Hello, everyone, welcome to the latest episode of "The Abyss", I'm Obuchi. The case we are going to talk about today is the "mutation" case of Hearst's granddaughter, which tells the story of a 19-year-old girl who will inherit hundreds of millions of family property and become a terrorist because of a kidnapping. This story is full of legends and is still talked about today.
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The case is divided into four parts, the first is the history of Patricia's grandfather William Randolph Hirst, the second is the kidnapping process, the third is Patricia's transformation from victim to terrorist, and finally how Patricia shortened her 35-year sentence to 22 months.
The first is the history of the fortunes of William Randolph Hirst, who was born in 1-8-6-3 years, was the founder of The Hearst International Group, and the world's largest newspaper king in the 20th century, and was known as the "Hitler of the Press" by constantly publishing "Yellow News" in his own newspaper, the San Francisco Examiner.
The "yellow news" here is called "yellow journalism", which does not refer to vulgar pornographic content, it refers to the use of extreme exaggeration and fabrication of plot to render news events, and then achieve the purpose of expanding newspaper sales. With his yellow journalism, Hearst was notorious in the newspaper industry, but he also had a profound impact on the history of the world's news media, and his entire family, dominated by him, accumulated billions of dollars.
But just as Hearst was reveling in his brilliant achievements, in January 1-9-7-4, his 19-year-old granddaughter Patricia was kidnapped. Through the Hearst family, the SLA kidnappers demanded that the U.S. government release the murderer who murdered the headmaster of the Oakland school at the time, or Hearst Hugh would have wanted to see his precious granddaughter, but the government refused.
The kidnappers, seeing that this did not work, offered a second quid pro quo, demanding that the Hearst family hand over a high ransom of $4 million, but strangely enough, the kidnappers demanded that the ransom be exchanged for food, which was then distributed to the people of california at the bottom, worth $70 each.
As soon as the news came out, the entire American lower society praised the kidnappers, but the upper class was in an uproar. Although Hirst did everything as requested, the kidnappers did not release Patricia. According to the investigation, the SLA had opposed the Vietnam War and advocated the acquisition of democracy through violence, so in the face of the trump card of Patricia so good, how could SLA easily let go, and secretly left Patricia in the group, so that the outside world believed that Patricia was brutally killed.
However, on April 3, just two months after the kidnapping, SLA Group released a tape recorded by Patricia herself. In the tape, Patricia called her grandfather's donation of $4 million an act of hypocrisy, threatening to sever ties with the Hearst family, joining the SLA Group, changing her name to "Tania", "Tania" in English, and confessing to falling in love with one of the SLA group members.
On April 15, 1-9-7-4, a bank at 1450 Noriega Street in San Francisco photographed Patricia holding an M1 carbine, but Patricia's face during surveillance was very uneasy and looked helpless, and FBI agents investigated and found that SLA members had pointed a gun at Patricia during the bank robbery. Then, on May 16, Patricia and SLA members show up at a Los Angeles sporting goods store in an attempt to rescue an SLA member who is believed to be a thief.
From hundreds of millions of heirs to victims, and then from victims to members of the SLA crime syndicate, such a dramatic story became the headline of the American media at that time. The U.S. industry even ironically uses the sensationalism that the Tess newspaper industry excels at to report on Patricia's story. It's a bit like the headline ridiculed by netizens: Shocked, after a 19-year-old woman was kidnapped, she actually did such a thing with members of a criminal group...
Since Patricia appeared in the public eye with a gun, the FBI changed the search warrant to a wanted warrant, listed Patricia as one of the top ten wanted criminals, and began a 19-month long hunt for her. Later, in a shootout between police and SLA Group, Los Angeles police killed the leader of the SLA Group, and Patricia, who took the opportunity to escape, was captured by the FBI in California.
In the face of the FBI's interrogation, Patricia said that after she was kidnapped, the SLA mentally brainwashed her and coerced her into participating in multiple robbery terrorist activities. Patricia's defense attorneys believed that this was indeed the case, such as the aforementioned San Francisco bank robbery in which Patricia was pointed at gunpoint by several SLA members, as if to force her to participate in the crime. Defense attorneys also defended her with Stockholm syndrome, but the jury did not accept the opinion, and presiding judge Carter prepared to sentence Patricia to 35 years in prison.
Coincidentally, due to the death of Judge Carter, the new Judge William changed the time to 7 years. Patricia was later pardoned by the President of the United States and released from prison after serving only 22 months in prison. 2-0-0-1 U.S. President Bill Clinton also dropped all her charges. From the 35-year sentence to the dismissal of the charges, we can see how influential the Hearst family is.
After her release from prison, Patricia married her bodyguard, Bernard Shaw, and after the marriage, she took care of her two children, did charity, attended cocktail parties, and even began to enter the entertainment industry. In the films of the 90s of the last century, she is often seen playing soy sauce. It has to be said that Patricia's life is in the legend.