Disclaimer: This article contains mentions of murder and assault. Reader discretion is advised.
Patricia Hearst, widely known as Patty Hearst, was the granddaughter of the newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst. She had been living with her fiance on February 4, 1974, when she was abducted at gunpoint from her residence in Berkeley, California. The Symbionese Liberation Army, a group of militant revolutionaries, kidnapped her to spread their ideologies using the sensation that her abduction would create, People Magazine reported.
According to the FBI, the Symbionese Liberation Army included radical anarchists and extremists. They reportedly wished to start a guerilla war against the government of the United States. By the time of the abduction, they had reportedly already shot two people in Oakland. One of the victims lost their life and the other sustained injuries caused by the extremists. The SLA also claimed to aim at uniting all sections of oppressed populations to bring down the capitalist state.
After kidnapping Patty Hearst, the Army reportedly demanded food and money for the poor through audiotapes that they released. Two months later, in April 1974, an audiotape of Hearst claiming to have joined the SLA’s fight against the government was released. Security footage of Hearst involved in a bank robbery in San Francisco alongside the Army was found. A month later, security almost caught and tackled her kidnapper, Bill Harris, at Inglewood when Heart opened fire and shot at least two dozen rounds to rescue him.
The Washington Post reported that Patty Hearst joined hands with Bill Harris and his wife to kidnap Tom Matthews, a Los Angeles High School student whose van they needed to get away. For the subsequent 16 months, the FBI launched an elaborate search for Hearst titled “Operation Hernap”.
Was Patty Hearst convicted?
After continuing to engage in several unlawful activities initiated by the SLA, Patty Hearst was arrested on September 18, 1975. She reportedly told authorities that she was an “Urban Guerilla” when she was being interrogated about her occupation. CNN reported that she was charged with an armed bank robbery and the use of a firearm in the commission of a felony. Her defense argued that her kidnapper had brainwashed her. They claimed that she feared that she would be harmed if she didn’t comply with their instructions.
The court convicted Hearst of both charges and sentenced her to seven years in prison. She also admitted guilt for a store shootout in Los Angeles and received probation. However, President Jimmy Carter commuted her sentence in 1979 after she had served only 22 months behind bars. President Bill Clinton later pardoned Patty Hearst, the Independent reported.
According to NPR, Patty Hearst was just 19 years old when the SLA kidnapped her. The members of the radical group had been treating her well. They reportedly told her that her family and the FBI had abandoned her. She then joined them and helped plant bombs in various locations in Northern California. She also helped them rob a bank and shoot up a street in Los Angeles.
A photograph of Patty Hearst, which shows her holding a machine gun and standing in front of the Symbionese Liberation Army’s flag, became extremely popular in the media at that time. Reportedly, someone took the photograph right before she was convicted of the infamous bank robbery.
The Radical Story of Patty Hearst is a mini-docu-series streaming on Max that explores the transformation of Hearst from being a 19-year-old granddaughter of a newspaper tycoon to a convicted radical.
