Editing Symbionese Liberation Army (section)

=== 1974 ===

==== Kidnapping of Patty Hearst ====
{{Main|Patty Hearst}}
After Remiro and Little were arrested, the remaining SLA members considered kidnapping an important figure in order to negotiate the release of their jailed comrades.<ref name="Guerrilla 2004">Documentary: ''Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst'', directed by [[Robert Stone (director)|Robert Stone]], 2004.</ref> The US [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] (FBI) found documents at one abandoned [[safe house]] revealing an action was planned for the "full moon of January 7". The FBI did not take any precautions, and the SLA did not act until a month later.<ref name="Guerrilla 2004"/>

On February 4, 1974, publishing heiress Patty Hearst, a sophomore at the [[University of California, Berkeley]], was abducted from her Berkeley residence at Apartment 4, 2603 Benvenue Avenue. This was less than three months after a November 1973 ''[[San Francisco Chronicle]]'' story announcing her betrothal to Steven Weed, which published their address. The SLA choice of Hearst was for maximum news coverage of their action.<ref name="movie">[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/guerrilla/index.html ''Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170320111756/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/guerrilla/index.html |date=2017-03-20 }}. [[Public Broadcasting Service|PBS]]. Retrieved on January 21, 2007.</ref>

The SLA issued an ultimatum to the Hearst family, namely, that they would release Patty in exchange for the freedom of Remiro and Little. Law enforcement rejected this. 

The SLA next demanded a ransom from the Hearsts in the form of a food distribution program. The value of food to be distributed fluctuated: on February 23 the demand was for $4 million; it peaked at $400 million. The Hearsts created an organization, People in Need, which distributed free food, though the operation was halted when violence erupted at one of the four distribution points.<ref name="Guerrilla 2004"/> The crowds were much greater than expected, and people were injured as panicked workers threw boxes of food off moving trucks into the crowd. The SLA then demanded that a community coalition called the Western Addition Project Area Committee be given charge of food distribution. The committee organized the distribution of 100,000 bags of groceries at 16 locations across four counties between February 26 and the end of March.<ref name="Toobin" /><ref>{{cite web|url=http://foundsf.org/index.php?title=The_Legacy_of_the_SLA |first=Calvin|last=Welsh|title=The Legacy of the SLA|publisher=Foundsf.org |date=1974-03-25 |access-date=2012-06-24}}</ref>

==== Conditions of early captivity of Patty Hearst ====
The FBI conducted an unsuccessful search for Hearst as the SLA took refuge in a number of safe houses. Hearst later claimed she was subjected to a series of ordeals while in SLA captivity; her mother later described these as "brainwashing". The announced change in Hearst's politics through the following months has been attributed to [[Stockholm syndrome]], a psychological response in which a hostage exhibits apparent loyalty to the abductor.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}} Hearst was later examined by specialist psychologist [[Margaret Singer]], who came to the same conclusion.

[[Terence Hallinan]], the first attorney who represented her, was planning to argue involuntary intoxication, a side effect of which is amnesia.<ref name="foundsf.org" />

Hearst's attorney [[F. Lee Bailey]] used the Stockholm syndrome argument as part of her defense at trial. He claimed that she had been confined in a closet barely large enough for her to lie down in; that her contact with the outside world was regulated by her captors; and that she was regularly threatened with execution. Hearst's lawyer said that she had been raped by both DeFreeze and Wolfe. Both men were among those who died in 1974 in a firefight with police.<ref name="foundsf.org"/> The SLA publicly claimed to be holding Hearst according to the conditions of the [[Geneva Conventions]].<ref name="Toobin" />

The SLA subjected Hearst to indoctrination in SLA ideology. In Hearst's taped recordings, used to announce demands and conditions, on day thirteen of her capture, Hearst can be heard extemporaneously expressing SLA ideology.<ref name="Guerrilla 2004"/> With each successive taped communiqué, as the group called them, Hearst expressed increasing support for the aims of the SLA. She eventually denounced her former life, her parents, and fiancé. She later claimed that at that point, when the SLA had ostensibly given her the option of being released or joining the SLA, she had believed she would be killed if she turned them down. She began using the [[nom de guerre]] "Tania", after [[Che Guevara]]'s associate "[[Tamara Bunke|Tania the Guerrillera]]".

==== Hibernia Bank robbery ====
<!-- Unsourced image removed: [[File:Hearst-hibernia.jpg|thumb|220px|Patty Hearst (right) during the April 1974 Hibernia bank robbery.]] -->
[[File:Hearst-hibernia-yell.jpg|thumb|220px|[[Patty Hearst]] (right) yelling commands at bank customers. SLA leader [[Donald DeFreeze]] can be seen to the left]]
The SLA's next action was the armed robbery of the Hibernia Bank branch at 1450 Noriega Street in San Francisco, on April 15, 1974. The group needed money and chose this site, because they wanted to make a public statement and knew it had cameras, but they shot and wounded two people in the course of the robbery.<ref name="Guerrilla 2004" />

At 10:00&nbsp;a.m., three armed SLA members rushed into the bank, including Hearst holding a rifle. Security camera footage of Hearst was carried internationally. In her memoir, ''Every Secret Thing'', she denied having participated willingly in the robbery and said she was threatened by other members. The group took more than $10,000 in the robbery.<ref name="PBS">{{cite web|date = 2005-02-16|url = https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/guerrilla/gallery/index.html|title = Gallery: The Hibernia Bank Robbery|publisher = [[Public Broadcasting Service|PBS]]|access-date = 2007-08-18|archive-date = 2007-10-15|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071015185348/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/guerrilla/gallery/index.html|url-status = dead}}</ref> 

Hearst later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to seven years in prison on charges related to this. After she served two years in prison, President [[Jimmy Carter]] commuted the remainder of her sentence. President Bill Clinton gave her an official pardon.<ref>{{Cite web|last1=Arlidge|first1=John|last2=Vulliamy|first2=Ed|date=2001-01-21|title=Clinton grants full pardon to Patty Hearst|url=http://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/jan/21/edvulliamy.johnarlidge|access-date=2021-08-15|website=The Guardian|language=en}}</ref>

==== Move to Los Angeles ====
The SLA believed it had to recruit new members and recognized that it had alienated the radical community in the Bay Area by assassinating Marcus Foster. Cinque suggested moving the organization to his former neighborhood in South Central Los Angeles, where he had friends whom they might recruit. The SLA had difficulty getting established there. They relied on commandeering housing and supplies, generating resentment among the people who protected their secrecy and security. 

At this stage, SLA member Russell Little, who was being held in jail pending a trial, said that he believed the SLA had entirely lost sight of its goals. He believed they got sidetracked into a confrontation with the Los Angeles Police Department rather than educating the public in a political dialogue.<ref name="Guerrilla 2004"/>

On May 16, 1974, William and Emily Harris entered Mel's Sporting Goods Store in the Los Angeles suburb of [[Inglewood, California]], to shop for supplies. While Emily made the purchases, Bill decided to shoplift a bandolier.<ref name="Toobin" /> When a security guard confronted him, Bill Harris brandished a revolver. The guard knocked the gun out of his hand and handcuffed William's left wrist. Hearst, on armed lookout from the group's van across the street, began shooting at the store's overhead sign. Everyone in the store but the Harrises took cover, and the couple fled the store, jumping into the van and escaping with Hearst.

The SLA abandoned the van, but because of the shoplifting and shooting, police examined the vehicle. They found a parking ticket that had the address of the group's new location (their so-called safe house.) The rest of the SLA fled that house after seeing news coverage of the shooting at the sports shop. The SLA took over a house occupied by Christine Johnson and Minnie Lewisin, at 1466 East 54th Street. Among those in the house at the time was a 17-year-old neighbor named Brenda Daniels, who was sleeping on the couch.

Daniels recalls the events that night:
{{blockquote|I went down to Minnie's every Thursday evening to play some cards and drink a little. I fell asleep early and when I woke up around two a.m. I saw four white women and three dudes—two blacks and one white. I saw guns spread out all over the floor, an' I asked them why they had guns, more than I'd ever seen in my life. They didn't answer, and, instead, the black dude asked me my name and then introduced me to everyone.

[When asked if Patty Hearst was there]
Man, how can I tell? All white women look the same to me.|Brenda Daniels<ref name="presslord" />}}

==== Police shootout ====
The next day, an anonymous phone call to the [[Los Angeles Police Department]] (LAPD) said that several heavily armed people were staying at the caller's daughter's house. That afternoon, more than 400 LAPD officers, under the command of Captain [[Mervin King]], along with FBI agents, [[Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department]] (LASD), [[California Highway Patrol]] (CHP), and [[Los Angeles Fire Department]] (LAFD), surrounded the neighborhood. The leader of a [[SWAT]] team used a bullhorn to announce, "Occupants of 1466 East 54th Street, this is the Los Angeles Police Department speaking. Come out with your hands up!"

A young child walked out, along with an older man. The man said that no one else was in the house, but the child intervened, saying there were several people and they had guns and ammunition. After several more attempts to get people to leave the house, a member of the SWAT team fired [[tear gas]] projectiles into the structure. SLA members responded with bursts of automatic gunfire, and a violent gun battle began. The police were firing semi-automatic [[AR-15–style rifle|AR-15]] and [[ArmaLite AR-18|AR-180]] rifles. The SLA members were armed with [[M1 carbine]]s that had been converted to fully automatic fire. Police also reported that the SLA had made homemade grenades from 35&nbsp;mm film canisters, and had thrown them at responding officers.

During the shootout, police continued to fire dozens of tear gas grenades into the house, attempting to force out the SLA members. About two hours into the shootout, the house caught fire, probably due to an exploding tear gas canister. As the house began to burn, two women left from the rear and one came out to the front (she had come in drunk the previous night, passed out, and woken up in the middle of the siege); all were taken into custody, but were found not to be SLA members.

Automatic weapons fire continued from the house. At this point, Nancy Ling Perry and [[Camilla Hall]] came out of the house. Police later said they fatally shot Hall in the head as she aimed a weapon toward them; Perry was shooting at them, and they shot her twice.<ref name="presslord">Bryan, John. [https://archive.org/details/thissoldierstill00brya ''This Soldier Still at War'']. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1975. {{ISBN|0-15-190060-4}}.</ref> After Hall fell to the ground, Atwood pulled her body back into the house. Perry's body remained outside the house.<ref name="courttv">{{cite web|url=http://www.courttv.com/trials/soliah/slahistory5_ctv.html|title=SLA: The shootout|date=October 12, 2001 |publisher=Court TV|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070815204928/http://www.courttv.com/trials/soliah/slahistory5_ctv.html|archive-date=2007-08-15|url-status=dead|access-date=2007-08-18|quote=Perry and Hall exited the house, but were shot by officers who concluded they were trying to kill police rather than surrender.}}</ref>

The rest died inside, from smoke inhalation, burns and gunshot wounds. The coroner's report concluded that Donald DeFreeze committed suicide by shooting himself in the side of the head. Atwood, Willie Wolfe, and Patricia Soltysik died of smoke inhalation and burns. After the shooting stopped and the fire was extinguished, police recovered 19 firearms—including rifles, pistols, and shotguns. It was one of the largest police shootouts in U.S. history with a reported total of over 9,000 rounds being fired (4,000 by the SLA and 5,000 by police). There were no casualties among law enforcement, firefighters, or civilians outside the house.

The SLA leadership was decimated: Donald DeFreeze (General Cinque), Patricia Soltysik (Mizmoon or Zoya) and Nancy Ling Perry had all died.<ref name="5whoDied"/> The other dead were also founding members: Angela Atwood ("General Gelina"), Camilla Hall ("Gabi"), and [[Willie Wolfe]] ("Kahjoh", misspelled by the media at the time as "Cujo").<ref name="cujo/kahjoh">''The Voices of Guns'', p. 286.</ref> Perry's body was outside, but the others were all found in a crawl space under the house, which had burned down around them.

Area TV stations all covered the shootout and conflagration. They took advantage of new broadcasting technology, such as smaller portable cameras that made their mobile units more nimble. Holed up in a hotel in [[Anaheim, California|Anaheim]], the Harrises and Hearst watched the siege and destruction live on TV from their room.