Infamous America - PATTY HEARST Ep. 3 | “The Hibernia Robbery”

Episode Date: February 28, 2024

After more than two months in captivity, Patty Hearst emerges from the shadows and helps the SLA rob a bank in northern California. The public is shocked to see images of the former college student who now looks like an armed revolutionary. A radio station receives a recording in which Patty proclaims her transformation is complete: she is an avowed soldier in the SLA. Join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons:  blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join Apple users join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes, bingeable seasons and bonus episodes. Click the Black Barrel+ banner on Apple to get started with a 3-day free trial. On YouTube, subscribe to INFAMOUS+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons. Hit “JOIN” on the Infamous America YouTube homepage.  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm4V_wVD7N1gEB045t7-V0w/featured For more details, please visit www.blackbarrelmedia.com. Our social media pages are: @blackbarrelmedia on Facebook and Instagram, and @bbarrelmedia on Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On March 6, 1974, California Governor Ronald Reagan was the guest speaker at a lunch in Washington, D.C. A person in attendance asked him about PIN. PIN was an acronym for people in need, a food giveaway program in Northern California that had launched a few weeks earlier. It was the result of the first major demand by the Symbionese Liberation Army, the people who kidnapped Patty Hurst. It's just too bad, Reagan said. that we can't have an epidemic of botulism. The governor's remark shocked a congressional aide who leaked it to a reporter. Reagan apologized for the quip.

But privately and publicly, many of his constituents cheered what they perceived as being tough on a class of people who took handouts. They also cheered Reagan being tough on crime, and one of the most visible examples was the governor's plans to prosecute Joe Romero and Russ Little to the fullest extent of of the law. Two months earlier, Ramiro and Little were arrested after a traffic stop spooked them into a shootout with a cop. Then, evidence found in their van linked them to the SLA, and it linked the SLA to the murder of Oakland School Superintendent Marcus Foster. The SLA thought the murder would start a counterculture revolution, and millions would join their ranks or at least

cheer them on. But it backfired, making the SLA a pariah among left. groups and the general population alike. The group had to go into hiding and change its tactics. So, the SLA, led by Donald DeFries, kidnapped Patty Hurst and demanded her family implement a free food program. The program was a means of earning goodwill and support in the Court of Public Opinion. At best, it earned them some platitudes from fringe newspapers. And as the program wound down in late March,

there was no sign that Hearst would be released. DeFries wanted a revolution, but all revolutions need financing. There were ten members of the SLA, but two of them, Joe Romero and Russ Little, were in San Quentin State Prison. DeFries was a fugitive from Soledad State Prison, a facility from which he escaped two years earlier. So he rarely left the series of squalid safe houses that were used by the group. That left seven people to earn enough money for food, rent, booze, and of course, guns and ammunition. Before the kidnapping, some of them still had legitimate jobs because they weren't yet linked to the SLA. After, they had to quit the jobs and go underground. By March of 1974, the 7 plus Patty Hurst were squished into a daily city

apartment with no source of income. So DeFries made two decisions. The first was to rob a bank. The second was to change Hearst's status. She had shown herself to be trustworthy. She'd even told the group she no longer wanted to go home. This might have been self-preservation or a genuine desire to stay with the group, or something in between. Patty Hurst's psychological state at the time would be studied for decades and is still the subject of debate today. But what mattered at the time was that the SLA believed her. DeFries and the others realized that if Hearst joined their ranks, it would give them attention

and legitimacy. He made an announcement to the group. When they robbed the bank, Patty Hurst would make her debut as Comrade Tanya of the Symbionese Liberation Army. From BlackBarrell media, this is Infamous America. I'm your host, Chris Wimmer, and this season we're telling the incredible true story of the kidnapping of Patty Hurst and her possible transformation into a revolutionary of the 1970s. This is episode 3,

The Hibernia Robbery. At some point during Patty's captivity, Donald DeFries's paranoia spurred him to move the group from Daly City to a slightly bigger but no less filthy apartment in San Francisco. Shortly after they moved,

Hearst told the group several times that she wanted to join them. She said her old life was gone. She said her mother was a drunk reactionary and her father had betrayed her. She called her fiancé a clown and a parasite. Later, the surviving members of the SLA and Patty Hurst confirmed the following conversation took place. DeFries sat her down and told her they wanted to be a part of the SLA. If she wanted to go home, she could. If she wanted to stay,

she could. So did she want to go home? Her answer was no. The SLA had discussed robbing a bank even before the kidnapping, if only to make a statement about redistributing wealth. But now at the beginning of April 1974, they really needed money. Equally, the guerrillas wanted to show that Patty Hurst was one of them. DeFries had Hurst pose with them for a Polaroid picture beneath a flag of their seven-headed cobra logo. She wore combat-style fatigues and held a sought-off M-1 carbine. On April 3rd, the radio played Patty's pre-recorded voice. The 20-year-old assured her family and other listeners that she was in no way drugged, hypnotized, tortured, or otherwise coerced.

She listed some faux-Marxist jargon. Then she took aim at her parents, calling her father a corporate liar. She said the PIN program was a sham and a delay tactic to benefit the FBI. I. Hearst had plenty more wild criticisms for both parents and made it clear to Stephen Weed, her fiancé, that they were done. She was no longer Patricia Campbell Hurst. She was Tanya, named after a comrade who fought alongside Che Guevara in Bolivia. She paid tribute to Russ Little and Joe Romero in prison, two men she had never met. She ended by quoting a phrase from the Cuban Revolution that meant, Fatherland or death, we shall try.

triumph. The SLA now considered Patty Hurst a full-fledged member. Her training began in earnest. Bill Harris taught her how to dip bullets in cyanide. DeFries taught her how to assemble a pipe bomb. This was incredibly dangerous under the best of circumstances, but even more so because of DeFries's drinking and the fact that they were in a tiny apartment. They conducted daily military drills and calisthenics inside the apartment. After days of studying maps, they decided the best bank to rob was a branch of Hibernia Bank that was located in San Francisco's Quiet Sunset District. The SLA spent their last dollars to rent four cars for the robbery and buy food for a group dinner the night before the big event.

DeFries was confident that they would have plenty of money soon, so he didn't mind spending the rest of their funds now. The planned date of the robbery was April 5,000. the deadline for Americans to pay their taxes. It was symbolic for the SLA, who considered their upcoming robbery to be a confiscation of wealth for the people, a statement against the greedy government. When Bill Harris had cased the bank a few days before, he took note of the security cameras. Security cameras were becoming more popular, but they were still very rudimentary. The technology wasn't sophisticated enough for the lens to follow a moving target. They pointed in one direction, and that was all they could see.

So it was important to know exactly how they were positioned, but for the opposite reason of most robbers. Most robbers wanted to avoid the cameras, or at least make sure their identities were concealed. Donald DeFries wanted to make sure that Patty Hurst was seen and identified. DeFrease made her wear a wig that looked like her hair at the time of the kidnapping. She had since cut it shorter to appear more militantly. like her fellow SLA members.

But DeFries wanted there to be no doubt that it was Hearst helping them rob the bank. And he made sure her gun was loaded before leaving their apartment on the morning of April 15th. The day before the robbery, DeFries created two teams. One would be the inside team

that was responsible for the actual robbery. That team was Patty Hurst, Donald DeFries, Nancy Perry, and Patricia Soltizik. The other SLA members would be the outside team. They would act as lookouts, occupy the police if needed, and make sure the getaway was successful. Bill Harris told DeFries that he, DeFries, should shoot and kill the bank security guard right away, so everyone inside would know they meant business. Harris reasoned that since the

guard carried a gun, the guard was really an enemy pig and fair game in war, and this was war. Luckily, cooler heads prevailed. Nancy Perry reminded Harris that the guard was simply an older, retired man who was just trying to earn a few bucks. And others worried that shooting him might freak out the people in the bank, and then there would be little they could do to control the situation. The group did, however, decide that anyone who resisted or disobeyed orders would be shot and killed without hesitation. On the morning of April 15, 1974, Camilla Hall, one of the newest members, drove the inside team from the apartment to the bank and parked around the corner. It was the first time Patty Hurst had seen the outside world in nearly two months. She later recalled that seeing green

grass and trees nearly made her cry, but she held it together. Adrenaline and fear overrode her happiness at being outside. Meanwhile, the outside team parked across the street from the bank. The inside team strode up to the bank with their weapons hidden underneath their coats. DeFries nodded at Hearst, as if to give her confidence. Camilla Hall walked to the bank's front door and held it open. Hurst walked inside and strolled the length of the floor to a rear desk, as if she was going to fill out a deposit slip. Then Patricia Soltizzi, rushed in, followed closely by Nancy Perry. But as Perry rushed into the bank, her ammunition clip dropped from her submachine gun and clattered onto the floor. The bullets scattered,

and after that clumsy, almost comical moment, all hell broke loose. She scrambled to grab her clip off the floor. Donald DeFries charged in, leapt over her, and waved his own submachine gun at everyone in the bank. As he did, Hurst swung her rifle out into the open and pulled her. pointed it at the assistant bank manager at the rear desk and also the two women at nearby desks. Donald DeFries started yelling that this was a holdup, and anyone who didn't lay down on the floor would be shot in the head. Nancy Perry had retrieved her ammo clip and now ran around waving her gun and screaming at people to get down on the floor. She kicked some customers who didn't move fast enough. Patricia Saltizek vaulted over the partition that separated the teller and the

cash drawers from the customers. She kicked them and screamed all the while that they were the SLA. Soltizek grabbed as much cash from the drawers as she could, while DeFries found the bank guard and removed his revolver. While Sotizek was grabbing the money, two new customers walked in the door. Nancy Perry panicked and fired a blast from her gun. Thankfully, her aim was bad. The two men suffered minor wounds and fell out onto the sidewalk. Paddy Hurst was momentarily dazed by the gunfire. Donald DeFries had told her he'd shoot her if he thought she was trying to escape. And now Hurst tried to cock her rifle to shoot it at the ceiling, but it jammed. She didn't know it at the time, but when she had tampered with the bullets to apply cyanide, she had changed their shape,

which locked the gun's function. Finally, she took a deep breath and did what she was trained to do. In the loudest possible voice, she yelled, this is Tanya, Patricia Hurst. Then her mind went blank for a second. Then she remembered her line, which mimicked DeFrease's threat. The first person who raised his head, she would blow it off. After taking all the cash they could, the four members of the inside team walked out of the bank, calmly stepping over the two bleeding men on the sidewalk. They climbed back in their car with Camilla Hall at the week. and sped away. All in all, the robbery took only a few minutes,

and the SLA netted about $10,500 from the heist. Donald DeFries handed the security guards gun to Hearst, and he told her she had earned it. From here on out, there was no question about her loyalty to the SLA. That night and for several days following, images of the robbers pulled from bank surveillance tapes, hit newspapers, the country. Patty Hurst could be clearly seen aiming her semi-automatic rifle at innocent customers.

Nearly overnight, Hurst became a counterculture folk hero. It seemed like she had traded in her aristocratic life for that of a soldier in the army of the SLA in their war against society. An influential leftist newspaper in Berkeley celebrated Hurst's apparent conversion with a banner headline that said, Patty Free. The paper offered posters made from bank images of her with her gun. A subgroup of the counterculture terror group The Weather Underground placed a bomb in the federal building in San Francisco and credited Hurst for the inspiration. But to the FBI and other law enforcement and justice officials, Patty Hurst had become an enemy of the state. Even liberal politicians in the Bay Area and the state of California at large had had enough. It had been 70 days between

Hearst kidnapping and the Hibernia Bank robbery, and law enforcement had made no real progress finding her kidnappers. Flush with the success of the heist, Donald DeFries was euphoric for several days. But then, the paranoia took over. DeFrease decided that the heat generated by the bank robbery was getting too intense for the SLA to stay at the time. their apartment on Golden Gate Avenue. The FBI and a new task force created by the mayor of San Francisco weren't closing in, but DeFries thought it was time to move anyway. They rented a two-bedroom apartment in another run-down part of San Francisco. The SLA only stayed at their new apartment for a few days. DeFries realized at some point that the neighbors were going to notice a bunch of white

people in this neighborhood that was predominantly black. One night, while drunk off his favorite beverage, plum wine, he announced they were moving to Los Angeles. DeFries separated the SLA into three groups to match the number of used vans they had recently purchased. He wanted the groups to be equally strong in case they had to take action independently, so he coupled more aggressive members with those he thought of as weaker lengths. He also wanted to break up some of the sexual and emotional tension. that had grown among the SLA. He separated Patty Hurst and Willie Wolf,

who were now romantically involved, and put Hearst with Bill Harris and his wife Emily. Then he divided the rest of the members. The caravan set off late at night on May 8, 1974, taking a long, winding route through California's Central Valley instead of the more straightforward interstate system. Nancy Perry found them a house in South Central Los Angeles.

central Los Angeles. The place was a dump, even by SLA standards. It was basically a three-room shack, with no electricity, no hot water, no stove, or really anything else. They took turns leaving the house for things like groceries and cigarettes. DeFries demanded they buy heavy clothing for future combat missions, though no one asked what those might be. Bill Harris then demanded that he and his wife be the ones to go out and get the clothing. In turn, Patty Hurst wanted to go with them, keeping intact the group that DeFries had created. DeFries said yes, and the trio set off on their errand. The decisions of Patty Hurst to request to go on the errand and DeFrease to say yes

would turn out to be the most consequential they ever made. After a few other stops, the trio of Bill Harris, Emily Harris, and Patty Hurst arrived at Mel's Sporting Goods. While Hearst waited in their van, Bill and Emily tried to be economical while they picked out camping supplies and clothing. Despite the windfall from the bank robbery, the SLA was very low on cash. They'd purchased three used vans, food, and the gas to get to L.A. and put down a deposit on the rental house in South Central. Bill noticed a shotgun shell bandelier for sale. He didn't have cash to spare, and he didn't want to call attention to him, by purchasing weaponry. But he liked it, and he decided he had to have it, so he tucked it into his pocket. As Bill and Emily left the store, the clerk and his boss called out. Bill

tried to run, but the store employees tackled him on the sidewalk. Emily tried to pull them off her husband, but another clerk and a schoolteacher who was passing by piled on. That was when someone yelled that Bill Harris had a gun. Hurst watched from the van as the melee unfolded. If there was ever a moment she was free to consider her choices, this was it. She had the key to the van. She could just drive away. She could go to a police station and explain that she had been coerced into participating in the robbery. She could drive home to her parents.

She could exit the van, walk away, and call for help. Or she could simply do nothing and just wait and see how the fight ended. Patty Hurst chose none of those options. She grabbed the heaviest, most dangerous, most dangerous. dangerous weapon she could find from the cash under the blanket on the seat next to her. It was Bill Harris's submachine gun, which she had never trained with or fired. She pointed it out the window of the van and pulled the trigger. She sent 30 rounds blazing toward the windows of the store,

and the first bullet whizzed right above Bill Harris. One bullet hit a store employee in the chest. Miraculously, it was blocked by a ballpoint pen in his pocket. After she emptied the ammunition clip, Hurst drew her own semi-auto rifle and fired more shots. The gunfire scattered the employees, and Bill and Emily Harris sprinted to the van. Bill jumped into the driver's seat and the three sped away. One of the store clerks just happened to be a college sophomore majoring in police science, and he wanted to prove his medal.

He had a gun, and he fired at the van as it drove away. Then he jumped into his own car and gave chase. In the van, the Harris has bickered about whose fault all of this was before Bill slammed on the brakes. He pulled a gun from their stash, stepped out of the van, and walked toward the store clerk's car. When Bill Harris took aim, the clerk realized he had made a stupid move, and he took off. But now the trio knew they had to get a new vehicle.

They carjacked four different vehicles to make sure they couldn't be four. followed, and they moved their stash of weapons to each new car. That night, they camped on Mulholland Drive in a stolen van with the teenager who owned it. The 17-year-old was Tom Matthews, and he was thrilled to be part of the adventure, but he also wanted to play in a baseball game the next morning, and the three revolutionaries obliged by giving his van back so he could make it to his game. They went there separate ways, though Tom Matthews' part in the story. of Patty Hurst wasn't done. Soon enough, he would play a prominent role in her trial. When the Harris's

and Hurst split from Matthews, they stole another car and then returned it to its terrified owner after purchasing one with cash they stole from him. They took great care to move their weapons from vehicle to vehicle, but as often happens, the little things get overlooked, and those can become keys to a police investigation. When they abandoned their original, van. They left a parking ticket inside, a ticket that had their LA address on it. Now, a day after they had left the address to run a simple errand, they heard on the radio that the police had raided their hideout in South Central, thanks to the parking ticket. And so, with everything going to hell and while they drove around trying to figure out what to do next, they made the most logical

decision in the moment. They went to Disneyland. Technically, they didn't go to the theme park. Sorry about that. It was too much fun to pass up. Emily Harris had worked a summer at Disneyland, and she remembered a line of motels across the street from it. The trio drove about a half hour south to Anaheim and checked into one. They turned on the TV,

and they were relieved to see on the news that the hideout was empty when the police showed up. They figured DeFries and everybody else were long gone and safely hold up somewhere far away. In reality, DeFries and the others had no idea where to hide. They had no contacts in Los Angeles. When they saw a report about the shooting at the sporting goods store on the news on the evening of the 16th, they packed up and drove off in the two remaining vans. They drove aimlessly around South Central for a while.

Finally, at 4 in the morning on the 17th, they stopped at a yellow stucco house for no other reason than the lights were on. The SLA took a huge chance knocking on the door, but maybe not as much as it would have been in another place and another time. The little ramshackle house was on a dilapidated street in a run-down part of Los Angeles. Most residents there were struggling, and if their lights were on at four in the morning,

it was probably a flop house. DeFries and his crew guessed well. Two 30-something women answered the door and welcomed the, them in. They and a few others had been up partying. DeFries came right out and told them who they were and asked if the group could stay. When the women hesitated, he gave them $100. The SLA unloaded their arsenal, which included more than a dozen semi-automatic rifles, shotguns and pistols, and 4,000 rounds of ammunition. After unloading the vans, one of the partiers told DeFrease he could hide the vans in an alley a block away, where people often stashed stolen cars. Throughout the day

on May 17th, the egocentric DeFries introduced himself to every straggler who came through the flop house. He gave out what little cash he had remaining for people to bring sandwiches and wine. By mid-afternoon, it was an open secret in the neighborhood that the SLA was staying at the yellow house. At about 4 p.m., a woman named Mary C. car walked in on the chaos. She was the mother of a woman in the house and a grandmother to a few of the children in the home. She found her daughter and some of the others passed out from alcohol and the SLA strangers making bombs in another bedroom. Appalled, she confronted DeFries. He tried to calm her down, telling her that black people needed to stick together. But Mary Carr had no

interest in revolution. She grabbed her grandchildren and her. and marched them a couple streets over where police were assembled. The LAPD had been searching the area since the raid on the empty rental house, and at that point they had narrowed the search to four homes in the neighborhood. Mary Carr told them exactly which one contained the kidnappers of Patty Hurst. It isn't clear how Donald DeFries knew the police were closing in, but Carr's demeanor must have triggered his already sky-high paranoia. In this instance, it turned out to be warranted.

LAPD's SWAT commander sent two teams to the Yellow House. One went to the back and one went to the front. As the team in the front carefully inched forward, the team leader heard DeFries telling everyone inside that they would never surrender. At 5.44 p.m., a police sergeant ordered the occupants of the home to come out with their hands up and they would not be harmed. A moment later, the front door opened.

It was just a little boy who was too scared to move. He finally took a few steps forward and officers hustled him out of the way. The LAPD had the house completely surrounded and continued to demand the occupants' surrender. Some of them did, but there were still an unknown number of civilians inside plus six members of the SLA. 10 minutes later, at 5.53 p.m., a SWAT officer fired two large tear gas projectiles through a side window of the house. The flash lit up the street. It was silent except for the hissing of the tear gas coming out of the canisters inside the home. Then, rifle fire erupted from the house as the SLA started the show.

It was the beginning of the biggest police battle on American soil, and it was all captured. on live television. Next time on Infamous America, the violent standoff leaves some SLA members dead and some on the run. The survivors flee California for a short time, but return to resume their goal of revolution. They add new members,

but the new gang isn't the same as the old. Tensions rise and lead toward the downward spiral. That's next week on Infamous America. Members of our Black Barrel Plus program don't have to wait week to week for new episodes. They receive the entire season to binge all at once with no commercials, and they also receive exclusive bonus episodes. Sign up now through the link in the show notes

or on our website, blackbarrelmedia.com. Memberships are just $5 per month. This series was researched and written by Julia Brickland, original music by Rob Valier. I'm your host and producer, Chris Wimmer. find us at our website blackbarrelmedia.com or on our social media channels. We're Black Barrel Media on Facebook and Instagram and D-Barrell Media on Twitter. And you can stream all our episodes on YouTube.

Just search for Infamous America Podcast. Thanks for listening.