Patty Hurst

Greetings everyone!  Today's "Memorable Character" story is different and a little more serious than usual...I hope that you find it of interest. Thanks to Cindy for helping me with some of the nearly fifty year old details....Bill

Memorable Character

PATTY HEARST - Fugitive

Patty Hearst was on the run in May of 1974 after being kidnapped by members of the Symbionese Liberation Army from her Berkeley apartment, held captive, and apparently being a willing participant in the robbery of a Hibernia Bank branch in San Francisco. Along with William Harris, nineteen year old Hearst showed up again a few months later in a botched robbery of a Mel’s Sporting Goods store and the car jacking two vehicles and the abduction of their owners. Responding quickly, police surrounded the headquarters of the Los Angeles branch of the SLA that ultimately ended in the death of six members in a nationally televised gun fight, siege and fire. Initially it was believed that they had died in the inferno, however Hearst and Harris had not returned to Los Angeles and became national high profile fugitives with “sightings” constantly in the news.

I was commuting to work in Belmont from Fremont in the 1970’s in my Maverick and normally parked our older Ford Falcon station wagon in the street in front of the house. On this particular Saturday morning I was preparing to make a trip to the dumps when I noticed that the back seat had already been lowered and it appeared that something, or someone, was rolled up in a blanket in the back of the wagon with what looked like only the top of heads showing. With my heart pounding I slowly opened the tailgate to investigate and at that very moment, and as terrified as I was, two persons sat up straight, scrambled from the car and took off running up the street.

It turned out that the startled duo sleeping in the Falcon were not Hearst and Harris after all, but a local young couple that had likely had been to a nearby party and rather than drive home, decided to curl up in the back of our conveniently unlocked station wagon. Patty Hearst was finally tracked down and captured in September of 1975 and was initially sentenced to serve 35 years in federal prison. However after several trials and a brief parole her sentence was commuted by President Carter and in 2001 she was pardoned by Bill Clinton. And for a few anxious moments on a Saturday morning in 1975 I was totally convinced that I had crossed paths with the elusive Patty Hurst.          -Bill