February 2010
by Thomas L. Libby

On February 4, 1974, three self-styled revolutionaries seeking an overthrow of the "capitalist state" abducted a surprised 19-year-old UC Berkeley sophomore from her apartment, threw her in the trunk of a car, and sped away. It was the opening scene of one of the most sensational legal dramas in U.S. history.

The captors—members of the Symbionese Liberation Army—wanted to exchange young newspaper heiress Patty Hearst for millions of dollars in food donations. But later, images of Hearst holding a gun and robbing the Hibernia Bank in San Francisco put her role in a much different light.

As "Tania" (her new nom de guerre), Hearst was among the FBI's Ten Most Wanted before her capture in 1975. Her trial, before U.S. District Judge Oliver J. Carter, would prove to be more sensational than her kidnapping: Was Hearst a victim, or a willing accomplice? Legendary defense attorney F. Lee Bailey argued that 59 days of being blindfolded and abused essentially brainwashed Hearst into becoming sympathetic with her captors in a classic case of Stockholm Syndrome.

The jury didn't buy it (see United States v. Hearst, 466 F. Supp. 1068, 1071–1072 (N. D. Cal. 1978)), but the public did. President Jimmy Carter commuted her seven-year sentence in 1979. Twenty-two years later, President Bill Clinton granted Hearst a full pardon.