The Polaroid color photograph might have been the cover of a paperback thriller—or a recruiting poster for the revolutionary left. But the comely, wholesome-looking girl holding a submachine gun was Patricia Hearst, and an accompanying tape recording of her voice carried a bizarre message: Patty, 20, had decided to forsake her millionaire parents and join the fanatics who kidnaped her two months ago.
"I have been given the choice of being released in a safe area, or joining the forces of the Symbionese Liberation Army and fighting for my freedom and the freedom of all oppressed people," Patty announced. "I have chosen to stay and fight."
Patty's statement came just when the bewildering series of events surrounding her abduction in Berkeley, Calif., seemed to be moving toward a happy conclusion. At the direction of the S.L.A., the Hearst family and the Hearst Foundation (which supports medical charities) had given $2 million worth of food to the needy in the San Francisco Bay area. To demonstrate his seriousness, Hearst early last week persuaded the Hearst Corp., which controls eight newspapers and eleven magazines, to put an additional $4 million into an escrow account, where it was to be held for the S.L.A. until his daughter's release.
Within hours, there was encouraging news: the S.L.A. announced that the time and place of Patty's release would be disclosed in the next three days. The Hearsts were elated. "We believe that the communication is genuine," said Hearst. The blow came the next day: the release to a radio station of Patty's picture and her belligerent tape recording.
Stunned Parents. There was a hard edge to Patty's voice as she declared: "Dad, you said that you were concerned with my life, and you also said you were concerned with the life and interests of all oppressed people in this country. But you are a liar in both areas, and I know for sure that your and Mom's interests are never the interests of the people." Attacking white society, she said that she had learned how "vicious the pig really is." She added: "Our comrades are teaching me to attack with even greater viciousness, in the knowledge that the people will win."
Though Patty insisted on the tape that she had not been "brainwashed, drugged, tortured, hypnotized or in any way confused," her stunned parents refused to believe that she had not been coerced into siding with the S.L.A. Nor would they believe that their daughter, who had been genuinely close to them both, could intentionally cause them such grief. Said Mrs. Hearst: "Only Patty in person can convince me that the terrible, weary words that she uttered came from her heart and were delivered by her own free will."
Hearst added that he had assumed that the S.L.A. had been going to release his daughter, as promised. Said he: "I've guessed wrong on the S.L.A. all along. I think they're just cruel people."