Before Nancy Guthrie Case, Patty Hearst Kidnapping Captured Headlines
It's unusual for celebrities' family members to be kidnapped and held for ransom. However, before Nancy Guthrie's disappearance transfixed the nation and drew true-crime sleuths to Tucson, the granddaughter of a famous newspaper publisher was abducted a state away.
The kidnapping of Patty Hearst, the heiress from a powerful newspaper family, came to a stunning conclusion, of course, when she re-emerged wielding a rifle during a bank robbery.
Although the motive for Guthrie's abduction is not clear, Hearst was "kidnapped by a group of armed radicals that billed themselves as the Symbionese Liberation Army, or SLA," the FBI reported. "Hearst was from a wealthy, powerful family; her grandfather was the newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst. The SLA’s plan worked and worked well: the kidnapping stunned the country and made front-page national news."
According to EBSCO, "During her 57 days of captivity, Hearst was subjected to psychological manipulation and abuse, leading her to adopt the SLA's ideology and eventually participate in a bank robbery alongside her captors."
Patty Hearst Was a College Student When She Was Kidnapped
(Photo by Vince Flores/Variety via Getty Images)
According to the FBI, Hearst, then a college student living in an apartment in Berkeley, CA, was kidnapped on the evening of February 4, 1974.
The kidnappers knocked on the door, and then, in "burst a group of men and women with their guns drawn. They grabbed a surprised 19-year-old college student named Patty Hearst, beat up her fiancé, threw her in the trunk of their car and drove off," the FBI wrote.
They had a clear mission: "Led by a hardened criminal named Donald DeFreeze, the SLA wanted nothing less than to incite a guerrilla war against the U.S. government and destroy what they called the 'capitalist state.' Their ranks included women and men, blacks and whites, and anarchists and extremists from various walks in life."
"They were, in short, a band of domestic terrorists," the FBI wrote. "And dangerous ones. They’d already shot two Oakland school officials with cyanide-tipped bullets, killing one and seriously wounding the other."
As with Guthrie, ransom demands were made, but, in this case, for food donations.
The SLA Demanded 'Millions of Dollars in Food Donations' for Patty Hearst's Release
According to the FBI, "Soon after her disappearance, the SLA began releasing audiotapes demanding millions of dollars in food donations in exchange for her release. At the same time, they apparently began abusing and brainwashing their captive, hoping to turn this young heiress from the highest reaches of society into a poster child for their coming revolution."
As with Guthrie, a massive search was ignited. "The FBI had launched one of the most massive, agent-intensive searches in its history to find Hearst and stop the SLA," the FBI noted.
(Photo by Interim Archives/Getty Images)
"A break came in Los Angeles. On May 16, two SLA members tried to steal an ammunition belt from a local store and were nearly caught. The getaway van was discovered, which led authorities to an SLA safe house," the FBI wrote. "The next day, the house was surrounded by L.A. police. A massive shootout ensued. The building went up in flames; six members of the SLA died in the blaze, including DeFreeze."
Hearst wasn't there. She and several others "had escaped and began traveling around the country to avoid capture. FBI agents, though, were close behind. We finally captured her in San Francisco on September 18, 1975, and she was charged with bank robbery and other crimes," wrote the FBI.
AFP PHOTO (Photo credit should read AFP/AFP via Getty Images)
"Her trial was as sensational as the chase. Despite claims of brainwashing, the jury found her guilty, and she was sentenced to seven years in prison," the FBI wrote. "Hearst served two years before President Carter commuted her sentence. She was later pardoned."
Where Is Patty Hearst Now?
Where is Hearst today? "Since her release from prison, Patty Hearst has led a somewhat normal life. In David Patrick Columbia’s New York Social Diary she is described as a lovely, sweet soft-spoken personality, devoted mother (two daughters Lydia and Gillian), sister, daughter and wife," according to the site, Famous Trials.
"Now, Mrs. Hearst-Shaw lives in New York and Connecticut with her former bodyguard husband, Bernard Shaw and their two daughters."
She has written books and appeared in movies and on television, the site reports.