The Radicalization of Patty Hearst: Mind Control by the SLA, a Political Cult

CNN describes an alternative narrative to the radicalization of Patricia Hearst

CNN has produced a special on the radicalization of Patricia Hearst, based on Jeffrey Toobin’s 2016 book, American Heiress: The Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, Crimes and Trial of Patty Hearst (See my 2016 blog). I watched the first two hours of the CNN special (Next Sunday is the next part). Unfortunately, my critical thoughts about the interview I heard and Toobin’s book continue with this program. The show features SLA kidnapper of Patty, Bill Harris, and gives him way too much time to tell his version of what happened at the expense of the horror and criminal acts that he and other members of the SLA political cult performed. He kept smiling as he told his story–almost laughing at times–as he described breaking into the apartment of Steven Weed, fiancee to Patty Hearst, with machine guns, shotguns, knocking them to the floor, and tying them up. I kept thinking, “Why is he not in jail? Why is Jeffrey Toobin accepting this storytelling and omitting details about brainwashing and mind control?”