The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe - 152: They Had Their Way With Her

Episode Date: March 10, 2020

Or did they...

This is the way I heard it. Before she changed her name and became one of them, the young heiress with the dark hair and the smoldering gaze never imagined she'd be robbing banks, shooting machine guns, or winding up on the FBI's most wanted list. But now, months after the abduction, her dad, a steely-eyed businessman, if there ever was one, refused to meet her kidnapper's demands,

leaving his little girl at the mercy of the men. who took her. The sound of a key inserted into the lock alerted the young heiress to the arrival of another unwelcome visitor. She held her breath as her captor opened the door and entered the tiny room. Like the others, he was unshaven, dressed in paramilitary garb. He was a soldier, in an army that promised liberation for all. Your father is a stubborn man. The soldier said, or maybe he doesn't want you back. Have you considered that? Though painful to contemplate the young heiress had in fact considered that very thing, and the soldier knew it. Smiling, he slowly approached her cot and took a seat beside her. His teeth were crooked,

his breath was foul, bits of food were stuck in his scraggly beard. What pray tell are we going to do with you today? How do you? How do you? you suppose we passed the time? The young heiress knew the question was rhetorical. They would pass the time today the same way they passed the time yesterday, and the day before that, and the day before that. She was their hostage, after all, to do with as they pleased. And so, the soldier had his way with her.

Specifically, he talked to her for hours on end. He talked about a more just society and the righteousness of the army he served. He talked about liberation for all and the dangers of wealth and the great wisdom of their infallible leader. In short, he forced his ideas upon her, and when he finished, he left the young heiress alone with her thoughts. And that's when it happened. Sometime, in the wake of that unwelcome visitation, the young heiress finally realized that her abduction had been a gift, a gift that prompted her to change her name and become one of them, a fellow soldier in an army that promised liberation for all. Decades later, some people still believe her conversion was a ruse, a deliberate deception to end.

the daily indoctrination. Others believe her transformation was the result of the Stockholm syndrome, a psychological collapse whereby certain captives, under extreme duress, begin to empathize with their captors. It certainly seems possible. But remember, before she changed her name and became one of them, this young heiress never imagined she'd be robbing banks, shooting machine guns, were winding up on the FBI's most

wanted list. Because in her world, there were no such things to imagine. No banks to rob, no machine guns to fire, and no FBI to catch the bad guys. Perhaps you're thinking of that other young heiress with the dark hair and the smoldering gaze, the one who was kidnapped by that other army of fanatics obsessed with liberation who demanded a hefty ransom from another wealthy father. As you might recall, his name was Randolph, and he too refused to pay his daughter's ransom, a refusal that some say drove Patty Hurst to change her name to Tanya and start robbing banks with the Symbionese Liberation Army. For her involvement with this unsavory army, Patty Hurst was sentenced to 35 years in jail, But thanks to F. Lee Bailey's insistence that his client had been brainwashed by her abductors,

Jimmy Carter commuted her sentence. Bill Clinton issued a full pardon and today, Patty Hurst is the poster child for the Stockholm Syndrome. But what about that other heiress with the dark hair and the smoldering gaze? The one abducted by that other army obsessed with liberation. the daughter of that other steely-eyed businessman, the other young girl, who turned her back on a life of privilege and changed her name to Rebecca. Was she, like Patty Hurst, also a victim of the Stockholm Syndrome? Did she really adopt the beliefs of her abductors? Or did Rebecca simply pretend to convert in order to stop the daily indoctrination?

Four centuries later, opinions still vary. Some believe her baptism was the result of an authentic spiritual conversion. Others believe she was brainwashed by the soldiers who had their way with her, the Christian soldiers who slowly and methodically converted her to their religion. No one knows for sure, but it's worth noting that today her Christian name, Rebecca, does not appear on the headstone atop her final resting place in the cemetery of St. George's Church. Instead,

the grave of Chief Pojotan's only daughter is marked by the name she answered to before she became one of them, the name we remember her by today. Pocahontas.

Anyway, that's the way I heard it. So, what do you think? Did they have their way with her? Sure seems like it. I mean, once you kidnap somebody, you pretty much have your way with them automatically, right? I mean, you take their liberty. This is the way I talked about, the way I heard it, the only spontaneous analysis of the only podcast for the curious mind, with a short attention span wherein I examine the circumstances that prompted me to write the story you just heard. In this case, I wrote they had their way with her because Donald Trump called

Liz Warren, Pocahontas. It's true. It's not the whole truth, but that was the inciting incident that inspired the story. Donald Trump called Liz Warren, Pocahontas over and over and over and over and over and over and over again until he essentially redefined her. I don't know that anybody will ever look at Elizabeth Warren again and not think of Pocahontas. It's pretty incredible. Now, I suppose you can look at it the other way too and say Elizabeth Warren kidnapped the identity of the Cherokee people and made it her own and then told

the American people that she was something she wasn't over and over and over and over and over and over again. I guess it depends upon which side of the aisle you sit on. But in the end, Elizabeth Warren dropped out of the race last week. And when that happened, it made me think about the importance of authenticity. And what happens when you play with your own identity in the public eye, and if you get too far ahead of your skis, woe unto thee, somebody will come along. If you don't redefine yourself, somebody will come along and do it for you. that's what happened. I think Elizabeth Warren, well, her campaign collapsed for a variety of reasons,

but somewhere near the top of the list has to be a conspicuous lack of authenticity or the perception of a conspicuous lack of authenticity in politics. I don't think there's any difference, right? So that was the current event that reminded me of this story that had been brought to me a year ago by a terrific writer named Dan Piperbring. Dan was the guy that pointed out these remarkable commonalities and coincidences and juxtapositions between two seemingly disparate kidnappings that occurred 400 years apart that in fact had more in common than not. And I started reading about Pocahontas and learned a bunch of stuff I didn't know and then

reacquainted myself with the details of the Patty Hurst kidnapping. and I had to agree. This is amazing. Fundamentally, the story I wrote was the story about abduction of kidnapping, but it's also about a change of identity. And what might happen to you when you're forcibly taken from everything you know?

How do you make that better? How do you move on? In many cases, people simply become something new. Now, in Patty's case, she was taken by a creep named Donald DeFries I believe his name was. He ran the Symbionese Liberation Army back in 1974, snatched Patty when she was just 19 years old from Berkeley, tied her up, blindfolded her, threw her in a closet, kept her there for a while, told her he's going to kill her day after day.

According to Patty, at the trial, she testified that they did have their way with her in the biblical sense of the word, in every sense of the word. Now opinions vary. There's some conflicting accounts, but whatever, they took her, they held her against her will, they visited her every day, and they told her over and over and over and over and over and over again what they wanted her to believe and what they wanted her to think. Did it really take, or did she just become Tanya in order to keep herself alive insane? I don't know. I wasn't there, which is why it's such a perfect topic for the way I heard it. It's not the way it happened. It's the way I heard it. So I don't want to overreach either. But the process by which Patty became Tanya is no less

interesting than the process by which Pocahontas became Rebecca. That creep who took her, his name was Argal. John Argold. He was a colonist. And he snatched her away from her family. when she was, I think she was 16 years old back in 1613, just took her. Took her, put her on a boat, locked her below decks, and he visited her every day, every single day, day, day after day telling her the same things over and over and over and over and over and over again, trying to convert her to his view of the world. Did it really work? Did she really embrace the saving love of Jesus Christ and confront?

convert to Christianity or did she just say okay enough already I'll be Rebecca what do you want me to do hard to say also interesting according to the oral histories the uh well it said that they had their way with Pocahontas as well in the biblical sense of the word don't know if it's true wasn't there but whether they did or whether they didn't they certainly had their way with her So there was always a story there. I just didn't get around to writing it until something really kind of jogged me. And when Elizabeth Warren dropped out of the race, that fascinated me. And as I thought about the collapse of her campaign, I was reminded of the collapse of her identity or her efforts to reframe herself as someone knew or someone she wasn't.

or Donald Trump's attempts to shine a light on all of that and just turn the screws over and over and over and over and over and over again until millions of people look at Elizabeth Warren and see Pocahontas. Just as many people looked at Pocahontas and saw Rebecca and others looked at Patty Hurst and saw Tanya. Identities, fragile things as our names more important than we think, but nothing more important this day and age than authenticity. And ultimately, I think that's why the campaign in question just collapsed.

Fake news, unreliable sources, right? We're surrounded by all of that. I don't think we have any patience for any ambiguity. Anyhow, those were the ideas, the themes, the boulea base, the hot mess of stuff that was rattling around my brain pan when I sat down to write what you just heard. I hope you liked it. I'm going to write another one tomorrow, and I'll be back in a week.

to discuss the wise and the wherefores of that one as well. Till then, have a great week. By the way, the MicroWorks Work Ethics Scholarship, still available, giving away a million dollars between now and the end of March. Go get some. Go get some at microworks.org. Thank you, bye.