In just a couple of months, Hearst, the granddaughter of media mogul William Randolph Hearst, seemed to change drastically in captivity. She released audio tapes announcing her allegiance with the Symbionese Liberation Army, helped rob a bank, and took on a new name: “Tania.”
By the time she was arrested in September 1975, Hearst seemed like a woman transformed. As she was booked into jail, the once-apolitical heiress told the police that her occupation was “urban guerrilla.”
During her trial, however, Hearst’s legal team insisted that she’d been a victim of brainwashing, intimidation, and abuse. And even though she was found guilty of armed bank robbery and sentenced to prison, Hearst’s term was commuted by President Jimmy Carter in 1979. A little over two decades later, President Bill Clinton offered her a pardon.
Patricia Campbell Hearst was born on February 20, 1954, in San Francisco, into a life of considerable wealth. She was the granddaughter of newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst, who was worth over $200 million when he died in 1951 (approximately $2.2 billion in today’s money).
She grew up, in her own words, in an “affluent and sheltered environment” and enjoyed a childhood that was “pretty perfect.”
That said, Hearst was also known for her rebellious nature and for bending
the rules. According to The New York Times, an expert witness for the prosecution during her trial testified that Hearst had experimented with LSD and marijuana, had sex at an early age, and even lied to teachers at her high school about her mother having cancer to get out of a test.
While she was still in high school, 16-year-old Patty Hearst met Steven Weed, who was then a 23-year-old teacher. Weed tutored Hearst in math and the two eventually began a relationship. Hearst and Weed became engaged in 1973 and moved into a Berkeley apartment together, despite the strong disapproval of Hearst’s parents.
The Rise And Fall Of “Comrade Tania”
On April 15, 1974, Patty Hearst — a.k.a. Tania — seemed to back up her words. Then, Hearst and other SLA members descended on a Hibernia Bank branch in San Francisco. They robbed the bank of $10,000, and Hearst was filmed at the crime scene holding a machine gun.
She purportedly introduced herself as “Tania” and shouted, “First person puts up his head, I’ll blow his motherf**king head off!”
To some, this out-of-character behavior was evidence that Hearst had been brainwashed by the SLA. To others, it offered clear proof that she’d willingly joined the group and fully embraced its radical mission.
“I said my name and — because I was supposed to say my name and make a speech, but it’s all pretty unclear,” Hearst later recalled. “And then, [SLA member] Donald DeFreeze shot someone, and then everything went blank… My next memory is sitting in the car leaving [the bank].”
In her autobiography, Hearst added how she felt after the incident: “I sensed that I had, in fact, crossed over some sharp line of demarcation… For me, suddenly it became plain: There was no turning back.”
Then, in May 1974, Hearst was waiting for two SLA members outside of a sporting goods store in Los Angeles when they were detained for shoplifting. To help them escape, Hearst fired multiple bullets outside. Many would later point to this incident as further evidence that she believed in the SLA’s cause, as this could’ve been an opportunity for her to escape them.
However, her actions did inadvertently help the authorities, who’d been having difficulty tracking the SLA. A parking ticket accidentally left behind by Hearst and the SLA members led police to one of the SLA’s hideouts in Los Angeles. An ensuing shootout between the SLA and the LAPD led to the deaths of six SLA members. But Patty Hearst wasn’t there.
In a sensational trial, Patty Hearst’s legal team claimed that she’d been brainwashed by her captors. They also said she feared that she’d be killed if she didn’t participate in the SLA’s crimes. But a jury didn’t buy it.
The heiress was ultimately found guilty of armed bank robbery and the use of a firearm in the commission of a felony in 1976. She was sentenced to seven years in prison for her actions while in the SLA.
Her sentence, however, was commuted by President Jimmy Carter in 1979, and Hearst was granted a full pardon by President Bill Clinton in 2001.
To this day, Patty Hearst remains a beguiling figure. Was she an innocent victim, kidnapped and forced to do the SLA’s bidding, as she and her lawyers claimed? Or was she a willing participant, unhappy in her relationship and adrift in life, who found meaning in their radical cause?
Only Patty Hearst — or Tania — knows the answer to that.
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