![]() The building went up in flames six members of the SLA died in the blaze, including DeFreeze.īut where was Hearst? She and several others had escaped and began traveling around the country to avoid capture. The next day, the house was surrounded by L.A. The getaway van was discovered, which led authorities to an SLA safe house. On May 16, two SLA members tried to steal an ammunition belt from a local store and were nearly caught. But with the SLA frightening potential informants into silence, using good operational security, and relying on an organized network of safe houses, it was tough going.Ī break came in Los Angeles. Working with many partners, we ran down thousands of leads. Meanwhile, the FBI had launched one of the most massive, agent-intensive searches in its history to find Hearst and stop the SLA. A dozen days later, she was spotted on bank surveillance cameras wielding an assault weapon during an SLA bank robbery, barking orders to bystanders and providing cover to her confederates. On April 3, the SLA released a tape with Hearst saying that she’d joined their fight to free the oppressed and had even taken a new name. At the same time, they apparently began abusing and brainwashing their captive, hoping to turn this young heiress from the highest reaches of society into a poster child for their coming revolution. Soon after her disappearance, the SLA began releasing audiotapes demanding millions of dollars in food donations in exchange for her release. The SLA’s plan worked and worked well: the kidnapping stunned the country and made front-page national news.īut the SLA had more plans for Patty Hearst. Hearst was from a wealthy, powerful family her grandfather was the newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst. ![]() Why’d they snatch Hearst? To get the country’s attention, primarily. They’d already shot two Oakland school officials with cyanide-tipped bullets, killing one and seriously wounding the other. They were, in short, a band of domestic terrorists.
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