--- born: 1943-11-15 category: Key Figures created: 2026-06-03 died: 1974-05-17 location: Los Angeles, California summary: Leader of the Symbionese Liberation Army, a career criminal and LAPD informant who was recruited at Vacaville prison by CIA psychological warfare specialist Colston Westbrook before escaping Soledad and launching a campaign of political violence. tags: - Person - MKULTRA - CIA - SLA updated: 2026-06-03 --- Donald David DeFreeze, also known as "General Field Marshal Cinque Mtume," was the leader of the [Symbionese Liberation Army](/organizations/symbionese-liberation-army/) (SLA). Born November 15, 1943, DeFreeze was a career criminal and informant for the LAPD who emerged from the California penal system's [Vacaville](/places/vacaville/) Medical Facility, where he had been during the time of the [MKULTRA](/programs/project-mkultra/) experiments. At Vacaville, DeFreeze came under the tutelage of [Colston Westbrook](/people/colston-westbrook/), a [CIA](/organizations/central-intelligence-agency/) psychological warfare specialist who ran the [Black Cultural Association](/organizations/black-cultural-association/) at the facility. Westbrook enlisted DeFreeze into the organization, which connected white radical leftist students from Berkeley with Black prisoners.[^1] ### Escape and SLA Formation DeFreeze, an armed robber, had obtained early release from Vacaville by performing a "favor" for prison authorities, a reference to submitting to psychiatric experiments, before eventually being transferred to Soledad Prison from which he escaped on March 5, 1973, and formed the SLA in the Berkeley, [California](/places/california/) area later that year. The SLA was a radical left-wing group that committed a series of violent acts including assassination, kidnapping, and bank robbery. [^1] ### The Marcus Foster Assassination The SLA went public with the assassination of African-American Oakland school superintendent Dr. [Marcus Foster](/people/marcus-foster/) on November 6, 1973. Foster was the first African-American superintendent of Oakland's public schools. The SLA claimed they killed him over a proposed student ID card program they characterized as a surveillance tool. Two weeks earlier, a neo-Nazi group had issued a flyer predicting Foster's death. "Black men" were witnessed scurrying from the scene, but the arrested shooters were white. Blackface makeup was discovered in their apartments.[^1] ### The Patty Hearst Kidnapping On February 4, 1974, the SLA kidnapped newspaper heiress [Patty Hearst](/people/patty-hearst/) from her Berkeley apartment. On April 3, 1974, Hearst announced she was joining the SLA and took the name "Tania." She participated in a bank robbery on April 15, 1974, one of the most widely publicized crimes of the era. Hearst was later arrested, convicted, and sentenced to seven years in prison, though President [Jimmy Carter](/people/jimmy-carter/) commuted her sentence after two years.[^1] ### Death On May 17, 1974, DeFreeze and five other SLA members were killed during a police siege of a [Los Angeles](/places/los-angeles/) safe house. The confrontation was one of the first major televised police operations in American history and resulted in the burning of the building.[^1] [^1]: Curt Rowlett, "Project Mind Kontrol: Did the U.S. Government Actually Create Programmed Assassins?," Steamshovel Press #16, 1998.