Patty Hearst: Victim or Felon?

THE FOLLOWING IS AN UPDATED TIM MOORE BLOG:

It was on this date 37 years ago that we first heard the name Patricia Hearst. On February 4, 1974, the 19 year-old media heiress captured headlines in her family’s newspapers as well as those across the world with word of her kidnapping.

An unknown group identified as the Symbionese Liberation Army claimed responsibility—and what unfolded over the next months and years became a bizarre tale of crime, brainwashing and perhaps…betrayal.

Patty, at the center of it all, fluctuated from being a victim to a participant in the revolutionary endeavors of the SLA. Never has the public been so confused as to the guilt or innocence of an individual as was the case with Patty Hearst. From sympathetic concern to uncertainty to conviction that she was part of the plot---all of these emotions swirled as public sentiment swung wildly with each news report. Her arrest in September of 1975 did little to settle the details of her captivity and subsequent participation in a crime caught on tape

To this day, many people frankly don’t know WHAT to believe. Neither do I, but I find the entire case fascinating.

I had the pleasure this week of meeting famed attorney F. Lee Bailey in my office here at 94.9 WHOM/Citadel Broadcasting. Bailey has returned to Maine and is currently in the process of launching a consultancy and a mediation/arbitration business in the state. Our meeting focused on the possible marketing of those businesses—but I must admit the temptation to quiz Bailey about some of his famous cases was almost too much to bear. I withstood the urge. Bailey was Patty Hearst’s attorney—and I can only imagine how unusual it must have been to defend the victim of a kidnapping who seemed to be a willing participant in a bank robbery.

Bizarre!

From her abduction to her arrest, trial and conviction for bank robbery—to her release and subsequent Presidential pardon, Patty Hearst has been a mystery, en enigma.

Here are three videos you may find interesting:

A) News report a few days after her abduction in 1974
B) Bank footage of Patty during a robbery
C) Her appearance a couple of years ago on Larry King Live






http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4K-BHQqDo0



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p05xGAvTjIg




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NV9AGvfN13M&feature=related


So….do you have an opinion? Was she a victim brainwashed by her captors—or did she evolve into a willing member of the SLA? Did she deserve to go to prison—or conversely, did she deserve a pardon?

We’ll probably never know the truth—and I doubt there will ever be a case even remotely similar.

If you’d like my blog in your weekday box, drop me a line: tim.moore@citcomm.com