I just watched “Witness: The Kidnapping of Patty Hearst”, a documentary about the famous newspaper heiress who was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army, a far left-wing radical terrorist group of the mid-1970s.
I find the whole story to be fascinating simply because I don’t know what to make of this woman. Here you have this sheltered, though quietly rebellious rich girl who is violently kidnapped and kept in a closet for almost two months by a highly charismatic leader and a motley crew of disaffected youth. It certainly sounds like the fertile grounds for brainwashing and mindfucking. But she also seemed quite eager and unapologetic. She wrote an autobiography while hiding underground that was quite vehement about how willing a participant she was. She would later retract everything she’d said in it, but she never said it was written under duress.
When she and the two SLA members she was with jacked a get-away car after robbing and shooting up a store, she told the carjacking victim not to believe the hype and don’t get it twisted. She told him she was in the game willingly.
She was convicted for the bank robbery, but was later given a presidential pardon and went on to live a plain vanilla life. I don’t know if I should be glad that the “victim” was saved and allowed to go back to her normal life or if I should be impressed that this woman was able to spend a few adventurous years as a revolutionary hero, without getting herself killed (though most of her comrades were killed in the effort to “rescue” her). Or perhaps I should be angry that she DID do all the things she did, but she wasn’t held accountable for any of it. I don’t know what a person is supposed to think.
Why do ya’ll think? Was a Patty Hearst just a sad victim of brainwashing? Or had she willingly converted into an armed guerilla fighter?
Brainwashed. You also have to remember this was the early 70’s and a much more conservative society. I was in junior high when this happend so not clued in like an adult. I do remember the bank robbery and newspapers showing the photo, with experts weighing in on whether the gun was actually loaded, was her hand constrained in her pocket, etc. Of course, not sure how much as Hearst newspaper spin or not.
As I remember it, Patti was considered a hippie and guilty for not escaping captivity.
People were less likely to be sympathetic to her at the time, because it was before “Stockholm syndrome” had entered the public consciousness. (Occurring as it did within a few months of the robbery/hostage scenario from which the term is derived.)
And off topic, I enjoyed her cameo in “Serial Mom”. Serial Mom Movie - YouTube (she’s the juror wearing the white shoes after labor day which irks ‘serial mom’)
I think this is one of the few times being rich and from a connected family counted against someone. I remember people talking about how she shouldn’t be able to “buy her way out of it”.
I clearly remember the horror of the first tape recording that the kidnappers sent to the media. It was absolutely chilling to hear from this teenager who was being raped in a closet and told all manner of lies. She was brainwashed just like a teenaged relative of mine who was brainwashed into an ultra fundamentalist Christian cult. Both of them became true believers in their ridiculous causes.
I could not believe the defense that F. Lee Bailey put up. He had her lie on the witness stand saying she was always in fear for her life and did whatever she was told to do. If she had just admitted the brainwashing, I’m sure the jury would have been on her side. Maybe the F. Lee Bailey style of defense worked on the East Coast, but it did not play well in California. I was apalled that this young woman got locked up after all she had been through.
In the documentary, they didn’t mention rapes. Or at least not to the extent that you guys are mentioning.
How would a person who had not been braindwashed have acted? I think that’s why so many people are/were convinced that she had turned on her own volition. They can’t imagine how a non-brainwashed Patty Hearst would have differed from a brainwashed Patty Hearst.
Brainwashed. I also remember following her story at the time; she’s just a few years older than me.
She may have been a weak-minded and impressionable young woman to begin with but she was tortured physically, sexually and mentally - few of us could guarantee how well we’d hold up.
I followed the story pretty closely at the time. I definitely felt she was horribly victimized and tortured, and should not have been held responsible for her actions.
And nothing I’ve read since then has made me change my opinion on that.
I think that she was both; brainwashed, and a willing participant. It’s not a clear cut deal, and how to deal with it isn’t that clear. Aren’t we all brainwashed, to some extent? Shall we be responsible for what we do when we are able to act without direct guidance?
I think justice was served all around: She got jail time, and she got a pardon.