The 20-hour journey that is Jeffrey Toobin’s “American Heiress” audiobook is a gripping story. The book vividly describes the third most famous crime story of the 20th century.
#1. OJ Simpson murder trial.
#2. Lindbergh baby kidnapping and murder.
#3. Patty Hearst kidnapping and crime spree.
The story begins with the abduction and kidnapping of a 19-year old UC Berkeley student. The girl is the granddaughter of William Randolph Hearst. Her abductors are members of a militant revolutionary fringe group, self-proclaimed the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA).
On November 6, 1973, the SLA murdered Oakland school superintendent Marcus Foster in an attempt to trigger an anti-establishment revolution. They miscalculated. Other better known anti-establishment groups, most notably the Black Panthers, condemned the killing and chastised the eclectic group. The SLA regrouped. On February 4, 1974, the SLA kidnapped Patty Hearst from her modest Berkeley home.
The group was lead by escaped black convict Donald DeFreeze. He was the only African American member of the SLA. The other key members included:
Russell Little, Joseph Remiro, William Wolfe, Angela Atwood, Patricia Soltysik, Camilla Hall, Nancy Ling Perry, Emily Harris, and her husband William Harris.
In the 1.5 years from the time of Patty’s 1974 kidnapping till her capture on September 18, 1975, Patty and the SLA’s adventures and misadventures are numerous.
- Rather than a traditional ransom payment, the SLA demands Patty’s father, millionaire Randy Hearst, donate millions of dollars in an unprecedented campaign to feed the poor. He complies.
- After a handful of weeks as a captive, Patty is radicalized and accepted as a full-fledged member of the SLA.
- Patty and the SLA participate in 3 bank robberies to fund the fledgling and often flailing organization. At their final heist, an innocent bystander is killed after Emily Harris accidentally shoots 42-year old Myrah Opsahl with a shotgun.
- Patty discharges an assault rifle on a busy Los Angeles street in order to free Bill and Emily Harris from capture following a shoplifting incident.
- Lots of intragroup sex. The SLA believed that sexual relations should be free and obliged among its members.
- During her trial, Patty famously professes her innocence claiming she was brainwashed.
The 70’s were volatile
The Patty Hearst kidnapping and radicalization encapsulate the strange decade that was the 70s in the United States. The 70s was a period of disillusionment. The country was suffering from a hangover from the 60s peace, love and optimism. The assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. shattered dreams of young Americans. The Vietnam War and Watergate created a undercurrent of mistrust of government and authority. The confidence in the FBI was at a low point. The controversial policies of recently deceased FBI director, J. Edgar Hoover, were exposed and cast a shadow over the bureau.
The 70s was also a time of sexual liberation. The pill was new and widely used. The AIDS epidemic was years away. The Women’s Liberation movement was growing as female participation in colleges and in the workforce increased significantly. There was little to discourage the free love ethos of the period.
Patty was highly adaptive
Patty was a high-spirited, impressionable and adaptive young lady. The members of the SLA were young, mostly-white, and predominately middle-class. The group had a higher representative of females to males, especially after Joe Remiro and Russ Little were jailed shortly after Patty’s kidnapping. In retrospect, it is not so surprising that Patty would come to identify with this naive, idealistic group. What is surprising was the speed and intensity in which she adopted their cause. Patty fell in love with two young radical men during her time with the SLA, including SLA member Willie Wolfe. She had many opportunities to escape the SLA, but she opted to stay in the cell. She was genuinely committed to the cause. She only renounced the group after her arrest by the FBI.
A case study in radicalization and recovery
Why was Patty so quickly converted to a revolutionary soldier? The need to belong was a powerful motive. In the vacuum of connection during her captivity, the SLA provided her only outlet for human contact. In return for their companionship, Patty happily adopted their revolutionary zeal. After her arrest, she immediately disavowed her comrades. She made amends with her father, and especially her mother, who she had roughly denounced during her time on the run. Surrounded by friends and family from her past, it was as if a spell was lifted. The machine-gun totting outlaw vanished and the obedient Patricia reappeared.
Justice is partially served
Due the overwhelming evidence showing her willing participation in criminal activities in her time with the SLA, Patty was found guilty of various crimes including bank robbery. Her conviction was on March 20, 1976. She was given a 7 year prison term. She appealed her case and was granted bail. After losing her appeal, she ended up serving 22 months before President Jimmy Carter commuted her sentence.
The other surviving members of the SLA ended up serving longer sentences than Patty. As with Patty, the majority of the members gave up their radical revolutionary activity and moved on to live normal, quiet lives.
A movie is in the works
“American Heiress” will be getting a Hollywood treatment soon. Murder, sex, politics, shoot-outs, revolution, celebrity, lawyers, and the FBI should make for an exciting film. A new generation will learn about this surreal Hearst story.
America, land of the free and fringe
This incredible story proves that anarchy and radical subcultures are not unique to our current time. America’s freedom of speech requires a complex balance between individual liberties and government protection of the social good. There will always be friction between these two forces. On one side, radical groups will overextend their charter and deliver more harm than justified resistance to corruption and inequality. On the other end, government interference will overreach and infringe on our civil liberties while trying to ensure a safe and efficient society. These imbalances go in waves. If a movement has substance and public support, such as the civil rights movement and the women’s liberation movement, public sympathy will force the opponents of change and the protectors of the status quo to give way. If instead the public rejects the tactics and policies of fringe groups as engendering hatred and divisiveness, the support for a government crackdown on these unpopular movements will limit their strength and ultimately lead to their dissipation. So long as the country has a majority of fair-minded, rational citizens, the union will hold.
