Brooke Leopold Hart (June 11, 1911 – November 9, 1933) was the eldest son of Alexander Hart, the owner of the L. Hart & Son department store in downtown San Jose, California, United States.Farrell (1992). p. 24. His kidnapping and murder were heavily publicized, and the subsequent lynching of his alleged murderers, Thomas Harold Thurmond and John M. Holmes, both white men, sparked widespread political debate.
The overnight lynchings of November 26–27 were carried out by a mob of San Jose citizens in St. James Park across from the Santa Clara County Jail, and were broadcast as a "live" event by a Los Angeles radio station.Farrell (1992). p. 203. The killings were tacitly endorsed by Governor James Rolph Jr., who said he would pardon anyone convicted of the lynching. Scores of reporters, photographers, and newsreel camera operators, along with an estimated 3,000 to 10,000 men, women, and children, were witnesses to it. When newspapers published photos, identifiable faces were deliberately smudged so that they would remain anonymous; the following Monday, local newspapers published 1.2 million copies, twice the normal daily production.Farrell (1992). p. 243.Murphy (2007). p. 3.
Background
In 1933, 22-year-old Brooke Hart was the heir to one of San Jose, California's best-known businesses, the L. Hart & Son department store, located at the southeast corner of Market and Santa Clara streets. Brooke's grandfather and the store's namesake, Leopold Hart, was an Alsatian immigrant who bought a mercantile shop known as the Cash Corner store in 1866. After Leopold's son, Alex J. Hart Sr. (known as A.J.) took over the business, it expanded to the landmark status it held in San Jose for four decades – becoming as much a part of the fabric of the city as Macy's was in New York City or Neiman Marcus was in Dallas.
The Hart store was famous for its attentive customer service, and benefited from the deep loyalty of customers and employees alike. When the country found itself in the grip of the Great Depression, Hart's held on to its central place in the lives of San Jose's citizens, and continued to buy advertising in local publications."Herhold: Remembering old downtown San Jose's signature department store", San Jose Mercury News, December 20, 2011 The Hart family was one of the city's most prominent, and their influence was the source of many colorful stories: one such tale recounts that the artist, Fr. Luigi D. Sciocchetti, who repainted the ceiling of the Cathedral Basilica of St. Joseph in the 1920s modeled the cherubs in his work on the family's children.
Brooke Hart had worked in his family's department store during much of his youth and was well-known and liked by the local community. After he graduated from Santa Clara University, his father, A.J., made him a junior vice president and began grooming him to take over when he retired.
Disappearance
Just before 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, November 9, 1933,Murphy (2007). p. 16. Brooke Hart retrieved his 1933 Studebaker President roadster, a graduation present from his parents, from a downtown San Jose parking lot behind the department store. He had agreed to chauffeur his father, A.J., who did not drive, to a meeting of the Chamber of Commerce at the San Jose Country Club.Farrell (1992). p. 3.
When Brooke did not turn up to collect his father, A.J. became concerned. As hours passed and there remained no sign of Brooke, the Hart family's anxiety grew; Brooke was responsible and punctual, and his absence was entirely out of character. A.J. confessed his worry to Perry Belshaw, the manager of the San Jose Country Club, during dinner; after Brooke's friend phoned to say the younger Hart had missed an appointment at 8:00 p.m., A.J. called the police to determine if his son had been involved in an accident.
According to the parking lot attendant, Brooke had left the lot heading east on Santa Clara Avenue at 6:05 p.m.; he was later spotted around 6:30 p.m. by a Hart store employee at Santa Clara and Fourteenth. Finally, a rancher in Milpitas, seven miles north of San Jose, saw a man matching Hart's description standing alone next to an automobile on Evans Lane at approximately 7 p.m.; when the rancher returned, he saw the car still parked there at approximately 8:30 p.m. with no one else present.
Ransom demands At 9:30 that night, Aleese Hart, the older of Brooke's two younger sisters, answered the telephone at the family home and was informed by a "soft-spoken man" that Hart had been kidnapped and that instructions for his return would be provided later.Farrell (1992). p. 11. At 10:30, what sounded like the same man called and informed the other sister, Miriam, that her brother would be returned upon payment of $40,000 (equivalent to $916,960 in 2022). Delivery instructions would be provided the next day.Farrell (1992). pp. 12–13. According to phone company records, the kidnappers had tried to reach the Hart home three times but the line was busy before they were finally connected. Belshaw lived near the site where the Studebaker had been parked and reported the abandoned car in Milpitas to the police at 11 p.m.; it was positively identified as Brooke's.
The San Jose Police Department, the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office, and the U.S. Division of Investigation (the forerunner of the FBI) were quickly brought into the case. The phone calls were traced to locations in San Francisco;Farrell (1992). p. 13. the call that connected was traced to the Whitcomb Hotel. However, the search initially focused on the hilly region surrounding Calaveras Dam and the city of Oakland; the call's origin was thought to be a decoy action.
Hart's wallet was discovered in San Francisco on the guard rail of the tanker Midway, which had been refueling the Matson Lines passenger liner when both ships were docked at Pier 32 from midnight to 5 a.m. It was assumed the wallet had been tossed from a porthole on the liner. Lurline was stopped and searched in Los Angeles when it arrived there on its way to Honolulu on November 11, but nothing was found. Police then advanced an alternative theory: since Pier 32, from which Lurline had departed, was close to the sewer outfall, the heavily laden tanker might have dipped below the surface and picked up the wallet from where it had been discharged from the sewer, lifting it from the bay once a sufficient amount of fuel had been offloaded. One of the passengers detained during the three-hour search was Babe Ruth, who was traveling to Los Angeles to watch a football game between Southern California and Stanford.
At the time, the Oakland Tribune named Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd a suspect in the kidnapping, as he was reportedly present in California. Floyd was later spotted in Almaden, near abandoned quicksilver mine shafts. While searching for Floyd or Hart at the mine, a man claiming to be Floyd boarded a bus in Modesto and robbed passengers using a gun.
The Hart family chartered an airplane to look for cabins in the hills near Milpitas starting on November 12, following up a theory that Brooke had been first lured to the area where his car was abandoned, and the kidnappers then took him from there. Because the car's lights were left on, and there were signs of a scuffle, authorities believed Brooke had been overpowered in Milpitas. In addition, witnesses who had seen Brooke driving the Studebaker said that he was alone, although in some cases visibility was poor.
A "compromise ransom" telegram from Sacramento arrived on November 12, suggesting that would be sufficient. However, the family was not contacted again until Monday, November 13, when a letter, postmarked in Sacramento, arrived in the mail at the department store.Farrell (1992). p. 55. It instructed A.J. to have a radio installed in the Studebaker (which already had a radio), because the ransom instructions would be broadcast over NBC radio station KPO.Farrell (1992). p. 56. The kidnapper also instructed A.J. to be ready to drive the Studebaker to deliver the ransom, but A.J. had never learned to drive. On November 13, A.J. posted a $5,000 reward for his son's safe return, with a promise to drop any further investigation upon his return. To emphasize the validity of the reward offer, police announced they would not be tracing calls to the Hart residence. However, this was a ruse to entrap the kidnappers; in fact, the telephone line continued to be tapped.
On Tuesday, November 14, a second ransom note arrived, this time postmarked in San Francisco.Murphy (2007). p. 25. It instructed A.J. to place the ransom in a black satchel and drive to Los Angeles. That night, A.J. took a call from a man claiming to be his son's kidnapper, who instructed him to take the night train to Los Angeles. The authorities staked out the train station and mistakenly arrested a bank teller out for an evening stroll. The next day, a sign was placed in a window of the Hart store stating that A.J. did not drive. A call was received that night again demanding that Hart drive to deliver the ransom. Hart demanded proof that his son was with the caller. The caller stated that Brooke was being held at a safe location. Because a phone tap had been placed on the Hart telephone, the call was traced to a garage in downtown San Jose, but the caller was gone by the time the authorities arrived.
Arrests and confessions Confessions printed in Oakland Tribune, November 16 & 17, 1933 Harold Thurmond (Nov 16) John Holmes (Nov 17) Then we came to the San Mateo bridge and drove onto it for about a half mile to where the water flows under the bridge. We stopped the car and ordered Brooke to get out. He started to cry for help and Holmes hit him over the head a couple of times with one of the bricks.They were pretty good blows and he didn't give us much trouble after that. We then tied his arms behind him with the wire and also bound his legs with it.We picked him up hand and foot and heaved him over into the water.I don't know whether he cried out or not. I don't know whether he was conscious or not. Or whether he drowned, or was killed before he hit the water.Before we threw him over we took his wallet away from him. There was $15 in it and we split the money between us. Brooke asked for a cigarette on the way to the bridge and I gave him one. When we got to the bridge Harold [Thurmond] told him to get out of the car and started to tie him up with some wire.We led him to believe we were going to transfer him to another car. At this moment an automobile came over the bridge and Brooke started to shout for help.I hit him with my fist and knocked him down. It was a good blow and I don't think he ever snapped out of it. I wanted to show him we meant business.Harold got the concrete blocks and tied them to Brooke's feet. Then I said to Harold:"Let's give it to him."Then we picked him up and threw him overboard.He struggled around down there and Harold said:"Give me the gun. I'll fix him up."I gave him the gun and he climbed over the railing and held on to the bridge stringers and fired away. We couldn't see Brooke. It was dark. But we could hear him floundering about....The next day we got together and we were appalled by what we had done."I didn't know I could do a thing like that," Harold said. "It sure was terrible.""Yes," I said, "it sort of gets me. I didn't think I could do it either." Another demand arrived the following day, November 16, again ordering A.J. to drive with the ransom. That night, another call was received and the demand that A.J. drive was repeated. The call was traced to a payphone in a parking garage at Market near San Antonio, and Police Chief J.N. Black and Sheriff William Emig hurried to the scene just from the San Jose Police station, where they arrested Thomas Harold Thurmond as he was hanging up, at about 8:00 p.m.