Morbid - The Kidnapping Of Patty Hearst Part 1

Episode Date: January 11, 2026

When nineteen-year-old Patty Hearst was kidnapped from her apartment in February 1974, everyone assumed the heiress had been abducted for the purposes of ransom. However, in the days that followed, Hearst’s kidnappers, the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), made themselves known when they sent a letter demanding the Hearst family provide food to every needy family in California. For nearly two months, the SLA held Patty Hearts captive, or so it seemed to the public. But when the group’s demands were met and Hearst was given the opportunity to leave, the teenager shocked the world when, rather than flee her captors, she joined their ranks in support of their cause. Hearst’s decision set in motion a chain of events that resulted in several acts of explosive violence and forever changed the way we think about victims of kidnapping. Yet in all the analysis of the case over the last fifty years, one question remains unanswered, and possibly unanswerable: Was Patty Hearst a willing accomplice to the SLA or was she a brainwashed victim trying to survive a traumatic ordeal?Thank you to the Amazing Dave White (of BRING ME THE AXE PODCAST) for research and writing assistance!ReferencesAssociated Press. 1974. "SLA commandos rob bank, shoot 2." Los Angeles Times, April 15: 1.Caldwell, Earl. 1974. "Miss Hearst says she joins terrorists." New York Times, April 4: 1.Conant, Jane Eshleman. 1974. "Guns point at 'Tania' in bank." San Francisco Examiner, April 16: 1.Cook, Stephen. 1976. "Doctor: I wasn't harsh with Patty." San Francisco Examiner, January 15 : 1.—. 1975. "Patty falling apart and must leave jail, her lawyer says." San Francisco Examiner, September 29: 1.Curtain, Andrew. 1974. "New offer to Patty's captors." San Francisco Examiner, February 23: 1.Fosburgh, Lacey. 1974. "Miss Hearst: an unlikely revolutionary." New York Times, April 7: 1.Hager, Philip, and Daryl Lembke. 1974. "Kidnappers may offer 'deal' for Hearst girl." Los Angeles Times, February 9: 1.Hager, Philip, and Dick Main. 1974. "$2 million for food pledged by Hearst." San Francisco Examiner, February 19: 1.Hearst, Patricia. 1974. "Transcript of Patricia Hearst's diatribe on 'SLA expropriation'." San Francisco Examiner, April 25: 4.Kendall, John. 1974. "'Never afraid of death,' defiant Miss Hearst declares on tape." Los Angeles Times, June 8: 1.Linder, Douglas. n.d. The Patty Hearst Tapes. Accessed June 22, 2025. https://www.famous-trials.com/pattyhearst/2209-tapes.Martinez, Al, and Robert Kistler. 1974. "Suspected SLA hideout stormed, 5 die." Los Angeles Times, May 18: 1.Nordheimer, Jon. 1974. "Miss Hearst is now Tania, but how and why?" New York Times, May 26: 160.San Francisco Examiner. 1974. "Father agree--it's Patty's voice." San Francisco Examiner, February 12: 18.—. 1974. "Her voice: 'Mom, Dad, I'm ok'." San Francisco Examiner, February 12: 1.—. 1974. "'It's terrible, vicious,' father says." San Francisco Examiner, April 16: 1.—. 1975. "Patty asked to join the SLA, Rolling Stone article says." San Francisco Examiner, September 29: 2.—. 1974. "'People in Need' opens with chaos, violence." San Francisco Examiner, February 23: 1.—. 1974. "The public's reaction to the kidnapping." San Francisco Examiner, February 17: 20.—. 1974. "5 victims in shootout at suspected SLA hideout." San Francisco Exminer, May 18: 1.2020. The Crimes That Changed Us. Performed by Sebastian Smith.Symbionese Liberation Army. n.d. "SLA Communique." UMKC Famous Trials. Accessed June 19, 2025. https://www.famous-trials.com/pattyhearst/2328-sla-communique.Toobin, Jeffrey. 2017. American Heiress: The Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, Crimes and Trial of Patty Hearst. New York, NY : Anchor Books.Turner, Wallace. 1974. "Graddaughter of Hearst abducted by 3." New York Times, February 6: 1.—. 1974. "Note says terrorists hold Miss Hearst." New York Times, February 8: 1.United Press International. 1976. "Jury acquits Steve Soliah." Daily Breeze (Torrence, CA), April 28: 6.Waugh, Dexter. 1974. "Key groups offer help to free Patty." San Francisco Examiner, February 14: 1.Waugh, Dexter, and Don West. 1979. "'Nothing wrong with being Patty Hearst'." San Francisco Examiner, February 1: 1.Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of Morbid ad-free. Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus. Cowritten by Alaina Urquhart, Ash Kelley & Dave White (Since 10/2022)Produced & Edited by Mikie Sirois (Since 2023)Research by Dave White (Since 10/2022), Alaina Urquhart & Ash KelleyListener Correspondence & Collaboration by Debra LallyListener Tale Video Edited by Aidan McElman (Since 6/2025) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, weirdos, I am Ash. And I am Elena. And this am morbid. This am morbid. This is morbid. We are going to be a little loosey-cozy, crazy cuckoo. Because I think we're just running off of very little sleep. Yeah.

I think the listener tale comes out after this episode. God only knows. Jod only knows. But if you haven't seen the listener tail yet, we're just like dealing with some family stuff right now. Yeah. Ma's in the hospital. Yeah.

She's doing all right, but you know. But there's a lot going on. We're running back and forth and here and everywhere. Yeah. Lack of sleep. Elena's fire alarm went off. Oh, yeah. Why did I just say fire?

Fire. It is fire. I don't, Ash literally said what ancient deity did you piss off? Yeah. My week started off with the dental emergency. Yep. Which went into, luckily rolled into, because I was like, I'm not canceling the unlikely story event.

Yeah. Like the book event? Yeah, the book event. So I was like, so that rolled into a really great night. Oh, so fun. That really took my mind off of the fact that my whole fucking mouth was a fucking flame. And, but that sucked, like the getting the actual dental stuff. And then right after that, we had Ma ended up in the hospital.

Yep. And it was like very scary at first. Still is. It's still not great. Yeah. But, you know, we're getting through. And so we've been going through that. And then last night, so I haven't had sleep because, like, with the dental stuff, I wasn't sleeping.

No, because your mouth is in pain. Yeah, and then with the Ma stuff, I wasn't sleeping. God, the two of us were up until, like, 4 a.m. Literally. Like, went home, went home, got two hours of sleep, went back to get shit done. Yeah, showered at, like, 4 a.m. Literally. And because I was like, I got to get hospital off of me.

You're in place of 4 a.m. lately. I really am. I really am. Yeah, that's when the fire alarm went off. Because we've been. Because we've been doing that because, like, you know, we've just been making sure that Papa's okay and we want to make sure he's being fed and hydrated. Not just McDonald's.

That he's sleeping because he will want to just eat McDonald's. Which, like, fat. Yeah, me too. But we just want to make sure he's okay, too. And then so I finally get, I'm like full night's sleep last night because, like, we everything settled a little bit and, like, we were able to come home at a decent time. and I got woken up. Out of REM sleep according to the ORRRRRing.

I was a goddamn REM sleep. And my fire alarm in my house went off. And it's literally every fire alarm going, fire, fire. I'm running down the hallway, grabbing the kids. The kids are all like, what is going on? And we're like flipping out, John's running around. Luckily, my house was not on fire. No, thank goodness.

Just happened to be like a glitch in one of the alarms. but we had to fire department like, hello. So at 4 a.m. we're just like, hey guys.

Have a cup. And they were so sweet. Luckily, like we've had great luck with everybody we've had to that we've dealt with this week. I know. Funny thing is,

it was like the same team. Firefighters that were at my mom's. Oh, oh, hi. Hi, I'm having a really great week.

They're like, damn, bitch. You've been there like, what ancient day did you push out? You're like, Ash, said that too. God damn it. So it's

been like a literal shit show over here. Yeah, I really have. But you know what? We're getting through it. We're getting through it. Everybody is in a place of at least being like baseline okay right now. And we're going to get there. We're going to see the end of the tunnel. And you know,

we are recording right now the last episode that's going to be on Wondery Plus. Because we're making our way to serious. So after this episode and after the listener tales episode, because I do think that comes out after. I think it does. Guys, we don't know. You know that.

You know that. But you know what? We will. This is the very last episode we're recording. That we're going to say that. Super duper crazy ahead of time and we're not going to know when it comes out. Yeah. Because. Yeah.

So this is the last time you're going to hear and say, I don't fucking know when this comes out. Oh, my God. Wait. I literally, me and Elaine have been listening to. so much Jack's mannequin and so much something corporate. Oh my God. And I know it's, this is the last straw, but I literally was just like, this is the last time. In my head. Yeah, for some reason, something corporate is a real fucking comfort. Yeah. Something corporate and then weirdly, taking back Sunday. Yes. Taking back Sunday, catch you in like, uh, let's get the aggression out.

Like, you can't be sad anymore. So you just have to be angry. even though like you're like I don't even know why I'm angry right now like not at life yeah I've been yelling taken back Sunday in my car oh hell yeah it's like that scene of um is it Christina Applegate or am I absolutely losing my mind I don't know from from married with children oh yeah yeah yeah that sounded so completely wrong to me but she's in that other show um like death something with someone oh yeah yeah you know what I'm talking about yeah like her her husband gets killed by like a drunk driver or something like that. Yeah. And, you know, it's a whole thing. Anyway, there's a scene in that show that I can't think of the name right now where Christina Applegate is just like, screaming,

scream all lyrics in her car. Yeah. And that's me right now. Yeah, pretty much. Yeah. Honestly, like, early aughts pop punk is really getting us through this right now. Yeah, like the MySpace playlist. Yeah, I don't, I never knew it was going to be such a comfort in times as such as these, but it is. Thanks to that. to that. I was listening to the format this morning. Andrew, postal service. I'm in Hollister right now. Hell yeah. I'm literally in Hollister. In the shower, I'm just in Hollister right now. Hollister is having a fucking comeback. Have you seen? I know. And that's like really like close to my heart. Yeah, of course it is. Because you worked there. I fucking loved

Hollister. I loved Hollister. Yeah, that shit. I can smell it right now. Oh yeah. You can smell it down the mall. You can, my parents would never come in with me. They're like, fuck that. And I'm sure no one else's did either. No. According to the youths, it's going to be a 2009 summer. You know what? We need that.

I'm ready. I think. I'm ready for that. Yeah. I want those Henley tops. Oh, my God. The baby doll tops that you'd wear the lace cammy under. I'm ready.

Oh, I'm always ready. I should have kept my shit. Let's go. All right. Well, so that's our dumpster fire over here. But you know what, again, perspective. Perspective. Things can always be worse.

Everyone's going to get through it. Things could be worse. You are going through worse. Could get kidnapped. You could. And that's what this story is about. Yeah, that's worse. It's called transition.

Look it up. Yeah. It's called segue. It's called Segu. There you go. Fear M from and that's why we drink. Yeah. Go listen to that.

Because we love them. Yeah. So I'm lost. But anyway. We're going to be talking about Patty Hurst and the Simbionese liberation. Army today. Liberation Army. This is like, obviously I know who Patty Hurst is. Yeah. But I never knew all the details of this story. You don't really learn about it in school. That's the thing. I think a lot of,

a lot of people know the name like me too. Like I know the name. I know the general idea of what happened. I knew like she got kidnapped obviously and then like she ended up staying with them. But I don't think a lot of people know the details, me included. Yeah, well, guess what? You're about to. Also, if you hear, we're, I apologize in advance, and this won't be a thing that happens a lot, so don't fear. But if you hear, like, a message sound, we just have to have our phone volume. I'm sure Mikey will try to edit as much as he can out. We're just leaving our phones on, like, sound for obvious reasons. So, I just didn't want you to be like, what the fuck is going on? You're like, wow, you guys are really popular and also inconsiderate.

going to say also inconsiderate. All right. So let's get into it. We're going to start at the very top, very beginning. That's a great place to start. Yeah. Patricia Campbell, her, she was born. And that's where it all starts. She was born. She was on February 20th, 1954, making her a Pisces.

Right on the cusp, though. She was born in San Francisco, California, one of five daughters. Five gals. Five gals. Born to Catherine Campbell, which is a sick-ass name. And Randolph Hurst. Randolph is just like such a, that's a name. That's a town in Massachusetts. That's a town in Massachusetts, exactly.

And a sick-ass name. Yeah, really cool name. So, well, he was a big, big, important guy. He has to be. He was. He was the son of publishing magnate William Hurst. So that made him heir to one of the nation's largest fortunes. And the nation, but also probably the world.

Damn. And it also meant that he would eventually become the chairman of the board of the Hurst Corporation. which was a huge media conglomerate that owned tons and tons of very popular nationally recognized media outlets. Holy shit. Think succession. Very succession. I literally wrote very succession coded. So it was one of the most famous families in the world.

The Hearsts were extremely aware of their reputation. And Catherine, the mother, went to great lengths to make sure that her daughters had, you know, a sense of discipline, a sense of decorum. Yeah. They were going to be in the public eye a lot, so they needed to act right. While most of the girls appreciated the importance of this, keeping up the appearances, Patty constantly struggled against her parents' will. That's got to be hard. That's a lot of pressure starting immediately. The kids didn't ask for that.

Exactly. So it's tough. That is hard. And Patty, she just didn't like any of this. She defied them over pretty much everything she could. They were devout Catholics and she didn't give a shit about that. They wanted obviously the highest education standards, which I understand. but she didn't give a shit about that.

Yeah. When she was just 10 years old, they ended up sending her away to the convent of Sacred Heart, which was a private Catholic boarding school in San Francisco. Damn. And Patty didn't give a shit about that either. No, she didn't give a shit. She said, you're just not going to make me act right. Yeah, she was like, no.

I'm going to do the damn thing. Yeah. It was pretty clear that the point of sending her off to boarding school was to break her of these defiant tendencies. Yeah. And at the same time, it was also clear that it wasn't going to be that simple. No. A lot of the other girls at school were very affluent. afraid of the nuns, obviously, who ran the place.

I mean, nuns are intense, especially at Catholic schools in the late 50s. Oh, yeah. Early 60s. Patty, though, wasn't afraid of them at all. Her favorite thing to do was to provoke them and try to get laughter from her peers. She sounds like a hot shit. She does. Later, she told her reporter that she remembered one nun would get directly in the faces of students and yell at them.

Oh, I hate that. And she said, don't do that. It's insane. That's a wild way to make children. do anything except for But Patty said When she did this to me one day

The idea flashed in my mind That I could make her stop by shocking her So when she paused for a breath I very deliberately said Oh go to hell It worked She goes it worked Stopped her cold

Stopped her cold Imagine telling a nun to go to hell As like a 10 year old girl Out of Catholic school Like I'm sorry That's pretty iconic Yeah so that was pretty much how her elementary school days went and middle school days went.

When she started high school, Patty transferred to the Santa Catalina School, which was another boarding school. This one was about 100 miles away from home. And she wasn't any happier there. She missed her family. Yeah. There were still the nuns that were yelling at everybody. And even though she was sitting there trying to make them laugh and make the best of it, she missed her family and it wasn't where she wanted to be. No, of course not. And that environment sucks. So she was generally pretty miserable during the school year, but it sounds like she really came alive during the summertime. A lot of the summer was spent with her family in some of California's most exclusive, super ritzie locations. Oh, yeah. It really wasn't like the luxuriousness of it all,

that thrilled Patty. It was really more just getting to spend time with her family, and particularly her dad and the family dogs. Oh, I love that. She just loved any time she could be with her dad. Yeah. They'd go hunting. They'd hike. They'd play sports. And she was just thrived. She had her rebellious streak, but like a lot of kids, all she really wanted was the approval of her parents and the privilege of spending quality time with them. Yeah, absolutely. Even if it was just for that little bit of time in the summer. Yeah. So while she rarely missed an opportunity to provoke the adults in her life, that became a lot easier when she became a teenager.

Oh, I'm sure. As we all know. Yeah. And that was when she started to take an interest in boys. When she was still in high school, she turned her romantic attention to a little. young handsome teacher. Oh. Named.

Now, this is inappropriate. It is. Right off the bat. Yeah. We do have to know he was four years older than her. Okay. So it's not absolutely insane, but he's a person in a position of power. Oh, absolutely.

And that's the thing. It's not inappropriate that she has a crush on a teacher. No. Because, like, that happens all the time. Oh, hell, yeah. Like, that's, you just, there should be no acting upon that. That's the thing. In any way, shape, or form from either side.

Especially the teacher's side. Exactly. That's not the case here. So Patty said he was everything a high school girl could want. He was a college graduate, an older man, so mature, so experienced, so sophisticated. I suppose I threw myself at him, but I hope not in any obvious way. Unfortunately, he did welcome the attention. He didn't just like Patty as a student.

He shared the same feelings. Eventually, they became a couple and really didn't pay a lot of attention to keeping their relationship private. Jesus. It's hard to say whether it was the age difference or just the fact of the relationship itself, but everything about it distressed Patty's mom, Catherine. Yeah. But as author Jeffrey Tubin pointed out, and we're going to link his book in the show

notes, it's called American heiress. He said, or he wrote, in light of the Hearst family tradition of older men courting teenage girls, they were hardly in a position to complain. Oh. Yeah. Okay. Got it. I don't think it was really the fact that he was older that bothered anybody. I think it was the fact that he was her teacher. And like, you know, media outlets might recognize that. And there's a lot of implications there. Yeah, I'd say so. Yeah. So the relationship quickly became a serious point of contention between Patty and her mother. Catherine wanted a future for Patty much like the one that she had, like her own life. She wanted her to be this perfect debutante. She wanted her to be a socialite. But Patty didn't give a shit about any of that. She had other.

ideas. Her parents hoped that when she was done with school, she would enroll at Stanford and start on the path of becoming a very well-educated philanthropist like everybody else had. Which is also, it's like, it's an admirable goal for your child. It's like, there's nothing wrong with that. No, like wanting your kid to go to college and everything. But Patty was like, nah, I'm good. Instead, she did, she did go to school. She followed Steve to the University of California, Berkeley. And he enrolled in grad courses there and she started undergrad. I have to imagine that he probably lost his teaching job when they started dating. I was going to say, I feel like, yeah.

I don't know. You should probably take those graduate courses, buddy. Yeah. You're going to need them. We're going to need them. So part of Patty's decision making for sure had something to do with rebelling against what was expected of her at the time. But also, she really just wanted to separate herself from her family and the pressure

that came from being involved in it. Yeah, and just become her own person. Yeah, and a publicly recognized family. Exactly. Yeah. She wanted to see what life was like if she wasn't a hearse. You know. So in between high school graduation and starting at UC Berkeley, she got a summer job to kill the time. And she was working as a clerk at Camp Wells Department Store in Oakland. It was there that she really kind of started to see the other side of life that she hadn't been exposed to. She saw people struggling to get by on minimum wage. She saw how they were getting exploited by their boss and, you know, how they had to work overtime and they didn't always get paid to do that. Yeah. So that was where the civil and political movements that were going on in the 60s and 70s, and at that time, would kind of have some context for her finally.

Yeah, she could finally see it with her own eyes. Exactly. And relate to it. And experience it. Exactly. So let's talk about that a little bit. Let's go. Throughout the mid to late 1960s, the U.S. was really going through a cultural shift, a very significant cultural shift when it came to politics and social priorities, especially. A lot of young people were great. growing up, they were going out into the world, and they wanted to do something different than what their parents' generation had. Yeah. People were becoming a lot more progressive. They wanted to change the way that things were working, especially when it came to politics and humans' rights. And for the most part, activists at that time were, you know, doing sit-ins, protests, rallies. Yeah.

A lot of these things weren't violent at the time because people wanted to try to get attention to these different causes. And in the beginning, at least, they were like, let's do this nonviolently because that's a good way to get our message across. Yeah, let's try to spread peace here. Exactly. But by the end of the 60s, a lot more new radicalized groups were starting to form. And those groups were choosing to do it the violent way. Yeah. You know, they thought that that was the way to get their message across.

Throughout the late 60s and early 70s, these kinds of underground groups were engaging in armed robberies, jail breaks, bombings. all those kind of things. And they were all done in the name of reshaping America to address different needs of marginalized communities. Yeah, absolutely. Ultimately, they didn't really get an overwhelming amount of support from the public because they were doing things violently. But even if they didn't get support, they were getting attention.

Yeah. And for them, that was good. That was what we're looking for. So unfortunately, while a lot of these underground, you know, groups did have just causes, because of the violent nature of their tactics, they would attract a lot of people on the fringes of society. Yeah, who saw it as an opportunity to just be violent. Exactly. Among these people were Donald DeFries, a multiple convicted criminal, and a group of young activists that included Michael Borton, Steve Selya, Jim Kilgore, and Kathy Salliah.

Together with Donald DeFries, they ended up forming their own radical activist group, and eventually they became one of the most notorious domestic terrorist organizations in American history. Damn. And that is the Symbionese Liberation Army or SLA. Okay. I'm going to say that because it's so much easier to say. Yeah. And they ended up being a very far left militant group.

So Donald DeFries was the founder and the leader of the SLA. And let's get into a little bit about who he was. He spent most of the 1960s kind of just bumming around his hometown of Cleveland. then Southern California. And there he worked off and on as a house painter, but a lot of time he was just unemployed. He was absolutely enamored with these revolutionary movements that were rising up around the world.

And of course, he was particularly drawn to the violence and the disruptive actions of these groups. Oh, boy. But something that wasn't working for him was the fact that if he was adept at anything, it was getting busted by the police. He was really good at that. Yeah.

Since he had been a teen, he was in and out of business. juvie in prisons for kind of just like petty but also at the same time violent crimes. So in September of 1972, while he was still incarcerated, he organized a black inmate self-help group called Unisite with help from Russell Little and William Wolfe. They were two Berkeley grad students and prison tutors who were former members of Vinceremos, which was another militant activist group. Like I said, there was a lot of activist groups going on this time. He all splintered off. into different things. Exactly.

Actions. Exactly. So it was through these two that Donald DeFries learned more about communist ideologies that were driving a lot of these movements. Okay. So after being transferred to Sol Dad prison in 1973, he managed, Donald DeFries managed to escape from prison. And he was directed by Wolf and Little to an activist safe house in San Francisco because

these people really did work together. And they had these like, safe houses set up around the city so that they could support one another. Yeah. So it was there that he started making connections with other activists. And eventually that was when SLA was founded. Building on what he learned about organizing in prison, SLA was founded basically with the objective of sparking a revolt in Black America that they believed in time would overthrow

systems that had oppressed Black and Round people. Yeah. So it kind of started with a good message in mind, a good cause. Yeah. A good cause in mind, exactly. In the months after his escape, he started recruiting young people to the group like Michael Borton, Steve Selya, Jim Kilgore, Kathy Selya. Unlike some of the other naive, well-meaning members of revolutionary groups, these four already had a certain amount of notoriety at that time because they had been arrested for bombing UC Berkeley, their naval architecture building in 1972. Oh, damn.

In the name of social revolution. Okay. Like I said, while some people were joining SLA with good intentions, it all splintered off. Yeah. Because you can't. And when people are coming in who have already committed bombings, it's like, okay. Yeah. Like that's...

Problem. Not the way to go about things. Red alert. Red alert. Red alert. So with the help of his new recruits, Donald DeFries started reaching out to various inmates across California prisons in hopes of setting up a bigger network. Yeah.

Because, you know, he wants to get his message out there. Eventually, the SLA unfortunately did become very successful in committing acts of domestic terrorism. But their networking process is kind of among some of the more compelling evidence of how unorganized they really were and how inexperienced most of the members were. The inmates that DeFries and others contacted were mostly serving life sentences and didn't have any chance of parole. So they weren't really going to be of much help on the outside. side. Yeah. And in addition to that, not a lot of them really understood what it was that they were joining in the first place. Yeah. One inmate, Clifford, Death Row Jefferson. Death Row is his nickname.

I'm sorry, Seth. No, it's wild. How do you get to be the one with that? That is your nickname. I assume you're on death row. Yeah. Probably. But like, is there other death rowes? Like, You're the death rowist of the death rowians. Are you the death row of Death Row? Clifford seems like he was Apparently he got the nickname Fun fact I actually don't know much about him But damn except that he was on death row But at the same time I know everything about him

Yeah I was good You know what I mean I feel like I don't need to know anything else That's all it's death row So he thought he was being asked to lead the group So that just goes to show you like They weren't being clear with their messaging at all He thought he was being us to lead it from death row

Death Row Jefferson thought he was being Like inside the prison. And another inmate who was contacted to, you know, help join the revolutionary movement, he thought he was joining the Lebanese Liberation Army. Oops. So like, yikes. What's going on here, guys? Like, are you not being clear?

Like, what is? No, no. You're like, oh, you're not being clear. You don't even have to ask. Like, what? So, yeah, disorganization and lack of experience aside, the members of the SLA, they did manage to gather a large number of guns and bombs. And they did establish their own safe house and conquered California. So they might not have been great at messaging, but they were great at amassing scary,

scary things. Great at getting bombs and guns. And guns. Yeah. And safe houses. Yeah. In November of 1973, they did commit their first what they saw as a revolutionary act. And it was a very violent one. They ambushed and murdered Oakland School Superintendent Marcus Foster. Oh, wow. And also at the same time, critically injured his deputy Robert Blackburn. It's awful. They had targeted Marcus Foster because they thought he was advocating for a student ID system at the school, which they felt was racist. But in all reality, Marcus Foster had never advocated for that system.

The local press mistakenly reported that he had. So they're not even doing their fucking research here. No. Like they're committing wild heinous acts of violence right now without even bothering to look into it and make sure they have the facts. Yeah. The facts. Not that committing heinous acts of violence is ever like a good thing. No. But like they're not even doing that. They're not even like I think they're reading a couple articles and not really doing deep dives. Yeah. Because it's like that's fucked up. That's the life of

somebody and you were completely wrong. He never even advocated for that in the first place. And even if he had, you can't murder him about it. You can't brutally murder someone. No. You can protest by all means. Absolutely. That's your right. Speak out. Yeah. So. A few months after Marcus Foster was murdered, Russ Little and another SLA member, Joe Romero, they were arrested after they got pulled over for a traffic violation and police found several weapons in the car and a ton of SLA paraphernalia. When word of their arrest got to the rest of the group, that group set fire to the Concord Safe House and went on the run because now they knew that police were on to them. So they needed to spread out. Now, the house might have been burned, but fortunately for investigators, there was.

still a solid amount of evidence left behind so that they could track down the SLA members. But by the time that happened, they would have already moved on to committing their next big act of what they saw as revolution. Yeah. So now let's go back to Patty's timeline for a minute. Let's go. Once they got settled in Berkeley, Patty and Steve, you know, her former teacher, were living on his $650 a month stipend and her $300 allowance from her parents. So that was a good amount of money at that time for two like young kids out on their own. Absolutely. But even without the financial stressors that a lot of young couples have, it did not take long for the cracks in their relationship to start showing. The problem was that, you know, maybe they were attracted to each

other, but they were fundamentally very different people. Steve was very orderly. He was very logical. He wanted to plan for everything. Sounds like he might have been an earth sign. Patty is a Pisci, so she's a dreamy gal. Oh, yeah. Floating along. Yeah, she's floating along. She's in those waters, those Pisarian waters. And she's an art student.

Oh, yeah. So that just tells you everything you need to know. She was a lot less rigid in the way that she thought. And she wanted to deal with things as they popped up rather than make a plan for them long term. Yep. She's also a teenager. She's 19 years old. I was going to say, yeah.

So, yeah, that's pretty standard. Yeah. So there were definitely growing feelings that things in the relationship weren't really going, as well as they had in the beginning. But neither of them seemed interested or willing to address the problem. They kind of just kept going. According to Jeffrey Tubin, he said their relationship moved forward on kind of automatic pilot. And by the end of 1973, they got engaged.

It seemed, it didn't really seem like... Ignore those problems. Right. It didn't really seem like they were like, oh, like, you know, when you get engaged, it's because you're like, I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I want to have maybe children with you. I want to travel the world with you. Like you have intense.

of committing your life to this person. For them, it just seemed like it was what they thought they were supposed to do next. Yeah. It's like when you see that couple that you're like, oh my God, you're never going to last and they get like a dog and you're like, what's going to happen to that dog? Exactly. When you guys inevitably break up. When you guys definitely break up. And even the announcement of their merit, excuse me, their engagement to their parents was pretty nonchalant. They were just like, we got engaged. You know, that's what that's what you do. And like, Patty, remember, Patty's a hearse. She's essentially ship. from succession. Yeah. Like, it's not, this is supposed to be big. Exactly. It seemed to everybody that

they were just casually informing them about some minor experience. It was like, oh, I got my ears pierced today. Yeah. Wow. So even though things were strange, the wedding date was set for June 29th, 1974. And of course, Catherine, Patty's mom got to work informing the press of the engagement, journalists, photographers from all the national press outlets, and of course, obviously the Hearst outlets, were assigned to cover the story. Patty and Steve, you know, maybe they announced their engagement in a chill manner, but the coverage in all the newspapers like San Francisco Examiner, Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, like these big newspapers that a lot of people read, they were very enthusiastic with the announcement, very extravagant. And they all concluded their reporting by saying,

Patty, quote, is a junior in art history at UC Berkeley. That's private. That's private. information. That's not great. Like it's like obviously they wanted to say like she's going to college and this is what she's studying. But it's like you don't need to tell her, especially this kid of this wildly. You're giving away her location. Yeah, exactly. So the note about Patty attending UC Berkeley was among what people thought was, people originally thought was an innocuous detail in the announcement. Yeah. It was the kind of thing that a lot of young couples would put in a marriage announcement. But like we just said, she's not any young person. She's not any young person. She's an heiress to one of the largest fortunes in the universe.

Yeah. Well, I don't know about the universe, but the world. Yeah, in the universe. There's some other aliens that might have a bigger fortune, I don't know. But she was the kind of person who, if kidnapped, their parents would definitely pay a large sum of money to get back unharmed. Yeah. And that's exactly what was running through the head of Donald DeFries as he flipped through the pages of the paper in early winter of 1974. So Patty and Steve were home on the night of February 4th, 1974.

When a little past 9 o'clock at night, there was a knock at the sliding glass door that led out to their patio. They looked over and they saw this young white woman standing outside. It looked like she was in some kind of distress. And the girl said she had some car trouble and asked if she could use their phone. But before either of them could answer, she barged her way into the apartment. and two male accomplices also entered the apartment. Oh, God. This is the scariest thing I've ever heard.

Yeah. It reminds, it's like the strangers. Yeah. Like, similar. Like, they just set up a decoy. So neither Patty or Steve had any time to react before one of the men hit Steve over the head with a bottle, which knocked him to the ground. So later, Steve told a reporter, in seconds, they had me face down on the floor in the hallway. They kept kicking me in the face and forcing me to keep my face down.

obviously they didn't want him to see their faces. No. Later, Patty said that she felt very betrayed by Steve in that moment because she felt like he wasn't doing anything to stop the people from abducting her. But I'm like, he was getting kicked in the face. I understand that like you were, you're upset that you got abducted. That's super duper valid. Very valid.

But like also Steve is, he got first knocked to the ground when they smashed a bottle over his head and now they're kicking him in the face. Yeah, that's tough. And it's also too. on one. Yeah. Like, you know. It's not easy for anybody here. Complicated situation, though, I got it. Absolutely. Next door, neighbor Sandy Golden could hear the commotion coming from the apartment, and she later said, we heard a scream and three shots. We could see two men carrying a girl. She was struggling and she was half naked. She was screaming, please let me go.

She seemed to be blindfolded. Oh. Yeah. Another neighbor, Donald Yamagashi, also heard the abduction as it happened, and he told police he knew what was happening right away. when he heard gunshots and the sound of the shattering glass patio door when it exploded. Holy shit. Yeah. So. I hope people are calling people. Yeah.

Okay. I was like, are we just saying this after the fact? Like, yeah, it's crazy. I watched the whole thing. No, no, no. The police were called. It was just unfortunately, this all happened so quickly. I was going to say this is happening fast.

Yeah. They were, they might not have been great at, like, organizing members and who were, you know, on death row and in prison. Yeah. But what this plan to. abduct Patty at least. Was quick. Unfortunately,

went very smoothly. Yeah. For the most part. Yeah. So the two men threw Patty in the trunk of a convertible and they sped out of the parking lot with one of them just shooting at bystanders

as they got out of there. So they're making sure that people are staying away. Staying away and people are shocked and scared and all of the above. The third kidnapper followed behind in a light colored station wagon. So they had two getaway cars too,

which is also going to throw people off. Yeah, of course, because they don't know which one she's in. They don't know if they're even both involved. Which unfortunately was kind of smart to have two cars. So when they were about five miles away from the apartment complex, excuse me, Patty felt the car come to a stop and the engine cut off. She felt the trunk opened and she could hear the three kidnappers talking amongst themselves.

And then one of them instructed her to get out of the trunk. Unfortunately, she wasn't out of the trunk for long before she was being handled by another of the men who forced her into the back of the station wagon. and then they threw a blanket over her face and closed her in there. So they got away in two cars, but they knew what they were doing. They got her into the other one. From underneath the blanket, she couldn't see where they were going. She tried to ask who they were, what they wanted, where they were going to get any information whatsoever.

But one of the men who she would later recognize as Donald DeFries just screamed at her, shut up or will kill you. Holy shit. And he was sitting in the front passenger seat. The orders that were barked from the front seat obviously were. very jarring and obviously they were supposed to scare Patty. But that intent was immediately undermined when moments later somebody reached back and stuck their hand under the blanket. And Patty at first was very confused and obviously scared. But then whoever that was took her

hand to comfort her. What the fuck? That would honestly fuck me up. It did fuck her. Like that's scary and because you're like, I don't like it. What's going on? Because like what do you? Why? No. You just kidnapped me and shoved me in a car. Like what? Like what the fuck? She said in that moment she understood that it was meant as a gesture of kindness to comfort her. And later she would find out that the man who held her hand was Bill Harris. And she said later, she was like, it was threatening and reassuring all at the same time. Because you're like, okay, this is fucked up in this situation and feels very fucked up, but also like, is this a human that's involved? Right. Maybe has human empathy and can...

I can possibly be the person I can count on to get me through this? Or are you just like, you're been fucked up in the head and trying to confuse me. That's the thing. Like that's, oh. Or like give me false hope kind of thing. I hate that a lot. It's a lot. It's, I can't imagine being in this situation. Yeah. So in his book that we mentioned before, American heiress, Jeffrey Tubin noted that the strange, like, juxtaposition between Donald DeFriza's attempt at commanding fear and Bill Harris's gesture of kindness was, pretty typical of what Patty would eventually become her time in captivity.

He said, the SLA lacked the skills or even the inclination to attempt anything as ambitious as a brainwashing. Literally and figuratively, the comrades didn't know what they were doing. Yeah. So, anyway, when the car finally came to a stop after about an hour of driving, Patty was taken out of the back of the station wagon and she was led inside a house. Once inside, she heard another door open and she inhaled deeply, which was smart. She's like trying to get, she can't see,

remember, she's blindfolded. So she's relying on other senses. Yeah. So she smelled like an earthy and musty smell that she figured was old wood. Okay. And in that instant, her mind flashed back to a case that we covered in episode 597, the kidnapping of Barbara Jean Mackle. That had already happened. Oh, yeah. And if you haven't listened to that episode, you should definitely go listen. to do it. It's fascinating. But she was a young woman in Georgia who was kidnapped and buried alive just six years earlier. So she's like, oh, fuck, is that what's about to happen to me? Oh my God. So she starts panicking. She's screaming. She's kicking. She's trying to get away. But she's blindfolded and being held. And one of the men just told her, relax. It's just a closet and guided her inside and

close the door. Oh, my God. Yeah. The fear and panic must have been, outrageous. Because remember, like, again, if you haven't listened to that episode, go listen. But if you did, remember, Barbara Jean Mackle was kidnapped for ransom. Yeah. But then it turned into this whole strange case where they buried her alive in the middle of the woods and she survived for like days. Like, oh my God. I forget how long. Yeah. 72 hours or something like that. That was a scary one. Yeah. Yeah. Patty knows all the details of that. Yeah. So she's sitting there being like, cool, that's literally about to happen to me. Like, oh, everyone's worst nightmare. And she knows who she is. she knows that's got to be, that's got to be top of mind when you're an heiress. Absolutely. She's an he's sitting there being like, this is why. You're an heiress who just got kidnapped, exactly. So later, when her blindfold was removed, she would be surprised to find that they weren't in the middle of some scary wooded area or some kind of bunker in like a remote location. They were still in San Francisco and they were only about 45 miles away from her apartment in Berkeley. She knew where they were.

She knew the neighborhood. Oh, there's something about that being so close. It's almost scarier. That you can't, but you can't do anything about it. Yeah. So this was the location of the SLA's new safe house, because remember they burned the old one down. And this was where she was going to be held for weeks as the group negotiated with her family for her release. So like you said, did anybody fucking call the police in the middle of this?

Yes. Yes. Okay. But they arrived at the apartment about 10 minutes after those two cars sped away from the house. That's a really long response time. It is. Yeah. Like, damn.

Oh, damn. 10 minutes. Yeah. It's like, holy shit. But, you know, there's a lot going on in California. You're like, hey, kidnapping and process is pretty quick. Can you get here in like three minutes? Throw that one into priority, maybe?

I don't know. Perhaps. But aside from Steve and the neighbor's statements, there wasn't a lot to be gleaned from this crime scene. There was one very strange thing left behind, though, on the floor by the kidnappers. A box of cyanide filled 38-cableness. caliber bullets. Cyanide film. Yeah.

Interesting. According to the others, this was Donald DeFriza's idea. He wanted it to kind of be a calling card, like so that the authorities would recognize that this was the SLA. But at that time, you know, they hadn't done that a ton. Yeah. This was their early days. Yeah.

So it's like there's no pattern to go by. Exactly. So the detectives were just like, what the fuck is this strange thing? Like, why did you leave this here? Like, what is this weird? A short time later, they did find the convertible car that Sandy Golden saw Patty being pushed into. It was found a few miles away from the apartment complex. They ran the plates and they traced it to 31-year-old Peter Benenson, a mathematician.

And somebody who did not even remotely fit the profile of a kidnapper. Oh, my God. So they were like, okay, this is weird, but they do suspect that he's involved because this is his car. But it turned out that he wasn't a kidnapper. he was another SLA victim. He explained to the detectives that a few hours earlier, he was just leaving the grocery store. It's poor mathematician.

This poor mathematician is just doing, crunching some numbers in his head at the grocery store. She's trying to stand her budget. I bet he gave them exact change. You know? And he left and he's approached by a young woman in the parking lot. She hold it up. She held up a revolver to him and said,

give me the keys. We want your car, not you. I mean, honestly, that's best case scenario if someone's going to do something awful to you is we want your car, not you. Have it. Take it. That's like, absolutely enjoy. But he has my response. Freeze.

Not fight or flight. Just fuck. Freeze. Yeah. There's fight. There's flight and there's fuck. And fuck is mixed up and freeze. I would just be like, enjoy yourself.

Have a great day. He was just stunned by the demand. I mean, yeah. The strangeness. So he hesitated. I feel like anybody would do that. Yeah. Anybody.

But because he didn't act immediately, three other SLA members, Angela Atwood and Bill and Emily Harris, jumped on him, tied him up, and shoved him into the backseat of his own car, and covered him with a blanket. Guys, just give him a minute. So now he's been abducted. Guys, just give him a minute. They did not have a minute, I guess. It's weird when someone puts a gun to you and says,

we want your car. It is weird. It's weird. Don't keep it that weird. It's a unique experience for most people and it's like give somebody a minute to really take that in. Imagine if that's not a unique experience for someone. Like they're like fuck this happened last. They're like god damn what's going on? Well that wasn't the case for our Peter. That sucks for Peter. I know. Now after they transferred Patty to the station wagon the kidnappers abandoned Peter's car by the side of the road which was why it was found. But with him still tied up on the floor in the backseat. So he's just like, hello? Yeah. But before they left, one of the women told him if he went to the police, they'd find him and kill him. So eventually he was able to untie himself

and he got out of the car, but he was so traumatized and scared that he didn't report it to the police. He just went home. I don't blame him at all. And I love that he just like left his, it's not funny. I'm just like, oh, this poor man, like, just left his car. He's like, bye. It's just a strange experience. Yeah. I'm like, what do you do when you get home after that? Because you really do probably want to just be like, I don't want that car anymore. No. I don't want anything to do with that car. To have it.

Yeah. I walk now. Yeah, I'm a walker now. I'm a train guy. Yeah. I'll take the bus. Like, fuck that. So to the Hearst family, the fact that Peter Benenson had been released, it did give them a small little bit of hope.

Yeah, because it doesn't, it seems like now you know, this isn't kidnapping for murder's sake. Exactly. You know, like, there's a reason here. There's a plot. Yeah. If the kidnappers had released him so quickly, it. didn't harm him. Randolph Hurst said, it showed they had, quote, a measure of compassion and are not senseless and brutal. He's like, they clearly have a plan here. Yeah, there's a, there's a reason,

motivation. And I'm sure he's, you know, the chairman of this whole organization, he knows what's going on right now. Which is probably, he's being exploited. His worst nightmare has come to fruition. Yeah. One of his children. This poor guy has five daughters. Yeah. Like, he was like, every time he had a child, he was probably like, fuck. Yeah, literally. Like so happy. Yeah. He was also like, oh, God damn. Like another. I have to protect this person. Yeah. From like so much more

than the average parent. Now, while investigators might not have identified that box of 38 caliber bullets with, you know, the cyanide filling them. That whole thing. They didn't identify that as a specific calling card, but they still suspected that the kidnapping might have been the work of the SLA. This was because after they had murdered Marcus Foster, the SLA wrote letters to take credit for the murder.

and in those letters they indicated their plan to kidnap a prominent person and raise money for their political cause. Well, that will do it. So in their statement to the press that night, the Hearst asked the kidnappers to get in touch with them immediately

and they promised, they said, if she is released, we will not seek to imprison her abductors. And Randolph Hearst also noted that Patty might not have seen their faces, but Steve and some of the neighbors had, which meant that they could be easily identified if caught. Damn.

I mean, well, Steve is probably like, fuck, dude. He's like, I didn't see shit. I know, I was like, you should just say you won't seek to imprison her. Don't ever say that you saw their faces. What was that movie that we just watched, the Mike Flanagan one? When she's like, I didn't see your face and he's literally like,

he just takes off his mask. That was a scariest part of that whole fucking movie. Yeah, because he just says, well, now you have. Yeah. So the next day, the station manager of KPFA Radio got a letter in the mail from the kidnappers. Inside was a mobile oil credit card that was Paddies. And a strange note that kind of read like a business memo.

It said communique 13, subject, prisoners of war, Target, Patricia Campbell Hearst, daughter of Randolph Hearst, corporate enemy of the people, warrant issued by court of the people. On the aforestated date, combat elements of the United Federated Force of the Symbionese, a liberation army, armed with cyanide loaded weapons, served in arrest warrant on Patricia Campbell Hurst. I'm already annoyed by this. Yeah, me too. I'm irritated. I'm also terrified of it I'm just irritated I'm like stop it

That's who we are as people Write a memo Like write a letter I don't know why I'm making this correlation In my brain because it's not the same thing But it reminds me of the mock trial That they do in yellow jackets And you're just irritated by it

You're like just fucking speak Exactly You don't We know you're not a judge Like let's not do that You're not a court of people You're just I don't even know what you are

So they said Should any attempt be made by authorities To rescue the prisoner or to arrest or harm SLA elements, the prisoner is to be executed. All communications from this court must be published in full in all newspapers and all other forms of media. Failure to do so will endanger the safety of the prisoner, Symbionese Liberation Army N.D. And they simply signed the letter SLA and included a footnote that said in all capital letters,

death to the fascist insect that preys upon the life of the people. Okay. Very like political. Yeah, for sure. you know, move. Yeah. So the manager of KPFA immediately turned the letter and the credit card over to the FBI. He said, hello, FBI.

I got some shit. And they brought the card and the letter to the Hearst family in San Francisco. At the same time, the Hearst got their own ransom letter from the kidnappers, but it was a lot less orderly and formal than the typed letter that had been sent to the radio station. This one was handwritten in a mix of like uppercase and lowercase block printing. And shout out to Dave. He kind of had to decode this because it didn't really make a lot of sense. Yeah.

So we're going to read what Dave called. It says, we're, and it's all spelled wrong. He says, we're holding your daughter, Patricia Hurst, and we are never going to give her back unless you pigs let Romero and Little out of prison. Because remember, two SLA members had been arrested. They said, we're giving you 10 days. And when those 10 days are up and don't hear from Russell and Little, we're going to kill her the same way we killed those four persons. My friend killed those three in that funeral home. And we're going to keep on killing if you don't let them out free.

Damn. That's scary. It's terrifying. That one's scary. No, that one's genuinely scary. And picture that written in upper and lowercase. Yeah, just like a wreck. There's no sentence structure at all. Yeah. That was Dave putting it in an order. Yeah. So like the letter sent to KPFA, the ransom letter to the Hearst also demanded that the contents be shown to the police and published in the press. Yeah. Based on the postmark, the letters to the Hearst was they found out was mailed from San Jose, but there was no way to identify the sender other than that, meaning that they were just going to have to wait until the kidnappers reached out again, which is- That's horrifying. Exactly, horrifying. Yeah. So FBI agents and local investigators were also confused by the reference to the murder and a funeral home. They knew that the SLA had murdered Marcus Foster, but they weren't aware of any other murders. So this detail would actually never be explained. Huh. Yeah. Interesting.

Who knows if it happened or if they were just bluffing to... Just trying to make it seem to be more scary, right? Yeah. But it was, I mean, this was a big deal. Their intent was clear. Everybody involved was supposed to cooperate or Patty would be killed. So in their statement to the press, an FBI spokesperson told reporters, it will be up to the family whether the agency pursues the kidnappers.

If they stay away, we stay away. Our first consideration is the safety of the girl. After the girl is saved, then we will find them. Which is like, cool. That should be it. Yeah, everybody's working together here so far. And the days that followed, investigators and the family just had to sit around and wait to hear from the kidnappers. Oh, my God.

But days passed and there was no communication. So Randolph Hearst told a reporter, the only thing we can do is wait and hope to hear from them soon. I can't imagine that. Yeah. But obviously everybody, you know, had an idea of what was happening here. The expectation was that they wanted, the SLA wanted to exchange Patty for the release of their imprisoned members. But nobody knew what the demands were going to be aside from that. It didn't really matter, though.

Randolph said, we'll do anything we can to get Patricia back. I just hope they don't make demands that are impossible to meet. Because that must be a fear. Yeah. Is you're sitting here being like, I'm willing to do anything. Yeah. Literally anything within my power or within this earthly realm to get my daughter back. Exactly.

But I'm hoping they don't do something that is. literally just not possible. Not possible. Because here's the thing. A thing that could happen. Right. And here's the thing. This family obviously has a lot of money, but I think, I don't think people always realize, like, they don't have that in their bank account. Yeah.

They own companies that total that amount of money and that's put into their net worth. And that there's probably like processes to get that money or like, you know what I mean? Like I'm assuming they don't just like have it at their disposal right now. They have a lot at their disposal. But they're sitting here being like, these people probably think that we could easily just go get like a hundred million dollars. Yeah. And we can't just do that overnight. But we would if we could.

We would if we could. But that's what he's saying where it's like, I hope they don't say that. Yeah. Because that's going to be more complicated than just giving you like a couple million, you know, for them. So finally, after days and days, a new communication was sent from the SLA, not to the Hearsts or the FBI, but again to KPFA radio. This time in the form of an audio. of recording. The tape contained a message that was read by Patty herself. She started out by establishing that she was unharmed and then quickly pivoted into what most people believed was a statement that one of

the SLA members had written out for her. She said, mom, dad, I'm okay. I had a few scrapes and stuff, but they washed them up and they're getting okay. I'm not being starved or beaten or unnecessarily frightened. I've heard some press reports and so I know that Steve and the neighbors are okay and that no one was really hurt. And I also know that the SLA members here are very upset about press distortions about what's been happening. They have not been shooting helicopters or shooting down innocent people in the streets. I think you can tell that I'm not really terrified of anything. I'm okay. I was very upset though to hear about the police rushing it on that house in Oakland. These people aren't just a bunch of nuts. They've been really honest with me. They're perfectly willing to die for what they're doing.

That's really scary. It is scary. That immediately. That's a scary message. Who knows if Because that's the thing they assumed it was written for her and she read it. But who knew if it was already starting to sink in? Starting to sink in that maybe she kind of understood what was happening here. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, she started to understand their message here. Yeah, their message, exactly. So eventually the message turned to the motive for the kidnapping.

And finally, the demands of the group were stated. As a, quote, symbolic gesture of good faith from the Hearsts. And this is insane. The SLA demanded that every person in California who was receiving federal food assistance be given $70 worth of food to be picked up at designated grocery stores around the state. Also, how would they ever be able to tell that that happened? I don't even know. Like they couldn't confirm that they did that or didn't. That's the thing.

Yeah. That's a dumb demand. It's a wild. It's exactly what Randolph Hearst was like, I hope they don't meet demands that are completely. Absolutely impossible to make, because we'll also get into the semantics here. Because that's something you can't confirm actually happened even if they tried to do it. No. Like, they just, I guess, are you just going to drive around the state of California and like,

shop at grocery stores? I don't know. And it's like, how do you know every person got? It just, that doesn't make sense. And that wasn't it. The group also stipulated that the stores be clearly designated within each community, I think, so they could drive around and make sure it was happening. That there be five stores within each community.

The food had to be of high. quality. That's... People had to be given the opportunity to voice their discontent if they weren't being treated well. And other revolutionary groups were supposed to be on hand to observe and coordinate the distribution process. Yeah. See, this is that impossible demand that he was fearing. It is. Now, after receiving the tape, Randolph Hearst, he said, yes, that was his daughter's voice. And he said, if they are taking good care of her, then I believe it. Because you have to. And when he was asked if Patty, if he was worried that Patty might be hurt, he said,

I think it's unlikely. I would be worried if I thought they would do it, but I have assurances that they won't. Yeah. And honestly, I hope he was able to put himself in that place of actually believing that. I know. The release of the tape transcript and the demands of the SLA prompted an outpouring of support from the public and groups around the country. And actually, rather than endorse the actions of the SLA and agree to assist in the distribution of food, like they were also demanded to, like these groups, these militant groups around the world, or around California. A ton of groups like the American Indian movement, black teachers caucus and the United

Prisoners Union released a joint statement to emphatically state that they do not condone terrorist activity, whether it is carried out by either the SLA or the establishment. Wow. They were like, we don't support violence. Yeah, they were like, nah, this isn't it. They were like, this is actually everything that we are fighting against. Yeah, it's like this doesn't work. In a nonviolent manner.

Residents of California also wrote letters of support and even offers of assistance to help Patty. Wow. One letter writer said, if this is the only way to save your daughter, I want to help you beat with such a high demand. I feel sick in my heart to think that money or the lack of it would take such a lovely treasure from you. Calling your child a lovely treasure. Oh my God, that gave me chills. I know. That statement. So like you were just saying, you're like, I hope Randolph believed that. Yeah. He seemed confident in front of the cameras, but behind the scenes, he was in an absolute panic. Because there's no way you can convince you. yourself that you know what I mean like that this would this is every parent's worst nightmare there's

no way that you can convince yourself that your daughter's not in danger but also the demands were entirely like we were just saying unreasonable and essentially impossible yeah just totally impossible to quantify that's the thing because the members of the sLA they either completely underestimated or they just had no idea how many people in california at that time got food assistance from the state And exact number is almost impossible to come by. But there were hundreds of millions of people getting food assistance. Yeah. Which put the total amount in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Yeah. It's just not possible to quantify. So as an alternative to the impossibly high number, on February 19th, the day before Patty's 20th birthday, she's literally spending her 20th birthday in captivity. Oh, my God. But to try to figure this out here and kind of almost compromise a little. Randolph Hearst announced the establishment of a new organization that he was going to put together. And remember, his daughter's life is in danger and he has to figure out setting up an organization to somewhat meet their demands. Which I couldn't even do under not duress.

No. So he set up people in need or pin, which he was launching with over $500,000 of his own money and $1.5 million from the William Randolph-Hurst Foundation. Wow. Which is a prime example of the fact that, like, his money was tied up in other things. Yeah, and an organization. Yeah. So PIN was to be a food distribution program to provide food to families in need around California with help from other activist groups as coordinators.

So he really did, like, he did everything in his power to do exactly what they were asking. It's honestly incredibly impressive. It is. In a press conference to announce the organization, he said it was a goodwill gesture. And he said, it's up to the SLS. to believe me and hopefully make a gesture of their own, meaning like return my fucking daughter. The announcement was met with another communication

from Donald DeFries and the SLA, which the family got on Patty's 20th birthday. They acknowledged the effort, but they said the Hearst contribution should reflect the family's capabilities and the needs of the people. And Donald DeFries demanded that the amount of money be increased

from 2 million to 6 million. He said, nope, not enough. Yeah. Nope, we're greedy. So despite the case, complexity of launching a program like PIN, they were able to get the project up and running in a few days. That's unbelievable. This is literally an organization that is providing millions of dollars of food to almost every single person receiving assistance. And he got it up and running in a matter of days.

In a matter of days. Like it's like the mom that will lift a car off, you know what I mean, to save their kid. It's like, yeah, he just went. He would do anything. So, and they started distributing food. on February 22nd. Holy shit. Like truly a couple of days. That morning, February 22nd, countless people flocked to the distribution centers to pick up food.

But what started as an orderly, maybe slow process by the end of the day had devolved into a mess. As a lot of things when human beings are involved, does. You know, like it just always does. There was frustration. There was chaos. It turned out to be, you know,

there were violent situations. By the time the distribution locations were shut down, 35 people had been arrested, and the entire process had broken down completely. In an interview, when asked why the process had fallen apart, one person said, who was waiting in line, nothing's organized. They threw food at us like we're animals. They really, that really brought the whole thing down.

Yeah. But it's like, that wasn't on the Hearsts. The Hearst sat there and tried to make this happen. Yeah, that's on these distribution centers. You have to keep, like, there's so many people to keep an order here. Yeah. It was never going to go. That just sucks.

It does. So in the days that followed, the administrators of PIN would luckily become a better organized process or organization. And the distribution process did become more orderly at all the sites around California. I also want you all for a second to picture California. Yeah. It's a huge state. Fucking massive.

But Randolph Hearst was still concerned that the botched rollout put Patty's life in danger. Yeah. So he made another plea to the SLA. and a counteroffer to their previous demand of $6 million of an investment. In a statement released by PIN, he said, the horse corporation is prepared to contribute to people in need a total of $4 million for a food distribution program for the poor and needy. Now, with that counteroffer made, there was nothing else they could do,

but sit and wait to hear back from the kidnappers. Oh, shit. And that is where we're going to end for part one. Oh, my God. I felt like I just threw like so much at you. Who Patty Hearst was, what the SLA was, the kidnapping, who Donald DeFries, who Donald DeFrieses, yeah. So much shit.

So you know what their demands are, you know what they're trying to do, and now, you know, we're going to learn a lot more in part too about Patty's time with them. I'm very interested in this. Again, like I knew who Patty Hurst was. I knew she was kidnapped. And spoiler alert, she ends up staying with the kidnappers. She's referenced in Gilmore Girls. Is she?

I think when... You always know that stuff. I do. I always know the... I think when Rory ends up, like, staying with Emily and Richard, she, Laurelis says, she's Patty Hurst and they're the SLA. Oh, God. I think that's literally what she says.

And you have Richard and Emily Gilmore as the SLA. I'm like, not so much. I'm like, damn. They're more like the Hursts, really. Yeah, honestly. That's funny. But yeah, that's all I could think of when this started. I was like, oh, shit.

Yeah. This is a big case of... a case for debate of whether she was a victim of brainwashing in Stockholm syndrome. I was going to say, yeah. Or just understood the message and, you know, got into it. So there's a lot to unpack here. Like I said, I think this is probably going to end up being three parts. But yeah, we'll see you for part two.

We sure will. And that will be on Sirius XM. Yeah. So you can get it everywhere. just the only place, the literal only place you can't get it is Wondery Plus. Anywhere else, just listen anywhere else. Yep. Just because I know that's still a question of like, do I have to have serious XM?

No. No, it's true. You do not. You can listen to it anywhere. And also September 1st is Labor Day, so hopefully you're off of working. You can listen to part too. Yeah, there you go. And you all get to listen to it at the same time.

There's no more early release. Yeah, exactly. So everybody can just be together. All morbid weirders are created equal. Hell yeah. And we love you. We love you. And we hope you keep listening.

And we hope you keep it. Weird. But not so weird that you don't. Not so weird that you do a kidnapping. Yeah. Don't. Not so weird that you, you know, like go to the grocery store and then you walk out and you're getting held up. Don't do any of that.

Don't do a kidnapping. Don't support a kidnapping. Stay away from kidnappings in general. Just stay away from it, you know. So yeah, we love you. Bye. Bye.