Perplexing Facts About Patty Hearst, The Fugitive Heiress

Captive Or Radical?

Born into an affluent family, Patricia Hearst was likely used to the public’s attention by the time she was 19, but then her whole life turned upside-down. What followed was one of the most sensationalized cases ever faced in America. 

Seen as a domestic terrorist by some, and a hero by others, Patricia would live to answer for her actions and provide her side of the story—even if the details remain foggy to this day.

1. She Had All Sisters

Born on February 20, 1954, Patricia Hearst grew up with four sisters, but despite not being the only or oldest heiress, she certainly became the most well-known. Although Patricia carried a prominent name and enjoyed a somewhat normal life early on, she would eventually make national headlines.

 Bettmann, Getty Images

2. She Pursued An Education

As with most children of important families, Patricia spent her formative years in several private schools around California. After graduation, she attended two post-secondary institutions—Menlo College and University of California, Berkeley. Since high school, she had been seeing the older Steven Weed, to whom she became engaged in 1973.

At that point, she wasn’t the most famous Hearst, at least not yet.

 Bettmann, Getty Images

3. He Was A Mogul

Stretching back to the mid-1800s, the Hearst family’s wealth was deep-rooted before Patricia was born. In her day, their opulence came directly from her grandfather, William Randolph Hearst. Ironically, considering Patricia’s future infamy, William made his fortune by creating one of the largest media companies in history—known for its sensationalist tabloid stories.

Through this, their place in America was deeply cemented.

 Harris & Ewing, Wikimedia Commons

4. They Were Powerful

Aside from wielding a strong financial influence, the Hearst family was a force to be reckoned with in American politics. William Randolph Hearst involved himself in the inner workings of the government for much of his life, even running for president in 1904. Despite suffering a heavy hit during the Great Depression, he still commanded significant authority.

Ultimately, this is where all the problems started.

 Bain News Service, Wikimedia Commons

5. They Heard A Knock

On February 4, 1974, during what likely was no different from any other evening, Patricia Hearst and Steven Weed were surprised by a knock at the door. Opening it, they found a young woman who asked for a phone since she had crashed her car. Lowering their guard, the couple was powerless to stop two other intruders from pushing their way in.

Then, things turned even worse.

 Hulton Archive, Getty Images

6. They Took Her

Forcing themselves inside the apartment, two men from behind the false victim on the doorstep lunged at Steven. They pushed the unsuspecting student to the ground and severely beat him, giving him the impression that they were thieves. In reality, they proved to be kidnappers, blindfolding and tying up Patricia before taking her away.

This wasn’t a random act of terror, however.

 Zenith Entertainment, Patty Hearst (1988)

7. They Were Anti-Government

Patricia Hearst’s kidnappers hadn’t chosen her without reason, nor were they just kidnappers. They were part of the Symbionese Liberation Army, a band of radical domestic terrorists intent on dismantling US capitalism. Under the leadership of escaped convict Donald DeFreeze, they committed many vicious acts, including the abduction of Patricia.

Naturally, her parents were overcome with fear.

 Zenith Entertainment, Patty Hearst (1988)

8. They Were Distraught

The SLA had kidnapped Patricia, but for her family over the next couple of days, it was like she had disappeared off the face of the Earth. The group didn’t contact the Hearsts for over two days, during which, and after, Patricia’s parents set up press conferences outside their home in a desperate attempt to plead with her kidnappers.

Sadly, they were right to panic.

 San Francisco Chronicle/Hearst Newspapers, Getty Images

9. She Was Imprisoned

According to later statements by Patricia, when the SLA first took her, they held her blindfolded and restrained in a closet for weeks. Rather than treat her with any modicum of respect or compassion, they kept her in a state of fear, with their leader continuously threatening her life.

However, it seems they weren’t content with keeping her as a captive.

 Zenith Entertainment, Patty Hearst (1988)

10. They Indoctrinated Her

Eventually, Patricia’s captors loosened the reins a bit, but only to further their agenda. They started letting her out of her closet to eat and engage in political discussions. To ingrain their message more, they provided her a flashlight to read, and forced her to commit their propaganda to memory. 

This was all towards their main goal.

 Zenith Entertainment, Patty Hearst (1988)

11. They Were Using Her

Again, the SLA hadn’t targeted Patricia on a whim, and after her first 48 hours of captivity, they made their intentions public. As she was from the powerful Hearst family, DeFreeze allegedly hoped to exploit their pull to secure the release of two SLA members, using Patricia for ransom.

This didn’t work out, though.

 Zenith Entertainment, Patty Hearst (1988)

12. They Changed Demands

The SLA initially called for the government to release two of their incarcerated members, Joe Remiro and Russ Little. However, when the Hearsts’ influence proved insufficient in getting the state’s cooperation, the SLA made new demands. Instead, they wanted the family to deliver $70 worth of food to each of the impoverished citizens of California.

All the while, Patricia’s father was trying everything to negotiate.

 Zenith Entertainment, Patty Hearst (1988)

13. He Tried To Satisfy Them

Patricia’s father, Randolph Apperson Hearst, may have been an heir to the Hearst fortune, but that didn’t mean he had access to it. His father had retained full control of the funds to protect them, but even so, Randolph took out a loan and arranged the People in Need project to give food to those less fortunate as demanded.

Unfortunately, this also wasn’t successful.

 Tony Korody, Getty Images

14. They Were Displeased

Striving for his daughter’s return, Randolph Hearst did everything he could to answer the SLA’s demands, but it still didn’t work. People in Need was ultimately a catastrophe, devolving into a riot that ended the project before they completed the requested goal. Unsatisfied with the Hearsts’ attempt, the SLA refused to release Patricia.

After a while, Patricia made a shocking decision.

 Zenith Entertainment, Patty Hearst (1988)

15. She Made Her Choice

The SLA continued to indoctrinate Patricia in their cause, especially by twisting her view of the world and her family. Telling her that her family never cared about her, and that the group’s goals were for the greater good, the SLA gave Patricia the seemingly fair choice of being released unharmed, or joining their fight. She chose to stay with her captors. 

After this, she still encountered more mistreatment.

 Zenith Entertainment, Patty Hearst (1988)

16. They Pressured Her

Now that she had decided to join the SLA as an official member, they continued molding her into a domestic terrorist. This included instructions on her part to play, and how to handle a weapon properly. However, DeFreeze and another member, William Wolfe, also used this period to force themselves on her, coercing her into having zero agency.

After all this, she went public with her choice.

 Zenith Entertainment, Patty Hearst (1988)

17. She Announced Her Decision

Any family or friends who held out hope that Patricia would return were in for a rude awakening in April 1974, when she addressed the public herself. After holding her captive for two months, the SLA released an audiotape featuring Patricia’s statement, saying she had joined the group and taken the name Tania.

Before long, she was working alongside them.

 Bettmann, Getty Images

18. She Helped Them Steal

Over a week later, Patricia’s involvement in the SLA’s activities became confirmed when the group held up a bank on April 15, and authorities saw security footage of her participating. From the Hibernia Bank in San Francisco, the video showed her waving around an automatic weapon and ordering the people inside to stay down.

Surprisingly, the public opinion was split.

 Hibernia Bank's CCTV system, Wikimedia Commons

19. She Was Controversial

The SLA succeeded in their theft, and it turned Patricia into an icon by the following month. Despite the reckless brutality shown by the group, many young people belonging to the counterculture movement saw Patricia as a hero. Of course, most of the older Americans were unhappy with this shift.

However, the bank incident wouldn’t be her last SLA deed.

 Unknown Author, Wikimedia Commons

20. She Was Seen

A month after her first recorded act as an SLA guerrilla, someone noticed Patricia during another theft. On May 16, she was sat in a van outside a Los Angeles store, waiting for two fellow SLA members to come out. When they did and the owner followed to confront them for shoplifting, Patricia opened fire and allowed her partners to escape to the van. This wasn’t the end of her run, though.

 Zenith Entertainment, Patty Hearst (1988)

21. They Got Away

Patricia and her companions, Bill and Emily Harris, were still on the run and had to secure new vehicles. Therefore, the SLA continued its kidnapping streak, stealing two cars and taking their owners along with them. They would have returned to their base in LA, but learned the authorities had surrounded it.

Things got worse for the other members.

 United States Department of Justice, Wikimedia Commons

22. They All Fell

Patricia and the Harrises were better off not returning to the SLA’s base, as they would have only found disaster. After law enforcement surrounded it on May 17, a firefight erupted that lasted for hours, resulting in two SLA member fatalities. Donald DeFreeze also took his own life, and a fire started that caused the rest of the members inside to perish.

After this, Patricia once again addressed the masses.

 FBI, Wikimedia Commons

23. She Spoke To The Public

In the wake of the SLA firefight, Patricia and her cohorts released another recorded statement to the public. As a direct response to the event, Patricia spoke about her feelings for one of the fallen members, William Wolfe, whom others said she was in a relationship with. This would prove detrimental to her later defense.

While she was still confidently on the run, the authorities were closing in.

 Zenith Entertainment, Patty Hearst (1988)

24. They Were Close

Over the next year, Patricia continued to serve the SLA cause with the Harrises and other surviving members. This included making improvised explosives for strikes against the authorities, and acting as a getaway driver for at least one other theft. She still wasn’t off the hook, as the FBI was always right at her heels.

Finally, they caught up.

 Zenith Entertainment, Patty Hearst (1988)

25. They Found Her

Patricia’s time on the run ended on September 18, 1975, when law enforcement found her rooming with another member named Wendy Yoshimura in San Francisco. While her roommate surrendered immediately, Patricia retreated to another room, at least until the authorities threatened Wendy’s life and forced Patricia back out.

Even once she was in custody, she held on to their cause.

 Nancy Wong, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

26. She Kept Her Convictions

As Patricia surrendered to the authorities, and even as they processed her, her loyalty to the SLA remained unwavering. Along with asking her attorney to relay a message to the public, telling her “sisters and brothers” that she felt “free and strong,” she referred to her occupation as being an “Urban Guerilla” when giving her information.

While her beliefs were still strong, she had nearly wasted away.

 Zenith Entertainment, Patty Hearst (1988)

27. She Was Unwell

Patricia’s time with the SLA had done a number on her, and when authorities reached her, she was a shell of her former self. Having dropped in weight to 87 pounds, she was a heavy smoker, and her mind had clearly suffered from the experience. Not only was she missing large chunks of memory, but doctors found that her IQ had lowered significantly.

It wasn’t long until her loyalties changed.

 Zenith Entertainment, Patty Hearst (1988)

28. She Switched Her Stance

Patricia spent the next few weeks in custody relaying her experience to her lawyers, the authorities, and several doctors. Over this time, she got some distance from the guerilla world that had engulfed her, and she eventually walked back on her beliefs, renouncing the SLA and its actions.

Fortunately for her, she had a few people on her side.

 Zenith Entertainment, Patty Hearst (1988)

29. He Made His Argument

Patricia spoke to multiple people about her SLA activities, but this was initially against her counsel’s suggestion. Terence Hallinan, the lawyer her family hired first, advised her to stay silent as he developed his case. He argued that she was not fully responsible for her actions, since—as he postulated—the group had forcibly inebriated her with illicit substances.

He wasn’t her only lawyer, though.

 Nancy Wong, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

30. He Made A Similar Case

Terence Hallinan’s theory of Patricia’s involuntary inebriation didn’t go far, as the rest of the defense team was not on board with the idea. As a result, Hallinan left the defense team, and F Lee Bailey took charge in his place. Similarly, he argued Patricia’s involuntary participation, but under significant coercion by the SLA instead.

Of course, the prosecution didn’t see it this way.

 Bettmann, Getty Images

31. They Didn’t Agree

Unlike the claims of Patricia and her defense, many thought she was wholly responsible for her actions, including prosecutor James L Browning Jr. He believed that she may have voluntarily held up the Hibernia Bank. Concordantly, Attorney General William B Saxbe was more sure, refuting her claims of being a “reluctant participant” and likening her to a common crook.

Finally, the time came for her trial.

 White House Photo Office, Wikimedia Commons

32. She Appeared In Court

Nearly two years after her initial kidnapping, Patricia Hearst appeared in court to answer for her deeds with the SLA. On January 15, 1976, she was brought before Judge Oliver Jesse Carter as the sole perpetrator on trial for the bank theft. In line with Bailey’s plan, Patricia stuck with her coercion defense.

 John Malmin, Los Angeles Times, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

33. She Was Faking It

Regarding the concept of her forced participation in the bank theft, Patricia testified that her captors ordered her to appear enthusiastic, and do everything they instructed. The bank’s surveillance footage supported this, and seemed to show the other SLA members threatening Patricia at gunpoint.

This coercion wasn’t just during the bank heist, however.

 Unknown Author, Wikimedia Commons

34. She Was Coached

According to Patricia, DeFreeze and the other SLA members had taught her extensively about how to act in several situations during their activities. This was allegedly responsible for her actions with the Harrises outside the store in Los Angeles, as she had been told what to do in a similar situation, and therefore acted out of instinct.

On the other side, the prosecution doubled down.

 Zenith Entertainment, Patty Hearst (1988)

35. They Accused Her

To ascertain the truth of Patricia’s claims, the prosecution had arranged for several doctors to examine her. One of these men, Dr Harry Kozol, testified that her involvement in the bank theft had been nothing other than "an act of free will," claiming that she was merely "a rebel in search of a cause".

The accusations didn’t stop there.

 Tony Korody, Getty Images

36. They Called Her A Liar

To bolster their assertions, the prosecution continued to contradict Patricia’s arguments, even beyond her involvement in the SLA’s offenses. Concerning her claims that DeFreeze and Wolfe had forced themselves on her, another psychiatrist called by the prosecution, Dr Joel Fort, stated she engaged in these acts voluntarily and called her “amoral”.

Throughout the trial, the judge also made choices that seemed a bit off.

 Zenith Entertainment, Patty Hearst (1988)

37. He Made Allowances

Even the judge seemed biased against Patricia, as some of his decisions suggested. For instance, he permitted the jury to hear an earlier recording of Patricia proclaiming her radical beliefs to a visiting friend while incarcerated. However, despite the prosecution calling on several doctors, he wouldn’t allow the interviews between her and psychiatrist Louis Jolyon West as evidence. 

Finally, the trial came to a close.

 Zenith Entertainment, Patty Hearst (1988)

38. He Made Closing Arguments

At the end of the trial, Browning Jr once again argued that Patricia had acted completely of her own volition during the bank heist. He also refuted her claims against DeFreeze and Wolfe again, suggesting that since the other SLA women considered themselves feminists, they wouldn’t have let Patricia be taken advantage of.

The other side was allegedly less than impressive.

 Zenith Entertainment, Patty Hearst (1988)

39. She Was Disappointed

Unlike Browning Jr’s firm prosecution, Patricia would later state how she felt dissatisfied by Bailey’s closing arguments in her defense. She described him as “disjointed” in speech and action, allegedly appearing hungover and even spilling water on himself as he finished his case.

Then, it was time for the verdict.

 Zenith Entertainment, Patty Hearst (1988)

40. He Passed Judgment

After a ruthless and grueling trial, Judge Carter made his final decision on the fate of Patricia. Charging her with two convictions for her involvement in the bank theft and the hold-up at the Los Angeles store, he sentenced her to the maximum of 35 years imprisonment. Even then, he seemed to treat her without compassion.

This severity wouldn’t last, however.

 Zenith Entertainment, Patty Hearst (1988)

41. Her Sentence Lessened

Patricia's sentence of 35 years would likely lessen at the following final sentence hearing, but Judge Carter didn't define by what amount. As it happened, Judge Carter suddenly perished before this hearing, and the new Judge William H Orrick Jr sentenced her to seven years incarceration instead in September 1976.

Suddenly, she had a chance to get out sooner.

 Bettmann, Getty Images

42. She Was Under Guard

Two months after her sentencing, Patricia received some good news while still incarcerated. In order to appear for an appeal hearing, the court granted her bail, as long as she received protection on bond. To this end, her family hired a large team of security guards to protect her and ensure she didn’t skip out.

Fortunately for her, another judge was more compassionate.

 RTÉ, Kenny Live (1988-1999)

43. He Believed Her

Unlike Judge Carter, Superior Court Judge Talbot Callister was more sympathetic to Patricia’s claims. Specifically concerning her firing upon the store owner who had reprimanded the Harrises, Judge Callister believed that her actions were the result of severe coercion. This resulted in her being granted probation for that specific charge.

Still, things didn’t go her way.

 Rick Meyer, Los Angeles Times, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

44. They Denied Her

Unfortunately for Patricia, the proceedings she had been hoping to go through with were not successful. In 1978, her appeals failed since the Supreme Court refused to hear her case. As a result, the courts revoked the bail granted to her, and Patricia resigned herself to serving her time. However, she would gain her freedom sooner than expected.

 Kingkongphoto & www.celebrity-photos.com, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons

45. She Got Out

On February 1, 1979, Patricia’s reduced sentence shrank even more when a higher authority became involved. Although she was still under probation, and released with strict stipulations, President Jimmy Carter had commuted her incarceration to the 22 months she had already served.

Now in the aftermath of this turbulent chapter in her life, she wanted to tell her story.

 Unknown Author, Wikimedia Commons

46. She Wrote A Book

Having put the chaos of her SLA involvement behind her, Patricia was intent on setting the record straight. So in 1981, she released her memoir titled Every Secret Thing, co-written by author Alvin Moscow. In this memoir, she revealed details that hadn’t previously been known to the public, and even renewed the authorities’ interest.

However, the law never charged her again, and she eventually had her name cleared.

 s_bukley, Shutterstock

47. Her Slate Was Wiped Clean

Due to her precarious release and the publishing of her memoir, Patricia was still considered of interest to the authorities—at least until 2001. On January 20, the trend of US Presidents directly helping Patricia out continued when President Bill Clinton pardoned her of all offenses on his last day in office.

Amid all this, she was able to find happiness.

 Featureflash Photo Agency, Shutterstock

48. She Started A Family

Patricia never got back together with her former fiancé, stating she had been unhappy with him before, but she did find someone once she was out. Just two months following her release, she married one of the officers who had protected her while on bail—Bernard Lee Shaw. With him, she would later give birth to two children.

Along with a family, she found a new calling as well.

 s_bukley, Shutterstock

49. She Found A New Career

In a strange twist of fate, Patricia continued her stay in the spotlight when one man took a chance on her. Director John Waters decided to cast her in his 1990 film, Cry-Baby, and she caught the acting bug, appearing in seven more movies—including four more of Waters’—and several TV shows.

Still, she never forgot those who spoke against her.

 Universal, Cry-Baby (1990)

50. She Was Insulted

Patricia’s story remained relevant in America, and in 2009, she sat for an interview on NBC about her life. During the interview, she spoke about the court proceedings, especially the court’s attitude. Calling the prosecutor out, she referred to his assertion of a consensual relationship between her and William Wolfe as “outrageous,” and offensive to victims of similar acts.

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 kai hecker, Shutterstock

Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8