Patty Hearst

Patricia Campbell Hearst (born February 20, 1954), better known as Patty Hearst, now known as Patricia Hearst Shaw, is an American newspaper heiress and occasional actress. She is the granddaughter of publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst. She became famous in 1974 when she was kidnapped, but soon afterwards joined her kidnappers by robbing a bank. She spent time in prison before receiving a presidential pardon.

Biography

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. She attended Crystal Springs School for Girls in Hillsborough and the Santa Catalina School for Girls in Monterey. Among her few close friends she counted Patricia Tobin, whose family founded the Hibernia National Bank, a branch of which Hearst would later aid in robbing.

Kidnapping and her time with the SLA

On February 4, 1974 the 19-year-old Hearst was kidnapped from the Berkeley, California apartment that she shared with her fiancee Steven Weed, by an urban guerrilla group called the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA). When the attempt to 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.

On April 15, 1974, she was photographed wielding an assault rifle while robbing the Sunset District branch of the Hibernia Bank in San Francisco. Later communications from her were issued under the pseudonym Tania (from the nickname of Haydée Tamara Bunke Bider) 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 being brainwashed. Others see it as a severe case of the "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. Legal analysts and Hearst herself later said the famed attorney did a poor job defending her. He gave very short and weak closing arguments and many speculated that 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.

Later life

After her release from prison, Hearst married her former bodyguard, Bernard Shaw. Currently, she lives quietly with her husband and two daughters, Gillian and Lydia Hearst-Shaw, in Connecticut.

Hearst's notoriety intersected with the criminal-obsessions and camp sensibilities of filmmaker John Waters, who has used Hearst in numerous small roles including Cry-Baby, Serial Mom (perhaps her most memorable cameo), Pecker, Cecil B. DeMented, and A Dirty Shame. She was also parodied in the 1976 film Network.

On October 19, 2005 Patty Hearst's voice was heard as ex-stripper "Haffa Dozen" on Sci-Fi Channel's animated TV series Tripping the Rift ^*

She appeared in an episode of The Adventures of Pete & Pete as Mrs. Krechmar, the nicest housewife in the world.

Trivia

Hearst's gun in the infamous SLA photo is a modified full auto M1 Carbine with sawed-off barrel, according to court testimony.
Singer Madonna based her image for the 2003 album American Life on Hearst's famous photo with the gun but called it a tribute to Che Guevara instead.
Comedian Gilda Radner portrayed Patty Hearst in two sketches on Saturday Night Live in 1975 and 1976.
Hearst's niece is model Amanda Hearst.
Warren Zevon's song Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner explains the fictional origins of Hearst's gun, although it identifies it as an M1 Thompson
Patti Smith's infamous debut single featured the monologue "Sixty Days", dedicated to Hearst which preluded her cover of rock classic Hey Joe. The monologue first describes Smith's view of Hearst's behavior then seems to adapt an imagined and somewhat romantic first-person tone where Smith declares "I am no pretty little rich girl, I am nobody's million dollar baby, I'm nobody's Patsy anymore and I feel so free".
The punk rock band The Misfits wrote their song 'she' about Hearst.

References

Boulton, David. The Making Of Tania Hearst. Bergenfield, N.J., and London: New American Library, 1975.
Hearst, Patty, with Alvin Moscow, Patty Hearst: Her Own Story. New York: Avon, 1982. ISBN 0380706512. (Original title: Every Secret Thing.)
McLellan, Vin, and Paul Avery. The Voices of Guns: The Definitive and Dramatic Story of the Twenty-two-month Career of the Symbionese Liberation Army. New York: Putnam, 1977.
Weed, Steven, with Scott Swanton. My Search for Patty Hearst. New York: Warner, 1976.

Documentary Films

Hearst's autobiography Every Secret Thing was made into the biopic Patty Hearst by Paul Schrader in 1988, with Natasha Richardson portraying Hearst.

Robert Stone directed Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst (2004), which focuses on the media frenzy surrounding the Symbionese Liberation Army, and includes new footage and interviews. (The film was released in the UK under the title Neverland: The Rise and Fall of the Symbionese Liberation Army.)

Fictional Accounts

Choi, Susan. American Woman. New York: Harper Collins, 2003.
Sorrentino, Christopher. Trance: A Novel. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005.

External links

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