The Dollop with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds - 85 - The Symbionese Liberation Army

Episode Date: June 1, 2015

Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds discuss the origin and the end of the 70's Symbionese Liberation Army.SourcesTour DatesRedbubble MerchPatreon

When you're staying at an Airbnb you might be like me wondering could my place be an Airbnb and if it could what could it earn? You could be sitting on an Airbnb and not even know it. That in-law sweet guest house where your parents stay only part-time Airbnb it and make some money the rest of the year whether you could use a little extra money to cover some bills or for something a little more fun. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at Airbnb.ca slash host. I hope they can hear I hope of the listeners could hear the birds in the background. We should just say that we like hired a

sound effects guy. Yeah we got a we got a fully artist out here he's doing birds. Yeah. You're listening to the dollop. Each week I read a story from American history to my friend. Gareth Reynolds who has no idea what the topic is about. And then we just leave the birds for a second. Yeah. Do you want to look who to do? I'll do one bottle. People say this is funny. Not Gary Gareth. Stay okay. Someone or something is tickling people. Is it for fun? And this is not going to become a tickly quad cat. Okay. You are queen fakie of made-up town. All hail Queen Shit of Liesville. A bunch of religious virgins go to mingle and do my frame. All right. Okay. So now this is going to be an awkward date show. What? I'm not taking a bait. No I was going to do it sexy. Okay. Do it sexy. September 19th, 1947.

Oh, I hate this. Ha ha ha ha ha. Nancy Perry Ling was born in San Francisco, California, to an upper-class family. Nancy Perry Ling? Perry Ling, yeah. OK. She moved in attended high school in Santa Rosa,

north of San Francisco. Nancy, Nancy. Nancy. Nancy. I just got a bunch of shit for not pronouncing. Oh yeah, well, you're hot. You're hot right now. I am hot.

Can I say something why I don't pronounce things correctly? Uh, I did a lot of drugs in high school, and it totally affected how I, my vocabulary and how I pronounce words. I just want people to know, I also did a lot of drugs in high school and other years. Yeah. Outside of high school.

Yeah. That would actually. Recently. Yeah. Yeah, you did, actually. That's my big, that's the worst thing about drugs for me was the part of my brain when I went away. Yeah.

But now at least that rage part is glowing and just pulsing. It is. I got, I just, some asshole wrote something on Facebook and linked. Just don't link me to your fucking shit. I don't care what you think. But he was complimenting, but it was. But calling us idiots.

It was, yeah, there was a little pimp hand on it. So I wish he would stop listening, whoever that guy is. I know. Just don't listen to the podcast anymore. Walter Burton. Oh jeez. Ass hat. Why not?

I mean, amazing. Why not? Yeah. OK, so Nancy Perry, whatever. Blank, she's just a cheerleader and she, in junior high school and high school, she supported Barry Goldwater in 1964. Who didn't?

He was big with the cheerleaders. Huge conservative, for those of you who don't know who that is. Big with the cheerleaders. Her opinion of Barry Goldwater was based on the politics of her father, a middle class furniture dealer, in insulated Santa Rosa. She was 17. She then attended Richard Nixon's alma mater, Whittier College.

Sure. But Whittier College bummed her out and she switched to Berkeley and majored in English. OK, cool. That's a different path. That's weird for a conservative. If you go to Berkeley in English, you're taking a different road.

Yeah, you're smoking weed. You are smoking a lot of weed. You're definitely smoking weed. And you walk around naked a lot. Yeah. Nancy was a tiny woman, 98 pounds, barely five feet. She was warm and introspective, avoiding groups of people. Her closest friend was an old high school classmate.

Gradually, Nancy grew out of her Santa Rosa roots. She met a black piano player, Gilbert Perry, when he was working for a state employment office. So if she married him, she'd be Nancy Perry Perry? Holy fuck, fuck me. I don't even notice that. And she'd be Nancy Perry Ling Perry. Nancy Perry Ling Perry.

Hey, it's me, NPLP. Give me an N. But that's a big fuck you to your dad. If your dad's a white conservative from Santa Rosa and you marry a black piano player, that's like, I'm out of my dad move right there. Yeah, that's a good one. Gilbert Perry was regarded as a composer

of significant talent, but had yet to be discovered, or even find a full-time gig. And their marriage was a stormy one. They'd break up and get back together, and break up and get back together, and over and over. Nancy slowly but easily became a street person. What? Slowly but easily?

This isn't those years when you would just be like, I'm going to live in the park, man. You can still find those people on Hate Ashbury. They're still just like, you know, I'm going to live here, man. It's Hate Ashbury, where in front of this store, like that's still good. Because you're going to hate it.

Because I'm a hippie, man. I sleep outside. For me, it would just be the only downside to that move is, you know, well, it's the cable, it's the showering, it's the roof, it's the bathroom, it's the income. Cables, chairs. And your stuff. And outside of that, that's a move I could make.

Right. Yeah. If you had nothing, it didn't care about anything. It's the perfect place to live. Yes. So I think that's where she's at. OK. Her politics were vaguely left at that point,

but she didn't really have a solid grasp on anything. It was like she had a feeling for politics and even an anger over politics, but she didn't really have any politics, a friend said. She liked freedom of the street, she liked hitchhiking, and she liked appearing as if she had no past at all. She was living to be an immediate self, a person who happened just now.

I hate everything about that last sentence. I can't even tell you how much. It is hard. And I'm very hippie, but it's very hard to be like, I mean, something has for like, what is the point of life other than forming your character and your substance? Hey, I don't know, man. I'm living right now.

So, OK, do you want to go to the movies or? I can't. I don't even know what you're talking about, because I'm living now. So I don't know. You know what a movie is. I don't know what question you ask. Yes, you do.

So now you're just like a Martian. What are we talking about? The movies. Do you want to go? Right, but I'm living now. Yeah, the movie is in a half hour. Do you want to? Look at my fingers.

Have a good life. Honestly, have a good life. She was deeply into astrology and paced her life by the planets. Oh, god. The door closes then the dog barks. He's going to growl at the door. So she taught yoga to her friends.

This one's full of sound effects. Yeah, she taught yoga to her friends. People who knew her sensed an intellectual loneliness about Nancy. She ended up dealing blackjack topless at a tourist joint in San Francisco. What the fuck? What is happening?

She's made some choices. She's done everything. Yeah. She's dealing blackjack topless. She made a living. It's quite a move for this like, I'm just like a now person. It's also, don't go to a topless blackjack place. You're not going to be able to concentrate on the cards.

You're going to lose. What are you doing? True. Yeah. Yeah, that is true. I'm trying to think if that's better or worse. Yeah. I'm going to be stuck in that conundrum for a while.

Keep going. Later, she sold organic beverages from a sidewalk on the Berkeley campus. She started smoking and selling pot. We all called that. We'll see if I can pronounce this name. Patricia Saltzik grew up in Galeta, a suburb of Santa Barbara.

She was the daughter of an immigrant divorced parents. She was an honor student, active in a high school student government, a member of the 4-H who trained guide dogs for the blind. She grew up in a comfortable middle class setting that believed in the success of schooling and making good in life. But she began to doubt those ideals really applied to women.

Patricia arrived in Berkeley in 1967. She majored in letters and science. This was a completely different environment from the suburb of Galeta. This was Berkeley, the center of the left militarization movement. In 1970, the protest movement was slowing down. Berkeley had changed.

Berkeley became a much darker town. The latecomers poured in. The embittered Vietnam vets, the angry young women, the drifters, and dropouts who had come from all over because they had heard that Berkeley was the place to get your head together and work for the revolution. All right. Patricia legally changed her name to Ms. Moon.

Oh. M-I-Z-M-O-O-N. That's like Ms. Universe, except this is a moon. I'm sorry, honey. What do we call you now? Ms. Moon. My name is Ms. Moon. OK, Patty.

How much money do you need? I'm sorry. Patty's not here. Would you like to talk to Ms. Moon? No, I would not. It's like the moon took a wife. It's me, Ms. Moon. That's the worst.

Russell, I'm sorry I'm being very judgmental. She's free. She's great. Yeah. Russell Little grew up in modest circumstances in Pensacola, Florida. I can't wait to see what happens to Russell Little. He's going to change his name to Charlie Biggs.

He grew up in modest circumstances in Pensacola, Florida, unaware of the politics and social problems around him in the segregated South. He entered college in 1967 to study engineering, hoping to become an astronaut. But then he began studying Marxist philosophy and became alienated from American policies and actions. Whoa, that is really.

He took a real left turn from astronaut. Yeah. I mean, when you're an, look, if you want to be an astronaut, don't pick up Karl Marx books. Yeah, seriously. Just leave them on the floor. What are you even, like, because, I mean, an astronaut back then was a fairly patriotic sort of move.

So then what do you, you know. Yeah, someone was like, really, man, why don't you read this? Just drink the Kool-Aid and go to space, pal. You want to go to the moon? How about you go to this moon? Yeah. Go to the moon in your mind, man. Take the American flag out of your head, man.

Then came the killing of four anti-war protesters at Kent State in 1970 by the Ohio National Guard, and that was his turning point. Then I felt that people like me were being declared the enemy by the government of the United States, he would recall. Little moved to Berkeley. But was a little disappointed because the fires seemed to be gone from the protest movement.

We were pulling out of Vietnam and people felt it was over, but little didn't see that at all. He still saw the same shit happening, the same criminals were running the government. Little and his friends were shocked when Richard Nixon was elected again in 1972. They continued to push for change and began having screenings of political films

about international revolution. That's a big, if you're going for international revolution, you're going, I mean, start local. Start local. You know what I mean? Don't go straight to international. Start local. It's hard to jump out and go, let's start national.

All, you know. Just start national. Yeah. I mean, if you want to get Nixon out of office. That's one way to start. All these screenings, at all these screenings, a group began to form. They were almost all from white privileged backgrounds.

There was the blonde Camelia Hall, daughter of a Lutheran minister from Minneapolis who had a degree in art history. Willie Wolf, a boy from Amos, Pennsylvania who went digging with anthropologists in Wyoming in the summer as a teen. Willie met Joe Romero through the VVAW slash WSO. The Vietnam Veterans Against the War,

Winter Soldier Organization. Good, the last part helps. Joe was a Vietnam vet from San Francisco. There were Billy and Emily Harris, two married graduates at Indiana University who had gone steady for years before marrying. They came out to Berkeley to be with their friend, Angela Atwood, a New Jersey native

and former high school cheerleader who wanted to be a teacher. And a talking dog named Scoob. And a doob-smoking dog named Scooby. Like Patricia, who changed her name to Ms. Moon, soon they would all change her names. Oh boy, this is gonna be fun. Osie, Bo, Kujo, Zoya, Gabby, Yolanda, Fajiza,

General Galena and General Tico. What the fuck? I'm not gonna call them by those fucking names. I'm gonna call them by the names they were given. All right, well then, then can we at least hear the names one more time? Osie, Bo, Kujo, Zoya, Gabby, Yolanda, Fajiza, General Galena and General Tico.

Really? There's a bill, there's a good spectrum cover. There's a lot. Yeah, Kujo. Kujo, Yolanda, and then some generals. They're mostly Swahili names. Okay. Because if you're a white kid from the suburbs,

by all means pick a Swahili name. That's so horrible. Yeah. It's like when, I remember when I was a kid, like, you know, there was a lot of like, like that band Arrested Development. There was a lot of like, like, like, black people were really embracing the African aspect

and they would be wearing like dashikis and shit like that. And then you'd see like the white dude in the mall with a dashiki and you'd be like, bro, bro, bro, bro, bro. Not about you. Bro, no, bro. Not about you. Just kidding, just watch. No, no.

Just kidding support and be like, hey man, I like what you're doing. That was the time too when white dudes would well wear Malcolm X shirts and you'd be like, well, you have to understand there's not a lot of white dudes who really should be wearing that. Like, you can't just wear that because like, he was a badass.

It's like, he was really against you. He didn't like you. Yeah. They didn't change their names though until after they met, Donald DeFries. Mm, DeFries. Interested in prison reform, Willie Wolf began to visit the Black Cultural Association

at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville. That's a prison. It's where the gentleman from one of the first episodes, the Penn Dragon are now. Uh-huh. Wolf was one of the most dedicated visitors to the BCA. Russell Little and Joseph Romero were also frequent visitors. That's where they met Donald DeFries,

the only Black member of the group. DeFries was born in Cleveland. One of eight children, a ninth grade dropout, a runaway at 14. By 16, he was in his first reform school. In 1963, he married and the following year, his wife had him arrested for a desertion. He, I didn't know he could be arrested for that.

Yeah. He was constantly being arrested, or maybe she had him arrested for a desertion from the army. Is desertion a thing? What, could you get arrested for that back then? I don't know. And like- From deserting your wife?

Is that a thing? I don't think so. That can't be a thing. So it must- I can't imagine. Imagine the law. The cops would be like, we need to overturn this law.

We, our prisons are full. Most of DeFries' arrests involved the possession of guns and bombs. Police once picked him up for running a red light on a bicycle and found a bomb and a gun in the basket. What the fuck? Now that's a fucking- I mean, that is-

That is, that's a badass. Well, it's also like, if you're getting pulled over on a bike, like you don't have that moment to be like, we're gonna stash this shit. You're like, well, I hope they don't look in the basket. Oh, I should have covered up my bomb. Jesus Christ.

Why didn't I bring a jacket to put on top of my bomb? If they ask if they can search the basket, I'm super fucked. You might have been looking your basket. Fuck! But he had a knack for staying out of jail. Once caught with 15 stolen weapons, he snitched on his supplier who was arrested.

DeFries got off. But in 1969, he got on to shoot out with police and was given five years to life. Jesus. The California prison system had become highly politicized. He took on the African name Sink. Sink? See, I spelled it so I could read it.

C-I-N-Q-U-E, I think. Yeah, that sounds right. I spelled it phonetically. But what do we know? We're just a couple of dumb motherfuckers. Yeah, we don't know what we're doing, right? Whatever his name was. So his name was Sink Matume.

And he became involved in the Black Cultural Association in Bakaville. Begun as an inmate self-help group, over time the BCA became more political, largely focused on black nationalism. They met twice weekly with prison-approved visitors for lectures and study groups. I don't know what's happening this time in America.

But so it's basically white people going to listen to black people in prison talk. Right. And be like, I hear you, brother. Yeah, I hear you, brother. Hey, man, this is the- I feel your pain, brother. This is the greatest example of white guilt

I could think of. I mean, sometimes I wish I just didn't have the socioeconomic background to be barred from an institution like this. But there you go. There we go, talking about our differences again. I mean, if I get arrested, my daddy helps me out. You know, because he's rich, but not you.

Not you. You stole the pen, and here you are. Anyway. So they met twice weekly with prison-approved visitors for studies and lecture groups. Most of the outsiders were black until Wolf and Little started coming. DeFreeze organized his own study group called Unisite

and invited Willie Wolf and Russ Little to join in. More joined the group, Bill and Emily Harris, Nancy and Joe. The main reason DeFreeze started his own group was because he didn't have many friends in prison. That was mainly because he had been a snitch for the Los Angeles Police Department in the 60s. They're all greatly influenced by George Jackson. A man who had spent half his life in prison.

In his cramped cell, he read Marx and Engels and began writing books. He crafted a Marxist critique of American society and an argument in favor of the violent black revolution. The revolution, he wrote, must commit itself to the ordeal of grave digging. Fuck.

That's some serious. It's a tough way to put it. Yeah, I like the way he put it, but that's intense. There have never been spontaneous revolutions. They were all staged, manufactured by people who went to the head of the masses and directed them. So he's not kidding around. No.

I mean, so far he's saying some decent stuff, right? Yeah. Like the killing stuff. Yeah. The white, black, why Berkeley? Why black kids? The white Berkeley kids now wanted to help the prisoners because they believe black convicts were victims

of the state, which I think you can make an argument for. Yeah, I think it certainly. Said little, we know there are people in prison that we don't think should be there, but what are we willing to do about it? Well, first cause of problem with the BCA in Vacaville. The Frieze wanted to lead the BCA, but he wasn't allowed to stand in an election

because he had missed several meetings, which meant he couldn't be president. The Frieze then complained to the warden. All right. So look, I'm just gonna put this out there. If you're a black gentleman and you're in prison and you want to lead a black group that has formed in the prison,

I would recommend not complaining to the warden. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it seems like the wrong way to go, right? A little bit. Dig the other direction. Hey, Mr. Jenkins, they won't let me lead the black caucus. They're stabbing me, they're stabbing me.

So his reputation as an informer increased. Wait, black caucus. Nice. Thank you. Black caucus. Yeah, I threw that out there. His reputation as an informer increased, if you can imagine. So.

The BCA then went under what major changes. Rumors began that their leader, Westbrook, had ties with the CIA and a familiar familiarity with brainwashing and mind control. Oh, shit. This forced the board to demand his removal in late December of 1972.

Westbrook said that the Maoists had taken over the BCA. The Maoists? Yeah. Well, I mean, yeah. Very specific. Very specific. He pointed the finger at Little, calling him the sneaky little son of a bitch,

and Willie Wolfe, an immature kid. OK. DeFreeze was then classified a minimum-risk prisoner and transferred from Vacaville to Soledad. On the night of March 5, 1973, he was taken out of Central and escorted to the old abandoned minimum prison facility, known as Soledad South.

Soledad South was in gross disrepair. Authorities planned to renovate it for use as a training ground for new correctional officers. But on the night DeFreeze was escorted there to work on the boiler, the only correctional officer present was DeFreeze's guard. And for some fun explanation reason, that officer had business elsewhere and left.

What a great switch. Hey, you're good with the boiler? I got to get back to the prison. OK. Bye, only thing standing in my way. So he just walked away? He did. He just took it out, of course.

Oh, this is. I mean, you've got to be expecting a dude to be a really good dude to sit through that. I know. I mean, for a while. Yeah, fuck. He made his way straight to Oakland, but none of his old contacts would

have anything to do with him. So he went to his new friends. Little and Wolfe, of course, took him in. He lived with and had a relationship with Patricia. There they discussed what was wrong with America and hatched plans. By the end of the summer, fiercely opposed to what they viewed as an oppressive racist society,

they formed a revolutionary group. Here we go. The success of the Castro Revolution in Cuba served as their model. OK. OK. Sure. He said OK to that, but that's not OK.

Well, I don't even really know what is. I don't know how the Cuban Revolution began, but it's just not like America. Right. Stronger party. Yeah, much stronger. The frieze and beaches everywhere surrounded by beaches. Yeah, yeah.

You're saying women, right? Yeah. Surrounded by beaches. Yeah. Beaches all over me. Cuban Revolution style. The frieze had come across the word symbiosis while reading the dictionary in prison.

OK. If you like that word. Sure. That was his nice word to him. OK. It was defined as a separate entities coming together for their mutual benefit. Mm-hmm.

You like that? Yeah, symbiotic. They then changed the word to symbionese. Hmm, that's interesting. Sim, OK. Symbionese. Sure. Then they added liberation army, and they

had the name for their group. It doesn't. I'll say just on the pieces that I've heard already. I don't think it's a catchy name. The Symbionese Liberation Army, the SLA. Welcome to it, bitch. Their militant loosely Marxist priorities included ending racism, monogamy, the prison system,

and all other institutions that have made and sustained capitalism. So they're starting, so they have a small agenda. Yeah, yeah, ending monogamy. I'll never forget when I went to the first Gulf War. I protested at college. Yeah. And I went to this meeting, and there

are all these people protesting, and all these people were talking about how they were going to protest. And some guys stood up and went, and we've also got to tackle racism. And I was like, I'm out. Yeah, well, even though most protests, you go to many people are fucking it up

with the lack of clarity. People are like, it's just an opportunity to get out there and talk about how bullshit McDonald's is. You're like, we're talking about the taxes. You motherfucker. Of course, they were going to need new names. That's when they got all their names. What?

No. Yeah, they got all their names. Oh, those are those names. Yeah, that's how they got all their names. OK, I thought you were suggesting a new name switch. No, no, they didn't go the third name. This is when they got their names. DeFreeze became General Field Marshall Sink.

What? And was the group's leader. OK. Their black nationalist program. Sounds like a good plumber. Yeah, so it's a black guy and nine white, rich kids. Yep. By the way, the black guy, DeFreeze, a huge pickup.

A huge pickup. Talk about a free agent signing. Well, he really gave them a legitimacy. There's that's a very good off-season move. Yeah, I mean, a lot of these kids have been cheerleaders and they've studied art. But now they got a guy who will roll up in a bike with a bomb and a basket.

Yeah, now, I mean, you really do need that to sort of balance this out because they all have had a pretty charmed life for the most part. You need the guy who's just like a drop out who's carrying a bomb and a basket on a bike. Hey, you guys need 30 guns? Yeah, we've been waiting for you. Their black nationalist program included

creating a system of homelands within the US for minority groups. Wait, wait, wait. What? I'm going to read that again. Their black nationalist program included creating a system of homelands within the US for minority groups.

Gettos? Well, we have that. They're called reservations and they're not great. But how is that? Well, like it would be like a, I think they're talking about having separate countries within the United States. Yeah, but how does that help end racism?

Well, they're separate. Ha ha ha ha ha. Thus, that's like saying like I don't like licorice. I'm going to learn to like licorice by throwing it in the garbage. Well, you're part of the fucking system, man. No, I'm not part of the system. Yeah, you are.

I'm just the fucking Maoist, man. I don't see any problems with that plan. No, no, there's no problems there. They trained with BB guns in the Berkeley Hills and took target practice at local gun ranges. So that's when you go, I'm out of here. Ha ha ha ha ha. I think I was out of there when they started going through.

I'm definitely, there's, I'm starting to hear like more and more reasons why I should leave. But it's when we're doing BB gun target practice that I'm like, all right, guys, I'm going to get one of these bikes and get out of here. I'll see you guys later. It's been fun playing with you. So now they had four members of their multi-ethnic

and multirational revolutionary organization. So I guess there's just four they put together now, which would serve as the vanguard for a Marxist revolution in the United States. They realized they needed a symbol. So they adopted the seven headed Cobra as their symbol of the SLA. Any, is there a reason?

Sure there was, but no one wants to hear it. I couldn't find it, but really it's just fucking stupid horseshit. It's not good. No, they were high and they saw a picture of a seven headed Cobra. This sounds almost like hearing about a band that was terrible.

They copied it from a book at the Berkeley Public Library. If you're starting a revolution, you don't do it. Then you're plagiarizing. You don't go to a government funded library and get pictures. Yeah. Yeah. So it's gonna be a good revolution.

No, it sounds good. Now that the seven headed Cobra has come on board. Right, it's like the Karate Kid. Yeah, no, yeah, we found the, yeah, the sign says it all. They drafted a series of documents that included a declaration of war against the fascist United States codes of war,

the terms of a military and political alliance with the United Symbionnes War Council, the creation of a Symbionnes Federation, and they set down on paper the seven principles on which they founded the SLA. I wasn't gonna get into them because once you get into that, this is the point where they're just sitting around

talking a lot and they just keep coming up with shit so they don't have to do anything. Yeah, it felt like that. The original. It's like the person who never really wants to write the book. Right, right. It's still working on the outline, man.

I'm still just researching, man. It's still just in the research phase, man. I've got some great stuff about ducks that I'm gonna put in there. I posted a picture on Instagram of some note cards I put on my wall so that legitimizes this sham process. The four SLA members then took their work to different leftist leaders and organizations to show them.

They got a really mixed reception because many left. So they're going to pitch? They're going? They're pitching? Yeah, basically. They're just pitching. So now they're going hot to other organizations and being like, hey, man, what do you think

about starting a revolution? It sounds like they're pitching a show to networks. They got a really mixed reception because many leftists thought it was too impractical to form multiracial units. So then they said about recruiting. The others who had visited the BCA quickly jumped in. Soon they were 10.

Just 10 people. 10 people. August of 1973 was a big month for the SLA. Oh, boy. On August 2nd, 1973, the SLA aided in the escape of Therolavon Wheeler from Vacaville and placed him in a safe house. Wheeler had taken over unicite when DeFries was transferred.

Then on August 21st, 1973, the SLA released its declaration of war against the United States. Finally, it goes public. They expected it to be a big deal, but nobody noticed. Why would anyone give, there's 10 of them. Dude, there was a guy I knew when I was in Wisconsin, this dude in Brown Deer Park who would run for president every four years.

Yeah, I know that guy. He had pamphlets and he had all this shit and he would be explaining to me when I was 15 why he should be president. And I'd be like, you know, I don't know. If this guy expects more than just being the guy in the park who hands out pamphlets every four years, he should probably get out of the fucking park.

That's where they are at this point. Yeah, they're the guy in the park handing out the pamphlets to teenagers. Jesus Christ. So there was no press. No one seemed to notice or care. DeFries, you know what? I'm not gonna call these guys by their crazy names, right?

So no general saying, I'm not gonna do that. You're just, it's your protest? Because I started reading, I started writing this and then when I got down to here, I was like, I should call them by their names. And then I was like, I can't, because I only get fucking so mixed up. Can I just call Patty Patty and Nancy Nancy?

All right, that's fair. DeFries, DeFries. That's fair. So I'm not gonna call them general saying. Unless I had like a key in front of me, I don't think I'd be able to keep track. Okay. So DeFries had wanted to put out a press release

saying that they had broken Wheeler out of jail and this was only the beginning. But Wheeler was like, hey. That's crazy. Then they'll know who helped me. That's the dumbest thing anyone's ever said. They didn't know who helped me and then they'll kick in the door

of all the places we live at. So let's not do that. Let's not do the thing about me. And DeFries was like, all right, yeah, okay, I guess. And then the press release went nowhere and DeFries was mad. He was like, man, that was the thing that could have gotten us depressed. He does have a point.

Yeah, but wouldn't his point end because they would both go to jail? Shh, all right. A new member of the group, Wheeler considered the work of the original four SLA members to be quote, really shit. Okay. It was one thing to talk about revolution in prison

and in abstract terms, it was quite another to actually launch a bombing and assassination campaign. I couldn't seriously recruit for him because he was often to suicide and bullshit, Wheeler said about DeFries. Good. My name is always a problem.

Fortunately, Wheeler's girlfriend was a lumber and real estate heiress from Reading, California. I don't know what was happening in the world. Yeah, yeah. No, that's a fair point there too. A lumber heiress? A lumber heiress who was, who met a criminal. Like it's just...

And also though, it totally already sounds like she's like the girl who's in love with the shitty comic. She married the drummer. She's like, yeah, she's like, I'll not do whatever, baby, follow your dreams. You want to start a revolutionary group? Start a little revolution. I will support us.

You go blow stuff up. And then she's like, and then she's like talking to her girlfriends or like, what is he going to do? She's like, oh, well, you don't even understand. What's this revolution game takes off? They just got a seven headed Cobra. Have you heard about Cuba?

Yeah, things are crazy. She joined and gave him a couple thousand dollars, which he shared with the SLA. Other funds coming in, including included Patricia's paycheck from the Berkeley Public Library. Oh God. Can you feel the revolution, man?

Oh yeah, here guys, here's eight nickels. Ling's salary and tips from Fruity Rudy's. Ling asked her former Berkeley instructor for 500, but he wrote a check for 50 instead. I love that she went to her fucking, her instructor at Berkeley and he was like, I don't want to start a revolution. You know what, I can give you 50.

I can't give you five. Yeah, listen, I'm just a professor. I'm living check to check. It apparently was never cashed. So they didn't even take the 50. Beyond that, little else was coming in. Wheeler suggested robbing banks. That's a very puzzling move for an organization

that really probably needs every nickel it can get. But they would get high, start talking about revolution and lose the check. Amen, did you cash that shit? Oh shit, man. Shit, man. I think we rolled the joint out of that check, man. Oh fuck. So money was not coming in.

Wheeler suggested robbing banks because it would be a strike against, quote, these centers of capitalist oppression. That's really making the, I mean, that's putting it very nicely. Yeah. You know, if we rob a bank, not only we have money, but we'll be hitting them where it hurts.

Check it right in the heart, right where they keep their insurance. Yeah. Okay. DeFries thought that that was premature since the SLA has not developed sufficiently enough for such a high profile action. He didn't think they could pull it off.

Wheeler and DeFries were seeing eye to eye, weren't seeing eye to eye, and tensions started to boil over. Wheeler took his girlfriend and went to stay at their safe house. DeFries and the others made them come back at gunpoint and they were held for two days in the apartment before they escaped.

Okay, so now we're in a crazy place. Right? So now we're like, no, they're not, they're not. Wheeler fucking took off, man. He's gonna fucking tell everybody about the revolution and there ain't gonna be a revolution. So we gotta stop this motherfucker. Yeah, yeah.

More Coke, more Coke, anyone? It doesn't feel very Coke-y. More Coke? Yeah. Anyone like some more cocaine? And then we'll go kidnap our two friends. It feels super Coke-y. And then we'll go kidnap 20% of the movement.

God, Wheeler thought the SLA were crazy and that they would all end up dead. Meanwhile, the SLA had decided upon their first act of the revolution. They were gonna assassinate educator Marcus Foster, the first black superintendent of the Oakland School District. Okay, all right, okay.

So you're trying to get a message across. A message that so far to me sounds pretty vague and non-specific. Really spot on. But one of the things that I would say so far is that they want to eliminate racism. Now, when nine white people kill a black superintendent in Oakland.

Right. The first black superintendent. That's gonna come across racist as fuck. I don't know what you're talking about. Yeah, you do. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay, I'll call DeFrees Sink, but that's it. I'll call him Sink, okay? Well, if you're gonna, yeah, I was gonna say. That's the only one. Call him Field General Sink. By the way, General Sink is a thing that your iTunes does. All right, I'll call Patricia Mismoon, too.

That's it. That's as far as I'm going. Middle East Confuse Sink. Okay, so General Sink had a huge hard on for publicity and notoriety. That's what happens when your daddy doesn't love you, I think. Uh-huh.

And now that Wheeler was gone, there was no one to voice opposition to crazy plans like, hey, let's kill the black superintendent of the Oakland School District. Right. They decided to kill Foster because he supported giving identification cards to students, which of course was fascist.

That is so fun. I mean. They want to give cards to the students so when the school will know who they are, and be like, hey, do you want to flew to the cafeteria or do you want to check out the library? Hey, nine white people, go kill that black guy. You know what?

They don't need to know the students' names. They should just give them fucking numbers. But not numbers, man. They should give them colors. How is that the first? Because numbers are bullshit. How is that the first move? I don't know if it's a good one.

No, it's a good one. It's a terribly weird move. On November 6, 1973, Marcus Foster and Robert Blackburn walked out of an Oakland School Administration building. Blackburn noticed two figures leaning against the building, but he kept walking across the parking lot engrossed in his conversation with his companion. Suddenly, the guns went off and I felt slammed, hit,

spun around, Blackburn said. The two figures were crouching and I saw flashes from the muzzles of their guns. Then I was being hit from behind with a shotgun. I stumbled down the side of the car into a narrow alley, stumbling and reeling. The bullets were packed with cyanide. Oh, Jesus.

Foster was hit eight times. They stood over Marcus and put another round in his head, Blackburn said. Blackburn survived, even though he was filled with shotgun pellets and cyanide bullets. He had 23 entry and exit wounds. What the fuck? Yeah.

Foster, it turns out, was very popular with the left and the black community. Oh, God. See, this is why you don't go there. It's just not on message. It's off message. The day after the assassination, the SLA said it killed Foster

because he had supported a program that would require ID cards for all high school students. But it turns out Foster had not supported the program. Oh, my God. Source your shit. Vet your fucking platform. Oh, God. Wait, who said that?

Which one of us said that that was real? The SLA was roundly condemned, even by the far left, for killing Foster. So everyone was like, that was a bad idea, man. They're like, well, now we're conservative. They rented out a hideout in Concord, California to stay low. Little Romero, Nancy, and DeFries were staying there.

Other members of the SLA would come and go. In late November, a mugger followed Nancy into the hideout and pulled a gun. She disarmed him with a kick. When officers responded, she would only talk to them on the lawn. Oh, my God. Unknown to them, the SLA arsenal was inside.

Now, there's a couple things I don't understand about this. Did they call the cops? If that's where that ends, there's so many questions. I couldn't find anything else about that. Did they call the cops? Craziest fuck. Craziest fuck, if they did that. She, like, first of all, a mugger followed her in,

and she pulled a Jackie Brown and fucking disarmed him. And maybe the gun went off. And aren't they the ones who hate these institutions? Yeah, why are the cops, did someone else had to have called the cops? Oh, something like a neighbor was like, I think I just heard a gun get kicked. Call the police, Harry.

At 1.30 AM on January 10th. But then the cops didn't do anything. No, they didn't. The cops were the best. The cops, man, like, I remember hearing about Dahmer when he was back in his fucking heyday, how the cops were like, hey, where are you going with this drug to Asian man?

And he's like, he's drunk. And they were like, he's my boyfriend. All right, fellas. Hey, have a good night. Go eat him. Move it along. Yeah. OK, great.

All right, good little aside, let's keep going. At 1.30 AM on January 10th, a conquered police officer stopped Russell Little and Joseph Romero, who were driving suspiciously in a battered Chevy van. I don't think there's any other way to drive in a battered Chevy van. No, you can't. Driving affluently in a battered Chevy van.

Little showed the officer a phony license and mumbled that he was looking for the Devoto home. The Devoto home. But this is right where the SLA had been hiding out after the shooting. And they were renting the house under an assumed name. When the officer then asked the passenger to identify himself, Romero reached for his pistol.

What? Here's my identification, motherfucker. Too early. Too early. A gunfight erupted. Little was wounded and captured. Romero escaped on foot. In the van was a stack of SLA leaflets.

Oh, boy. I mean. I mean. They were passing out leaflets. Yeah, great. You know what? They're coming back to the hard day of passing out leaflets. You know, four hours later, Romero

surrendered only a block from the SLA hideout. The SLA knew it was only a matter of time before police would find the hideout. So Nancy Perry soaked the house in gasoline and lit it on fire. Is anyone there at any point going, hey, guys, should we fucking do something that matters? Is there any way to actually do it? How do you start a revolution, bro?

Hey, man. Look, dude, we got to burn the hideout down, man. I'll admit, this is not going well. I don't know. We're going to get our deposit back, Nancy. Ultimately. So far, all they did was kill a guy. So far, all they did was kill someone they shouldn't have.

Right. That's murder in my circles. That's fucking revolution to some people. So she didn't do a good job of soaking the house. A neighbor spotted the fire, called the fire department, and the fire was quickly put out. Oh, my god. Inside, police found a bomb factory, tons of ammunition,

radical literature, notes indicating surveillance of businessmen and plotted assassinations and personal effects easily traceable to all SLA figures and associates. But think about how. Why would you burn that first? Think about how bad and incompetent you have to be to not burn down a house of bombs. Like, it's like hard to keep it not burned.

Yeah. How the fuck are you, like, lighting a house on fire full of bombs, and it doesn't work? Yeah, they're not good at this. They're not good. So they found all that stuff. Atwood had left a library card. Perry?

I mean, what the fuck? Just stay. Just stay. Just stay there. Just stay there. Perry had left her colleague diploma. I mean, what the fuck are they doing? Harris numbered caps from the job he had taken

with the post office. I mean, weird beyond weird. Yeah. Romero left a notebook, books from the public library where Ms. Moon worked. There were boxes of files, notes, lists of names. Overnight, the SLA soldiers all became fugitives. They had to walk away from homes, jobs, and family.

Emily and Bill Harris exited typically. They left coffee on the stove, toothbrushes in the bathroom, three pistol boxes open and empty. The Hearst family had come to California in 1862. They had great success in mining and soon were rich. George became a US senator, his wife a philanthropist. Their son, William Randolph, went into the newspaper business, which he turned into an empire.

It was known for yellow journalism. He built huge homes, including a castle, and entertained celebrities. He had several children, including Patricia Hearst. In 1974, Patty was a student at Berkeley. All was going well. She'd just gotten engaged to Stephen Weed. Everyone knew this because her father's newspaper,

The San Francisco Chronicle, had a story in the society section announcing the engagement in November. The article included Patty and Stephen's address. Number four at 2603 Benton Avenue Street in Berkeley, California. Come on by, do whatever. It's so crazy. It's crazy.

How did they not know that would not be a problem? Here's the thing, right? And this is that we do need to remember that at one point, you could be open and honest with the world. But the 60s had happened, and there's not a thing anymore. I mean, the 50s, you probably could do that. Unless you were like a black guy trying to live in the South. And then some people would just come to your house

and drag you outside. True, yes. So it wasn't safe for everybody? No. Well, it's still not safe for black people. But the weathermen, I think it happened. Maybe the weathermen had. I think the weathermen had happened by then with all this.

Probably, right? We'd already had terrorism groups popping up. Regardless, putting out your address. So now the SLA were, at this point, seeing these bungling idiots who killed black for just a purpose. So they needed something big. They needed a big score. Around 9 o'clock in the evening, on February 4, 1974,

there was a knock on the door of the apartment at number 4, 2063, Ben the New Street in Berkeley. Inburst, a group of men and women with their guns drawn. They grabbed a surprised 19-year-old Patty Hearst, beat up her fiance, threw her in the trunk of their car, and drove off. She was taken to a safe house and locked in a closet. The effect was immediate.

General Marshall Sink got his publicity nationwide. It was front page national news. Finally. Finally, right? A little respect. A little respect. Finally. The kidnapping was intended because, look,

if you're fighting a revolution, the first thing you want to grab is a 19-year-old girl. Yeah. Right? Yeah. Grab a Hearst. The kidnapping was intended to lead to a prisoner swap. The SLA wanted to exchange Hearst for Little and Romero.

On February 6, the SLA announced it was holding Hearst, but issued no ransom terms. The communique, as it called itself, it said it was a warrant for the arrest of Patricia Campbell Hearst, enclosed Patty Hearst's credit card, and a warning that anyone attempting to interfere would be executed. The SLA announced all communications from this court

must be published in full in all newspapers and all other forms of media. OK. The next said they wanted to swap prisoners. And state authorities were like, yeah, no, we're not. We can't do that, because that would open up a fucking can of worms that you can't even comprehend. No, we can't just, you can't kidnap random people

and then ask for your buddy's. Please. Please do this. Yeah, we're not doing that. Please. So the SLA switched demands. On February 12, always, always good. Always good.

Always good when you're like, well, fuck, man. All right, something else. All right, what's our next best case? Hearst's kisses. All right, cool, cool, cool. On February 12, the Hearst received a recording of their daughter's voice, along with an SLA demand that the Hearst used their wealth and power

to distribute food to the poor. Mom, dad, Patty said, I'm with a combat unit that's armed with automatic weapons. I want to get out of here, and I just hope you'll do what they say. Patty Hearst told her parents she was OK, that she was not being starved or unnecessarily beaten. She told police not to try to find her.

William Randolph Hearst replied. Probably speaking from the heart on that one, I'm sure. William Randolph Hearst replied that the demands of the SLA were, quote, impossible. Patty then spoke in another communique on February 16, asking her parents to, quote, stop acting like I'm dead. She free stated that the SLA was looking for a good faith gesture.

So on February 19, but they asked them to feed the poor? Yeah. I mean, they said they were going big. They're going big. How is this getting, how is this, is anyone voting? How is this getting out there? This is, how is this your final draft? This is the start of the revolution, man.

Feed the poor. So on February 19, Hearst announced he would create People in Need, a food distribution program. He said about giving out food to the poor and what was called the most bizarre ransom ever. $2 million worth of food was purchased. Distribution points were set up in slum areas throughout Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Long lines formed as people gathered to collect bags containing turkey bread, milk, eggs, fruit, and vegetables. But then fighting broke out on the lines, which led to clashes with food organizers and police full riots. Oh, my God. In Oakland, California, a 5,000 strong crowd grew angry when organizers threw food from a window to them

as they waited below. I mean, what, what is this, a Vita? What the fuck is, what is happening? I mean, how could you handle it? Like, that's not how you do food distribution to the homeless. It is a cat, it is a turkey, cat turkey. Here, throw the food at them. One policeman was stabbed and one man in the crowd

was knocked unconscious as people began throwing cans of food back in the window. Afterwards, the SLA- They're throwing the cans! Afterwards, the SLA demanded Hearst give out another $4 million in food. I mean, Hearst, oh, God. The ransom negotiations dragged on. Patty Hearst's father announced on TV

that the SLA's $6 million demand was beyond his capabilities. The matter is now out of my hands, he said. He offered to pay $2 million for Patty's immediate release and an additional $2 million in January, 1975. He continued the food distributions over the next few weeks, which went better. Less riots. Well, it couldn't have gone worse.

Patty Hearst next criticized her parents in a fourth recorded tape saying, quote, I don't believe that you're doing anything at all. Her parents were convinced that she was being brainwashed. But Patty would later say, I felt my parents were debating how much I was worth. It was a horrible feeling that my parents could think of me in terms of dollars and cents.

Her mother had taken to wearing black and speaking of Patty in the past tense. What? What? How fucked up was that? That's fine. This is, it is hard to find. This is tough.

There's not a lot of heroics in it. What is she doing? Is that a tactic? Worse, her mother had ignored an SLA demand by accepting another appointment from then-governor Ron Reagan as a regent of the University of California. Wait, say that again? She accepted a job as a regent at the University of California,

a regent, which is one of the people who run the University of California. And the University of California is one of the biggest defense contractors in the world. Good. Smart timing. Patty felt like. Well, I'm going to take this job to take my mind off my dead daughter.

She's the worst herst. Patty felt like her own mother didn't care whether SLA shot her or not. The kidnapping dragged on. In a fifth tape recording, now 59 days after the kidnapping, Patty Hearst denounced her family. Patty explained that the group members were her comrades and that their criminal actions were necessary to support

the gang's plans for revolution. Along with the tape was a picture of Hearst holding a machine gun in front of an SLA banner. She took the name Tanya. Fucking A. On April 15, 1974, the Sunset District branch of the Hibernia Bank at 1450 Noriega Street in San Francisco was robbed at gunpoint by five people.

They got away with $10,000. Caught on surveillance was a photo of Patty Hearst holding an M1 carbine yelling commands to bank customers. Within a week, the FBI issued a wanted poster with pictures of Donald DeFries, Patricia Saltzik, Salty Sick, Ms. Moon, Nancy Perry, Camilla Hall, Patricia Campbell Hearst. Hearst was charged as a material witness,

but in a sixth recorded tape, Patty offered evidence of her full participation, stating that at no time did her comrades have a gun pointed at her. She referred to her family as the pig Hearsts and do Stephen weed her fiance as an ageist sexist pig. Man, he's got to be like, oh, Patty. Oh, Patty, what did I do, man?

Oh, Patty. Patty. Girl. She said the idea of her being brainwashed was ridiculous, which is just classic. It's a brainwash. That's the classic brainwashing. That's what you say in brainwashing.

The United States Attorney General William B. Saxby said Hearst was a common criminal and not a reluctant participant in the bank robbery. General Sink knew that if the SLA were to survive, they needed more members. But because they had killed Foster, they were having a hard time recruiting in the San Francisco Bay Area.

And because they're the dumbest. There's got to be better. Or I could start an organization today. Hey, man, you want to join our revolution and kill black guys and kidnap young girls, teenage girls? But also, think of how much money they left on the field with Patty. So easily, you could say, all right, Patty, here's the deal.

You're on board? Great. We're going to fake your release. You're going to go to your parents, get a million dollars out of them somehow, come back here. Let's fucking do this shit. But they also left two. He already said he'd give them $2 million in cash.

Yes, they'd complete, yeah. And then she would come back. Yeah. And look, they're not great planners. They already shot a school superintendent. They're not good. So they decided to move to Los Angeles to recruit. On May 15 in Los Angeles, the FBI

admitted they were stumped and made a public appeal for help. Two days later, Bill and Emily Harris walked into Mel's sporting goods in South Los Angeles and bought 3,150 worth of outdoor gear. Mostly, uh, flannel thermals. Flannel thermals. Flannels and thermals. It's Los Angeles.

Sure. Well, Emily paid for the merchandise. Bill stole some socks. Classic bill. Store security saw them. They confronted the couple outside and demanded payment. Bill and Emily fought. One of the security men managed to get handcuffs

around one of Bill's wrists. A.38 pistol fell out of Bill's pocket. Patty was across the street waiting in a van. She yelled, let them go, you motherfuckers, or you're all dead. She then pointed an automatic weapon and shot holes into the plate glass window of the store. Security dove for cover.

The store manager hid behind a light post. He tried to shoot back with his pistol. I love that he picked up the pistol. Yeah, he picked up the gun. But Hurst, now shooting with another gun, shot at the light post. Patty had been taught how to shoot by her father. God.

I've gotten Patty the best marksman training. Bill, Emily, and Patty escaped in a van, which they quickly abandoned. Think of how fucking dumb. Again, pick your spots. No, no, sporting goods. Get some socks. Pick your spots.

Steal some socks. Stealing, like, stealing socks. The fucking socks are an extra eight bucks, bro. It's like, in high school, a buddy of mine stole a Scarface CD from Best Buy and got caught, and we were all just like, it was not a good worth it. What was the upside to free socks? Well, you don't just buy the Scarface movie,

because that guy's a fucking bastard. No, the Scarface, the rapper, the CD, even worse. Oh, it's a terrible idea. Yeah. So they took off in a van, which they quickly abandoned. The Harris's and Tanya began their complicated escape in Los Angeles, early the next day. Police found the van and discovered

the location of the SLA safe house from a parking ticket in the glove box of the van. I mean, it's not a scavenger hunt for cops, you dumbass. Just, I mean, literally, you just couldn't pay less attention. You couldn't. But the SLA had fled the safe house when they saw the store shooting on the news. They holed up in a house owned by two local women.

A neighbor, seven-year-old Brandon Davis, was sleeping on the couch. When he woke up, he found a different situation than when he had gone to sleep. I went down to Minis every Thursday evening to play some cards and drink a little. I fell asleep early, and when I woke up around 2 AM, I saw four white women and three dudes, two black guys

and one white, and I saw guns spread out all over the floor. And I asked them why they had guns. I had never seen more of my life. Then an answer. And instead, the black dude asked me my name, and then introduced me to everyone. Now, that's a weird scene. I mean, it sounds like he might have handled that OK for them.

The misdirected. Yeah, the kid's like, hey, what are you guys doing here? Why do you got so many shorts? What's your name? What are you from, man? What are you from, man? What's your name, man? Oh, man.

That's crazy. All right, well, let me introduce you to the rest of us. This is Ms. Moon. I'm Field General Sink. What? Yeah, you're Brendan? Yeah. All right, we're going to call you Kite Master.

OK. Yeah. I feel weird. Oh, dude, you're going to love it. Then you should be a part of this group. OK. All we do is feel weird and make bad calls. I would like to go.

Can I go? Well, judging by our track record, yeah, go tell the cops everything, whatever. The mother of one of the women who owned the house called police and told them a heavily armed group was holed up there. The police spent the rest of the day getting 500 police officers and other law enforcement to surround the house and local area.

On the afternoon, that afternoon, the LAPD was ready to go. SWAT, SWAT said the orders into a bullhorn. Occupants of 1466 East 54th Street. This is the Los Angeles Police Department speaking. Come out with your hands up. A young child walked out with an older man. The man said no one else was in the house. But then the kid said that several people

were in the house with guns and guns. Billy, Billy, Billy, Billy, Billy, Billy. Billy! Just put our guys in there with guns and guns. Oh, he's got the most vivid imagination. He sees guns everywhere, my little Bill. A member of the SWAT team fired tear gas into the house. The SLA responded by shooting their automatic weapons.

And one of the greatest gun battles in the history of US law enforcement began. We covered this in the LAPD episode, the SWAT team one. The shooting went on for over two hours before the house caught on fire. At that point, two women exited the back of the house and one came out the front. They were all arrested, but none of them were SLA members.

The woman who came out the front had been partying the night before and came to the house drunk. She proceeded to pass out and woke up in the middle of the gunfight. I mean, man, you know, like, you know how a hangover's like rough when you've got nothing to do? You know, you got an event. You're like, oh, I'm just going to get some food and fucking

watch some TV. I'll be OK. Little rip a pot. I'll be OK. What's the fuck is that? Waking up being like, what? What? That's loud.

That house is on fire. Shit. So Nancy Perry and Camille Hall came out the back of the house and were both shot and killed. The rest of the SLA members in the house died of smoke inhalation, gunshot wounds, or burns. Donald DeFries shot himself. The police department did not move in to put out the fire

and just let the house burn. Between both groups, over 9,000 rounds of ammunition were fired, not one police officer was shot. One did break a leg when he fell off a roof. The SLA dead were Nancy Ling Perry or Perry Ling Fajiza. OK, I thought that was Ms. Moon. Angela Atwood, General Galena. That's right.

Camille Hall, Gabby. Sure. Willie Wolf, Kujo. Big leap. Donald DeFries, General Sink. We all remember Field General. And Patricia or? Ms. Moon.

Ms. Moon. Or she also called herself Zoya. Oh, didn't realize that. Bill, Emily, and Patty listened to the shootout on the radio. Patty listened as her boyfriend, Kujo, was killed in the house. So Patty, at that point, was seeing was Kujo. She was with Kujo.

Yeah. I wonder if she saw the movie when it came out. Oh, yeah, I'm sure. They then. Patty's situation sounds a lot like trading places. Oh, my god. They then bought an old shitty car for $350 and headed back to the Bay Area.

She was a fucking shit maid. Arriving in San Francisco early the next morning, they went to a friend's house. You're alive, he yelled. Then he panicked. You can't stay here. The old state is going to be crawling with pigs looking for you. He gave them $5 and shut the door.

Don't come back. OK, there's the hero of the dollar. That's our hero. There's the hero of the dollar. That's our guy. That's the smartest guy in this podcast. They went back out to the car and the car wouldn't start. So they were on foot.

They spent the next day under a Victorian house in a crawl space, usually inhabited by rats. Hey, life at the top, right? Hey, man, how's the revolution going? Really good, except this rat's eating my dress. They spent the next two weeks in San Francisco hiding in flop houses. Bill posed as a whinoe and the ladies

as dirty faced old women. That's a quote. Man, someday I just want to be posing as a whinoe, too, because I would be fucked on wine. I love that like a 20-year-old girl is posing as a dirty faced old woman. Yeah, yeah. Night mode.

Hey, got any bread heels? Two weeks later, they headed to Berkeley. When they heard there was a rally call to commemorate the death of SLA member Angela Atwood. Hey, don't go to that. There, one of the speakers, Kathy Salaya, said she now considered herself to be a member of the SLA. A couple hours later, the three fugitives

were in Kathy's apartment sipping tea. Oh, god. Now, if you're a cop, or an FBI investigator, and you hear that there is a rally to commemorate one of the people that you just had a shootout with and died, you go to that. And when someone stands up and says, I'm an SLA member now, you just follow that person.

But dare I say that the police and the FBI were probably like, there's no way any of them will go to this. But with everything they've done so far, there would be. No, of course. There should be, yes, there should be the guy who's like the antithetical cop, who whatever they say is like, right. But remember, it's SLA, so all the members

will probably be there. With SLA, Jack Letterman, Jack. Jackets, parking tickets, calling cards, diplomas. Yeah, so. But they couldn't stay there too long and quickly discovered other SLA sympathizers weren't down with having the fugitives in their home. On June 7th, Hearst and the Harrises

sent the media a recorded eulogy for the murdered members of their group. Hearst proclaimed her love for Willy Wolf and vowed that the SLA would continue its fight. Jack Scott was a sports writer. He was feeling a bit disillusioned about his work and he wanted to write something with more meaning. He was fascinated by the SLA, so he headed for Berkeley.

He asked people in the movement about the group and then one day a man offered to introduce him to the SLA. Jack's hopes of writing books at the SLA, writing a book about the SLA, was coming close to reality. At two o'clock the next morning, sorry afternoon, he was on the corner of Telegraph and Dwight Way, where he was told he would be contacted. For nearly an hour, he stood uncomfortably in the sun,

but no one approached him. Then as he began to walk away, he was stopped by a short dark man dressed in a white tennis outfit carrying a tennis racket. Hey, nothing weird there. The man gave Jack an address and told him to come by that evening. Jack circled the block several times before finally knocking

on the door. A face looked out from behind a curtain. The door opened and Jack walked into a room prepared for a police invasion. Mattresses were piled up against the doors and next to the windows. Rifles that had been converted to automatic machine guns were lined up next to a pair of duffel bags.

Grenades were stacked in strategic corners. One gun was cradled by Patty. Emily Harris was the only other one in the room. She came forward and smiled tentatively. I'm Yolanda. Then the man in the tennis outfit emerged from another room and gripped Jack's hand. I'm lost.

I just love tennis. I'm General Tico. General Tico? Yeah. Is he new? Well, he was Tico before, but now that everyone else is dead, he's general. He's moved up the ranks.

Yeah, he's the leader now. OK, General Tico. Cool. And his idea to hide from the cops was to put on a tennis outfit. Yeah, smart. I'm going to act like the bourgeoisie, motherfucker. Yeah, yeah.

I'm going to wear a tennis outfit on a campus. They spoke for a while. The three SLA members were extremely paranoid, grabbing their assault rifles every time there was a noise outside. Jack offered up that he had a $40,000 inheritance, and he would help them if they would give up their weapons. Ah, Jack.

What is he? What's? Yeah. OK. After a long time, they agreed. What? So they basically argued all night, and then they were like, OK, we'll give up the money.

They'll give up the weapons for the money. They'll give up the weapons for the money, and then he would take. He was going to use the inheritance to take care of them. So he rented a farmhouse in Pennsylvania, and they all traveled out there separately. There, they holed up for months. The farm was isolated. It had a pond for fishing, which you could eat.

It was ideal. By mid-morning, the fugitives were lying out in the sun. Patty spent long hours on a grassy hammock. But by the way, that was Patty's life. That's what Patty could have had. This doesn't. Man, it's just nice to be in a hammock. Yeah, dumbass.

Yeah, but now she was doing something, man. She's fighting a revolution. Yeah, hiding. She's fighting a revolution. Yeah, no, she's not. She's in a hammock. Well, revolution. Within days, all three were at Crimson Brown.

The Pennsylvania summer seemed to relax and rejuvenate the fugitives. They read Marx and Debray during the morning, and then went sunning and swimming, chasing each other into the water. They picked wild blackberries from bushes growing across the road, and dropped hook and line in search of scavenger fish.

So they're still sort of liberating the blacks. Like to cook with butter and onions. Wait, what? They like to cook the fish with butter and onions. Who cares? I mean, what? How's your revolution going? Well, I'll tell you what, the revolution's been good to us.

We've all put on 30 pounds. A healthy revolution. Each day, Patty practiced walking with a pillow stepped under her dress. Sure. She was disguised as a pregnant teenager with freckles. Throughout the summer, the fugitives had studied the art of disguise, reading books

on techniques for dyeing and styling hair, affecting lifts and limps, attaching artificial moles, scars, and tattoos. So that's how you could find the SLA. Just look for the three weirdest-looking people on the street. Hey, you guys in a sketch? Yeah.

Hey, look, is it just me, or is that Patty Hurst next to that guy with all the moles and the scabs limping? Why, it's like I have 14 moles. Yeah. And I have a lisp and a limp. Yeah. And why does she feel like a professional? Annie's in a tennis outfit.

Why does she? Yeah. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Oh, God. Within minutes, they could switch from the hippie mode into young professional from seedy bum to rough-neck hillbilly. They were ready.

Jack was annoyed at their endless preparation and the talk of revolution. The SLA were upset that he had made them disarm. But they found a BB gun in the barn and would run military maneuvers each day, 30 minutes each. Boy, that's going to come in really handy. Jack continued to try to write the book. After a couple of months, Jack bought an expensive dinner

of steak and wine. Though they all enjoyed it, Bill called Jack a bourgeoisie pig. What? Oh, God. I love that the steak, not the fucking farmhouse that you're running and playing in the pond. So my guess is that comment comes after the meal. Oh, I am stuffed.

You rich piece of shit. Excuse me? Yeah. Yeah, that's not the thing when they set it down. You're like, oh, you bourgeois. You know, you're like, done. Man, you're a real fucking asshole. You know that?

But you're a $90 meal. You know, don't even look at me, because I'm going to take a night swim in the pond. Dude, I'm going to go lay in the hammock, but you're a fucking asshole. OK, the lease was coming up on the farm, and Jack said it was time to go their separate ways. Besides, Jack had become friends with college basketball

great Bill Walton during a trip last month to Oregon, and he was going to write a book about him. He's like, you know, Bill's actually interested in doing something. You know what, man? I'm tired of hiding fugitives. I'm going to go write a biography from Bill Walton. I'm all over the map, sure.

Fortunately, things have cooled down out west. The police and FBI figured the SLA had gotten away. New people were ready to join the SLA, drive them back out west from the farm, and harbor the fugitives. Except for Patty, who had such a high profile, no one wanted to drive her out. So Jack, who had now been in Oregon for a while with Bill

Walton, flew back to the house in Pennsylvania and drove Patty out west on his own. That's a nice guy. And then he went his separate way. The new SLA was comprised of eight members, five new people had joined, mostly related to or friends with Kathy, the woman who had stood up at the rally. They helped to harbor the fugitives.

On April 18, 1975, a middle-aged woman named Mirna, this is a terrible last name, Upsall, walked in to Crocker Bank in Carmichael, California. She was a 42-year-old mother of four who was there to deposit collections from Carmichael's Seventh Day Adventist Church. Moments later, Bill, Kathy, Emily, James Kilgore, and Michael Borton burst in and announced a holdup.

They told everyone to get down on the floor and then shots rang out, some of which hit Upsall. They were, maybe it's Upsahi. Yeah, that was another autocorrect, Upsahi. They were kicking people in the head, stepping on their faces and shouting profanity throughout the robbery. They made off with $15,000.

Patty drove the getaway van. Now it says Upsall again. Upsall was taken to a local hospital where her husband was a surgeon. She died shortly afterwards. The SLA members returned to San Francisco to live in hiding. On August 22, 1975, a man was walking through the parking lot of the International House of Pancakes on Sunset

in Orange in Los Angeles. I mean, that's our eye-hop. Yeah. He noticed an unusual-looking black bag in the parking lot. He was about to kick the bag. What a crazy almost. I don't know why I guess he's. You don't almost kick it.

Fucking black man. Bomb or baby, whatever it is. He started to kick the bag. But just before he did, he saw, in the opening, and noticed there was a big piece of galvanized pipe. What the man had found was one of the most dangerous pipe bombs the bomb squad had ever seen. The device was placed on the pavement beneath a car parked

at a restaurant. A triggering device had been attached to the underside of the car, so when the car pulled away, the trigger would fire. But the contacts, which would have detonated the bomb, missed by a 16th of an inch. Wow. Two officers were driving.

More classic SLA work. Just off. Two officers were driving in their car when they heard the bomb call over their radio. They had just eaten at IHOP. Shocking. So they pulled their car over and discovered the other part of the triggering mechanism

still attached to their car. Oh, shit. The bomb squad described it as a very well-built pipe bomb. And they were used to bombings back then. The bomb squad responded to calls almost daily in the 70s. A detective told all police to check out their cars, and another bomb was discovered. Within weeks, detectives traced where

some of the bomb parts were purchased, and Kathy was positively identified by a salesman. Hugh? What about the disguises? You've been working on disguise for months. You've been working on disguise. We're a mole. I guess my lisp doesn't help change my appearance.

I mean, my appearance. Kathy was gone in the wind. She was off. Detectives in San Francisco received tips that the heresies were often seen near a house in San Francisco. On September 19, 1975, the FBI saw a pair dressed in running gear jogging near the suspect's house.

We thought they might be the heresies, so we stopped them. There was no resistance, except that Emily tried to run. It's resistance. The heresies then gave the location of Patty, an SLA member, Wendy Yishamira, who were living in the Mission District. They were unarmed and easily apprehended.

During Patty's booking, when she was asked what her job was, she stated, urban gorilla. The SLA was finished. Kathy was not arrested, and she had disappeared, as did James Kilgore. The heresies served eight years in prison for the Hearst kidnapping. They were released in 1983.

How long did Hearst serve for the Hearst kidnapping? They were released in 1983. Emily learned computer programming in prison and got a job working at MGM Studios. Oh, wow. The Hearst, why? What? Why would they hire her?

It's fucking insane. And the acronyms, the big acronym people over there. The Hearst enlisted star criminal defender F. Lee Bailey to represent their daughter. Dr. Margaret Singer said she weighed 87 pounds and suffered a loss of 18 IQ points, calling her a low IQ, low effect zombie. Patty's skinny, and boy, she's stupid, guys.

Patty has lost a lot of weight and a lot of brain cells. She's so dumb now. She is dumb. How dumb is she? She's like a zombie dumb. She's so dumb she's OK with this defense. There were gaps in her memory regarding her pre-Tanya life. She was smoking heavily, and she had nightmares.

The defense team accentuated Hearst's fear and terror, along with the abuses of her captivity, and suggested she may have been drugged into a disordered and frightened state. Court appointed Dr. and Authority on Brainwashing, Lewis Julian West, stated after a 15-hour interview with Hearst that she was a classic case of coercive persuasion or brainwashing.

Quote, if she had reacted differently, that would have been suspect. The defense introduced photos showing other SLA members pointing their guns at Patty during the armed robbery, but the jury didn't buy it. On March 11, 1976, they found Patty Hearst guilty of armed bank robbery and sentenced her to seven years in prison. President Jimmy Carter commuted her sentence

to 22 months served in freed Harris eight months before she would have had a parole hearing. She recovered full rights when President Bill Clinton granted her pardon on January 20, 2001. She got married and published a best-seeing selling memoir, Every Secret Thing, in 1982. She settled with her family in Connecticut and raised two daughters.

In 1999, the show America's Most Wanted aired a profile of Kathy Salaya. Oh boy. It had been 25 years since the attempted bombing. Police in Minnesota received a tip that a woman named Sarah James Olson looked like Kathy. Olson, the wife of a St. Paul doctor and mother of three, was arrested on the pipe bomb charge.

At that point, the bank robbery case was reopened. In 2001, she pleaded guilty to possession of explosives with the intent to murder. She was told by prosecutors that she would be given eight years, but when she was sentenced, the judge gave her two consecutive terms of 10 years to life. Jesus. Patty Hearst was granted a pardon by Bill.

Oh, I already did that. Police discovered new evidence from the bank robbery shooting, including lab reports that linked shell casings found at the crime scene with shotgun shells found in the apartment shared by the suspect. So at this point, it's 25 years later, but they still have all the shit. The technology is advanced so far that they have much more

of it. They basically had these guys down if they were fucked. Sarah Jane Olson, AKA Kathy, Bill Harris, Emily Montog, formerly Emily Harris, and Michael Borton were arrested. James Kilgore was still in hiding. The four were charged with first degree murder and faced life in prison. Hearst was given immunity in exchange for testimony,

but she never had to take the stand. They took plea deals, which gave them sentences between eight and six years. On November 8, 2002, James Kilgore, who had been a fugitive since 1975, was arrested in South Africa and extradited to the United States to face federal explosives and passport fraud charges. He was sentenced to 54 months in prison.

He got away. That's 54 months. Yeah, that's nothing. They have all been released from prison as of 2009. The only SLA member still in prison is Joe Romero, who was convicted of shooting Marcus Foster in Oakland in the first action taken by the SLA. Hearst became prominent on the East Coast Society

and charitable fundraising scene, being particularly involved with a foundation for helping children suffering from AIDS. On February 16, 2005, Hearst's Shih Tzu Rocket won the toy category in the Westminster Kennel Dog Club show at Madison Square Garden. Oh, god. How are you?

That dog should not be allowed to compete. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Well, she had Stockholm syndrome. She was horribly abused by them. They raped her and they beat her and they did brainwash her. And her parents did not handle it well. Oh, fine. Now, all right, the dog can win.

But then who, I mean, I don't know. I'm not an expert on Stockholm syndrome, but I think you can be brainwashed into thinking, it's clearly a thing, like they've. Yeah, it is a thing. And that's what she had. I mean, it's just that you don't usually see someone then out with guns and doing all the shit she did.

For so long. But, you know, once you're in it, you're in it. It's not like she was talking to other people. No, she wasn't seeing other movements. And anything that she saw at that point could be spun around. But they were fucking idiots. Are you sure? No, no, no, no.

You sure? You can never get away with anything like that now, because of all the surveillance and everything, the tools they have to catch people. But the 70s were fucking nuts. Look, I guarantee you, I could put together a better revolution squad than the SLA today, easily. I mean, there was nothing, like, it's almost like a documentary

about a terrible band. Oh, my god, it is. Yeah. It is. Yeah. Holy shit. And they just, they were the, and it's just like, when you're in a band that's terrible, you know,

like a lot, you know, you just kind of like you're saying, it's almost stuck homie in a way where you're just kind of like, man, I'm telling you, man, we got the talent. And everyone's like, we got the talent. We got the talent, man. We got the drive. We got the talent. Well.

Well. I mean, I hope you're happy. I'm pretty, very, very interesting shit. A bunch of idiots. Yeah. Great. All right, well, normal, another normal, normal story. America, land of the idiots.

Oh, we should, I don't have a mic that I can fuck the audio up on anymore. No, sorry, are we going to do that? Oh, yeah, whatever. Do you want to fuck up the sound? Yeah. Look at this. No, I'm just kidding.

How about now? This is our sign off. Goodbye, everybody. I can't. I don't have that capability. Ooh, here. Hey, it's a shitty mic. I don't know what's happening.