The Heiress of "America's Billionaire King" Who Joined Her Terrorist-Abductors: The Story of Patty Hearst

On this episode of Our American Stories, in 1974, Patricia Hearst—heiress of the William Randolph Hearst newspaper empire—was abducted by an American far-left militant organization… but she eventually joined their cause.

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Episode Transcript

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, heiress 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.

Speaker 3 (00:49):
To say the least, a tumultuous.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
Time wrought with violence and unrest as various activist groups
saw 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 into domestic terrorism and
sought to completely topple and reconfigure the government, and a

(01:12):
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, and it's a history
about kidnapping, potential brainwashing, and accountability for crimes against the state.

(01:39):
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. 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,

(01:59):
and 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 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

(02:21):
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 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

(02:45):
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 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

(03:08):
year through what they called people in Need. So they
took the steps and made good on this arrangement, but
even after this, the SLA.

Speaker 3 (03:15):
Refused to release Hurst.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
According to Hurst, she 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

(03:41):
her kidnapping and was 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 the SLA, and she made that decision, whether
voluntary or involvoluntary, and she decided to take up arms

(04:03):
quite literally and become a part.

Speaker 3 (04:05):
Of the Symbionese Liberation Army.

Speaker 2 (04:07):
After she decided to become a part of the SLA,
it became very public and she recorded an audio again
voluntary 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 by the name of Tanya.

Speaker 4 (04:29):
Greetings to 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 3 (04:41):
One of the most famous photos that you see of.

Speaker 2 (04:43):
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 5 (05:23):
If anyone had any sympathy to could 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 alive, to which Patty Hurst responded, as for
my ex fiance, I don't care if I ever see
him again.

Speaker 4 (05:51):
During the last few months, Stephen has shown himself to
be a sexist, ageist pig, not if this was a
sudden change the way he always ruins.

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 3 (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
Hearst'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 6 (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 4 (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.

Speaker 3 (09:10):
During the commission of a felony.

Speaker 2 (09:12):
She was initially given the maximum sentence of 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.

Speaker 3 (09:29):
Actually pardon her crimes.

Speaker 2 (09:32):
After prison, Hurst married Bernard Lee Shaw, who was a
member of 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

(09:57):
will ever really be known about whether she she was
a willing participant or whether she was brainwashed.

Speaker 3 (10:03):
Regardless though, whether you.

Speaker 2 (10:04):
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.