LOS ANGELES (NEWSnet/AP) — Newspaper heiress Patricia “Patty” Hearst was kidnapped at gunpoint 50 years ago by Symbionese Liberation Army.
The abduction led to Hearst joining forces with her captors for a 1974 bank robbery that led to a prison sentence.
Hearst, granddaughter of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, will turn 70 on Feb. 20. She is known today as Patricia Hearst Shaw. She married a police officer, the late Bernard Shaw, who guarded her when she was free on bail.
She has been in the news in recent years for her dogs, mostly French bulldogs, that have won prizes at Westminster Kennel Club’s show.
Hearst’s allegiance to SLA raised questions about Stockholm syndrome, a term used to describe the bond that victims of kidnappings or hostage situations sometimes develop with captors.
Stockholm syndrome got its name from a failed bank robbery attempt in August 1973 in Sweden’s capital. Psychologists describe it as a coping mechanism used by some hostages to endure being held captive.
Hearst, who went by the name “Tania” in the group, denounced her family and posed for a photograph carrying a weapon in front of SLA’s flag. The self-styled radicals viewed aspects of U.S. society as racist and oppressive, and they were accused of killing a California school superintendent.
Hearst was kidnapped to bring attention to Symbionese Liberation Army, according to Federal Bureau of Investigation. The group demanded food and money donations for the poor, in exchange for Hearst’s release. She remained a captive even after her family met the ransom through a $2 million food-distribution program.
Hearst took part in the group’s robbery of a San Francisco bank on April 15, 1974. Surveillance cameras captured her wielding a rifle. FBI found her Sept. 18, 1975, and she was arrested, 19 months after abduction.
Hearst was sentenced to seven years in prison. In 1979, President Jimmy Carter commuted her sentence. She later was pardoned by President Bill Clinton.
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