Valley of the Heart’s Delight is a fictional account of a fatal kidnapping, and the lynching of two men arrested for the crime with the documented assistance of the then governor of California, James “Sunny Jim” Rolph. Some 200 reporters and photographers witnessed thousands of San Jose citizens storm the Santa Clara County jail, and lynch the two suspects in the park across the street. Despite the fact that knowledge of the lynching was widespread (even announced on the radio on the day it occurred), not one voice was raised to stop it except for the family of one of the lynch victims.
Inspired by this eyewitness documentation, historical facts in the public domain (primarily newspaper accounts) are employed to create a a fictional story acted by the fictional characters created. Characters have no resemblance to anyone living or dead.
November 15, 1933 Report of Special Agent-In-Charge, Reed Vetterli on the status of the Brooke Hart kidnapping (Source: FBI File on Brooke Hart Kidnapping obtained under the Freedom of Information Act). Due to the poor quality of the reproduction of the Brooke hart kidnapping file, illegible words or phrases are not included in this account.
1) Summary Page:
“One Mrs. Silveria, residing in San Jose, outlined peculiar circumstances which indicate possible kidnapping of Hart, the transferring of Brooke L. Hart from his Studebaker Roadster to a large dark sedan, about 7:00 P.M., November 9, 1933.”
2) Documentation and verification of eyewitness account of kidnapping of Brooke Hart:
(Report Pages 15, 16, and 17):
“About 11 a.m., Monday, November 13th, a Mrs. D. Silveria, in residence at 366 Piedmont Avenue, Berryessa, which is right near San Jose, called on the sheriff’s office where she was interviewed by agents and Sheriff Emig. Mrs. Silveria is a Portuguese, but rather intelligent, and stated that on Thursday night, November 9th, about 6:30 or 7:00 p.m., while she, Mrs. Silveria, was out in her yard …with her daughter Isabelle Silveria…she could see lights coming in the distance, and she wondered if it could make the turn about 100 yards away, which is on the Piedmont Road. The automobile was a large dark sedan. She does not know the make, but stated that it had a very long hood from the radiator to the windshield. This car pulled along a ditch up the roadway, which leads up around the hills, and which, if continued for a mile and a half, reaches the point which the car of young Brooke Hart was later found abandoned.
“Directly following this large dark sedan was a roadster, and this roadster pulled up in back of the dark sedan opposite Mrs. Silveria’s barn. On each side of the roadster was a man standing on the running board, and when the two cars pulled up, one man was heard to say “We got him all right.” Then someone commanded the driver to get out of the roadster, and stated: “Get in there big boy,” and then someone is heard to say (sic) “Are we on the right road?” , (sic) and then someone else said “You hit this road into Milpitas, and then on to Oakland Road.” Then one man said “Where are we going from here” (sic). Another said (sic) “We going to head for Stockton, and then shoot to Sacramento, and we will take him to a…there on the hill.” Then another man said (sic) “What about the gas”, (sic) and the other said “The tank is full,” and some other said “What about the license plates” (sic), and someone replied (sic) “Leave it as it is.”
“She stated she could hear a rattling noise like tin in the back of the car. They then started with their lights out, one man getting into the roadster, and driving off rapidly, and four men, in addition to some unknown party, driving off in the large dark sedan. She stated that they drove off very rapidly, and she could hear the sound of their motors for some distance. All in all, Mrs. Silveria saw five men, in addition to the man taken out of the roadster. She called attention to the fact that the roadster had some sort of canvas top, and stated that the man taken out of the roadster did not make any remarks whatsoever, but was wearing a light felt hat, and light overcoat, and from what she could see, a light gray suit. This tallies with the clothing worn by Hart.
“She stated that the men apparently conversed in good English, and did not appear to be foreigners, although, of course, she could not describe them. She got a better view of the two cars, namely the sedan and the roadster, when they were parked, when the darker car drove down the road, and the lights furnished a clearer vision.
“Accordingly, before Mrs. Silveria could again talk to her daughter, Isabelle Silveria, who was with her on this night near the barn, Agents and Sheriff Emig located Isabelle Silveria at a local school in San Jose, and questioned her. Isabelle is about fourteen years of age, and is a very bright and intelligent young girl. She stated that she and her mother were going to the lavatory, about 6:30 p.m., after dinner. She would place the time about 6:30 because they always have dinner at 6:00 o’clock. She stated right after dinner she saw two cars draw up in front of their barn…one a black sedan, the other a roadster with a canvas top. She claims she saw five men in all, and heard them talk about “plates” but did not know what they meant. She can’t remember the conversation in detail, but describes what took place the same as Mrs. Silveria.
“With regard to fixing the date, Mrs. Silveria…states they have no water on their place, and accordingly…goes to her sister’s to wash clothes. They do not get any newspapers at home, and she remembers specifically that it was the day following the night she saw this incident that she was at her sister’s washing clothes when she heard about the Hart kidnapping. And this would positively place the night as November 9th, about 6:30.
“Accordingly, on Monday night the 13th, in company with Sheriff Emig, Agent’s took Brooke Hart’s car, and Agent’s car, which is also a coupe of a darker color, and drove out to the home of Mrs. Silveria, and placed the two cars in the exact location where she stated the sedan and roadster were placed, and while these cars are about twenty-five or thirty feet away from where Mrs. Silveria was, talking in ordinary conversational tones can be distinctly heard from the cars to the point where Mrs. Silveria was located. The acoustic propensities at that time of night are splendid, and one can hear distinctly ordinary conversation.
“We did not tell Mrs. Silveria the roadster was the car belonging to the Victim (sic) Brooke Hart. However, she stated without any prompting, and pointing to Hart’s car “That looks like the roadster there,” (sic). At that particular time of night Mrs. Silveria and her daughter could have readily seen the transaction as described. Complete tests were made by placing men at the point where the cars were, in both light and dark suits, and the coloring could be discerned. In addition, we could tell that one car was darker than the other. Hence, it appears that Mrs. Silveria is correct in her version.
“Close questioning of Mrs. Silveria indicted that she was not endeavoring to furnish us any fabricated story, but was apparently telling the truth, and she appeared sincere and genuine in relating the incident in question, and efforts were made to confuse her slightly to see if, per chance, she were not telling the truth, but she sticks splendidly to her story. She stated she told her daughter, Isabelle, that she would have liked to call Sheriff Emig, believing they were probably bootleggers, but of course they had no phone at their home.”
CONCLUSION:
Despite this being the only eyewitness account of the kidnapping of Brooke L. Hart, two local men were arrested and charged with the crime. The Santa Clara County sheriff, when asked about the eyewitness account, said that the women were not “credible.” In their final report on the kidnapping, the FBI deleted all references to the five men.
HISTORICAL NOTE: In 1933, what in 1934 became the Federal Bureau of Investigation (F.B.I.), was then called the Bureau of Investigation and was part of the Department of Justice. The Bureau of Investigation is referenced to as the F.B.I. for the purposes of this story.
© 2005 By Miles Murphy
At the time, the conduct of the kidnappers was perceived as a comedy of errors. From the night that the ransom call was received, for example, nothing was heard from the kidnappers for almost five days. When communication was finally received, it came from different people claiming to have kidnapped Brooke Hart. When one relies upon the eyewitness account that five men kidnapped the young man, the seemingly nonsensical conduct of the kidnappers (e.g., throwing his wallet away the night of the kidnapping), gains plausibility. The family continued to receive ransom demands after the two suspects were arrested for kidnapping and murder, and even following their lynching. 
