Patty Hearst
Patty Hearst, an American heiress and granddaughter of publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst, gained international attention when she was kidnapped in February 1974 by the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), a left-wing urban guerrilla group. During her 57 days of captivity, Hearst was subjected to psychological manipulation and abuse, leading her to adopt the SLA's ideology and eventually participate in a bank robbery alongside her captors. Her involvement in criminal activities, including a heist in which she brandished a weapon, sparked widespread media coverage and discussions about Stockholm syndrome, a psychological phenomenon where hostages develop sympathy for their captors.
In 1975, Hearst was apprehended by the FBI and subsequently tried for her crimes. She was convicted of bank robbery and sentenced to seven years in prison, though her sentence was commuted by President Jimmy Carter after nearly two years. Her story continued to capture public interest, resulting in an autobiography, numerous media portrayals, and explorations of the sociopolitical context of her experience, which reflected broader issues of disillusionment with authority in the 1970s. Following her release, Hearst engaged in philanthropy and pursued a career in acting, while her life and the complexities surrounding her kidnapping have remained subjects of cultural analysis and fascination.
Patty Hearst
Heiress
- Born: February 20, 1954
- Place of Birth: San Francisco, California
AMERICAN HEIRESS, KIDNAPPING VICTIM, AND URBAN GUERRILLA TERRORIST
MAJOR OFFENSES: Bank robbery and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony
ACTIVE: February 4–May 17, 1974
SENTENCE: Seven years in prison; served two years
Early Life
Patricia “Patty” Campbell Hearst (huhrst), the granddaughter of publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst, was the third of five daughters. Her father, Randolph Apperson Hearst, was chairman of the board of the Hearst Corporation, a media conglomerate; her mother, Catherine Campbell Hearst, was a conservative University of California regent. Patty was reared primarily in the wealthy San Francisco suburb of Hillsborough and attended several private Roman Catholic schools. She graduated from high school one year early and entered Menlo College, where she excelled academically and earned a “best student award” her freshman year. As a sophomore art history major, Hearst transferred to the University of California at Berkeley to follow Steven Weed, her former high school math teacher, who had received a graduate teaching fellowship there. The pair became engaged and moved into an apartment in Berkeley with plans to marry in the summer of 1974.
Criminal Career
Hearst’s wealthy, sheltered life changed forever on the evening of February 4, 1974. Three members of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA)—a left-wing, urban guerrilla terrorist group—broke into Hearst’s apartment. After beating Weed, the SLA members seized the noncompliant, nineteen-year-old heiress from her home at gunpoint, locked her in the trunk of a car, and drove her to a hideaway south of San Francisco. In exchange for her release, the SLA demanded that authorities release two SLA members who were arrested in the 1973 killing of Marcus Foster, Oakland’s first African American school superintendent. After authorities refused to exchange Hearst for the jailed SLA members, the SLA made ransom demands, resulting in a donation by the Hearst family and the Hearst Foundation of $2 million in food for needy persons in the Bay Area. However, negotiations broke down when the SLA sought an additional $4 million. The Hearst family’s efforts, negotiated dependent on Hearst’s release, were fruitless, and the SLA continued to hold Hearst captive.
Hearst was imprisoned fifty-seven days in a closet and deprived of light, food, and sleep. Concurrently, she was subjected to almost constant ravings concerning the SLA’s causes, as well as physical abuse and rape. Under the continuous threat that she would be killed if she did not cooperate, Hearst was brainwashed by escaped convict Donald DeFreeze (also known as General Field Marshal Cinque Mtume) and his small group of white, middle-class, college-aged radicals.
In time, Hearst said she was given the option of becoming an SLA member or being killed. She agreed to join the SLA and began calling herself Tania, after the girlfriend of Cuban revolutionary leader Che Guevara. A taped communiqué, one of several messages sent to the media, announced that Hearst had taken up the SLA’s cause. The SLA publicized a photograph of Hearst with a machine gun in her hand, standing in front of the group’s emblem, an apparently willing revolutionary. Then, on April 15, 1974, during a San Francisco robbery at the Sunset branch of the Hibernia Bank, surveillance cameras showed Hearst holding an assault rifle. Witnesses heard Tania identify herself just before DeFreeze shot two people in a heist netting little more than $10,000 for the group.
One month later, during a shooting on May 16, 1974, Hearst fired approximately thirty rounds outside a Los Angeles sporting goods store to thwart the arrest of SLA member Bill Harris for shoplifting. Police found the ditched getaway van containing a parking ticket, which ultimately led them to the SLA’s location. The following day, Los Angeles police surrounded the house in which several SLA members were hiding. Six members of the SLA, including leader DeFreeze, died in the shoot-out and the subsequent fire that consumed the hideout; Hearst watched the melee on television from a motel.
Legal Action and Outcome
For more than a year, Hearst remained at large, staying mostly in Pennsylvania and New York. However, while back in San Francisco, Hearst was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on September 18, 1975. In her trial, beginning in January 1976, Hearst argued that she was intimidated into taking part in the bank robbery. Hearst’s defense attorney, F. Lee Bailey, claimed an extreme case of Stockholm syndrome, in which captives become sympathetic with their captors. The psychological condition had only recently appeared in journals and the media. In March 1976, a jury found Hearst guilty of bank robbery and the use of a firearm while under the commission of a felony. Hearst was sentenced to seven years in prison. In a second case involving the store shoot-out in Los Angeles, Hearst pleaded no contest and received probation.
On February 1, 1979, after serving nearly two years in prison and five years after her odyssey had begun, Hearst’s sentence was commuted by President Jimmy Carter, and she was released. She was granted a full pardon by President Bill Clinton on January 20, 2001.
Just two months after Hearst’s release from prison, she married former bodyguard Bernard Shaw. Hearst and her story remained a cultural phenomenon, despite her newfound life roles as a mother, author, and occasional actor. She settled in Connecticut with her husband and two daughters. In 1981, she published an autobiography, Every Secret Thing, detailing her side of the story. (The book was later rereleased as Patty Hearst: Her Own Story). Natasha Richardson starred in a 1988 film version of her story, and in the twenty-first century, numerous true-crime podcasts and television programs detailed the kidnapping and events that followed.
Hearst forayed into acting, with roles in four John Waters films, as well as other small parts. She has also been involved in philanthropy and charity work. Several of her dogs have been shown and have won awards at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. Her husband died in 2013.
Impact
Patty Hearst’s saga offers insights into American cultural and political shifts in the late 1960s and early 1970s, which included widespread disillusionment with government policies surrounding such events as the Vietnam War, President Richard Nixon’s resignation in the wake of the Watergate scandal, and official responses to dissent. Her tribulations are key to understanding the use of media in reporting violent acts, including kidnappings, the use of violence and terror to promote a cause, law enforcement responses to terrorism, and hostage psychology. She is one of the most prominent examples of Stockholm syndrome.
Bibliography
Dazio, Stefanie. "Newspaper Heiress Patty Hearst Was Kidnapped 50 Years Ago. Now She's Famous for Her Dogs." Associated Press, 4 Feb. 2024, apnews.com/article/patty-hearst-kidnapping-anniversary-stockholm-syndrome-1e155ada27b2b0ab8940c2fc70d9b7d1. Accessed 30 Aug. 2024.
Flanagan, Caitlin. "Girl, Interrupted; How Patty Hearst’s Kidnapping Reflected and Ravaged American Culture in the 1970s." Atlantic. Atlantic Monthly Group, Sept. 2008. Web. 31 Mar. 2016.
Hearst, Patty, with Alvin Moscow. Patty Hearst: Her Own Story. New York: Avon, 1998. Print.
"Patty Hearst Kidnapping." US Federal Bureau of Investigation, www.fbi.gov/history/artifacts/patty-hearst-kidnapping. Accessed 30 Aug. 2024.
Rollings, Harry, and Jim Blascovich. “The Case of Patricia Hearst: Pretrial Publicity and Opinion.” Journal of Communication 27, no. 2 (1977): 58-64. Print.
Third, Amanda. “Nuclear Terrorists: Patty Hearst and the Terrorist Family.” Hecate 28, no. 2 (2002): 82-100. Print.