The Strange Case Of... Patty Hearst and the Symbionese Liberation Army

Rebel without a purse.

On the evening of 4th February 1974, Patty Hearst - the 19-year-old heiress to the Hearst newspaper fortune - went to answer the door at the house she shared with fiancé Steven Weed. There she was met by a group of masked individuals she and we would come to know as the Symbionese Liberation Army. As William Randolph Hearst's grand-daughter was spirited into the night so began one of the bizarrest episodes in modern American history.

The Symbionese Liberation Army - or SLA for short - were one of many revolutionary groups active in the US during the late '60s and early '70s. Influenced by Red Army Factions such as the Baader-Meinhof Gang, the SLA claimed to be leaders of black revolution - this in spite of the fact they only had one black member, the charismatic Donald DeFreeze, aka Cinque.

Already infamous for having murdered African-American educator Marcus Foster, the group became known the world over when they kidnapped Hearst and demanded $6 million in food for the impoverished people of Bay Area California by way of a ransom.