A podcast about the immensely rich Patty Hearst who is kidnapped by the guerrilla group SLA as a 19-year-old (SLA= United Federated Forces of the Symbionese Liberation Army). After her abduction, Hearst joins the SLA and also takes part in bank robberies. #Podcast#Podcasts#PattyHearst#StereoTotal @podcast @podcasts
Today in Labor History February 4, 1974: The Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) kidnapped Patty Hearst, granddaughter of American publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst, in Berkeley, California. One of the SLA’s demands for releasing Hearst was for her family to pay for millions of dollars’ worth of food to be given out free the poor and unhoused of the San Francisco Bay Area. The Hearst complied, with various community organizations distributing 100,000 bags of groceries at 16 sites in 4 counties, before violence brought the program to a halt. The violence occurred because the crowds were bigger than expected and workers started throwing boxes of food off of moving trucks. As a captive, Patty Hearst was held in a closet, blindfolded, with her hands tied, raped and threatened repeatedly with death. She was later offered the choice of freedom, or joining the SLA. She chose the latter. Consequently, she was later sentenced to 35 years in prison for her complicity in SLA robberies. After several years in prison, her sentence was commuted by President Carter. President Clinton pardoned her. Congressional Representative Leo Ryan was murdered by the Jim Jones cult in Guyana several weeks after collecting signatures for her release. Actor John Wayne, of all people, expressed frustration that everyone accepted the idea that Jones had brainwashed hundreds of his followers into mass suicide, but wouldn’t accept that the SLA could have brainwashed a teenage girl. After her release, Hearst went on to become an actress, appearing in several John Waters films, as well as many others.