#4 Patty Hearst

In light of the recently-passed 40th anniversary, I have decided to dedicate this blog to an exploration of the case of Patty Hearst. Patty Hearst is the granddaughter of William Randolf Hearst, the famous newspaper publisher who built the largest newspaper chain America had ever seen. Patricia was heir to his vast fortune when she was kidnapped on February 4th, 1974 at age 19. A sophomore a Berkley, Patricia was taken from her apartment where she lived with her fiancé. After the kidnapping the case went cold.
April 15th, 1974: Hibernia Bank, San Francisco, CA; 9:40am. It was a normal tax day in this San Francisco bank when the door burst open and 4 white women and 1 black man burst in shouting for everyone to hit the floor. Guns were swung around the room and two patrons were wounded as $10,000 was taken from the bank. After what the criminals thought was a clean escape, police began reviewing video surveillance from the bank. On the tape, the unlikely face of Patty Heart appeared, seeming as excited and impassioned as the rest. How did such a famous political face end up robbing her story? Her story is amazing.
Patty was taken by the Symbionese Liberation Army , a group with an agenda of instigating a revolution for the oppressed and underprivileged. They targeted Patty as a big face of the upper class political sphere to make a sure-fire impression and begin their war against the rich and famous. After taking her, Patty recounted (it should be added, after much reprogramming), they kept her in a closet and shattered every established norm of her life. Some of the techniques they employed included isolation, violation of privacy, assault, and indoctrination of creeds. When put in such a position, psychologists explained, an individual begins to reform their most fundamental foundations of existence. Patty was engrained with ideas of oppressed lower classes and malicious upper classes, in which she had been raised and had come to enjoy. Her entire personality was reprogrammed into a woman with the same agenda as the group. Her new name was Tania and she was as passionate about the SLA's cause as any other member. When her face appeared on the footage, the Attorney General issued a warrant for her arrest and she was convicted and sentenced to 7 years in prison.
A huge question in this was whether Patty Hearst could really be punished for crimes that an individual with the identity of Tania committed. Was it really Patty behind these crimes or was it really a whole new individual? It was difficult for F. Lee Baily, one of the most famous defense attorneys of the time and the one hired for Patty, to make the case for brainwashing due largely to initial testimony by Patty. In a statement just days after the robbery, she was quoted saying "As for being brainwashed, the idea is ridiculous to the point of being beyond belief." She fully considered herself a member of the SLA and saw no fault in her actions. This was what was in the minds of the jury when they convicted her.
The Story of Patty Hearst

The case of Patty Hearst brings up some serious questions about brain washing and programming of the mind. A big problem in this case was the theory that Patty was in fact brainwashed into the new identity of Tania, but was then reprogrammed (ironically, using similar methods to those of the kidnappers) back into Patty. When considered in this way, society itself must be examined for cases of brainwashing. This was a big concept brought up by the prosecution. Just because someone's values are radically changed does not mean that it is not still the individual. I was surprised by this conclusion but the evidence was impressive. The experts for the prosecution explained that although Patty was not "Patty" at the time of the crimes, the change in personality and identity does not diminish her culpability. The defense tried to argue that her new personality, which was made possible by the malleability of a mind under sever trauma, was evidence that she could not form proper criminal intent. The defense loosely tried to tie this to the insanity defense as well, but with no success. The conclusion reached by the jury was that the impressionability of the mind does not alleviate someone of guilty of they commit a crime.
The themes present in this case led me to assess many common occurrences in society. Trends such as new fashions or popular songs often become popular due to a notion known as "group think," the idea that an individual will be more willing to succumb to societal pressure and being thinking the same way as others in a group when certain pressures are exerted. Many of these, including isolation and immersion in the theories, are the same tactics used in brainwashing, just over shorter periods of time. Thought must be given to this. Are we all being constantly brainwashed by our society. Are we ever a pure version of ourselves? It seems we are not!