Patricia Hearst was a media heiress, who was brought up for a life of leisure and not having to want for anything. When she was sixteen she did her first controversial act, she started dating her 23 year old math tutor, who she later got engaged to. Her sheltered life did little to prepare her for what would soon happen.
On February 4, 1974, at the young age of 19 Patricia Hearst was kidnapped. Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) officers came to the door of Patricia Hearst and her then fiancé, Steven Weed. Steven was beat with a wine bottle and Patricia was blind folded, she then heard machine gun fire and screaming. Patricia was held in a closet, blindfolded and sexual molested. Her family received voice recordings, after a while they paid the ransom for Patricia to be set free, they received another voice recording saying, “I have been given the choice of 1) being released in a safe area or 2) join the forces of the Symbionese Liberation Army and fighting for my freedom and the freedom of all oppressed people. I have chosen to stay and fight,” (Williams, 2009).
Patty Hearst was held captive from February until April. Then after the voice message saying that she had joined the SLA and changed her name to Tania, she was believed to be a willing participant in the terrorist acts the group had committed. The first act she was a part of was robbing the Hibernia bank in San Francisco. That is when the mystery and controversy began. Was she a willing participant or was she being held at gun point? Was it Stockholm syndrome, which is described as feelings of trust or affection that occur in certain kidnapping situations? Was her gun really loaded and did she have a choice in what she was doing? Will America ever know the truth?
When ...
... middle of paper ...
...ia Hearst, it’s a win that gets over turned.
Works Cited
Corvo, D. (Executive Producer) & Libretto, J. (Producer) . Kidnapped Heiress: The Patty Hearst Story America NBC (n.d.). [Motion Picture].
FBI. (February 2009). The Patty Hearst Kidnapping/ Retrieved from www.fbi.gov/about-us/history/famous-cases/patty-hearst-kidnapping. (n.d.).
Hearst, Patricia. (2014). Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. Retrieved January 27, 2014, from Grolier Online http://gme.grolier.com/article?assetid=0134445-0. (n.d.).
(Kohn, Howard, and David Weir. (October 23, 1975). Rolling Stone's Inside Story http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/guerrilla/filmmore/ps_stone.html ).
Williams, P. (Director). (2009). Kidnapped Heiress: The Patty Hearst Story [Motion Picture]. Retrieved January 31, 2014, from http://www.nbcnews.com/id/32089504/ns/dateline_nbc-newsmakers/t/kidnapped-heiress-patty-hearst-story/
The first case that I looked at was one of the most famous cases of Stockholm syndrome. Patty Hearst was kidnapped on February 4, 1974 from the apartment she shared with her boyfriend Stephen Weed. The kidnappers were Donald DeFreeze, Bill Harris, Emily Harris and Willie Wolfe. This was a well-planned combat exercise
On April 19th, 1989, Trisha Meili was the victim of violent assault, rape, and sodomy. The vicious attack left her in a coma for 12 days and The New York Times described it as “one of the most widely publicized crimes of the 1980’s.” The documentary, The Central Park Five, reveals the truth about what happened the night of April 19th, and how the subordinate group of young black boys were wrongly convicted. Analyzing the conflict theory of crime in association to the case of the central park five, understanding the way they were treated based on setting, why it was so easy for the law enforcement to pin the crime on the young black boys, and how wrongly convicting someone has great consequences along with relating it
Thousands of children are kidnapped each year. However, one of the most famous kidnappings was the Lindbergh Kidnapping in 1932. The kidnapping was called, “The Crime of the Century”. After much hard work, detectives were able to find the kidnapper, Bruno Hauptmann. Evidence of ransom notes, possession of ransom money, and access to tools make Bruno Hauptmann guilty in the Lindbergh Kidnapping.
Patty Hearst was a normal 19 year old girl, living in an apartment with her fiance and attending university in Berkeley, California, until one day her life, and the lives of everyone around her changed forever. On the evening of February 4, 1974, some members of the left-wing radical group called the Symbionese Liberation Army barged into Hearst’s home armed with guns, and beat up her fiance before kidnapping Hearst and bringing her to their house where she was kept blindfolded in a closet for 59 days. While locked in the closet, Patty Hearst was verbally and sexually abused and she was denied the use of even a toilet or toothbrush if she didn’t tell them that she agreed with the group’s ideas and beliefs. It is believed that while being locked in the closet like this, Patty was being brainwashed by the SLA and that she may have even developed Stockholm Syndrome, a condition in which a person who was kidnapped starts to empathise with their captor, and even starts defending them. This is how the Symbionese Liberation Army convinced Patty Hearst to join their group. They released an audio tape to the public in which Patty Hearst said she was changing her name to Tania and that she had decided to join the SLA. She then helped the SLA rob a bank and steal an ammunition belt from a sports store. After this, she started travelling around the country with two members of the SLA named John and Emily Harris, to try avoid being captured by the police. During this time, the police found a house where some members of the SLA were hiding out. Attempts to make the SLA members surrender ended up in a massive gunfight, ultimately ending up in the deaths of 6 SLA members. The FBI eventually found and arrested Patty Hearst on September 18, 1975. T...
Cullinane, S., & London, M. (2013, November 22). UK police arrest couple suspected of holding three women captive for 30 years. CNN. Retrieved February 17, 2014, from http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/21/world/europe/uk-captivity-arrests/index.html
At first Patty Hearst refused the fact that she was being both physically and psychologically abused by the SLA group. She announced the fact that she became part of the SLA group in her free will. The journalist Paul Krassner had an interview with Patty Hearst before Patty Hearst was captured by the FBI. Patty Hearst explained that she joined the SLA because she felt that the SLA could secure her freedom. She insisted that she was not being brainwashed; everything was only to find out who she really is.”She understood that she betrayed the society’s expectation on her ,but she does not regret any of it because she thinks she should not go against what she really is. She felt like the whole life before she became a part of SLA had been wasted.
Mckinley, Jesse and Pogash, Carol. “Kidnapped at 11, Women Emerges After 18 Year.” nytimes. August 27,2009. Accessed on 9-21-17.
... middle of paper ... ... Works Cited Mankiewicz, J. 2009, July 25 -. Kidnapped Heiress: The Patty Hearst Story.
These murder cases stayed unsolved for decades, and their resolution may give some sense of closure to the long-suffering families of the victims. But these triumphs are largely symbolic. By congratulating ourselves too much for them, we risk neglecting the challenges of the present.
Lussier, G 2013, /Film Interview: Sarah Polley Explains Secrets of her Brilliant Documentary ‘Stories We Tell’, Slash Film, accessed 2 May 2014,
Levy, Barry. “Cracking The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case. (Cover Story).” American History 40.2 (2005): 32. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 28 Oct. 2013.
Lackey, Rich. "Film vs Digital – The Debate (and War) Is Over." Digital Cinema Demystified. WordPress, 29 Jan. 2010. Web. 06 Dec. 2013.
Maryclaire Dale’s article “Kindergarten kidnapper tells girl, ‘I’m not a monster’”, appears in the Bucks County Courier Times and it tells the people of Bucks County how a woman kidnapped a kindergartener from school. In Philadelphia during January of 2013, a girl was taken from her kindergarten classroom and “sexually tortured during a bizarre overnight ordeal.” The girl was an 8-year-old and she had been abducted by “former day care worker Christina Regusters”, who was 22 years old. Christina was sentenced to 40 years to life. The judge called the crime, “a horror show” because the 8-year-old girl was found “shivering under playground equipment” half naked. Christina took full responsibility for what happened and as she was charged with “kidnapping, sexual assault and other charges”
Library - From the World Book, Multimedia Encyclopedia, Inc., 525 W. Monroe, Chicago, IL 60661.
Jones, Trevor, and Moira Johnston. The Bodyguard’s Story: Diana, the Crash, and the Sole Survivor. New York: Warner Books, 2000.