189
Patty Hearst poses with a gun in
front of the SLA’s flag in 1974. After 57
days of captivity, she joined the group,
but whether she remained a victim or
became a perpetrator remains unclear.See also: The Abduction of Pocahontas 176 ■ The Lindbergh Baby Kidnapping 178–85
■ The Kidnapping of John Paul Getty III 186–87KIDNAPPING AND EXTORTION
audiotape the heiress declared her
allegiance to the SLA, saying that
she had been given the option of
either being released, or joining the
SLA and fighting for the freedom
of all oppressed people. Hearst
claimed to have chosen to stay
and fight alongside her captors. In
mid-April 1974, under her nom de
guerre “Tania”, Hearst took part in
a bank robbery in San Francisco,
during which the surveillance
cameras captured a photo of her
holding a rifle.Bloody gunfight
A breakthrough in the case came
on 16 May 1974, when two SLA
members attempted to steal an
ammunition belt from a Los
Angeles store. They fled in a
getaway van, which was later found
at the group’s safe house. The next
day, police surrounded the house. A
massive shootout ensued and the
house erupted in flames. Six SLA
members were killed in the fire,
including DeFreeze, but Hearst was
not among the dead. She and two
other members had escaped and
were watching the drama in a
motel room via the first live TV
broadcast of an unplanned event.
In September 1975, 19 months
after her ordeal began, the FBI
captured Patricia Hearst. In March
1976, she was tried and convicted
of armed bank robbery and other
crimes, and given a seven-year
prison sentence. The jury had not
found plausible the defence’s theory
that Hearst had been brainwashedby the SLA, although today her
case is regarded by many as a clear
example of Stockholm syndrome.
Hearst served just 21 months of her
term. President Jimmy Carter
commuted it to time served, on the
grounds that had she not been
subjected to degrading experiences
as a victim of the SLA, she wouldnever have participated in the
group’s criminal acts. She was
released in February 1979. Several
other SLA members were captured
with Hearst, who pleaded guilty to
kidnapping the heiress. In 2001, in
one of his final acts of his tenure,
President Bill Clinton granted
Hearst a full pardon. ■Stockholm syndrome
In August 1973, four employees
of a bank in Stockholm, Sweden,
were held hostage in its vaults
for six days. Their captors were
escaped prisoner Jan-Erik Olsson
and his fellow convict Clark
Olofsson, whose release Olsson
had negotiated with the police.
Strangely, although the victims
feared for their lives during the
siege, they also formed a strong
sympathetic bond with their
captors, even appearing to take
their side against the police.
When the standoff ended, thehostages and convicts hugged,
kissed, and shook hands. The
victims’ seemingly irrational
attachment to their captors
puzzled everyone, and soon
after, a psychiatrist coined the
term “Stockholm Syndrome”
to explain this psychological
response. It is now believed that
in a hostage or kidnap scenario,
bonding to a captor is a survival
mechanism subconsciously
adopted under extreme stress.
The FBI’s Hostage Barricade
Database System states that
about 8 per cent of victims show
signs of the syndrome.188-189_Patty_Hearst.indd 189 02/12/2016 14:44