Page 375 - Encyclopedia Of Terrorism

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Symbionese Liberation Army———355

Reeve, Simon. The New Jackals: Ramzi Yousef, Osama bin People in Need, which eventually supplied food to
Laden, and the Future of Terrorism. Boston: Northeastern more than 30,000 people, at the cost of $2 million.
University Press, 1999. Patty Hearst then denounced her parents as “capitalist
pigs” and joined the SLA, taking on the revolutionary
name “Tania,” after Che Guevara’s companion.
SYMBIONESE LIBERATION ARMY With Hearst as Tania, the SLA robbed the Hibernia
Bank on April 15, 1974, where Hearst’s transforma-
tion to a revolutionary was captured by the surveil-
The Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), a small lance camera. The group then fled to southern
group of militant revolutionaries based in California California. On May 16, Hearst and Bill and Emily
during the 1970s, owes nearly all its notoriety to the Harris, known then as Teko and Yolanda, attempted to
kidnapping and subsequent indoctrination of Patty rob a sporting goods store in Inglewood, California.
Hearst, the newspaper heiress. Much of the short life
The following day, police blasted 5,000 rounds into
of the group was lived in the media spotlight, mak-
the SLA hideout in South Central Los Angeles, which
ing SLA one of the more infamous revolutionary
then went up in flames. Six members—DeFreeze,
groups of the era, though one of the least respected
Angela Atwood, Nancy Ling Perry, Willie Wolfe, Pat
politically.
Soltysik, and Camilla Hall—were killed. Hearst and
The SLA began as a collaboration between convicts
the Harrises watched the events on television from a
and prison activists in 1973. Led by General Field
motel room in Anaheim.
Marshal Cinque (né Donald DeFreeze), an escaped
The remaining SLA members robbed two more
convict and initially the only black member of the
banks—one in Sacramento, on February 25, 1975,
SLA, the seven other members—white, middle-class
and another in Carmichael, California, on April 21,
men and women—adopted Swahili names and took up
1975. Myrna Lee Opsahl was shot and killed in the
arms for the self-styled Symbionese Federation. The
latter robbery. That September, in San Francisco,
group’s motto, “Death to the fascist insect that preys
Hearst, the Harrises, and two minor SLA members
upon the life of the people,” signed off each of their
were captured. All were tried, convicted, and served
communiqués.
prison sentences for their SLA-related activities; upon
The SLA’s first significant action, on November 6,
release all returned to relatively mainstream lives.
1973, was the assassination of Marcus Foster, the first
Kathleen Soliah, who joined the SLA after the
black superintendent of schools in Oakland. Foster
police shoot-out in Los Angeles, remained a fugitive
was working to improve education in Oakland, but
until she was apprehended in 1998; she was charged
because his plan included mandatory ID cards, the
with planting bombs under police cars in August
SLA targeted him as a “fascist.” By murdering a
1975. Two days before Soliah was sentenced for the
prominent black leader, the SLA alienated the Black
bomb charges, she and the four remaining SLA
Panther Party and other revolutionary left groups
members—Bill Harris, Emily Harris, Michael Bortin,
(although the SLA was later hailed by the waning
and James Kilgore—were charged with the first-degree
Weatherman, by then called Weather Underground). In
murder of Myrna Opsahl. Kilgore is still at large.
January 1974, when SLA members Russell Little and
Joseph Remiro were arrested for Foster’s murder, the See also BLACK PANTHER PARTY; PATTY HEARST;
group began to plan another violent act. WEATHERMAN
On February 4, 1974, Patty Hearst, then a sopho-
more at the University of California, Berkeley, was Further Reading
kidnapped from her apartment by three SLA mem-
Baker, Marilyn, with Sally Brompton. Exclusive! The
bers. Three days later, the SLA sent a communiqué
Inside Story of Patricia Hearst and the SLA. New York:
denouncing the “establishment” and claiming Hearst
Macmillan, 1974.
as their “prisoner of war.” On February 12, KPFA Findley, Tim, and Les Payne. The Life and Death of the
radio aired a tape in which Hearst demanded that her SLA. New York: Ballantine, 1976.
family distribute food to the poor in exchange for her McLellan, Vin, and Paul Avery. The Voices of Guns.
release. Ten days later, the Hearsts funded a program, New York: Putnam, 1977.