a graduate of San Jose State University, joined the San Jose Mercury News staff in 1942 as a copy boy and stayed there for 44 years, working as a reporter, political editor and columnist. After his 1986 retirement, he taught journalism at his alma mater.
There is no charge to attend the Friday Forum; everyone is welcome. After his presentation, Farrell will remain to sign books. Coffee and homemade cookies baked by Friends of the Library members will be served. The Los Gatos Town Council Chambers is located downstairs in the civic center, 110 E. Main St.
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