On this date in 1974, 19 year old heiress Patty Hearst was kidnapped from her Berkley, CA apartment by members of the Symbionese Liberation Army. The following April, she was photographed holding a weapon during a San Francisco bank robbery. She was eventually arrested in September of 1975. She would later claim she was brainwashed by the SLA. The jury at her trial didn’t buy it, and she was convicted and sentenced to 35 years in prison. Her sentence was eventually commuted to 7 years, and she was granted a pardon in 2001.
Further reading:
Wikipedia – Patty Hearst
Nobody Move! 
Reblogged this on Brittius.com.
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Thank you, sir.
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You’re welcome.
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Reblogged this on Self Reliance.
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Thanks.
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I think this case was the one that brought public attention in the US to Stockholm Syndrome.
Although I’ve always been suspicious of that. Has there ever been a guy with Stockholm Syndrome?
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Absolutely. In fact, Stockholm Syndrome can work both ways, with the hostage-taker actually bonding with his victim. In grad school, I took a course called Crisis Negotiation. It cited cases where hostage takers couldn’t bring themselves to kill their hostages because they had become emotionally bonded. If you ever find yourself taken hostage, it’s better to try establish a positive relationship with your captors. An antagonistic relationship (or no relationship at all) makes it easier for them to dehumanize you in their minds. That makes it easier to kill you when the time comes. Food for thought.
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“If you ever find yourself taken hostage, it’s better to try establish a positive relationship with your captors.”
But, it makes for less heroic films and TV shows and takes away the snappy one-liners.
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True dat! 😀
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John D.:
Don’t hear much about the SLA these days…do we?
(got too many other radical loons wanting to off us as it is)
I hear she’s behavin’ herself these days, too.
(has it been THAT long already?)
Good story.
Stay safe.
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Yeah, it seems she’s managed to put her life back together. Hard to believe it’s been 40 years already. I remember this story being in the news. Makes me feel old(er). 😀
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I believe the brainwashing.
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I’m kind of on the fence about it. She was with the SLA constantly, so there was ample opportunity to reinforce any conditioning they had done to her. Then again, she could have been in on it from the get-go. But I guess we’ll never know for certain.
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Forty years?? Wow….
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Yeah, kinda makes me feel old.
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