Kidnapper of glamorous teen heiress Patty Hearst who became gun-wielding terrorist reveals new details 50 years on
THE kidnapper of glamorous teen heiress Patty Hearst who became a gun-wielding terrorist has revealed chilling new details 50 years on.
Two armed Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) members stormed into Patty’s residence when she was a 19-year-old art history student at UC Berkeley.
They beat her fiancee half to death and put her inside a Chevy Impala trunk while she was chained, gagged and blindfolded.
Hearst was carried by William “Bill” Harris on the evening of February 4, 1974.
Harris is a Vietnam veteran with an undergraduate degree in theatre and a masters in urban education from Indiana University.
After that, he ran away from the law for a year and a half, hiding out in different safehouses while the young lady remained in his grasp.
But Hearst’s allegiances changed a few months later, and in an odd turn of events, she joined the organisation that abducted her and blasted her wealthy parents as “pig Hearsts.”
Harris told the Los Angeles Times: “I thought, ‘Why would you want to go from being an heiress to being targeted for assassination by the government?’
“I spent hours trying to convince her that staying with us was a bad idea.”
Harris argues the SLA did not intend to keep Hearst forever.
The Tupamaros, Uruguayan Marxists known for staging dramatic abductions, motivated the group to kidnap her in the first place.
Harris earlier revealed that the SLA kidnapped the 19-year-old because she “was a symbolic target, she was an heiress.”
He said: “Her family was in control of a media empire that we viewed as an arm of propaganda for the US government.
“We had already determined that Hearst was a particularly easy target and that the propaganda that could be generated from it was perfect.”
They intended to exchange Hearst for two SLA militants who had been detained after shooting and killing an Oakland school administrator with shots tipped with cyanide.
It was a sort of prisoner swap, but the scheme apparently went nowhere.
“She was gonna go home and explain her captivity in the People’s Prisons we set up for her,” said Harris.
“That would have been good propaganda. That’s what I thought it should be.”
But the group’s objectives were never fulfilled, and Hearst started to feel a connection to them.
“She hated her mother. She didn’t want to go home,” Harris said, claiming that she was angry that her mum Catherine Hearst had been reappointed to the UC Board of Regents by then-Governor Ronald Reagan of California.
Prior to her sudden conversion into an ardent supporter ready to carry out violent bank robberies on behalf of the organisation, the SLA exploited Hearst as a negotiating tool to further their own socialist goals.
The SLA delivered menacing audio tape demands to the Hearst family, including using their fortune to feed those in need as soon as they claimed responsibility for snatching Hearst.
In a desperate attempt to save his daughter, her father, Randolph Apperson Hearst, who was the San Francisco Examiner’s publisher at the time, donated $2 million to the People in Need programme.
On February 22, People in Need began distributing high-quality food purchased with Hearst family ransom money.
Chaos erupted as organisers hastily threw food from trucks to the masses on San Francisco‘s streets.
Reagan, at a private luncheon, reportedly criticised the handouts, saying, “It’s just too bad we can’t have an epidemic of botulism.”
The giveaways lasted until March 27, when the money ran out.
Despite their efforts, on April 3, the SLA released a video of Hearst announcing she had joined their fight and adopted the alias “Tania.”
Who are the SLA?
THE Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) was a small, radical left-wing group active in the United States during the early 1970s.
The group is best known for its violent activities, including bank robberies, murders, and bombings, but most notably for the 1974 kidnapping of Patty Hearst, the granddaughter of publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst.
The SLA was founded in 1973 by Donald DeFreeze, a prison escapee, along with a group of radical, mostly white, middle-class college students.
They believed in revolutionary leftist ideals, combining elements of Marxism, black liberation, and anti-capitalism.
The name “Symbionese” was coined by the group, symbolizing their desire for “symbiosis,” or a cooperative society in which all oppressed groups would unite to overthrow capitalism and the government.
They sought to incite a violent revolution to address systemic inequalities, particularly racial and economic injustices.
The group’s most significant clash came in May 1974, when six SLA members, including DeFreeze, died in a massive shootout and fire with the Los Angeles police.
Though this marked the effective end of the core SLA, some members continued to operate underground for a few more years, and a few were eventually arrested.
The SLA’s combination of radical politics, violence, and the sensational nature of the Patty Hearst case brought the group substantial media attention, making them a symbol of 1970s counterculture extremism in the US.
But the group never gained widespread support and was seen more as a terrorist organisation than a legitimate revolutionary movement.
Soon after, the SLA robbed Hibernia Bank, with security cameras capturing Hearst wielding an M1 Carbine.
This image convinced many she had embraced leftist militancy, according to the FBI.
In a follow-up tape, Hearst bragged: “On April 15, my comrades and I expropriated $10,660.02 from the Sunset branch of Hibernia Bank.
“Casualties could have been avoided had the persons involved kept out of the way and cooperated with the people’s forces until after our departure.”
Hearst’s loyalty deepened when she fired at an Inglewood store after a clerk tried to apprehend Harris, allowing him and his wife, Emily, to escape.
Harris later said: “I figured she’d be smart and head on back to the safehouse.
“She picked up my machine gun, and she fired a burst of about 10 rounds, and some of the bullets hit about two feet from my face.”
This act led to the downfall of the SLA.
Police tracked the getaway van to a south LA safehouse, leading to a shootout.
Six SLA members died, including leader Donald DeFreeze.
Harris, watching from a hotel, later remarked: “We all made choices to do something we knew might get us killed.”
The SLA was crippled, but the fugitives still needed money.
Before Hearst became an enthusiastic supporter, the SLA used her as leverage to push their socialist agenda.
Harris, after serving eight years, remarried, raised a family, and worked as a private investigator before retiring in San Francisco.
Reflecting on his past, he said: “You can be an ex-terrorist and be rehabilitated.”
More prosecutions followed for the 1975 Carmichael robbery, driven by Jon Opsahl, whose mother Myrna was killed.
Surprisingly, Jon viewed Hearst as “probably as much a victim of the SLA as I am.”
He added: “She suffered big-time… enough to affect a young, naïve 19-year-old.”
In 2002, four SLA members, including Harris and Emily, pleaded guilty to Myrna Opsahl’s murder.
Emily admitted to firing the fatal shotgun blast and served eight years, while Harris, the getaway driver, served four.
Harris speculated the Hearst family avoided a trial to protect the narrative that Hearst was acting under duress, saying: “I knew they would find some way to make us an offer we couldn’t refuse.”