I DON’T MISS THE 1970s: On this day in 1974, members of an urban guerrilla group calling itself the “Symbionese Liberation Army” dragged 19-year-old Patty Hearst from her Berkeley apartment. Ms. Hearst was tossed into the trunk of a car; her fiancé, who may have tried to prevent the kidnapping, was left beaten and bloodied.
The SLA members had learned of the young heiress’s whereabouts by reading the San Francisco Chronicle’s “Society” page. In announcing her engagement, it listed her address—2603 Benvenue Avenue, Apartment 4—which happened to be not far from SLA headquarters. What could be more convenient?
The original plan was to use Hearst to gain the release of two SLA members who had been arrested for the notorious murder of Oakland school superintendent Marcus Foster. That didn’t work.
Plan B was to press the Hearst family to give millions to feed California’s poor. That did work … initially at least. The Hearst family donated $2 million worth of food to an operation dubbed “People in Need.” Alas, that project descended into chaos, with more not-so-well-behaved people showing up for free food than had been anticipated. Dissatisfied, the SLA declined to release Ms. Hearst.
During this period, Ms. Hearst was being kept in a closet. When she was let out to eat, she was blindfolded.
But a funny thing happened. The SLA periodically released tape recordings that included statements from Ms. Hearst. In these “communiqués,” Hearst began sounding increasingly sympathetic to her captors. In one early message, she said, “I’m not being starved or beaten or unnecessarily frightened.” (This didn’t match up well with her later testimony that she had been repeatedly sexually abused and threatened with death during her captivity.)
A few more weeks into her ordeal, she became critical of her family. She even complained about the food her father had provided to “People in Need”: “It sounds like most of the food is low quality. No one received any beef or lamb. Anyway, it certainly didn’t sound like the kind of food our family is used to eating.”
Finally, after about two months, she recorded a rant in which she claimed that “the corporate state” is about to murder Black and poor people “down to the last man, woman, and child.” The “corporate state” was “about to totally automate the entire state industrial state” and remove “unneeded people.”
“I have been given the choice of one: being released …, or two: joining the forces of the Symbionese Liberation Army and fighting for my freedom and the freedom of all oppressed people. I have chosen to stay and fight. I have been given the name Tania after a comrade who fought alongside Che in Bolivia. It is in the spirit of Tania that I say, “Patria o Muerte, Venceremos.”
At one point, she threw in this odd little zinger: “As for my ex-fiance, the fact is, I don’t care if I ever see him again. … Steven has shown himself to be a sexist, ageist pig.”
Most people figured she was being coerced. But shortly thereafter came the Hibernia Bank robbery, in which she joined her fellow urban guerrillas and carried an M1 carbine. “I’m Tania. Up, up, up against the wall, mother f*ckers!” she shouted. Other serious incidents followed—like driving the getaway car in a robbery of Crocker National Bank in which one of her compatriots killed an innocent young mother.
If there had been any doubt about whether she was simply being coerced into participating in the robberies, it was resolved after her arrest in 1975. During her booking, she listed her occupation as “urban guerrilla.”
Hearst’s attorney—F. Lee Bailey—argued that she had been brainwashed. But she was nevertheless convicted of bank robbery and using a firearm during the commission of a felony and was sentenced to seven years. Of that, she served only about two years. President Jimmy Carter commuted her sentence.
As I said, I don’t miss the 1970s. I’m definitely not keen on repeating them.