Patricia Hearst was a media heiress, who was brought up for a life of leisure and not having to want for anything. When she was sixteen she did her first controversial act, she started dating her 23 year old math tutor, who she later got engaged to. Her sheltered life did little to prepare her for what would soon happen.
On February 4, 1974, at the young age of 19 Patricia Hearst was kidnapped. Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) officers came to the door of Patricia Hearst and her then fiancé, Steven Weed. Steven was beat with a wine bottle and Patricia was blind folded, she then heard machine gun fire and screaming. Patricia was held in a closet, blindfolded and sexual molested. Her family received voice recordings, after a while they paid the ransom for Patricia to be set free, they received another voice recording saying, “I have been given the choice of 1) being released in a safe area or 2) join the forces of the Symbionese Liberation Army and fighting for my freedom and the freedom of all oppressed people. I have chosen to stay and fight,” (Williams, 2009).
Patty Hearst was held captive from February until April. Then after the voice message saying that she had joined the SLA and changed her name to Tania, she was believed to be a willing participant in the terrorist acts the group had committed. The first act she was a part of was robbing the Hibernia bank in San Francisco. That is when the mystery and controversy began. Was she a willing participant or was she being held at gun point? Was it Stockholm syndrome, which is described as feelings of trust or affection that occur in certain kidnapping situations? Was her gun really loaded and did she have a choice in what she was doing? Will America ever know the truth?
When ...
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...ia Hearst, it’s a win that gets over turned.
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Patty Hearst was kidnapped from the University of California at Berkeley by the SLA (Symbionese Liberation Army) when she was 19 years old. When she got kidnapped the SLA told her she had to join them or she gets hurt. She recorded an audiotape that could be heard around the world, saying that she is now part of the SLA. When she joined them, she participated in a criminal activity with the SLA in California. When she did the crime, they said that it was robbery and extortion. She took two million dollars from her father for the SLA so they could take over the world and the people.
Lussier, G 2013, /Film Interview: Sarah Polley Explains Secrets of her Brilliant Documentary ‘Stories We Tell’, Slash Film, accessed 2 May 2014,
The main characters in this story are Sheriff Lester Burdon, Kathy Nicolo, Massoud Amir Behrani, Mrs. Behrani, and their son, Esmail Behrani. Lester has a very soft spot in his heart for battered and abandoned women, an outlook that Burdon attributes to his father's having left his mothe...
The first case that I looked at was one of the most famous cases of Stockholm syndrome. Patty Hearst was kidnapped on February 4, 1974 from the apartment she shared with her boyfriend Stephen Weed. The kidnappers were Donald DeFreeze, Bill Harris, Emily Harris and Willie Wolfe. This was a well-planned combat exercise
On April 19th, 1989, Trisha Meili was the victim of violent assault, rape, and sodomy. The vicious attack left her in a coma for 12 days and The New York Times described it as “one of the most widely publicized crimes of the 1980’s.” The documentary, The Central Park Five, reveals the truth about what happened the night of April 19th, and how the subordinate group of young black boys were wrongly convicted. Analyzing the conflict theory of crime in association to the case of the central park five, understanding the way they were treated based on setting, why it was so easy for the law enforcement to pin the crime on the young black boys, and how wrongly convicting someone has great consequences along with relating it
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They released an audio tape to the public in which Patty Hearst said she was changing her name to Tania and that she had decided to join the SLA. She then helped the SLA rob a bank and steal an ammunition belt from a sports store. After this, she started travelling around the country with two members of the SLA named John and Emily Harris, to try avoid being captured by the police. During this time, the police found a house where some members of the SLA were hiding out. Attempts to make the SLA members surrender ended up in a massive gunfight, ultimately ending up in the deaths of 6 SLA members.
Cullinane, S., & London, M. (2013, November 22). UK police arrest couple suspected of holding three women captive for 30 years. CNN. Retrieved February 17, 2014, from http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/21/world/europe/uk-captivity-arrests/index.html
At first Patty Hearst refused the fact that she was being both physically and psychologically abused by the SLA group. She announced the fact that she became part of the SLA group in her free will. The journalist Paul Krassner had an interview with Patty Hearst before Patty Hearst was captured by the FBI. Patty Hearst explained that she joined the SLA because she felt that the SLA could secure her freedom. She insisted that she was not being brainwashed; everything was only to find out who she really is.”She understood that she betrayed the society’s expectation on her ,but she does not regret any of it because she thinks she should not go against what she really is. She felt like the whole life before she became a part of SLA had been wasted.
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These murder cases stayed unsolved for decades, and their resolution may give some sense of closure to the long-suffering families of the victims. But these triumphs are largely symbolic. By congratulating ourselves too much for them, we risk neglecting the challenges of the present.
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