Profile of Patricia Hearst on Famous Like Me

Patricia Campbell Hearst, better known as Patty Hearst (born February 20, 1954), now known as Patricia Hearst Shaw, is an American newspaper heiress and socialite. She is the granddaughter of William Randolph Hearst and was the victim of a 1974 kidnapping, but soon afterwards became a criminal herself: she robbed a bank and spent time in prison (although she later received a presidential pardon).

Hearst was born in San Francisco, California, the third of five daughters of Randolph Apperson Hearst. She grew up primarily in the wealthy San Francisco suburb of Hillsborough, California and attended Crystal Springs Uplands School.

She was kidnapped on February 4, 1974 (shortly before her 20th birthday) from her Berkeley, California apartment, that she shared with her fiance Steven Weed, by an urban guerilla terrorist group called the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA). When the attempt to prisoner-swap Hearst for jailed SLA members failed, the SLA made ransom demands which resulted in the donation by the Hearst family of $6 million worth of food to the poor of the Bay Area. After the distribution of food, Hearst was still not released.

Shortly thereafter on April 15, 1974, she was photographed wielding an assault rifle while robbing the Sunset branch of the Hibernia Bank. Later communications from her were issued under the pseudonym Tania and revealed that she was committed to the goals of the SLA. A warrant was issued for her arrest and in September 1975, she was arrested in an apartment with other SLA members.

In her trial, which started on January 15, 1976, Hearst claimed she had been locked blindfolded in a closet and physically and sexually abused, which caused her to join the SLA. Her defense was largely based around the claim that her actions could be attributed to a severe case of "Stockholm syndrome," in which captives become sympathetic with their captors. Hearst further argued she was coerced or intimidated into her part in the bank robbery.

Attorney F. Lee Bailey defended Patty Hearst. Hearst later said the famed attorney did a very poor job defending her. Legal analysts have said Bailey presented a very poor case. He gave a very short and weak closing argument to the jury and many speculated he was intoxicated. Hearst was convicted of bank robbery on March 20. Her sentence was eventually commuted by President Jimmy Carter, and Hearst was released from prison on February 1, 1979. She was granted a full pardon by President Bill Clinton on January 20, 2001, the final day of his presidency.

After her release from prison, Hearst married her former bodyguard, Bernard Shaw. She now lives quietly with her husband and two daughters in Connecticut.

Her attorney, Albert Johnson of Boston, is currently handling the appeal of Pamela Smart before a federal court.

Hearst tells her version of events beginning with her kidnapping by the SLA in her memoir Every Secret Thing. Public opinion remains divided as to whether Hearst was coerced or brainwashed while being held by the SLA.

Hearst's notoriety has led to her being cast in several films, including John Waters' Cry-Baby, Serial Mom, Pecker, Cecil B. DeMented, and A Dirty Shame. She was also parodied in the 1976 film Network.

Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst is a documentary made in 2004; it was first called Neverland, but the name had to be changed because of possible confusion with the feature film Finding Neverland.

Quotes

"I was kidnapped by terrorists. It's not like I'm numb to this and think it can't happen. But get real! There's so much weeping and wailing and memorializing, my feeling is it'd be a lot healthier if people didn't externalize so much and kind of bucked up a little bit." - New York Daily News, October 10, 2005

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