"THE HEIRESS ON TRIAL: PATTY HEARST'S BRAINWASHING DEFENSE, TWO PRESIDENTIAL PARDONS & THE DOG SHOW REDEMPTION - PART 2"

0:03 Calaruga Shark Media. Good Morning, I'm Reed Carter, Sunday, February eighth, twenty twenty six. Yesterday we covered how Patty Hurst went from a nineteen year old college student to America's most wanted fugitive, kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army, locked in a closet for two months, sexually assaulted, threatened with death, then emerged calling herself Tanya robbing Banks with an M one carbine today the Reckoning. September eighteenth, nineteen seventy five, Patty Hurst arrested in a San Francisco apartment nineteen months after her kidnapping. When asked her occupation Urban Gorilla. When booked, she raised a clenched fist in solidarity with her SLA comrades.

0:56 Her family hired f Lee Bailey, the most famous defeat dense attorney in America. His plan proved that Patty Hurst had been brainwashed, that she was a prisoner of war, that everything she did after being locked in that closet was the result of coercive persuasion so extreme it destroyed her free will. The prosecution had a different theory. Patty Hurst was a bored, rich girl, who found excitement and revolution, a willing convert who embraced the SLA's cause, robbed banks by choice, and fired automatic weapons to protect her new comrades. February fourth, nineteen seventy six, two years to the day after her kidnapping, the trial began in San Francisco. Judge Oliver J. Carter, presiding prosecutor James Browning, Defense f Lee Bailey, and Jay Albert Johnson. The trial lasted six weeks, featured over two hundred hours of psychiatric testimony. Had America divided into two camps. She was brainwashed, she was guilty, no middle ground. On March twentieth, nineteen seventy six, the jury decided, But the verdict wasn't the end, not even close, because what happened after the verdict is almost as extraordinary as the kidnapping itself. Two presidential commutations, a pardon, marriage to her bodyguard, acting in John Waters' films, and winning prizes at the Westminster Kennel Club dog show from bank robber to dog show champion. Only in America, I'm reed, Carter,

2:29 this is celebrity trials today. The trial of Patty Hurst, the brainwashing defense that failed Prison Freedom and the strangest redemption arc in American criminal history, Part two of two, February fourth, nineteen seventy six, San Francisco, United States District Court Judge Oliver J. Carter presiding. The courtroom was packed media from around the world. The Hurst case had been on the cover of Newsweek seven times. This was, by any measure, the trial of the decade. And there sat Patty Hurst, twenty one years old, now no longer the revolutionary in the beret, looking small, thin, scared, the woman who had shouted profanity during a bank robbery, now barely whispered answers to her attorney's questions. The defense strategy brainwashing f lee. Bailey declared that for twenty months, Patty Hurst had been a prisoner of war whose actions were entirely governed by her desire to stay alive. She never voluntarily joined the SLA, She was coerced, terrorized, Her mind was broken and rebuilt by her captors. Bailey compared it to techniques used on American POWs in Korea isolation, sensory deprivation, physical abuse, sexual abuse, constant threat of death, total dependency on captors for survival, classic coercive persuasion, break the subject down,

4:00 rebuild them in your image. He put Hurst on the stand against her private objections. She described her violent abduction, the closet, the blindfold, nearly two months in darkness, being sexually assaulted by DeFreeze and Wolf, the death threats, the indoctrination. DeFreeze told me that the War Council had decided or was thinking about killing me. She testified, I accommodated my thoughts to coincide with theirs. Bailey produced three psychiatric experts, Doctor Martin Orne, doctor Jolian West, doctor Robert J. Lifton, all testified that Hurst's behavior was the result of brainwashing coercive persuasion techniques identical to those used on prisoners of war.

4:44 Her behavior was consistent with the traumas she had suffered. She was not acting freely. She was surviving, but the prosecution had weapons of its own, and they were devastating. First the tapes, all those audio tapes, the SLA had released Patty's own voice, declaring she joined voluntarily, calling the idea of brainwashing ridiculous, denouncing her family, embracing the revolution. Her own words played in the court room, contradicting everything her defense was arguing. Judge Carter ruled those tapes admissible, said the statements were made voluntarily. That ruling gutted Bailey's strategy.

5:27 Every tape the jury heard was Patty Hurst's saying in her own voice that she was not brainwashed. Second, the jail recording after her arrest. Authorities recorded a conversation between Hurst and a visiting friend. On the tape, Hurst was confident, cursing, fully aware of her role with the SLA, not the broken, terrified hostage. Bailey was describing a woman who sounded perfectly in control. Third, the sporting goods store May sixteenth, nineteen seventy four, Hurst alone in a van while the Harrises were detained for shoplifting across the street, her chance to escape. Instead, she grabbed a carbine and emptied the magazine to help them flee. If she was a hostage, why didn't she run?

6:10 Why did she save her captors? Fourth the Missing Year, the seventeen months between the bank robbery and her arrest, Hurst was on the run with SLA members, had multiple opportunities to leave, to contact her family, to turn herself in. She didn't. Prosecutor Browning wanted to introduce evidence from that entire missing year. Bailey objected, Judge Carter allowed it, another devastating ruling for the defense. The jury would hear about everything Hurst did while on the run, all of its suggesting she was a willing revolutionary. And then came the Fifth Amendment disaster. On cross examination, Browning peppered Hurst with questions about her actions after the bank robbery, her shooting at the Sporting Goods store, her time on the run, her relationships with SLA members, her continue participation in the group's activities. Hurst pleaded the Fifth Amendment forty two times.

7:05 Forty two refused to answer on grounds of self incrimination because answering truthfully could have exposed her to additional criminal charges for the sporting Goods shooting and other crimes. But here's the problem in a criminal trial. When the defendant takes the stand and then refuses to answer questions, the jury notices they can't legally hold it against her, but they're human. Forty two refusals to answer looks like forty two things you're hiding. Bailey's decision to put Hurst on the stand was later heavily criticized by legal scholars. By other attorneys and eventually by Hurst herself. In her autobiography, she expressed disappointment with Bailey's lack of focus in the crucial final stage of the trial, described him as having the appearance of someone with a hangover spilling water down the front of his pants while making a disjointed closing argument.

7:58 The prosecution brought its own psycheaatric experts to counter the brainwashing defense, and one of them changed everything. Doctor Joel Fort not a psychiatrist, but he testified in over two hundred criminal cases across the country. His testimony branded Hurst as a willing member of the SLA. Said she was a strong, wilful, independent person, bored, dissatisfied, in poor contact with her family, disliking them to some extent. Said the SLA offered her something that was missing excitement, purpose, a sense of meaning. Fort described her as a voluntary convert, not a brainwashing victim, a rebel in search of a cause.

8:40 Doctor Harry Coozle, prosecution's second expert, was even more damaging. A Harvard trained psychiatrist who specialized in criminal behavior. His assessment was blunt. This was an act of her own free will. Over two hundred hours of psychiatric testimony, dueling experts, the jury listening to psychiatrists argue about the nature of free will, coercion, and the breaking point of the human mind. Even Judge Carter appeared to doze off during the weeks of analysis. Bailey's closing argument, there is not anything close to proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Patty Hurst wanted to be a bank robber. What you know and you know in your hearts to be true is beyond dispute.

9:25 There was talk about her dying and she wanted to survive. Browning's closing methodically cataloged every action indicating Hurst's sympathy with the SLA, the gunfire at the sporting goods store, the audiotapes, the eulogies for dead SLA members, her keeping a trinket given to her by Willie Wolf, the man she claimed raped her piece by piece, building a portrait of a willing revolutionary. March twentieth, nineteen seventy six, the jury returned guilty bank robbery and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony. The jury, he deliberated approximately twelve hours, found that Patty Hurst acted intentionally and voluntarily in robbing the Hibernia Bank. She had been neither brainwashed nor forced to participate. Juror Carl Stahl later told reporters he was a con artist, referring to Bailey's strategy. Her whole conduct showed that she was a con artist. She had planned well, and she is above average intelligence. She had one thing on her mind, to satisfy her ego and to satisfy herself, and she didn't even think of anybody else. Judge Carter imposed the maximum preliminary sentence of thirty five years, later reduced at final sentencing on September twenty fourth, nineteen seventy six to seven years imprisonment. Seven years for a woman who was kidnapped at gunpoint, locked in a closet for two months, sexually assaulted, threatened with death, and whose free

10:56 will was at minimum severely compromised. These secutors had actually offered Bailey a plea deal before trial, plead guilty to practically anything in exchange for a lenient sentence, possibly just probation as a first time offender. Bailey rejected it. He was confident in the brainwashing defense. He also held book rights to the Hurst story Brainwashing made for a better narrative his client went to prison because her lawyer wanted a good book deal. Make it make sense, We'll be right back with Patty Hurst in prison, Jimmy Carter's commutation, Bill Clinton's pardon, and the most extraordinary second act in American criminal history. Patty Hurst was sent to the Federal Correctional Institution in Pleasanton, California. She suffered a collapsed lung shortly after arriving emergency surgery, medical complications that would continue.

12:01 She was held in solitary confinement for security reasons. A wealthy heiress convicted of bank robbery, neither the general population nor she herself would be safe in open housing. Meanwhile, the legal maneuvering continued. Hurst's cooperation with authorities began almost immediately after her conviction. She provided information about SLA activities, helped investigators testified against the Harrises. A California Superior Court judge gave her probation on the sporting goods store shooting charge. When she pleaded no contest, the judge said he believed she had been subject to coercion amounting to torture. So one judge believed she was coerced. The federal jury didn't.

12:44 Two courts, two different conclusions, same evidence, same woman. In November nineteen seventy six, Hurst was released on bail while her appeal was pending. Her father hired dozens of bodyguards to protect her. One of those bodyguards was a San Francisco police officer named Bernard Shaw. The appeal was denied, Hurst went back to prison. She changed lawyers, fired Bailey. Her new attorney filed motions arguing Bailey hadn't defended her adequately, that he was preoccupied with writing a lucrative book about her case, that his strategy was flawed from the beginning. But by then, something extraordinary was happening outside the courtroom. Public opinion was shifting. The initial anger at Hurst for joining her captors was giving way to sympathy. People started to understand, or at least consider, what happens to a nineteen year old girl locked in a dark closet for two months, beaten, raped, told she's going to die unless she co operates. A campaign for executive clemency gathered momentum prominent supporters, legal scholars, mental health professionals, politicians, all arguing that Paddy Hurst had been punished enough that the criminal justice system had failed to account for the extraordinary circumstances of her coercion. February first, nineteen seventy nine, twenty two months into her seven year sentence, President Jimmy Carter commuted Patty Hurst's sentence to time served. She walked out of the Federal Correctional Institution in Pleasanton free. Two months later.

14:18 April first, nineteen seventy nine, she married Bernard Shaw, the bodyguard the San Francisco police officer who had guarded her while she was on bail, traditional double ring ceremony on Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay. Her parents gave them a Seer's vacuum cleaner as a wedding present. They thought the marriage wouldn't last. Hurst later told Conan O'Brien that story, laughing about it. The joke was on them. The marriage lasted thirty four years until Shaw's death from cancer in twenty thirteen. They moved to Connecticut had two daughters, Gillian and Lydia. Patricia Hurst Shaw became a suburban mother charity work, fundraising events, social circles that included the children of Rita Hayworth and other American dynasties, but the conviction hung over her.

15:07 She wasn't pardoned, she was commuted, Her record wasn't clean for twenty two years. Patty Hurst was a convicted felon, a bank robber, a woman with a federal criminal record. January twentieth, two thousand and one, President Bill Clinton's last day in office, in a flurry of controversial pardons and commutations, Clinton granted a full presidential pardon to Patricia Hurst Shaw. Two presidents Carter commuted her sentence. Clinton erased her conviction. The only person in American history to have her kidnapping, brainwashing, bank robbery conviction, imprisonment, commutation, and pardon become an arc that two different administrations felt compelled to address. California Attorney General Evel Younger had said something interesting after Hurst's sentencing.

15:56 If there was a double standard for the wealthy, it was the opposite of what was generally believed. He argued, Hurst had received a stiffer sentence than a person of lesser means might have, that the Hurst name worked against her, not for her. Maybe or maybe being a hearst is why two presidents intervened. A poor woman convicted of the same crime wouldn't have gotten Carter's attention wouldn't have gotten Clinton's pardon. The Hurst name made her a target for kidnapping, made her trial a sensation, made her conviction harsher, and ultimately made her pardon possible. Wealth cuts both ways. It creates vulnerability and it creates opportunity. Patty Hurst experienced both.

16:49 So what do you do after You've been kidnapped by revolutionaries? Locked in a closet, brainwashed, robbed a bank on camera, spent nineteen months as America's most wanted fugitive, been convicted, in prison, commuted and pardoned. Apparently you raised dogs and act in John Waters movies. In nineteen eighty eight, Hurst met filmmaker John Waters while promoting a biopic about her life. Waters, the Pope of Trash, had been collecting newspaper clippings about her for years. He was casting his film cry Baby, which would star Johnny Depp. Sent Hurst the script. She thought, why not? By her own admission, her audition was terrible. Waters agreed she got the part anyway. It kicked off a collaboration that produced four films, cry Baby in nineteen ninety Serial Mom in nineteen ninety four, where Kathleen Turner's character brats Hurst for wearing white shoes after Labor Day Pecker.

17:43 In nineteen ninety eight, Cecil b demented. In two thousand, the former revolutionary became a camp icon. The woman who wielded an M one carbine was now getting laughs in comedies about suburban murder and underground filmmaking. She wrote her memoir Every Secret Thing. In nineteen eighty two, wrote a novel called Murder at San Simeon produced a Travel Channel special about her grandfather's Hurst Castle did charity work for AIDS and Alzheimer's organizations, and meals on wheels. And then there were the dogs. Patricia Hurst Shaw became a fixture on the dog show circuit, French bulldogs and Sheet Sue's serious competitor. In twenty fifteen, her Sheet Su named Rocket, won the Toy group at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show at Madison Square Garden. In twenty seventeen, her French bulldog Tuggy won Best of breed. Another French bulldog, Ruby won best of opposite sex. When reporters at Westminster inevitably asked about her past, Hurst was gracious, but firm. People move on. I guess people somehow imagine you don't evolve in your life. I have grown daughters and granddaughters and other things that normal people have. Normal, that's all she wanted, after the closet, after the beret and the rifle, and the bank, and the trial and the prison. Normal. Her husband, Bernard Shaw, served as head of security for the Hearst Corporation.

19:11 They raised their daughters, attended family events, built a quiet life in Connecticut and New York. When Shaw died of cancer in twenty thirteen at age sixty eight, Hearst lost the man who had literally guarded her life and then shared it. In twenty sixteen, Jeffrey Tubin published American Heiress, arguing that Hurst was a willing participant in SLA crimes. Twentieth Century Fox acquired the movie rights. Hurst released a lengthy statement criticizing the book. Fox canceled the film. The debate continues, victim or revolutionary, brainwashed or willing? Even in her seventies, Patty Hurst can't escape the question. Patricia Hurst Shaw turned seventy one last februaryferre to be called Patricia not Patty lives quietly, shows her dogs, remembers her late husband, spoils her granddaughters, watches the world from a distance that only someone who's been at the center of a national firestorm can appreciate. The woman who was Tanya is now a grandmother. The bank robber is a dog show champion.

20:19 The revolutionary is a Connecticut socialite. Make it make sense. One more piece of the story. The Symbionese Liberation Army didn't end with Patty Hurst's arrest. The harrises Bill and Emily, the couple who survived the LA shootout with Hurst. In September two thousand and two, they pleaded guilty to kidnapping. Patty Hurst served eight years in prison. Their marriage didn't survive. They divorced. Kathleen Celia, SLA member who organized a memorial for the dead comrades in a Berkeley park. She went on the run in nineteen seventy five, disappeared, changed her name to Sarah Jane Olson, moved to Minnesota, created a new life, upper middle class suburban existence, husband, three daughters, church choir, PTA meetings, nobody knew for twenty three years.

21:17 A former domestic terrorist lived as a suburban housewife in Saint Paul until nineteen ninety nine, when she was recognized from the television show America's Most Wanted Arrested, eventually pleaded guilty to charges related to planting pipe bombs under l A p D Squad cars in nineteen seventy five, and to second degree murder for the nineteen seventy five Carmichael Bank robbery where Myrna Opsall was killed. In two thousand three, Bill Harris, Emily Harris, Celia, and two other former s l A members were sentenced to between six and eight years in prison for Myrna Opsall's murder. They accepted responsibility in open court apologized to the Oppsoll family. The last SLA fugitive, James Kilgore, was captured in two thousand and two, released on parole in two thousand and nine. It took twenty eight years from nineteen seventy four to two thousand two, nearly three decades, to bring every surviving SLA member to justice.

22:18 The domestic terrorist group that kidnapped a newspaper heiress, robbed banks, planted bombs, and killed innocent people. All eventually caught, All eventually convicted, All eventually imprisoned. The pursuit of justice is slow, but it's relentless. Every member of the Symbionese Liberation Army faced consequences, even the ones who thought they'd escaped, even the ones who built new lives under new names. Twenty three years of freedom in Minnesota, and the law still found you. Myrna Opsoll was forty two years old when she walked into the Crocker National Bank in Carmichael, just depositing money for her church. Wrong place, long time, shot by revolutionaries who claimed to fight for the people, killed a mother of four who was doing church business. She should be ninety three years old today, should have seen her grandchildren grow up, should have lived a full life. Instead, she became a footnote in someone else's revolution. Rest in peace, Myrna.

23:22 Someone has to say your name. That's part two of our Patty Hurst Special February fourth, nineteen seventy four. Kidnapped from her apartment by armed radicals, locked in a closet for two months, sexually assaulted, threatened with execution. Two months later, caught on camera robbing a bank with an assault rifle. Tried for bank robbery, f lee Bailey's brainwashing defense failed, convicted, sentenced to seven years, served twenty two months. Jimmy Carter commuted, Bill Clinton, pardoned, married her bodyguard, raised two daughters, acted in John Watter films, won prizes at Westminster, became a grandmother.

24:04 The sla killed innocent people, murdered Marcus Foster, killed mRNA opsol, terrorized a young woman into becoming something she never would have been. Whether Patty Hurst was brainwashed or radicalized, one thing is beyond dispute. She was nineteen years old when armed strangers burst into her apartment and changed her life forever. February fourth, nineteen seventy four. A random act of violence against an innocent person. The consequences lasted a lifetime. The Symbionese Liberation Army wanted to destroy capitalism and free the oppressed. Instead, they murdered a school superintendent, kidnapped a teenager, robbed banks, killed a church volunteer, and died in a burning house on live television. Their revolution accomplished, nothing changed, nothing freed nobody.

24:54 But Patty Hurst's case changed everything about how we understand kidnapping, coercion, and the limit. It's a free will, Stockholm syndrome, coercive persuasion, the brainwashing defense, the debate over victim versus criminal. When captivity, destroys agency. All of it flows from Apartment four at two six h three Benvenue Street. Fifty one years later, we still can't agree on what happened in that closet, and maybe that's the point. Maybe some questions about the human mind don't have clean answers. I'm reed, Carter. This is celebrity trials. Rest in peace to Marcus Foster, Myrna Opsall, and every innocent person whose life was destroyed by people who thought violence was revolution. This is celebrity trials.