You might recognize the name, William Randolph Hearst. He was a big figure in American newspapers and "yellow journalism" during the late 19th century. Hearst's granddaughter, Patty Heart was also a big figure in America...nearly a century later. In 1974, Patty Hearst was kidnapped by members of the Symbionese Liberation Army. The Army was a domestic terrorist organization that followed the ideology of the New Left. The Army wanted all Left Wing struggles to be united together peacefully. Such struggles included feminism, anti-racism, and many other groups. However, the group's methods of getting their message across were very unsuccessful as they did commit several acts of terror.
Anyway, back to Patty Hearst. At the age of 19, Patty was kidnapped by the SLA. She was with the SLA for 19 months, but strangely enough, not long after being kidnapped she actually joined the SLA and helped them commit these acts of terror. Initially, the SLA kidnapped her in an attempt to get money out of the wealthy family through a ransom. But as I mentioned before, she decided to join them. After more than 19 months with the SLA, Patty was captured by the FBI, convicted of a robbery and sentenced to 35 years in jail. Lucky for her, President Carter commuted her sentence and she actually spent less than two years in a cell. On the last day of his presidency, President Bill Clinton granted Patty Hearst a full pardon.
Patricia Hearst has been quite quiet about the matter and her true motivations might never actually be uncovered. But the incident surely demonstrates some of the crazy things that happened during the 70s!
Citation:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/act-four/wp/2016/09/12/american-heiress-and-our-meaningless-quest-to-understand-patricia-hearst/?utm_term=.f6a9edbb31a5
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2018/02/patty-hearst-kidnapping-cnn-jeffrey-toobin
https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/features/radical-story-of-patty-hearst-inside-new-cnn-docuseries-w515620
https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/07/opinions/patty-hearst-kidnapping-toobin-opinion/index.html
http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1862257_1862325_1862323,00.html
https://www.biography.com/people/patty-hearst-9332960
Claire, wonderful post on Patty Hearst and how her absurd story is an example of the crazy things that happened during the 70s. In fact, another extremely crazy event that happened during the 70's was written about in a blog post by Tanshi Mohan: The Jonestown Massacre. In this event, over 900 individuals died of cyanide poisoning at the urgings of a cult leader. While Patty Hearst's situation was quite different from this, it shows how the 70's was a radical time period full of bizaar events. According to a certain article, Patty's apparent connection to the SLA seemed to be a result of Stockholm Syndrome, which is when captive begins to identify with their captors. For Patty Hearst, she began to feel connected to the SLA after being kidnapped, causing her to commit crimes for them.
ReplyDeleteSources:
http://www.dailycal.org/2018/03/11/puzzling-case-patty-hearst-investigating-mystery-behind-stockholm-syndrome/\
Jonestown Massacre Blog Post
Great post about Patty Hearst's absurd story and about the terrorist SLA! Another extremist political organization active during the 1970s was Weather Underground. Weather Underground was a deviant of the Students for a Democratic Society group and embraced violent means as a way to promote communist ideology. In 1975, they bombed the US State Department in DC and tried to bomb a military induction center in Oakland. They also took responsibility for bombings of the Capitol, the Pentagon, and a New York City police station.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/weather-underground-bombings
This was a very interesting article. I think that this event showed how this was a crazy period in American history, as the Army had certain struggles that were admirable, such as feminism/anti-racism, even though they committed horrible acts to push those struggles. I think that this nature of extremist groups struggling for mostly admirable causes was especially prevalent in the ransom that they asked for in return for Patty. The group had asked for a food distribution program to the low-income neighborhoods in return for Patty, which shows how the extremist groups would do anything to push their cause during this crazy time.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=The_Legacy_of_the_SLA
Thanks for the post Claire! My first thought while reading your blog was that it was Stockholm Syndrome, but the whole situation around her kidnapping and joining seem to be very convoluted. Something I found interesting was that she was convicted of federal bank robbery charges -- the SLA had been trying to get money by being paid her ransom, but instead they got money from Patty Hearst when she robbed the US FOR them. She doesn't appear to be a passive member of the organization that was forced into it -- she started a shoot-out while trying to free one of her captor-comrades. However, only Patty Hearst knows why she joined, and until she decides to share her story, we'll never know for sure!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.latimes.com/visuals/photography/la-me-fw-archives-patty-hearst-arrives-at-the-hall-of-justice-20171219-story.html
https://www.kqed.org/pop/101956/patty-hearst-how-the-outlaw-heiress-became-a-chameleon
I really liked the backstory behind your article it felt like something out of a James Bond movie. Your introduction was really intriguing and grabbed my attention and made me want to read more. I like how you give the story of how Patty Hearst became one with eh SLA, and was kidnapped but then decided to join her captives. This really helped give me a better understanding of what type of a person she was before reading the rest of your article.
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