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Patty maintained that she could remember little that happened while she was on the run after the bank robbery. There was no mention in her account of times or places, such as the apartment in San Francisco, where her underground name, Tania, was found in May 1974 signed to a fiery slogan written on a wall: "Patria O Muerte, Venceremos" (Fatherland or death, we shall overcome). She maintained that she was living in a "fog" and a "perpetual state of terror." Then, recently, she began to experience "lucid intervals," and, wanting to get in touch with her parents, returned to San Francisco. But she was so disoriented that she had not been able to make contact with her family. The first realization that she had been living in a "fantasy world" came after her arrest when "her mother, her father and her sisters hugged and kissed her." Now, concluded the affidavit, "she is completely convinced of the love and affection of her family and that she will find safety and comfort in its midst . . . She needs help and counseling to restore herself to complete sanity and to the life that she led before the terrible experience which she underwent at the hands of this criminal gang."
Introducing the affidavit, Patty's defense was telling the prosecution the general lines of its strategy in the federal and state cases. Says Attorney Vincent Hallinan, the leader of the defense team: "We did something unusual, honest and straightforward. We put the whole defense before the prosecution stated what they were trying to prove." In an interview, Judge Carter said: "The average public doesn't believe one thing she says in that affidavit. But I, for one, intend to look at it and take it on an evidentiary basis."
The affidavit foreshadowed three possible defenses:
ONE: DURESS. The defense could plead that Patty had acted under unusual duress or coercion. But to make this claim stand up, the defense would have to show that she never had an opportunity to escape. The prosecution has evidence that she passed up at least one good chance. On May 16, 1974, authorities maintain, Patty took part in a bizarre shoplifting incident at a Los Angeles sporting-goods store. When William Harris, one of her companions in arms, was detected stealing a pair of 490 socks, Patty was seen outside alone in the parked car. She is charged with spraying the building with automatic-rifle fire to cover Harris' escape. At the jail, after Patty had been captured by the FBI and clearly was under no duress, she listed her occupation as "unemployed urban guerrilla." Last week she changed that to "no occupation."