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The robbery dropped a few clues into the hands of FBI agents, who had been frustrated by lack of information about the S.L.A. and its members. But it did not seem to bring the harassed agency any closer to solving the case. The FBI has not located any hideout of the band. If it does, it must decide whether to try to rescue Patty or wait for her release, as the bureau has done in every kidnaping case it has handled. If agents do go in after her, Kelley promised that they would be cautious. "We're not in the position of assassinating anyone," he said, "but we have some other things in mind for them." ,
As was true of the few other known S.L.A. hit-and-run forays, the bank robbery was apparently meticulously planned and coolly and professionally executed. Police believe that the bank had been carefully cased beforehand, presumably by some of the women because they would be less likely to be recognized. On the crystalline morning of the holdup, the bandits drove into the Sunset district, a neighborhood of middie-class homes and small businesses, in a green Ford station wagon. They were followed by four other S.L.A. members in a red Hornet sports car. The bank opened at 9 a.m., and at 9:50, the five marched into the bank building. They were identified by the FBI as Patty Hearst, Patricia ("Mizmoon") Soltysik, 24, Nancy Ling Perry, 27, Camilla Hall, 29, and the band's ostensible leader, Donald DeFreeze, 30, who styles himself General Field Marshal Cinque.
Carefully Centered. With military precision, DeFreeze disarmed Bank Guard Ed Shea, 66, at the door and ordered the 20 or so bank employees and six customers to lie face down. Patty Hearst stood 40 feet away, toward the center of the bank lobby-and carefully centered before the cameras-while Camilla Hall positioned herself at the far end of the bank (see diagram). All three covered the victims with their carbines while Perry and Soltysik took the keys from the tellers, unlocked the cash drawers and scooped up $10,960.
As the robbers moved out of the bank, one of them-police believe it was DeFreeze-theatrically and unnecessarily opened fire through the bank's glass door. The bullets hit two men passing by outside, Peter Markoff, 59, and Eugene Brennan, 70, and both received severe stomach wounds. Once outside the bank, DeFreeze fired again, at Pharmacist Ken Outlander, 62, but missed. The bandits raced away in the station wagon, their escape covered by the four accomplices in the Hornet. Police and FBI agents could not identify the four people—either four men or three men and a woman—but believed that some were among the five S.L.A. members sought in Patty's abduction. They are Angela Atwood, 25, Emily Harris, 27, and her husband William, 29, Thero Wheeler, 29, and William Wolfe, 22.
To investigators, the robbery had all the earmarks of a macabre publicity stunt, staged principally to demonstrate that the S.L.A. has tightened its grip on the millionaire's daughter. The gang did not shoot out the cameras that recorded their moves and made certain that the witnesses knew that Tania-Patty was with them. Moreover, investigators have turned up no evidence that the terrorist organization was running short of cash. Said one federal law enforcement official: "The S.L.A. feeds on publicity, and its appetite is