May 12, 2026 • 10 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, in 1974, Patty Hearst, granddaughter of publishing giant William Randolph Hearst, was kidnapped by the radical Symbionese Liberation Army. But what happened next stunned the country: Hearst eventually joined the group and took part in a bank robbery. Our American Stories regular contributor Ashley Hlebinsky shares the remarkable story behind one of the strangest criminal cases in modern American history.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue with our American stories the show where
America is the Star and the American People. In nineteen
seventy four, Patricia Hurst, heirest of the William Randolph Hurst
newspaper Empire, was abducted by an American far left militant organization,
and she eventually joined their cause. Here to tell the
(00:30):
story is Ashley Lebinski. Ashley is the former co host
of Discovery Channel's Master of Arms and the former curator
in charge of the Cody Firearms Museum. Here's Ashley.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
The nineteen sixties and seventies in American history was, to
say the least, a tumultuous time wrought with violence and unrest,
as various activist groups sought a range of different changes
in American culture. So it was anything from civil rights
and human rights, but in some cases these organizations moved
(01:06):
into domestic terrorism and sought to completely topple and reconfigure
the government, and a lot of those groups were inspired
by communism and China's Chairman Mao. But one of the
more bizarre stories from this timeframe involved a socialite and
the first domestic terrorist organization in the country, the Symbionese
Liberation Army. Which is also known simply as the SLA,
(01:30):
and it's a history about kidnapping, potential brainwashing, and accountability
for crimes against the state. Patricia Campbell Hurst, who's better
known as Patty, was born in nineteen fifty four, and
if you recognize the name, she was the granddaughter of
a publishing dynasty that was created by William Randolph Hurst.
(01:51):
But on February fourth, nineteen seventy four, this is where
her story kind of really takes off. She's a sophomore
at UC Berkeley in California, and she she's kidnapped in
her apartment by the SLA. Now Hurst had two unfortunate
things going for her at that point, which is that
her apartment was located near SLA headquarters and the fact
that she had a famous name. And what they were
(02:13):
really trying to do at this time was leverage the
Hearst name in order to get two members of their
group out of prison, although they were in prison for
the fact that they killed a superintendent of Oakland Schools,
so the likelihood of that being a two for one
trade is pretty slim to none, and so the effort
was futile. So they shifted their gears to deciding to
(02:37):
kind of leverage the money of the Hurst family in
their mind to do good for those who were impoverished
in the state of California. After they were turned down
by the state, they demanded that the Hurst family distribute
seventy dollars worth of food to each person in need
in a specific part of northern California. However, when the
math worked out on that, it would actually have cost
(02:59):
the family hundreds of millions of dollars. So as a compromise,
the family offered to loan two million dollars in order
to help feed the poor for one year through what
they called people in Need. So they took the steps
and made good on this arrangement, but even after this,
the ESLA refused to release Hurst. According to Hurst, she
(03:20):
was held for a week in a closet, blindfolded with
her hands tied, and she claimed she was threatened with
death and raped and was only let out to eat
and when she wanted to join in political discussions. All
of this would result in Hurst later claiming that she
was brainwashed for her ultimate involvement in the organization. She
was given political documents when after her kidnapping and was
(03:43):
taught rhetoric that represented the far left movement that the
SLA embraced. Her account did changed somewhat though, but according
to an early recounting, she said that she was offered
the choice to be released or to join THEESLA, and
she made that decision, whether voluntary or involvoluntary, and she
decided to take up arms quite literally and become a
(04:04):
part of the Symbionese Liberation Army. After she decided to
become a part of the SLA, it became very public
and she recorded an audio again voluntari or involuntary, that
was released on April third, nineteen seventy four, where she
said that she had of her own volition joined the SLA,
and in a weird twist, decided that she would go
(04:26):
by the name of Tanya, greeting to.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
The people, this is Tanya for those people who still
believe that I'm brainwashed or dead, I am a soldier
in the People's Army.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
One of the most famous photos that you see of
Patty Hurst during her time with the SLA is during
a bank robbery, and this bank robbery occurred on April fifteenth,
nineteen seventy four, so just shortly after the audio was
released and she was caught on tape robbing the Sunset
District branch of the Hibernia Bank in San Francisco, and
iconically she's holding an M one carby. After this bank robbery,
(05:05):
there were a lot of opinions on her involvement, and
the attitude from the court and the state government was
that she was a quote unquote common criminal, but those
who loved her wanted to defend her felt like this
wasn't her and so her fiance actually went on after
this to defend her.
Speaker 4 (05:23):
If anyone had any sympathy to give to Patty at
any point along this the last two months, that they
should extend it to her now, because from the way
I know Patty, she is sick, she's exhausted, and she's
being humiliated at the hands of a group of people
that are determined not to let her get out.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Of this and live, to which Patty Hurst responded, as
for my ex fiance, I don't care if I ever
see him again.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
During the last few months, Steven has shown himself to
be a sexist, ageist pig. Not if this was a
sudden change from way he always runs.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Another occurrence happened when Patty Hurst was trying to rescue
a fellow SLA member, William Harris, who she will ultimately
accuse of a lot of things once his role goes
to trial. But she and Harris escaped during an encounter
at a sporting goods store, and this escape would ultimately
save her life because they hijacked several cars and fled.
(06:24):
But meanwhile, the police were kind of closing in on
other SLA members, and six of the members ended up
cornered in a house by the police, and there was
an infamous shootout on May sixteenth, nineteen seventy four, and
all six members died both by being shot and then
there was also a subsequent fire in the house, and
this really kind of took the legs out from under
(06:44):
the SLA, but it didn't completely eliminate it. After the shootout,
Hurst continued to aid the SLA until she was arrested
a year later on September eighteenth, nineteen seventy five. While
she was being booked, she interestingly listed her career as
urban gorilla, and when she got a chance to talk
to her attorney, she wanted to convey a message to
(07:07):
those outside, and her message was quote to tell everybody
that I'm smiling that I feel free and strong, and
I send my greetings in love to all my sisters
and brothers out there.
Speaker 4 (07:18):
End quote.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
And this is now where the story takes if you
can believe it. In even more bizarre turn, at the
time of her arrest, Hurst was just eighty seven pounds,
and the defense decided to do several psychological evaluations of
her because they felt that there was a start decline
in her mental health, and in fact, they found that
Herst's IQ before she was kidnapped was much higher than
(07:42):
it was after her kidnapping. She also suffered from memory
loss and traumatic nightmares as a result. The defense would
argue brainwashing as the reason behind Hearst's involvement with the organization,
and she's most infamously associated then with Stockholm syndrome, which
is where people begin to have a positive relationship with
their captors. The judge in this case, though, was not
(08:05):
really having it and refused to allow psychological experts and
the brainwashing claims to be heard in court, and the
prosecution argued that they had plenty of evidence post arrest
to show that she had maintained her loyalties to the SLA,
including recordings of meetings she had after she was arrested,
where she spoke very colorfully about the government as well
(08:26):
as the organization that she was a part of.
Speaker 5 (08:29):
I want to talk about the way I knew our
six murdered comrades, because the fascist pig media has of
course been painting a typically distorted picture of these beautiful
sisters and brothers.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
The only way we can free ourselves if this fascist
dictatorship is by fighting not with words but with gun.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
During this time, though, she did unofficially provide information on
SLA activities, which in February of nineteen seventy six may
have been responded with a bomb that exploded at Hurst Castle.
On March twentieth, nineteen seventy six, Hurst was convicted of
bank robbery and using a firearm during the commission of
a felony. She was initially given the maximum sentence of
(09:14):
thirty five years, but that was ultimately reduced to seven
after the passing of the initial judge. After twenty two months, though,
President Carter commuted her sentence, allowing her to be released
from prison, and then much much later, President Clinton in
two thousand and one would actually pardon her crimes. After prison.
Hurst married Bernard Lee Shaw, who was a member of
(09:35):
her security detail, and had several children with him, and
she would go on to publish a memoir and do
many television appearances, both documentaries about her time with the
SLA but then also as an actress, and in an
even bigger twist today, she's become passionate about showing dogs
at competitions at Westminster. It's unlikely that the truth will
(09:57):
ever really be known about whether she she was a
willing participant or whether she was brainwashed. Regardless though, whether
you believe Hurst or not, it's clear this is a
history that is truly stranger than fiction.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
And a terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling
by our own Greg Hengler, and a special thanks to
Ashley Lebinski, and she's a regular contributor here. And what
a story she tells for those of us old enough
to remember it. Those pictures of Patty Hirst, the granddaughter
of one of the richest men, one of the most
powerful men in American history, sitting there at a bank
(10:30):
with a machine gun, and some of the great battles
of our country or fought during the nineteen sixties cultural
battles and we bring them to you. Here the story
of Patty Hurst, the heiress of America's billionaire king, who
joined her terrorist abductors. Here on our American Stories.
And we continue with our American stories the show where
America is the Star and the American People. In nineteen
seventy four, Patricia Hurst, heirest of the William Randolph Hurst
newspaper Empire, was abducted by an American far left militant organization,
and she eventually joined their cause. Here to tell the
(00:30):
story is Ashley Lebinski. Ashley is the former co host
of Discovery Channel's Master of Arms and the former curator
in charge of the Cody Firearms Museum. Here's Ashley.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
The nineteen sixties and seventies in American history was, to
say the least, a tumultuous time wrought with violence and unrest,
as various activist groups sought a range of different changes
in American culture. So it was anything from civil rights
and human rights, but in some cases these organizations moved
(01:06):
into domestic terrorism and sought to completely topple and reconfigure
the government, and a lot of those groups were inspired
by communism and China's Chairman Mao. But one of the
more bizarre stories from this timeframe involved a socialite and
the first domestic terrorist organization in the country, the Symbionese
Liberation Army. Which is also known simply as the SLA,
(01:30):
and it's a history about kidnapping, potential brainwashing, and accountability
for crimes against the state. Patricia Campbell Hurst, who's better
known as Patty, was born in nineteen fifty four, and
if you recognize the name, she was the granddaughter of
a publishing dynasty that was created by William Randolph Hurst.
(01:51):
But on February fourth, nineteen seventy four, this is where
her story kind of really takes off. She's a sophomore
at UC Berkeley in California, and she she's kidnapped in
her apartment by the SLA. Now Hurst had two unfortunate
things going for her at that point, which is that
her apartment was located near SLA headquarters and the fact
that she had a famous name. And what they were
(02:13):
really trying to do at this time was leverage the
Hearst name in order to get two members of their
group out of prison, although they were in prison for
the fact that they killed a superintendent of Oakland Schools,
so the likelihood of that being a two for one
trade is pretty slim to none, and so the effort
was futile. So they shifted their gears to deciding to
(02:37):
kind of leverage the money of the Hurst family in
their mind to do good for those who were impoverished
in the state of California. After they were turned down
by the state, they demanded that the Hurst family distribute
seventy dollars worth of food to each person in need
in a specific part of northern California. However, when the
math worked out on that, it would actually have cost
(02:59):
the family hundreds of millions of dollars. So as a compromise,
the family offered to loan two million dollars in order
to help feed the poor for one year through what
they called people in Need. So they took the steps
and made good on this arrangement, but even after this,
the ESLA refused to release Hurst. According to Hurst, she
(03:20):
was held for a week in a closet, blindfolded with
her hands tied, and she claimed she was threatened with
death and raped and was only let out to eat
and when she wanted to join in political discussions. All
of this would result in Hurst later claiming that she
was brainwashed for her ultimate involvement in the organization. She
was given political documents when after her kidnapping and was
(03:43):
taught rhetoric that represented the far left movement that the
SLA embraced. Her account did changed somewhat though, but according
to an early recounting, she said that she was offered
the choice to be released or to join THEESLA, and
she made that decision, whether voluntary or involvoluntary, and she
decided to take up arms quite literally and become a
(04:04):
part of the Symbionese Liberation Army. After she decided to
become a part of the SLA, it became very public
and she recorded an audio again voluntari or involuntary, that
was released on April third, nineteen seventy four, where she
said that she had of her own volition joined the SLA,
and in a weird twist, decided that she would go
(04:26):
by the name of Tanya, greeting to.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
The people, this is Tanya for those people who still
believe that I'm brainwashed or dead, I am a soldier
in the People's Army.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
One of the most famous photos that you see of
Patty Hurst during her time with the SLA is during
a bank robbery, and this bank robbery occurred on April fifteenth,
nineteen seventy four, so just shortly after the audio was
released and she was caught on tape robbing the Sunset
District branch of the Hibernia Bank in San Francisco, and
iconically she's holding an M one carby. After this bank robbery,
(05:05):
there were a lot of opinions on her involvement, and
the attitude from the court and the state government was
that she was a quote unquote common criminal, but those
who loved her wanted to defend her felt like this
wasn't her and so her fiance actually went on after
this to defend her.
Speaker 4 (05:23):
If anyone had any sympathy to give to Patty at
any point along this the last two months, that they
should extend it to her now, because from the way
I know Patty, she is sick, she's exhausted, and she's
being humiliated at the hands of a group of people
that are determined not to let her get out.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Of this and live, to which Patty Hurst responded, as
for my ex fiance, I don't care if I ever
see him again.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
During the last few months, Steven has shown himself to
be a sexist, ageist pig. Not if this was a
sudden change from way he always runs.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Another occurrence happened when Patty Hurst was trying to rescue
a fellow SLA member, William Harris, who she will ultimately
accuse of a lot of things once his role goes
to trial. But she and Harris escaped during an encounter
at a sporting goods store, and this escape would ultimately
save her life because they hijacked several cars and fled.
(06:24):
But meanwhile, the police were kind of closing in on
other SLA members, and six of the members ended up
cornered in a house by the police, and there was
an infamous shootout on May sixteenth, nineteen seventy four, and
all six members died both by being shot and then
there was also a subsequent fire in the house, and
this really kind of took the legs out from under
(06:44):
the SLA, but it didn't completely eliminate it. After the shootout,
Hurst continued to aid the SLA until she was arrested
a year later on September eighteenth, nineteen seventy five. While
she was being booked, she interestingly listed her career as
urban gorilla, and when she got a chance to talk
to her attorney, she wanted to convey a message to
(07:07):
those outside, and her message was quote to tell everybody
that I'm smiling that I feel free and strong, and
I send my greetings in love to all my sisters
and brothers out there.
Speaker 4 (07:18):
End quote.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
And this is now where the story takes if you
can believe it. In even more bizarre turn, at the
time of her arrest, Hurst was just eighty seven pounds,
and the defense decided to do several psychological evaluations of
her because they felt that there was a start decline
in her mental health, and in fact, they found that
Herst's IQ before she was kidnapped was much higher than
(07:42):
it was after her kidnapping. She also suffered from memory
loss and traumatic nightmares as a result. The defense would
argue brainwashing as the reason behind Hearst's involvement with the organization,
and she's most infamously associated then with Stockholm syndrome, which
is where people begin to have a positive relationship with
their captors. The judge in this case, though, was not
(08:05):
really having it and refused to allow psychological experts and
the brainwashing claims to be heard in court, and the
prosecution argued that they had plenty of evidence post arrest
to show that she had maintained her loyalties to the SLA,
including recordings of meetings she had after she was arrested,
where she spoke very colorfully about the government as well
(08:26):
as the organization that she was a part of.
Speaker 5 (08:29):
I want to talk about the way I knew our
six murdered comrades, because the fascist pig media has of
course been painting a typically distorted picture of these beautiful
sisters and brothers.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
The only way we can free ourselves if this fascist
dictatorship is by fighting not with words but with gun.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
During this time, though, she did unofficially provide information on
SLA activities, which in February of nineteen seventy six may
have been responded with a bomb that exploded at Hurst Castle.
On March twentieth, nineteen seventy six, Hurst was convicted of
bank robbery and using a firearm during the commission of
a felony. She was initially given the maximum sentence of
(09:14):
thirty five years, but that was ultimately reduced to seven
after the passing of the initial judge. After twenty two months, though,
President Carter commuted her sentence, allowing her to be released
from prison, and then much much later, President Clinton in
two thousand and one would actually pardon her crimes. After prison.
Hurst married Bernard Lee Shaw, who was a member of
(09:35):
her security detail, and had several children with him, and
she would go on to publish a memoir and do
many television appearances, both documentaries about her time with the
SLA but then also as an actress, and in an
even bigger twist today, she's become passionate about showing dogs
at competitions at Westminster. It's unlikely that the truth will
(09:57):
ever really be known about whether she she was a
willing participant or whether she was brainwashed. Regardless though, whether
you believe Hurst or not, it's clear this is a
history that is truly stranger than fiction.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
And a terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling
by our own Greg Hengler, and a special thanks to
Ashley Lebinski, and she's a regular contributor here. And what
a story she tells for those of us old enough
to remember it. Those pictures of Patty Hirst, the granddaughter
of one of the richest men, one of the most
powerful men in American history, sitting there at a bank
(10:30):
with a machine gun, and some of the great battles
of our country or fought during the nineteen sixties cultural
battles and we bring them to you. Here the story
of Patty Hurst, the heiress of America's billionaire king, who
joined her terrorist abductors. Here on our American Stories.
Host
Lee Habeeb
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