20 Photos Of The Patty Hearst Kidnapping circa 1970
On February 4, 1974, 19-year-old Patty Hearst was kidnapped by a radical group who called themselves the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA). News of her kidnapping — and Patty's announcement later that she joined forces with her kidnappers — spread like wildfire and became one of the most notorious crimes of the 20th century.
Patty Hearst came from a wealthy and privileged family. She's the daughter of Randolph A. Hearst, chairman of media conglomerate Hearst Corp., and Catherine Hearst, a University of California regent.
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Hearst's grandfather was the famed publisher William Randolph Hearst.
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A car at the Berkeley Police Department on February 5, 1974. According to the police, Hearst was blindfolded and thrown into the trunk of the car.
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Hearst was kidnapped at gunpoint from the apartment she shared in Berkeley with her fiance, Steven Weed. A radical group called the Symbionese Liberation Army ()SLA took credit. Hearst and Weed pictured together.
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The SLA's seven-headed cobra symbol.
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Hearst's autobiography details how she was kept locked in a closet for 57 days, as well as how she was subjected to radical rantings, physical abuse and rape. Eventually she was asked to whether to join the SLA or be killed. The SLA released a tape announcing Hearst's alignment with the SLA, including taking the name Tania. A photograph of her holding a gun in front of the group's seven-headed cobra emblem was also released.
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The SLA was a left-wing revolutionary group that considered themselves a radical army and the leaders of the black revolution, even though only one of its members were black.
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On April 15, 1974, the SLA robbed a Hibernia Bank in San Francisco. Security cameras captured this image of Hearst in the robbery.
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Assault rifle in hand, Hearst took part in robbing the bank. It was her first crime as a professed SLA member.
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Four days after the robbery, the FBI released this wanted poster of SLA members suspected of taking part in the heist. Leader Donald DeFreeze is at top left While Hearst, far right, is features as a material witness.
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18 months after the kidnapping, on September 18, 1975, Hearst was arrested in San Francisco.
Sam Mateo Sheriff
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The exterior of the SLA house, at 1827 Golden Gate, where Hearst was held in the closet, pictured on February 16, 1976.
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At her trial for bank robbery, Hearst claimed she had been brainwashed by the group and feared for her life, but a jury found her guilty and sentenced here to seven years in prison.
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Hearst was released on bail on November 19, 1976, while her attorneys appealed her case. Here, she is reunited with her parents in their San Francisco home on November 20, 1976. The appeal was denied and Hearst returned to prison.
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After Hearst served nearly two years of her sentence, President Jimmy Carter commuted her sentence in early 1979. This photo was taken at the Federal Correctional Institute at Pleasanton, California, on January 31, 1979.
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Hearst with her clemency blanket
Francis Morgan
Hearst holds up the executive grant of clemency as she leaves prison on February 1, 1979. WThe man by her side is fiance and former bodyguard, Bernard Shaw.
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Hearst is walked down the aisle by her father at the Navy chapel at her wedding to Bernard Shaw in April 1979.
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Watch a trailer of Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst (2004) Documentary
