Patty Hearst

Patricia Campbell Hearst, born February 20, 1954, was the granddaughter of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst. On February 4, 1974, she was kidnapped from her Berkeley, California, apartment by the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), a radical group led by Donald DeFreeze, a career criminal and LAPD informant who had been recruited at Vacaville prison by CIA psychological warfare specialist Colston Westbrook. The kidnapping of a newspaper heiress by a group with documented intelligence connections made the case one of the most scrutinized criminal episodes of the twentieth century.¹²

Captivity and Indoctrination

Hearst was held blindfolded in a small closet for 57 days, subjected to intense political indoctrination, repeated death threats, and physical and sexual abuse by SLA members. Her weight dropped to 87 pounds during captivity. On April 3, 1974, Hearst released an audiotape announcing she had adopted the name "Tania" and would "stay and fight" with the SLA. Psychologist Margaret Singer later described her as a "low-IQ, low-affect zombie" whose tested IQ had dropped from 130 to 112. Psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton pronounced her a "classic case" of coerced prisoner indoctrination.²

The Hibernia Bank Robbery

On April 15, 1974, Hearst was captured on surveillance footage participating in the Hibernia Bank robbery in San Francisco, wielding an M1 carbine and shouting "I'm Tania. Up, up, up against the wall, motherfuckers!" Two men were shot and wounded during the robbery. Whether Hearst acted under genuine duress or authentic ideological conversion became a matter of intense public and legal debate.¹²

Remote Viewing Investigation

During the search for Hearst, the Berkeley police asked Pat Price, a psychic at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI), to assist; Price attempted to locate her by remote viewing but was unsuccessful.³

Arrest and Trial

Hearst was arrested on September 18, 1975, in San Francisco. Her trial began January 15, 1976. She was convicted of bank robbery on March 20, 1976, and initially sentenced to 35 years, later reduced to 7 years. The legal system did not fully accept the brainwashing defense, though the psychological evidence supporting it was substantial.²

DeFreeze, Westbrook, and the SLA's Intelligence Origins

The SLA that kidnapped Hearst was led by Donald DeFreeze, who had been recruited at Vacaville by Colston Westbrook, an employee of CIA proprietary Pacific Architects and Engineers. The kidnapping and subsequent media spectacle served to create public fear of radical left-wing organizations at a time when the CIA was running Operation CHAOS and the FBI was conducting COINTELPRO operations against domestic political movements. Whether Hearst's apparent brainwashing was genuine or the product of techniques developed through MKULTRA-connected research has been debated by researchers.¹

Release and Pardon

President Jimmy Carter commuted Hearst's sentence on February 1, 1979, after she had served 22 months. On January 20, 2001, President Bill Clinton granted her a full presidential pardon on his last day in office.²