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the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) barged into 1975 the FBI found and arrested several remaining
their apartment, injured Weed badly, and kidnapped members, including Hearst. She was convicted of
Hearst. The SLA held her captive at their safe house committing the bank robbery and of using firearms,
for about two months. but served only three years of her seven-year sentence
Led by a man called Cinque after his escape from before President Jimmy Carter granted her a pardon in
prison, the SLA was a radical terrorist group cam- 1979. Released from prison, Hearst married her former
paigning to overthrow the white bourgeois capitalists bodyguard, Bernard Shaw, and moved to Connecticut
of America. SLA members originally intended to where they had two daughters.
exchange Hearst for the release of two SLA members Hearst has since written an autobiography and a
jailed for the murder of Oakland school superinten- novel and has acted in several films directed by John
dent Marcus Foster. However, when her capture gen- Waters. She was called on to serve as a witness during
erated extensive media coverage, the SLA decided it the trial of Soliah (aka Sara Jane Olsen), who was
would demand even more. For Hearst to be released, apprehended in 1999 for her involvement with the
her father would have to organize and pay for the dis- SLA. On the last day before President Bill Clinton left
tribution of $70 worth of food to every poor person in office, he granted Patricia Hearst an absolute pardon for
California. This amount exceeded even the wealth of her role in the bank robbery.
the Hearst family. Although he could not give that
See also HOSTAGE TAKING; STOCKHOLM SYNDROME;
much, her father did donate $2 million, but the distri-
SYMBIONESE LIBERATION ARMY
bution locations were looted and the operation was
not very successful. Further Reading
It is said that the SLA then brainwashed Hearst into
believing that her father was a “capitalist pig” and that Hearst, Patricia Campbell. Patty Hearst: Her Own Story.
New York: Morrow Avon, 1988.
he did not care enough about her or the people to com-
Maguire, John G., and Mary Lee Dunn. The Patty Hearst
ply with their demands. While keeping her locked in
Story: From Heiress to Revolutionary. North Miami
a closet and blindfolded, SLA members battered
Beach, FL: Success Publications, 1974.
her with their beliefs and condemned her for her back-
Payne, Leslie, Timothy Findley, and Carolyn Craven. The
ground. It is said that several of the men also raped Life and Death of the SLA. New York: Ballantine, 1976.
her. Ultimately, they gave Hearst the choice to go free
or stay and fight for the cause with them. Her rationale
in deciding to stay has been a cause for great debate. HEZBOLLAH
Some believe that Hearst was indeed brainwashed into
sympathizing with her captors, while others believe aka Ansar Allah, Followers of the Prophet
that if she chose to go free they would have immedi- Muhammed, Islamic Jihad, Islamic Jihad for the
ately killed her and that she complied only to ensure Liberation of Palestine, Islamic Jihad Organization,
her own survival. Still others believe that Hearst had Organization of the Oppressed on Earth,
prior associations with the SLA and had helped them Organization of Right Against Wrong, Party of God,
Revolutionary Justice Organization
orchestrate her own kidnapping.
Calling herself Tania, Hearst became involved in
several of the SLA activities. First, she issued a tape Hezbollah was responsible for some of the most
recording to the media denouncing capitalism and infamous acts of terror during the Lebanese civil war,
her family, and then participated in a San Francisco including the bombing of the U.S. embassy and
bank robbery on April 15, 1974. On May 17 of the Marine barracks in Beirut, the hijacking of TWA Flight
same year, a shootout occurred between the SLA and 847, and the kidnapping of Western journalists and
police at the their safe house in Los Angeles. The house academics. After the war’s end in 1990, Hezbollah
caught fire and six SLA members perished. Hearst reinvented itself as a force in national politics and
and two other SLA members, Bill and Emily Harris, social programs, while simultaneously continuing to
were not present when the shootout occurred. With the exist as one of the most active and dangerous terrorist
help of Kathleen Ann Soliah, the three became fugi- groups in the Middle East.
tives and lived in hiding for more than a year. The FBI Hezbollah was formed in June 1982 as a radical
was tipped off to their location, and in September of offshoot of the main Shiite Muslim party, Amal. At