Patty Hearst on Feb. 19, 1976.Photo:AP Photo
AP Photo
On Feb. 4, 1974, newspaper heiressPatricia “Patty” Hearstwas kidnapped at gunpoint in her Berkeley, Calif., apartment — and what followed made headlines for years to come.
According to theFBI, the SLA chose to kidnap Hearst because she came from a wealthy and powerful family, which would make the story of her abduction front-page news and thrust SLA’s agenda into the public eye. TheSLA claimed that one of their goalswas to “unite all oppressed people into a fighting force and destroy the system of the capitalist state.”
The radicals demanded food donations for the poor in exchange for Hearst’s safe release, the FBI states. In response, her family created a $2‐million food distribution program titled People In Need.
“We have done those things that we said we would do, and now I think we’re down to the actual negotiations for Patty’s release,” Lud Kramer, then the Secretary of State for Washington who directed the People In Need program, said at the time,The New York Timesreported in March 1974.
But despite the demand being met, Hearst would still not see her family for more than a year.
Patty Hearst one year before her kidnapping.Bettmann Archive/Getty
Bettmann Archive/Getty
In April, the SLA released an audiotape where Hearst publicly stated that she had joined their cause. This claim was seemingly confirmed when an infamous photo of Hearst was released posing with a gun in front of an SLA flag. Then, days later, she was caught on surveillance footage wielding a gun and participating in a bank robbery with four SLA members months after her abduction, according to the FBI.
Wanted posters prominently featured Hearst and were plastered across the U.S., but her capture wouldn’t be easy. In May, authorities discovered an SLA safe house in L.A., leading to a shootout and the building being set on fire, resulting in the deaths of six SLA members, according to the FBI. But Hearst was not at the house.
Patty Hearst and Symbionese Liberation Army members wanted poster.Bettmann Archive/Getty
Months later, however, the FBI caught up to her on September 18, 1975 in San Francisco — 19 months after her violent abduction. She was arrested and charged with bank robbery.
Patty Hearst arrested newspaper headline.Pictorial Press Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo
Pictorial Press Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo
Although Hearst said she was not a willing participant in the robbery, she was convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison.
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Patty Hearst on Sept. 18, 1975.Donaldson Collection/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty
Donaldson Collection/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty
In 2002, five former SLA members were charged with the murder of Myrna Opsahl, who was killed during another bank robbery on April 21, 1975 at Crocker National Bank in Carmichael, Calif.,ABC Newsreported.
Four of the members — William Harris, Emily Montague (formerly Emily Harris), Sara Jane Olson, and Michael Bortin — were sentenced to six to eight years in prison for second-degree murder in February 2003,The New York Timesreported. The fifth suspect, James Kilgore, who went on the run after the arrest of the other SLA members, was also convicted and sentenced to six years in prison in 2004,NBC Newsreports.
Patty Hearst during her 1976 trial.Bettmann Archive/Getty
Where is Hearst Now?
She married her former bodyguard Bernard Shaw in 1979. They had two children, Lydia Marie Hearst-Shaw and Gillian Hearst-Shaw.Shaw died at 68 years oldin 2013, and Hearst has not remarried.
Today, Hearst competes in dog shows. In 2015, her dog won at the Westminster Kennel Club dog show in New York,USATodayreported.
source: people.com
