Patricia Hearst Trivia

1. On February 4, 1974, newspaper heiress Patty Hearst was kidnapped from her Berkeley apartment. At the time, she was living with her fiance. What was his name?

From Quiz Patty Hearst and the SLA

Answer: Steven Weed

Steve Suenaga was their next door neighbor who was shot at as he ran outside to investigate the commotion. Kilgore was a member of the "Second SLA," which came about after six of the original members were killed in a shootout in Los Angeles. The "Second SLA" was made up of original SLA members Bill and Emily Harris and various Bay Area radicals sympathetic to their cause. Terence Hallinan was one of Patty Hearst's defense attorneys. Steven Weed, who had been her math tutor when she was in high school, wrote a book called "My Search for Patty Hearst". Weed and Hearst have never reunited.

From Quiz The Very Strange Case of Patricia Hearst

Answer: California

She was living in Hillsborough, a suburb of San Francisco, where she was attending college. Patricia is the daughter of Randolph Hearst, who was head of the Hearst publishing empire at the time, and the son of William Randolph Hearst. William Randolph Hearst was a self-made millionaire and newspaper mogul. Patricia grew up in Hillsborough and attended private schools. By all accounts she was an intelligent and strong-willed young woman. The news of her kidnapping was a huge story in the US media for many months.

From Quiz Patty Hearst and the SLA

Answer: Donald DeFreeze

Russell Little and Joseph Remiro were SLA members who were incarcerated at the time of the kidnapping due to their involvement in the shooting of Marcus Foster, the Superintendent of Oakland schools. Bill Harris was an original SLA member who became the leader of the "Second SLA" that formed after the shootout in Los Angeles killed DeFreeze and five other members. DeFreeze, the only black member of the SLA, was a long-time criminal (described by some as an unimpressive thug) who became interested in radical politics while at Soledad Penitentiary. After escaping prison, he founded the SLA with Patricia Mizmoon Soltysik, a California-Berkeley student who was radicalized after a fellow student was killed by riot police during a protest.

From Quiz The Very Strange Case of Patricia Hearst

Answer: Steven Weed

Princeton graduate Steven Weed was 26 years old at the time of the kidnapping, Patricia was 19. They met at Crystal Springs School for Girls, where he had been her math tutor. He was a graduate student at Berkeley at the time of the kidnapping, and Patricia an art history major. He was beaten unconscious with a bottle by her kidnappers when he attempted to defend her. Patricia was dragged screaming from their apartment and shoved into the trunk of a car, which then sped off.

From Quiz Patty Hearst and the SLA

Answer: Shot with cyanide-laced bullets

The SLA did some car bombings, but nobody was killed in them. They took pride in their idea of using hollow point bullets to which they added cyanide. Foster was a popular leader in the black community, but the SLA disapproved of the use of ID cards for students (which they erroneously thought he favored). His murder served to alienate the SLA from other radical groups of the time, as those groups generally supported the elevation of minorities to leadership positions.

From Quiz The Very Strange Case of Patricia Hearst

Answer: Symbionese Liberation Army

The Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) was an 'army' with very few soldiers. Its leader was a prison escapee named Donald DeFreeze, the soldiers no more than a dozen people, mostly young women. Their main revolutionary activities were robbing banks and murdering people, including the Oakland Superintendent of Schools. Patricia was kept locked in a closet for several weeks. The SLA made tapes which were sent to the media, in which Patricia pleaded for help from her parents. The SLA demanded free food for every needy person in California, and Randolph Hearst did spend an estimated 2 million dollars on food giveaways in Northern California in an attempt to placate the SLA. As time passed, the SLA continued sending tapes to the media, and Patricia appeared to become increasingly angry at her parents for their supposed failure to comply with SLA demands and get her released. She began to sound more and more sympathetic to her SLA captors. Nine weeks after her kidnapping, a tape was released that contained a real shocker. Patricia declared that she had joined the SLA. Her words: "I have chosen to stay and fight." She called her father a "liar" for professing to be concerned about her and about the welfare of "oppressed people." A photo was released showing Patricia posing in front of a SLA poster and holding a rifle. It became a very popular poster.

From Quiz Patty Hearst and the SLA

Answer: Hibernia Bank

The Crocker National Bank was a later robbery done by the "Second SLA", in which Myrna Lee Opsahl was shot. Opsahl was rushed to the hospital, where her husband was the attending surgeon who attempted unsuccessfully to save her life. Her son Jon maintains www.myrnaopsahl.com, a website that led the attempt to prosecute members of the "Second SLA" for the robbery and murder. One irony of Patty Hearst's involvement in the Hibernia Bank robbery was that the bank was owned by the father of one of Hearst's childhood friends.

From Quiz The Very Strange Case of Patricia Hearst

Answer: Robbing a bank

On that day in April, the Sunset branch of the Hibernia Bank in San Francisco was robbed by an African American man and four white women. The man was Donald DeFreeze (aka Cinque) and the women were his SLA soldiers, and they included Patricia Hearst, who now referred to herself as "Tania." The photograph of Patricia was taken by automatic cameras in the bank. They made off with some 10,000 dollars, and wounded two people as they were making their getaway. Patricia was now a fugitive.

From Quiz Patty Hearst and the SLA

Answer: Tania

Haydee Tamara Bunke Bider (aka Tania Bunke) fought alongside Che Guevara and died during an ambush in 1967. "Yolanda" was the name used by Emily Harris, "Fahizah" by Nancy Ling Perry, and "Zoya" by Patricia Mizmoon Soltysik (may I recommend "In Search of a Sister" by her brother Fred Soltysik as an interesting biography). The other SLA members were "Teko" (Bill Harris), "Cinque" (Donald DeFreeze), "Cujo" (Willie Wolfe), "Gabi" (Camilla Hall), and "Gelina" (Angela Atwood).

From Quiz The Very Strange Case of Patricia Hearst

Answer: Everyone in the house died

The day before the raid, two SLA members were almost arrested for shoplifting some socks from a sporting goods store. Patricia was waiting for them outside in a van, alone and unguarded. To assist their escape, Patricia sprayed the storefront with bullets from an automatic weapon. The next day, police raided the safe house in South Central LA where they believed Patricia to be hiding out. An enormous amount of gunfire was exchanged between police and the SLA, and finally tear gas canisters were thrown into the house by the police. The house caught fire, and everyone in it perished. Three members were shot trying to escape, two died of carbon monoxide poisoning, and "Cinque" shot himself in the head. The shootout was broadcast live, on every television station in Los Angeles. At that moment, most people believed Patricia Hearst was inside the house and had died along with the others. But Patricia wasn't in the house at the time of the raid, and she managed to elude the police yet again.

From Quiz The Very Strange Case of Patricia Hearst

Answer: She was arrested and charged with bank robbery

Patricia was located by the FBI almost by accident. They were looking for some remaining SLA members, raided an apartment thinking to find them there, and instead found Patricia. She was immediately arrested. Photos of Patricia taken after her arrest show her smiling broadly and raising a clenched fist. She was taken to court and arraigned on charges of armed bank robbery and violation of the Federal Firearms Act. Her bail was set at 1.5 million dollars.

From Quiz The Very Strange Case of Patricia Hearst

Answer: F. Lee Bailey

F. Lee Bailey was a very famous lawyer at that time. He had been involved in several big trials, including that of the Boston Strangler. Bailey was the author of a best-selling book, and he took Patricia's case on the condition that he have exclusive book rights for at least 18 months. He very much enjoyed all the media attention focused upon him.

From Quiz The Very Strange Case of Patricia Hearst

Answer: She was brainwashed

Essentially, Patricia's defense was that she had been brainwashed. After spending several weeks locked in a dark closet, blindfolded, given no privacy whatsoever, and being constantly abused verbally and physically, she stated that she felt there was no alternative for her but to join the SLA in order to remain alive.

From Quiz Patty Hearst and the SLA

Answer: Sara Jane Olson

Wendy Yoshimura was a Bay Area artist and radical involved in the "Second SLA" who was arrested with Patty Hearst. Shana Alexander wrote a book entitled "Anyone's Daughter" covering the trial and the character of Patty Hearst. Catherine Campbell was Patty Hearst's mother's maiden name. Kathy Soliah lived a quiet life as a stereotypical soccer mom, and when she was finally arrested, attempted to use her character as a plea for leniency. However, since she was involved in the Crocker Bank robbery, in which a woman was killed, many felt there was a need for justice. I also question the use of "Sara Jane" as a name--I wonder if there was any tribute to Sara Jane Moore, the woman who shot at Gerald Ford.

From Quiz The Very Strange Case of Patricia Hearst

Answer: She was found guilty and sentenced to jail

She was sentenced to seven years in prison for bank robbery. Patricia has stated that in her opinion F. Lee Bailey did a poor job defending her. His closing arguments were not strong, he was very shaky, and many people believed he had been drinking.

From Quiz Patty Hearst and the SLA

Answer: Bill Clinton

Patty Hearst spent almost two years in prison until Jimmy Carter commuted her sentence, but she remained a convicted felon until Bill Clinton gave her a full pardon on January 20, 2001, his final day as president. Thank you for taking this quiz. If you're interested in learning more about the bizarre story of Patty Hearst and the SLA, may I recommend each of the books mentioned above ("Anyone's Daughter", by Shana Alexander; "My Search for Patty Hearst", by Steven Weed; and "In Search of a Sister", by Fred Soltysik). Also recommended: "Every Secret Thing", by Patty Hearst (also released as "Patty Hearst") and "The Voices of Guns", by Vin McLellan. If you just want a quick glimpse, you can also watch the movie "Patty Hearst" starring Natasha Richardson as Patty and Ving Rhames as Cinque. Certainly not an academic work, and it does have its flaws, but it is closer to the truth than a lot of Hollywood depictions of true stories.

From Quiz The Very Strange Case of Patricia Hearst

Answer: Her sentence was commuted by President Jimmy Carter

Her sentence was commuted by President Jimmy Carter in 1979 and she was released from prison. She had served two years of her seven year sentence. She was granted a full pardon by President Bill Clinton on his last day in office. After leaving prison, Patricia Hearst attempted to return to normal life, and apparently has been successful in doing so. She married her bodyguard, Bernard Shaw, and they had two daughters. She has written a book entitled "Every Secret Thing", her version of the kidnapping and the events that followed. Would Patricia Hearst have ever robbed a bank if she hadn't been kidnapped by bank robbers? Was justice served by sending Patricia Hearst to prison?

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