Bill Harris, who helped kidnap newspaper heiress Patty Hearst in the 1970s, dead at 81

NY Post ^ | 10/07/2026 | Richard Pollina

[DFG]

A member of the radical domestic terrorist group that kidnapped newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst has died at the age of 81.

Bill Harris died of a heart attack at a San Francisco hospital on Sept. 10, his wife, Rebecca Young, told the New York Times on Tuesday.

Harris, who was born in Fort Sill, Okla., served in Vietnam as a Marine before enrolling at Indiana University after returning home.

There, he joined Vietnam Veterans Against the War, moved steadily to the left and met his first wife, Emily Schwartz, a fellow student from an affluent Chicago suburb who was also embracing far-left politics. They married in 1971, the outlet reported.

The couple later moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, where they joined the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) — a violent far-left group that had gained notoriety in 1973 for assassinating Oakland schools superintendent Marcus Foster — and helped plan the Hearst kidnapping.

Harris, by then a top lieutenant in the SLA, was thrust into the national spotlight after he and two others broke into Hearst’s Berkeley, Calif., apartment on Feb. 4, 1974, and dragged her away in a violent struggle, stuffing her into the trunk of a Chevrolet Impala, according to the FBI.

Hearst, then a 19-year-old UC Berkeley sophomore, was the granddaughter of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, the inspiration for “Citizen Kane.”

At first, the group branded Hearst a “prisoner of war” and made no ransom demand, but later called on her family to bankroll a sweeping food giveaway for the poor across California.

“Patricia Hearst was a symbolic target,” Harris later said of why the group chose her, according to the New York Times.

[chopperk]

With Harris gone, the World will be a better place.

[SmokingJoe]

“Patty Hearst went to prison because America was not going to let her get away with what her father stood for.”

Crazy post of the day?
Yup.
She went to prison because she took part in a massive armed bank robbery in which she was heavily armed.
Stockholm Syndrome huh?
Don’t make me laugh.
You Democrats are nuts!

[Paladin2]

Good. The World seems to be going to heck, so we could use getting at least a minor plus for the day.

[SmokingJoe]

Grok:

Jimmy Carter commuted her sentence in January 1979 (after she had served about 21–22 months), allowing her early release, but the full presidential pardon that formally erased the conviction was granted by Clinton on his last day in office.

[lee martell]

I read Patty Hearst’s memoir of her life up to that time.
It was a fascinating read. Especially if you grew up during that time, listening to the news networks reporting of this tale. “Every Secret Thing”.

As far as I know, after she served her time in jail, Patty was more or less accepted back into that high society of San Francisco from which she came.
Patty explained in court that she had been brainwashed, and, post trial, had not reached out to her parents right away, because she thought they would never want to see her again, after all the cruel things she was made to say about her family.

[Zathras]

SLA was Americans version of the RAF.
Both popped up at the same time and murder was their methodology.

[ChildOfThe60s]

Even after all these years I’ve not quite made up my mind whether she should have been sent to prison. It was pretty wild at those days. And I don’t think most people truly understand the psychology involved with a kidnap victim. Especially when their whole purpose was brainwashing her.

[bunkerhill7]

They also blew up PG&E substations.

[ansel12]

“”””Even after all these years I’ve not quite made up my mind whether she should have been sent to prison. It was pretty wild at those days. And I don’t think most people truly understand the psychology involved with a kidnap victim. Especially when their whole purpose was brainwashing her.””””

A valid view, no one knows for sure how much she endured or how much the little rich girl could handle from such passionate and intense nut cases with guns, I didn’t mind the prison sentence though, she still had to face consequences and we didn’t trust if her defense was real or not.

For those who don’t know about the events, here is a description of her after she was turned.
“”At the time of her arrest, Hearst’s weight had dropped to 87 pounds (40 kg), and she was described by psychologist Margaret Singer in October 1975 as “a low-IQ, low-affect zombie”. Shortly after her arrest, doctors recorded signs of trauma: her IQ was measured as 112, whereas it had previously been 130; there were huge gaps in her memory regarding her pre-Tania life; she was smoking heavily and had nightmares.
Without a mental illness or defect, a person is considered to be fully responsible for any criminal action not done under duress, which is defined as a clear and present threat of death or serious injury. For Hearst to secure an acquittal on the grounds of having been brainwashed would have been completely unprecedented.””

[alexander_busek]

52 years later the Symbionese still haven’t been liberated. They don’t even have observer status at the UN

I took a correspondence language course in "Introductory Symbionese," but even after six months still had difficulty in ordering a beer or delivering a three-hour harangue on the "evils of Capitalism."

Seriously: They were all sociopathic killers and deserved to be put down like dogs.

Regards,

[Dr. Sivana]

SLA was Americans version of the RAF.

The Royal Air Force?

[Verginius Rufus]

Yes, a bunch of sociopaths. The Oakland superintendent whom they murdered was a black man and apparently doing a good job, in no way deserving of being killed.

In 1973 I lived for a short time one block over from where Patty Hearst was kidnapped, but had moved elsewhere by 1974.

[DIRTYSECRET]

**Jimmy Carter commuted her sentence in January 1979 (after she had served about 21–22 months), allowing her early release, but the full presidential pardon that formally erased the conviction was granted by Clinton on his last day in office.**
I’ll give you that one. I had her confused with Tokyo Rose.

**She went to prison because she took part in a massive armed bank robbery in which she was heavily armed.
Stockholm Syndrome huh? Don’t make me laugh. You Democrats are nuts!**
She was scared to death, repeatedly raped-naive too. 19 years old. Give her a break.

[alexander_busek]

In 1973 I lived for a short time one block over from where Patty Hearst was kidnapped, but had moved elsewhere by 1974.

Attended the same HS as SLA co-founder "Tania" (nom de guerre of Nancy Ling Perry), though only after she had already died in a hail of bullets.

Nancy Ling was born in San Francisco in 1947 to an upper-middle-class family. [...] was a cheerleader. She also served as a Sunday school teacher at her church. In 1964, she was a campaign worker for Barry Goldwater [and] also involved in Job's Daughters. She began university at Whittier College [...] but transferred to the University of California, Berkeley.

At Berkeley she majored in English. Ling met Black jazz musician Gilbert Perry when he was working for a state employment office, and the couple were married December 26, 1967. Married for six years, they had a relationship described as a "love-hate affair". It ended when Gilbert left Nancy, but she remained deeply interested in black culture d*ck. [...] worked as a topless blackjack dealer in San Francisco. During this period, she was deeply involved in using psychedelic drugs and amphetamines.

Perry became politically active and joined other students serving in a university-sponsored prisoner outreach program through the Black Cultural Association (BCA) at Vacaville Prison. The program was organized by Colston Westbrook, a professor at University of California, Berkeley. At Vacaville, Perry formed a relationship with black inmate Donald DeFreeze, who was active at the prison. He was given permission to see her in conjugal visits. This was unusual, as authorities generally authorized such visits only for married couples. - Wikipedia

So, a "two-fer": both a coal-burner and a hybristophile.

Regards,

[Fedora]

VVAW ping.