Transcript

Episode 703: The Kidnapping of Patty Hearst (Part 1)

From Morbid | Podcast · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 1 h 5 min · 13,117 words · 348 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "Episode 703: The Kidnapping of Patty Hearst (Part 1)", an episode of Morbid | Podcast published September 9, 2025 (1 h 5 min, about 13,117 words). It mentions 36 people, works and ideas, including Patty Hurst, Symbion Liberation Army, Randolph Hurst, SLA, Steven Weed.

What this episode is about

The discussion revolves around the chaotic personal lives of the hosts, Ash and Elena, who are coping with family health issues and various emergencies while preparing for a recording. They share their experiences with lack of sleep stemming from a dental emergency and a family member's hospitalization, illustrating the challenges they face while maintaining their podcasting routine.

Key takeaways

  • Sleep deprivation and family crises: unpredictably bonding over shared chaos, like a sitcom but with real stakes.
  • Fire alarms at 4 a.m.: the universe's way of reminding you that peace is just a glitch away.
  • Navigating digital platforms while juggling family drama is like solving a Rubik's Cube—blindfolded.
  • Pop-punk healers in distress: who knew early 2000s angst could be the elixir for chaotic adult life?
  • When it rains, it pours: even the firefighters become familiar faces in the whirlwind of life.

Who speaks in this episode?

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 10:00: Christina Applegate, Patty Hurst, Symbion Liberation Army, Randolph Hurst
  2. – 20:00: Steven Weed, social justice, Symbion Liberation Army, SLA
  3. – 30:00: San Francisco, Marcus Foster, Death Row Jefferson, domestic terrorism
  4. – 40:00: Barbara Gene Mel, Steven Weed, San Francisco, ransom
  5. – 50:00: Marcus Foster, Peter Beninsson, ransom, cyanide
  6. – 1:00:00: Federal Food Assistance, Patty Hurst, Symbion Liberation Army, Randolph Hurst
  7. – 1:04:38: Patty Hurst, Hurst Corporation

Notable quotes from "Episode 703: The Kidnapping of Patty Hearst (Part 1)"

  • So, I'm lost. But anyway, we're going to be talking about Patty Hurst and the symbion liberation army today.
    about Patty Hurst · at
  • Five gals. Born to Katherine Campbell, which is a sick ass name. And Randolph Hurst.
    about Randolph Hurst · at
  • She followed Steve to the University of California, Berkeley, and he enrolled in grad courses there and she started undergrad. I have to imagine that he probably lost his teaching job when they.
    about Steven Weed · at
  • And that is the Symbion Liberation Army or SLA. Okay, I'm going to say that because it's so much easier to say.
    about SLA · at
  • They had targeted Marcus Foster because they thought he was advocating for a student ID system at the school which they felt was racist. But in all reality, Marcus Foster had never.
    about Marcus Foster · at
  • They ran the plates and they traced it to 31-year-old Peter Benninsson, a mathematician and somebody who did not even remotely fit the profile of a kidnapper.
    about Peter Beninsson · at
  • And the letter to the Hurst family in San Francisco. At the same time, the Hurst got their own ransom letter from the kidnappers, but it was a lot less orderly and formal than the typed letter that had been sent to the radio station.
    about ransom · at
  • Stated as a quote symbolic gesture of good faith from the Hursts. And this is insane. The SLA demanded that every person in California who was receiving federal food assistance…
    about Symbion Liberation Army · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

  • Patty Hurst — Person · Core topic · 5 mentions · first at
    Central subject of the episode: her background, family status, and the events of her 1974 kidnapping are the narrative spine of Part 1.
  • Randolph Hurst — Person · Core topic · 3 mentions · first at
    Patty Hurst's father; his wealth, public position, and responses (PIN creation, negotiations) drive the ransom/food-distribution storyline.
  • Steven Weed — Person · Core topic · 3 mentions · first at
    Patty Hurst’s teacher-turned-fiancé; present during the abduction and provides key witness context and relationship background.
  • Marcus Foster — Person · Referenced victim · 4 mentions · first at
    Oakland school superintendent murdered by the SLA; establishes the group’s violent tactics and public notoriety before the kidnapping.
  • Peter Beninsson — Person · Referenced victim · 2 mentions · first at
    Carjacking/abduction victim whose convertible was used in Patty’s kidnapping; his experience provides investigative leads and family hope.
  • Jeffrey Tubin — Person · Referenced expert · 3 mentions · first at
    Cited as the author providing interpretive framing and quotes about the Hurst family and SLA dynamics.
    Yeah. But as author Jeffrey Tubin pointed out, and we're going to link his book in the show notes. It's called American Aerys. He said, or he wrote, In light of the Hurst family tradition.
  • Michael Borton — Person · Referenced participant · 2 mentions · first at
    Named as an early SLA recruit and part of the activist group associated with the UC Berkeley bombing referenced in the episode.
    These people were Donald Defreeze, a multiple convicted criminal and a group of young activists that included Michael Borton, Steve Sallaya, Jim Kilgore, and Kathy Sallayia.…
  • Jim Kilgore — Person · Referenced participant · 2 mentions · first at
    Named as an early SLA recruit and part of the group tied to the UC Berkeley bombing referenced in the narrative.
    Multiple convicted criminal and a group of young activists that included Michael Borton, Steve Sallaya, Jim Kilgore, and Kathy Sallayia. Together with Donald, they ended up…
  • William Hurst — Person · Background reference · 1 mention · first at
    Referenced as Randolph Hurst’s father and the publishing magnate whose fortune and legacy contextualize the Hurst family’s prominence.
    He was the son of publishing magnet William Hurst. So that made him heir to one of the nation's largest fortunes and like the nation but also probably the world.
  • Steve Sallaya — Person · Referenced participant · 1 mention · first at
    Listed among early SLA recruits and connected to the UC Berkeley bombing mentioned as prior notoriety.
    Multiple convicted criminal and a group of young activists that included Michael Borton, Steve Sallaya, Jim Kilgore, and Kathy Sallayia. Together with Donald, they ended up…
  • Kathy Sallaya — Person · Referenced participant · 1 mention · first at
    Named as an early SLA recruit and part of the group with prior arrests for the UC Berkeley bombing mentioned in the episode.
    Started recruiting young people to the group like Michael Borton, Steve Sallayya, Jim Kilgore, Kathy Sallaya.
  • Angela Atwood — Person · Referenced participant · 1 mention · first at
    Named as an SLA member involved in carjacking/abduction of Peter Beninsson, which facilitated Patty’s kidnapping logistics.
    That. Anybody. But because he didn't act immediately, three other SLA members, Angela Atwood and Bill and Emily Harris, jumped on him, tied him up, and shoved him into the backseat of his own car and covered him with a blanket.
  • Emily Harris — Person · Referenced participant · 1 mention · first at
    Named as an SLA member involved in the abduction of Peter Beninsson, part of the kidnapping operation’s logistics.
    That. Anybody. But because he didn't act immediately, three other SLA members, Angela Atwood and Bill and Emily Harris, jumped on him, tied him up, and shoved him into the backseat of his own car and covered him with a blanket.
  • Death Row Jefferson — Person · Anecdotal reference · 2 mentions · first at
    Used to illustrate SLA disorganization: he misunderstood recruitment communications and thought he was being asked to lead the group.
    So he thought he was being asked to lead the group.
  • Barbara Gene Mel — Person · Referenced case · 2 mentions · first at
    Referenced as a prior kidnapping case that Patty recalls, illustrating her fear and the cultural context of ransom kidnappings.
    Okay. and in that instant, her mind flashed back to a case that we covered in episode 597, the kidnapping of Barbara Gene Mel.
  • Christina Applegate — Person · Pop-culture reference · 2 mentions · first at
    Referenced in an aside about screaming lyrics in a car; not central to the Patty Hurst/SLA narrative.
    Hell yeah. It's like that scene of is it Christina Applegate or am I absolutely losing my mind?

Books & papers

  • American Aerys — Book · Referenced source · 1 mention · first at
    Cited as a key source for quotes and interpretation about the Hurst family and Patty’s captivity dynamics.
    Yeah. But as author Jeffrey Tubin pointed out, and we're going to link his book in the show notes. It's called American Aerys. He said, or he wrote, In light of the Hurst…

Companies & orgs

  • Symbion Liberation Army — Company · Core topic · 4 mentions · first at
    Primary organization discussed as the perpetrator group behind the kidnapping and earlier violence; their ideology and demands are detailed.
  • SLA — Company · Core topic · 3 mentions · first at
    Acronym used throughout for the Symbionese Liberation Army; appears in letters, demands, and attribution of violence.
  • Hurst Corporation — Company · Core context · 2 mentions · first at
    Represents the Hurst family’s media power and public exposure; also referenced as a funding source/actor in the PIN response.
    And it also meant that he would eventually become the chairman of the board of the Hurst Corporation which was a huge media conglomerate that owned tons and tons of very popular nationally recognized media outlets.
  • Convent of Sacred Heart — Company · Background context · 1 mention · first at
    Patty Hurst’s early boarding school; used to illustrate her upbringing, discipline expectations, and rebelliousness.
    Yeah. When she was just 10 years old, they ended up sending her away to the Convent of Sacred Heart, which was a private Catholic boarding school in San Francisco.
  • Santa Catalina School — Company · Background context · 1 mention · first at
    Another boarding school Patty attended; supports the narrative of her adolescence and dissatisfaction with imposed environments.
    When she started high school, Patty transferred to the Santa Catalina School, which was another boarding school. This one was about 100 miles away from home and she wasn't any happier there. She.
  • Unicite — Company · Background context · 1 mention · first at
    Black inmate self-help group organized by Donald DeFreeze while incarcerated; presented as a precursor to his later organizing.
    Time violent crimes. So in September of 1972, while he was still incarcerated, he organized a black inmate self-help group called Unicite with help from Russell Little and…
  • Vinceramos — Company · Background context · 1 mention · first at
    Referenced as a militant activist group that two Berkeley grad students previously belonged to, linking networks around DeFreeze.
    Russell Little and William Wolf. They were two Berkeley grad students and prison tutors who were former members of Vinceramos, which was another militant activist group. Like I said, there was a lot of activist groups going on.

Concepts & topics

  • Federal Food Assistance — Concept · Core demand / plot device · 2 mentions · first at
    Central to the SLA’s ransom demand: statewide food provision to recipients, driving Randolph Hurst’s creation of PIN and the episode’s climax.
    Insane. The SLA demanded that every person in California who was receiving federal food assistance be given $70 worth of food to be picked up at designated grocery stores…
  • ransom — Concept · Core topic · 3 mentions · first at
    Frames the negotiation: SLA’s demands (prisoner release, then food distribution funding) function as ransom conditions for Patty’s release.
  • domestic terrorism — Concept · Core framing concept · 2 mentions · first at
    Used to categorize the SLA’s actions and historical significance; anchors the moral/political framing of the episode.
    They ended up forming their own radical activist group and eventually they became one of the most notorious domestic terrorist organizations in American history.
  • cyanide — Concept · Evidence detail · 3 mentions · first at
    Appears as a distinctive forensic detail: cyanide-filled bullets left as a purported SLA calling card.
    One very strange thing left behind though on the floor by the kidnappers. A box of cyanide filled 38 caliber bullets.
  • revolutionary movements — Concept · Contextual concept · 1 mention · first at
    Used to explain DeFreeze’s motivations and the broader radical milieu; provides ideological context for SLA formation.
    House painter, but a lot of time he was just unemployed. Yeah, he was absolutely enamored with these revolutionary movements that were rising up around the world. And of…
  • political revolution — Concept · Contextual concept · 1 mention · first at
    Referenced as the ideological justification claimed by militant groups and the SLA for violence and demands.
    Credit for the murder. And in those letters, they indicated their plan to kidnap a prominent person and raise money for their political cause. Oh, well that'll do it.
  • social justice — Concept · Contextual concept · 3 mentions · first at
    Referenced as part of the era’s activist motivations and the claimed aims of revolutionary groups, contrasted with violent tactics.
    Bombings, all those kind of things. And they were all done in the name of reshaping America to address different needs of marginalized communities.
  • armed robbery — Concept · Contextual concept · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned as a tactic used by radical underground groups in the era; frames the broader milieu around SLA methods.
    Throughout the late 60s and early 70s, these kinds of underground groups were engaging in armed robberies, jailbreaks, bombings, all those kind of things. And they were all…
  • armed conflict — Concept · Contextual concept · 1 mention · first at
    Implicitly invoked through discussion of militant tactics (guns, bombings) and revolutionary violence in the era.
    And lack of exper experience aside, the members of the SLA, they did manage to gather a large number of guns and bombs, and they did establish their own safe house and…

Places & events

  • San Francisco — Place · Core topic · 6 mentions · first at
    Patty Hurst’s birthplace and the location of the SLA safe house where she is held; also where the Hurst family is based in the episode.
    Right on the cusp, though. she was born in San Francisco, California. One of five daughters. Five girls.
  • Soulad prison — Place · Background context · 1 mention · first at
    Named as the prison Donald DeFreeze was transferred to before escaping; key step in SLA formation timeline.
    Okay. So after being transferred to Soulad prison in 1973, he managed Donald Defreeze managed to escape from prison and he was directed by Wolf and Little to an activist safe house in San.
  • Cleveland — Place · Background context · 1 mention · first at
    Referenced as Donald DeFreeze’s hometown, providing biographical context for the SLA leader.
    Who he was. He spent most of the 1960s kind of just buming around his hometown of Cleveland, then Southern California, and there he worked off and on as a house painter, but a…

Full transcript with timestamps

Hey weirdos. I am Ash. And I am Elena. And this amorbid. This ambid. This is morbid.

We are going to be a little loosey goosey crazy cuckoo cuz I think we're just running off of very little sleep. Yeah, I think the listener tale comes out after this episode. God only knows. Jot only knows. Um, but if you haven't seen the listener tale yet, we're just like dealing with some family stuff right now.

Yeah. Ma's in the hospital. Yeah, she's doing all right. But, you know, but there's a lot going on.

We're running back and forth and here and everywhere. Yeah. Lack of sleep. Elena's fire alarm went off. Fire. Why did I just say fire?

Fire. Alena's fire. It's I don't Ash literally said, "What ancient deity did you piss off?" Cuz my week started off with the dental emergency. Y

which went into luckily rolled into cuz I was like, "I'm not canceling the unlikely story event."

Yeah. Um like the book event. Yeah. The book event. So I was like So that rolled into a really great night of that really took my mind off of the fact that my whole [ __ ] mouth was a [ __ ] flame. And but that sucked like the getting the actual dental stuff.

And then right after that, uh we had ma ended up in the hospital. Y um and it was like very scary at first. Still is. It's still not great. Yeah.

Um but you know, we're getting through it. And so we've been going through that. And then last night, so I haven't had sleep cuz like with the dental stuff, I wasn't sleeping.

No, cuz your mouth is in pain. Yeah. And then with the m stuff, I wasn't sleeping. God, the two of us were up until like 4:00 a.m. like went got home went home, got 2 hours of sleep, went back to get [ __ ] done, like

Yeah. showered at like 4:00 a.m. Literally. And cuz I was like, I got to get out of 4 a.m. lately. I really that when the alarm start alarm went off because we've been doing that cuz like you know we've just been making sure that Peppa's okay and we want to make sure he's being fed and hydrated

not just McDonald's that he's sleeping cuz he will want to just eat McDonald's which don't blame him. Yeah,

but but we just want to make sure he's okay too. And then so I finally get I'm like full night sleep last night because like we everything settled a little bit and like we were able to come home at a decent time and I got woken up

out of REM sleep according to sleep according to my aura ring. I was in godamn REM sleep

and my fire alarm in my house went off and it's literally every fire alarm going fire. I'm running down the hallway grabbing the kids. The kids are all like, "What is going on?" And we're like flipping out. John's running around.

Luckily, my house was not on fire. No. Thank goodness. Just happened to be like a a glitch in one of the alarms, but we had a fire department.

Hello. So, at 4:00 a.m., we're just like, "Hey, us." And they were so sweet. Luckily, like we've had great luck with everybody we've had to that we've dealt with this week.

I know. Funny thing is it was like the same um firefighters. were at my mom's the other night.

Hi. Say, "Hi, I'm having a really great week." You're like, "Damn, bitch." Even they're like, "What ancient deity did you put in?"

You're like, "I said that, too." God damn it. So, it's been like a literal [ __ ] show over here.

Yeah, it really has. But you know what? We're getting through it. We're getting through it. Everybody is is in a place of at least being like baseline okay right now. and we're going to get there. We're going to see the end of the tunnel. And you know, we are recording right now um the last episode that's going to be on Wondery Plus

because we're making our way to serious. So after this episode and after the listener tales episode

I do think that comes out after. I think it does, guys. We don't know. You know that. But you know what?

We will. This is the very last episode we're recording that we're going to say that super duper crazy ahead of time and we're not knowing

going to know when it comes out. Yeah, cuz Yeah. So, this is the last time you're going to hear us say I don't [ __ ] know when this comes out.

Oh my god. We I literally me and Elena have been listening to so much Jack's Mannequin and so much something corporate.

Oh my god. And I know it's this is the last straw, but I literally was just like this is the last time

in my head. I love it. Yeah. For some reason, something corporate is a real [ __ ] comfort.

Yeah. Something corporate and then weirdly taking back Sunday. Yes. When you taking back Sunday get you in like a

aggression out. Like you can't be sad anymore. So you just have to be angry even though like you're like I don't even know why I'm angry right now. Like mad at mad at life.

Yeah. I've been yelling Taken Back Sunday on my car. Hell yeah. It's like that scene of um is it Christina Applegate or am I absolutely losing my mind?

I don't know. From from Married with Children. Oh yeah, Christina Applegate. That sounded so completely wrong to me. Got it.

But she's in that other show um like death something with someone. You know what I'm talking about.

Something with someone, you know. Yeah. Like her her husband gets killed by like a drunk driver or something like that and you know it's a whole thing. Anyway, there's a scene in that show that I can't think of the name right now where Christina Applegate is just like screaming screamer lyrics in her car.

Yeah. And that's me right now. Yeah, pretty much. Yep. Honestly, like um like early as pop punk is really getting us through this right now.

Yeah. Like the MySpace playlist. Yeah. I don't I never knew it was going to be such a comfort in times as such as these but

it is. Um thanks to that. Thanks to that. I was listening to the phone. Thanks, Andrew, for being Andrew. Postal service. I'm We're Oh, yeah.

I'm in Hollister right now. Hell yeah. That's I'm literally in Hollister in the shower. I'm just in Hollister right now.

Hollister is having a [ __ ] comeback. Have you seen I know. And that's like really like close to my heart.

Yeah, of course it is because I [ __ ] love To Hollister. I love Tollister. Um Yeah, that [ __ ]

I can smell it right now. Oh yeah, you can smell it down the mall. Yeah, you can. My parents would never come in with me. They're like, "Fuck that." And I'm sure no one else is dead either.

No. Um, according to the youths, it's going to be a 2009 summer. You know what? We need that.

I'm ready. I think I'm ready. Like, I'm ready for that. Yeah. I want I want those Henley tops.

Oh my god. The baby doll tops that you'd wear the lace cami under. I'm ready. Oh, I'm always ready.

I should have kept my [ __ ] Let's go, girls. All right. Well, so that's that's our dumpster fire over here. But you know what? Again, perspective.

Perspective can always everyone's going to get through it. Things could be worse.

You are going through worse. Could get kidnapped. You could. And that's what this story is about.

Yeah, that's that's worse. It's called transition. Look it up. Yeah. It's called Segue.

It's called Sigu. There you go. If you're M from And that's Why We Drink Us because we love them.

Yeah. So, I'm lost. But anyway, uh we're going to be talking about Patty Hurst and the symbion liberation army today.

Liberation Army. This is like I obviously I know who Patty Hurst is. Yeah. But I never knew all the details of this story. You don't really learn about it in school. That's the thing. I think a lot of um a lot of people know the name. Like me, too. Like I I know the name. I know the general idea of what happened.

I knew like she got kidnapped obviously and then like with them, but um I don't think a lot of people know the details, me included.

Yeah. Well, guess what? You're about to. Also, if you hear we're I apologize in advance and this won't be a thing that happens a lot, so don't fear. But um if you hear like a message sound I'm sure Mikey will try to edit as much as he can out. We're just leaving our phones on like sound for obvious reasons. So, um I just didn't want you to be like, "What the [ __ ] is going on?" I was like, "Wow, you guys are really popular and also inconsiderate."

I was going to say also inconsiderate. All right. So, let's get into it. We're going to start at the very top, very beginning.

That's a great place to start. Yeah. Patricia Campbell her. She was born and that's where it all starts.

She was born. She was on February 20th, 1954, making her a Pisces. Okay. Right on the cusp, though. Uh, she was born in San Francisco, California. One of five daughters. Five girls.

Five gals. Born to Katherine Campbell, which is a sick ass name. And Randolph Hurst.

Randolph is just like such a That's a name. That's a town in Massachusetts. That's a town in Massachusetts. Exactly. And a sick ass name.

Yeah. Really cool name. So, well, he was a he was a big big important guy. He has to be.

He was he was the son of publishing magnet William Hurst. So that made him heir to one of the nation's largest fortunes and like the nation but also probably the world.

Damn. And it also meant that he would eventually become the chairman of the board of the Hurst Corporation which was a huge media conglomerate that owned tons and tons of very popular nationally recognized media outlets.

Holy [ __ ] Think Succession. Succession. Yeah. Literally wrote very succession coded. So, as one of the most famous families in the world, the Hursts were extremely aware of their reputation. And Catherine, the mother, went to great lengths to make sure that her daughters had, you know, a sense of discipline, a sense of decorum. They they were going to be in the public eye a lot, so they needed to act right.

Yeah. While most of the girls appreciated the importance of this, keeping up the appearances, Patty constantly struggled against her parents will.

That's got to be that's got to be hard. That's a lot of pressure sticking immediately.

The kids didn't ask for that. You know what I mean? So, it's tough. That is hard. And Patty, she she just didn't like any of this. She defied them over pretty much everything she could. They were devout Catholics and she didn't give a [ __ ] about that.

They wanted obviously the highest education standards, which I understand, but she didn't give a [ __ ] about that. Yeah. When she was just 10 years old, they ended up sending her away to the Convent of Sacred Heart, which was a private Catholic boarding school in San Francisco.

Damn. Patty didn't give a [ __ ] about that either. No, she didn't give a [ __ ]

She said, "You're just not going to make me act right." Yeah. She was like, "No,

I'm going to do the damn thing." Yeah. It was pretty clear that the point of sending her off to boarding school was to break her of these defiant tendencies.

Yeah. Um and at the same time, it was also clear that it wasn't going to be that simple.

No. A lot of the other girls at school were very afraid of the nuns obviously who ran the place. Like I mean nuns are intense, especially at Catholic schools in the like late 50s.

Oh yeah. Early 60s. Uh Patty though wasn't afraid of them at all. Her favorite thing to do was to provoke them and try to get laughter from her peers.

She sounds like a hot chick. She does. Later she told a reporter that she remembered one nun would get directly in the faces of students and yell at them.

Oh, I hate that. And she said, "Don't do that. It's insane. That's a wild way to make children do anything against you except for cry.

But Patty said, "When she did this to me one day, the idea flashed in my mind that I could make her stop by shocking her." So when she paused for a breath, I very deliberately said, "Oh, go to hell. It It worked." She goes, "It worked. Stopped her cold. Stopped her cold." Imagine telling a nun to go to hell. As like a 10y old

as like a 10-year-old girl at a Catholic school. Like, I'm sorry. That's pretty That's pretty iconic.

Yeah. So, that was pretty much how how her elementary school days went and middle school days went.

When she started high school, Patty transferred to the Santa Catalina School, which was another boarding school. This one was about 100 miles away from home

and she wasn't any happier there. She missed her family. Yeah. The, you know, there were still the nuns that were yelling at everybody. And even though she was sitting there trying to make them laugh and make the best of it, it she missed her family and it wasn't where she wanted to be.

No, of course not. And that environment sucks. So, she was generally pretty miserable during the school year. But it sounds like she really came alive during the summertime. A lot of the summer was spent with her family in some of California's most exclusive, super ritzy locations.

Oh, yeah. It really wasn't like the luxuriousness of it all that thrilled Patty. It was really more just getting to spend time with her family and particularly her dad and the family dogs.

Oh, I love that. She just loved anytime she could be with her dad. Yeah. They'd go hunting, they'd hike, they'd play sports, and she was just thriving. Obviously, she had her rebellious streak, but like a lot of kids, all she really wanted was the approval of her parents and the privilege of spend spending quality time with them.

Yeah. Absolutely. Even if it was just for that little bit of time in the summer.

Yeah. So, while she rarely missed an opportunity to provoke the adults in her life, that became a lot easier when she became a teenager.

Oh, I'm sure. As we all know. Yeah. And that was when she started to take an interest in boys.

When she was still in high school, she turned her romantic attention to a young, handsome teacher.

Oh. named Steven Weed. Now, this is inappropriate. It is right off the bat. Yeah.

We do have to know he was four years older than her. Okay. So, it's not absolutely insane, but he's a person in a position of power.

Well, absolutely. And that's the thing. It's not inappropriate that she has a crush on a teacher. No.

Because like that happens all the time. Oh, hell yeah. Like that's you there should be no acting upon that in any way, shape, or form from either side.

Especially the teacher side. Exactly. That's not the case here. So Patty said he was everything a high school girl could want. He was a college graduate, an older man, so mature, so experienced, so sophisticated. I suppose I threw myself at him, but I hope not in any obvious way. Um, unfortunately, he did welcome the attention.

A he didn't just like Patty as a student. He felt he shared the same feelings. Yeah.

Eventually, they became a couple. Um, and really didn't pay a lot of attention to keeping their relationship private.

Jesus. It's hard to say whether it was the age difference or just the fact of the relationship itself, but everything about it distressed Patty's mom, Catherine.

Yeah. But as author Jeffrey Tubin pointed out, and we're going to link his uh book in the show notes. It's called American Aerys. He said, or he wrote, "In light of the Hurst family tradition of older men courting teenage girls, they were hardly in a position to complain."

Oh, yeah. Okay, got it. I don't think it was really the fact that he was older that bothered anybody. I think it was the fact that he was her teacher and like, you know, media outlets might recognize that and there's a lot of implications there.

Uh, yeah, I'd say so. Yeah. So, the relationship quickly became a serious point of contention between Patty and her mother. Catherine wanted a future for Patty, much like the one that she had, like her own life. She wanted her to be this perfect debutant. She wanted her to be a socialite. But Patty didn't give a [ __ ] about any of that. She had other ideas. Yeah, her parents hoped that when she was done with school, she would enroll at Stanford and start on the path of becoming a very well-educated philanthropist like everybody else had,

which is al it's like it's an admirable goal for your child. Like there's nothing wrong with that.

No, like wanting your kid to go to college and everything. But Patty was like, "Nah, I'm good."

Instead, she did she did go to school. She followed Steve to the University of California, Berkeley, and he enrolled in grad courses there and she started undergrad. I have to imagine that he probably lost his teaching job when they started dating.

I was going to say I feel like Yeah, I don't know. You should probably take those graduate courses, buddy, cuz you're going to need them.

You're going to need them. So, part of Patty's decision-m for sure had something to do with rebelling against what was expected of her at the time. But also, she really just wanted to separate herself from her family and the pressure that came from being involved in it.

Yeah. And just become her own person. Yeah. In a publicly recognized family. Exactly.

Yeah. She wanted to see what life was like if she wasn't a hurst. Yeah. You know,

so in between high school graduation and starting at UC Berkeley, she got a summer job to kill the time. And she was working as a clerk at Campwell's department store in Oakland. It was there that she really kind of started to see the other side of life that she hadn't been exposed to. She saw people struggling to get by on minimum wage. She saw how they were getting exploited by their boss and you know how they had to work overtime and they didn't always get paid to do that.

Yeah. So that was where the civil and political movements that were going on in the 60s and 70s and at that time would kind of have some context for her finally.

Yeah. She could finally see it with her own eyes. Exactly. And relate to it and experience it.

Exactly. So let's talk about that a little bit. Let's go. Throughout the mid to late 1960s, the US was really going through a cultural shift, a very significant cultural shift when it came to politics and social priorities, especially

a lot of young people were growing up. They were going out into the world and they wanted to do something different than what their parents' generation had.

Yeah. People were becoming a lot more progressive. They wanted to change the way that things were working, especially when it came to politics and human's rights. And for the most part, activists at that time were, you know, doing sitins, protests, rallies. Yeah. A lot of these things weren't violent at the time because people wanted to try to get attention to these different causes. And in the beginning at least, they were like, "Let's do this nonviolently because that's a good way to get our message across."

Yeah. Let's try to spread peace here. Exactly. But by the end of the 60s, a lot more new radicalized groups were starting to form and those groups were choosing to do it the violent way. Yeah. You know, they thought that that was the way to get their message across. Throughout the late 60s and early 70s, these kinds of underground groups were engaging in armed robberies, jailbreaks, bombings, all those kind of things. And they were all done in the name of reshaping America to address different needs of marginalized communities.

Yeah, absolutely. Ultimately, they didn't really get an overwhelming amount of support from the public because they were doing things violently.

But even if they didn't get support, they were getting attention. Yeah. And for them, that was good.

That was what we're looking for. So unfortunately while a lot of these underground you know groups did have just causes because of the violent nature of their tactics they would attract a lot of people on the fringes of society.

Yeah. Who saw it as an opportunity to just be violent. Exactly. Uh among these people were Donald Defreeze, a multiple convicted criminal and a group of young activists that included Michael Borton, Steve Sallaya, Jim Kilgore, and Kathy Sallayia. Together with Donald, they ended up forming their own radical activist group and eventually they became one of the most notorious domestic terrorist organizations in American history.

Damn. And that is the Symbion Liberation Army or SLA. Okay, I'm going to say that because it's so much easier to say.

Yeah. And they ended up being a very uh far-left militant group. So, Donald Def was the founder and the leader of the SLA.

And let's get into a little bit about who he was. He spent most of the 1960s kind of just buming around his hometown of Cleveland, then Southern California, and uh there he worked off and on as a house painter, but a lot of time he was just unemployed. Yeah,

he was absolutely enamored with these revolutionary movements that were rising up around the world. And of course, he was particularly drawn to the violence and the disruptive actions of these groups.

Oh boy. But something that wasn't working for him was the fact that if he was adept at anything, it was getting busted by the police. He was really good at that.

Yeah. Since he had been a teen, he was in and out of juvie and prisons for kind of just like petty, but also at the same time violent crimes. So in September of 1972, while he was still incarcerated, he organized a black inmate self-help group called Unicite with help from Russell Little and William Wolf. They were two Berkeley grad students and prison tutors who were former members of um Vinceramos, which was another militant activist group. Like I said, there was a lot of activist groups going on.

We all splintered off into different things. Exactly. Factions. Exactly. So it was through these two that Donald Dreeze learned more about communist ideologies that were driving a lot of these movements.

Okay. So after being transferred to Soulad prison in 1973, he managed Donald Defreeze managed to escape from prison and he was directed by Wolf and Little to an activist safe house in San Francisco because these people really did work together and they had these like safe houses set up around around the city so that they could support one another.

Yeah. So it was there that he started making connections with other activists and eventually that was when SLA was founded. Building on what he learned about organizing in prison, SLA was founded basically with the objective of sparking a revolt in black America that they believed in time would overthrow systems that had oppressed black and brown people. Yeah.

So kind of started with a good message in mind and a good cause in mind. Exactly. Um, in the months after his escape, he started recruiting young people to the group like Michael Borton, Steve Sallayya, Jim Kilgore, Kathy Sallaya. Unlike some of the other naive, well-meaning members of revolutionary groups, these four already had a certain amount of uh notoriety at that time because they had been arrested for bombing UC Berkeley uh their naval naval architecture building in 1972.

Oh, damn. in the name of social revolution. Okay. Like I said, while some people were joining SLA with good intentions,

it all splintered off. Yeah. Because you can't when people are coming in who have already committed bombings, it's like, okay,

like that's problem not the way to go about this. Red alert. Red alert. Red alert. So, with the help of his new recruits, Donald DeFreeze started reaching out to various inmates across California prisons in hopes of setting up a bigger network cuz, you know, he wants to get his message out there. Eventually, the SLA, unfortunately, did become very successful in committing acts of domestic terrorism, but their networking process is kind of among some of the more compelling evidence of how unorganized they really were and how inexperienced most of the members were.

The inmates that Defreeze and others contacted were mostly serving life sentences and didn't have any chance of parole.

So, like, so they weren't really going to be of much help on the outside. Yeah.

And in addition to that, not a lot of them really understood what it was that they were joining in the first place.

Yeah. One inmate, Clifford Death Row Jefferson. Death Row is his nickname. Uh I'm sorry.

No, it's wild. How do you get to be the one with that that as your nickname? I assume you're on death row.

Yeah, probably. But like is there other death rows? Like you're the death rowest of the death row.

Death row of death row. I he Clifford seems like he was he apparently he got the nickname. The fun fact I actually don't know much about him but

damn except that he was on death row but at the same time I know everything about him.

Yeah, I was gonna say you know what I mean? I feel like I don't need to know anything else.

That's all death row. So he thought he was being asked to lead the group. So that just goes to show you like mistake they weren't being clear with their messaging at all. He thought he was being asked to lead it from death row. Death Death Row Jefferson thought he was being asked like inside the prison.

Another inmate who was contacted to, you know, help join the Revolutionary Movement. He thought he was joining the Lebanese Liberation Army.

Oops. So So like, yikes. What's going on here, guys? Like, are you not being clear? Like, what is

No. No. You're like, oh, you're not being clear. You don't even have to ask. Like, what? So, yeah. Disorganization and lack of exper experience aside, the members of the SLA, they did manage to gather a large number of guns and bombs, and they did establish their own safe house and conquered California. So, they might not have been great at messaging, but they were great at amassing scary scary things.

Great at getting bombs and guns. And guns. Yeah. And safe houses. Yeah. In November of 1973, they did commit their first what they saw as a revolutionary act, and it was a very violent one. They ambushed and murdered Oakland school superintendent Marcus Foster. Wow. And also at the same time critically injured his deputy, Robert Blackburn. It's

awful. They had targeted Marcus Foster because they thought he was advocating for a student ID system at the school which they felt was racist. But in all reality, Marcus Foster had never advocated for that system. The local press mistakenly reported that he had.

So they're not even doing their [ __ ] research here. No. Like they're committing wild heinous acts of violence right now without even bothering to look into it and make sure they have the facts. Not that committing heinous acts of violence is ever like a good thing.

No. But like they're not even doing that. They're not even like I think they're reading a couple articles and not really doing deep dives.

Yeah. Cuz it's like that's [ __ ] up. That's the life of somebody and you were completely wrong. He never even advocated for that in the first place.

And even if he had, you can't murder him about it. brutally murder someone. But

you can protest by all means. Absolutely. That's your right. But speak out. Yeah.

So, a few months after Marcus Foster was murdered, Russ Little and another SLA member, Joe Romero, they were arrested after they got pulled over for a traffic violation and police found several weapons in the car and a ton of SLA paraphernalia. When word of their arrest got to the rest of the group, that group set fire to the conquered safe house and went on the run because now they knew that police were on to them. So, they needed to spread out.

Now, the house might have been burned, but fortunately for investigators, there was still a solid amount of evidence left behind so that they could track down the SLA members,

but by the time that happened, they would have already moved on to committing their next big act of what they saw as revolution.

Yeah. So, now let's go back to Patty's timeline for a minute. Let's go. Once they got settled in Berkeley, Patty and Steve, you know, her former teacher

were living on his $650 a month stipend and her $300 allowance from her parents. So, that was a good amount of money at that time for two like young kids out on their own.

Absolutely. But even without the financial stressors that a lot of young couples have, it did not take long for the cracks in their relationship to to start showing. The problem was that, you know, maybe they were attracted to each other, but they were fundamentally very different people.

Steve was very orderly. He was very logical. He wanted to plan for everything. Sounds like he might have been an earth sign. Patty uh is a Pisces, so she's a dreamy gal.

Oh, yeah. You know, like floating along. She's Yeah, she's floating along. She's in those waters, those Piscarian waters, and she's an art student. Oh.

So, that just tells you everything you need to know. She was a lot less rigid in the way that she think that she thought and she wanted to deal with things as they popped up rather than make a plan for them long term. Yeah.

She's also a teenager. She's 19 years old. I was going to say, so yeah, that's pretty standard.

Yeah. So, there were definitely growing feelings that things in the relationship weren't really going as well as they had in the beginning, but neither of them seemed interested or willing to address the problem. They kind of just kept going. According to Jeffrey Tubin, he said their relationship moved forward on kind of automatic pilot and by the end of 1973, they got engaged.

Oh, it seemed it didn't really problems, right? It didn't really seem like they were like, oh, like, you know, when you get engaged, it's because you're like, I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I want to have maybe children with you. I want to travel the world with you. Like, you have intentions of of committing your life to this person. For them, it just seemed like it was what they thought they were supposed to do next.

Yeah. It's like when you see that couple that you're like, "Oh my god, you're never gonna last." And they get like a dog and you're like,

"Why' you gonna happen to that dog?" Exactly. When when you guys inevitably break up,

you guys definitely break up. And even the announcement of their marriage, uh, excuse me, their engagement to their parents was pretty nonchalant. They were just like, "We got engaged." You know, that's what that's what you do.

And like Patty, remember, Patty's a hearse. She's essentially shiv from succession.

Yeah. like like it's not this is supposed to be big. Exactly. It seemed to everybody that they were just casually informing them about some minor experience. It was like, "Oh, I got my ears pierced today."

Yeah. You know, wow. So, even though things were strange, the wedding date was set for June 29th, 1974. And of course, Catherine, Patty's mom, got to work informing the press of the engagement. Journalists, photographers from all the national press outlets, and of course, obviously, the Hurst outlets Yeah.

were assigned to cover the story. Patty and Steve, you know, maybe they uh announced their engagement in a chill manner, but the coverage in all the newspapers like San Francisco Examiner, Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, like these big newspapers that a lot of people read, they were very enthusiastic with the announcement, very extravagant. And they all concluded their reporting by saying, "Patty, quote, is a junior in art history at UC Berkeley. That's private information.

That's not great. Like it's like obviously they wanted to say like she's going to college and this is what she's studying.

It's like you don't need to tell her, especially this kid of this wildly you're giving away her location.

Exactly. So the note about Patty attending UC Berkeley was among what people thought was um people originally thought was an innocuous detail in the announcement. It was the kind of thing that a lot of young couples would put in a marriage announcement. But like we just said, she's not any young person. She's an ays to one of the largest fortunes in the universe. In the Well, I don't know about the universe, but the world.

Yeah. In the in the universe. There's some other aliens that might have a bigger. I don't know.

But she was the kind of person who if kidnapped, their parents would definitely pay a large sum of money to get back unharmed.

Yeah. And that's exactly what was running through the head of Donald Dreeze as he flipped through the pages of the paper in early winter of 1974.

So Patty and Steve were home on the night of February 4th, 1974 when a little past 9:00 at night, there was a knock at the sliding glass door of uh that led out to their patio. They looked over and they saw this young white woman standing outside. It looked like she was in some kind of distress. And the girl said she had some car trouble and asked if she could use their phone. But before either of them could answer, she barged her way into the apartment and two male accompllices also entered the apartment.

Oh god. Like completely the scariest thing I've ever heard. Yeah. It reminds It's like the strangers.

Yeah. Like similar. You know what I mean? They set up a decoy. So neither Patty or Steve had any time to react before one of the men hit Steve over the head with a bottle which knocked him to the ground. So later, Steve told a reporter, "In seconds, they had me face down on the floor in the hallway. They kept kicking me in the face and forcing me to keep my face down. Obviously, he didn't they didn't want him to see their faces."

No. Later, Patty said that she felt very uh betrayed by Steve in that moment because she felt like he wasn't doing anything to stop the people from abducting her. But I'm like,

he was getting kicked in the face. I understand that like you were you're upset that you got abducted. That's super duper valid.

Very valid. But like also Steve is he got first knocked to the ground when they smashed a bottle over his head and now they're kicking him in the face.

Yeah.ough and it's also twoonone. Yeah. Like you know it's not easy for anybody here.

Complicated situation though. I get it. Absolutely. Next door neighbor Sandy Golden could hear the commotion coming from the apartment and she later said, "We heard a scream and three shots. We could see two men carrying a girl. She was struggling and she was half naked. She was screaming, please let me go. She seemed to be blindfolded. Oh, yeah. Another neighbor, Donald Yamagashi, also heard the abduction as it happened, and he told police he knew what was happening right away when he heard gunshots and the sound of shat the shattering glass patio door when it exploded.

Holy [ __ ] Yeah. So, I hope people are calling people. Yeah, the police were called.

I was like, are we just saying this after the fact? Like, yeah, it's crazy. I watched

all the police were called. It was just unfortunately this all happened so fast.

I was going to say this is happening fast. Yeah, they were they might not have been great at like organizing members in who were, you know, on death row and in prison. Yeah.

But what this plan to abduct Patty at least unfortunately went very smoothly for the most part.

Yeah. So the two men threw Patty in the trunk of a convertible and they sped out of the parking lot with one of them just shooting at bystanders as they got out of there. So, they're making sure that people are

staying away, staying away, and people are shocked and scared and all of the above.

The third kidnapper followed behind in a light colored station wagon. So, they had two getaway cars, too, which is also going to throw people off.

Yeah, of course, cuz they don't know which one she's in. They don't if they're even both involved, like,

which unfortunately was kind of smart to have two. No, it was. So, when they were about 5 miles away from the apartment complex, uh, complex, excuse me, Patty felt the car come to a stop and the engine cut off, she felt the trunk open and she could hear the three kidnappers talking amongst themselves. And then one of them instructed her to get out of the trunk. Unfortunately, she wasn't out of the trunk for long before she was being handled by another of the men who forced her into the back of the station wagon. And then they threw a blanket over her face and closed her in there.

Oh. So, they got away in two cars, but they knew what they were doing. Yeah, they got her into the other one from underneath the blanket. She couldn't see where they were going. She tried to ask who they were, what they wanted, where they were going to get any any information whatsoever. But one of the men who she would later recognize as Donald Dreeze just screamed at her, "Shut up or we'll kill you."

Holy [ __ ] And he was sitting in the front passenger seat. The orders that were barked from the front seat obviously were very jarring and obviously they were supposed to scare Patty, but that intent was immediately undermined when moments later somebody reached back and stuck their hand under the blanket. And Patty at first was very confused and obviously scared, but then whoever that was took her hand to comfort her.

What the [ __ ] That would honestly [ __ ] me up. It did [ __ ] her up. Like that's scary. And

cuz you're like, I don't like it. What's going on? Cuz like what do you why? No,

you just kidnapped me and shoved me in a car. Like what? Like what the [ __ ] She said in that moment she understood that it was meant as a gesture of kindness to comfort her. And later she would find out that the man who held her hand was Bill Harris. And she said later, she was like it was threatening and reassuring all at the same time.

Cuz you're like, okay, this is [ __ ] up in this situation. kind of feels very [ __ ] up, but also like is this a human that's involved and maybe has human empathy and can

I can possibly be the person I can count on to get me or are you just like this or even [ __ ] up in the head and trying to confuse me.

That's the thing like that's or like give me false hope kind of thing. I hate that a lot.

It's a lot. It's I can't imagine being in this situation. Yeah. So in his book that we mentioned before, American Ays, Jeffrey Tubin noted that the strange like juxtaposition between Donald Dreza's attempt at commanding fear and Bill Harris's gesture of kindness was pretty typical of what Patty would eventually eventually become her time in captivity.

Okay. He said the SLA lacked the skills or even the inclination to attempt anything as ambitious as a brainwashing. Literally and figuratively, the comrades didn't know what they were doing. Yeah. So anyway, when the car finally came to a stop after about an hour of driving, Patty was taken out of the back of the station wagon and she was led inside a house. Once inside, she heard another door open and she inhaled deeply, which was smart. She's like trying to get She can't see. Remember, she's blindfolded, so she's relying on other senses.

Yeah. So, she smelled like an earthy and musty smell that she figured was old wood.

Okay. Uh, and in that instant, her mind flashed back to a case that we covered in episode 597, the kidnapping of Barbara Gene Mel.

That had already happened. And if you haven't listened to that episode, you should definitely go listen to it. It's fascinating. But, uh, she was a young woman in Georgia who was kidnapped and buried alive just six years earlier. So, she's like, "Oh, [ __ ] Is that what's about to happen to me?"

Oh my god. So, she starts panicking. She's screaming. She's kicking. She's trying to get away, but she's blindfolded and being held. And one of the men just told her, "Relax. It's just a closet." And guided her inside and closed the door.

Oh my god. Yeah. The fear and panic must have been outrageous. Cuz remember like uh if again if you haven't listened to that episode, go listen. If you did remember Barbara Gene Mel was kidnapped for ransom,

but then it turned into this whole strange case where they buried her alive in the middle of the woods and she survived for like days like like

I forget how long it was like 72 hours or something like that, right? Scary one.

Yeah. And Patty knows all the details of that. So she's sitting there being like, "Cool. That's literally about to happen to me." Like

oh, everyone's worst nightmare. And she knows who she is. She knows that's got to be that's got to be top of mind when you're an AIS.

Absolutely. She's an ays. She's sitting there being like, "This is why you're an Aerys who just got kidnapped." Exactly.

So later when her blindfold was removed, she would be surprised to find that they weren't in the middle of some scary wooded area or some kind of bunker in like a remote location. They were still in San Francisco and they were only about 45 miles away from her apartment in Berkeley. She knew she knew where they were. Holy [ __ ]

She knew the neighborhood. that that there's something about that being so close

is almost scarier that you can't but you can't do anything about it. Yeah. So, this was the location of the SLA's new safe house cuz remember they burned the old one down and this was where she was going to be held for weeks as the group negotiated with her family for her release. So, like you said, did anybody [ __ ] call the police in the middle of this? Yes.

Yes. Okay. But they arrived at the apartment about 10 minutes after those two cars sped away from the house.

That's a really long response time. It is. Yeah. Like, damn. Oh, damn. 10 minutes.

Yeah. It's like, holy [ __ ] But, you know, there's a lot going on in California.

You're like, hey, kidnapping and process is is pretty quick. You should Can you hear like three minutes?

Throw that one into priority, maybe. I don't know. Perhaps. But aside from Steve and the neighbor statements, there wasn't a lot to be gleaned from this crime scene. There was one very strange thing left behind though on the floor by the kidnappers. A box of cyanide filled 38 caliber bullets.

Cyanide filled. Yeah. Interesting. According to the others, this was Donald Defrieza's idea. He wanted it to kind of be a calling card like like so that the authorities would recognize that this was the SLA. But at that time, you know, they hadn't done that a ton. Yeah.

They hadn't this was the their early days. Yeah. So it's like there's no pattern to go by.

Exactly. So the detectives were just like, "What the [ __ ] is this strange thing? Like why did you leave this here? Like what does this mean?"

Weird. A short time later, they did find the convertible car that Sandy Golden saw uh Patty being pushed into. It was found a few miles away from the apartment complex.

They ran the plates and they traced it to 31-year-old Peter um Benninsson, a mathematician and somebody who did not even remotely fit the profile of a kidnapper.

Oh my god. So they were like, "Okay, this is weird, but they do suspect that he's involved cuz this is his car." But it turned out that he wasn't a kidnapper. He was another SLA victim. He explained to the detectives that a few hours earlier, he was just leaving the grocery store.

This poor mathematician, this poor mathematician is just doing crunching some numbers in his head at the grocery store.

He's trying to stand budget. I bet he gave them exact change, you know. And he left and he's approached by a young woman in the parking lot. She hold it hold it up.

Well, she holded them up. She held up a revolver to him and said, "Give me the keys. We want your car, not you."

I mean, honestly, that's best case scenario if someone's going to um do something awful to you is we want your car, not you. Take it.

That's like absolutely enjoy. But he has my response. Freeze. Not not fight or flight. Just [ __ ]

Freeze. Yeah. There's There's fight. There's flight. And there's [ __ ] And [ __ ] is mixed up in

just like enjoy yourself. Have a great day. He was just stunned by the demand. I mean, yeah, the strangeness. So, he hesitated. I feel like anybody would do that. Anybody. But because he didn't act immediately, three other SLA members, Angela Atwood and Bill and Emily Harris, jumped on him, tied him up, and shoved him into the backseat of his own car and covered him with a blanket. Guys, just give him a minute.

So, now he's been abducted. Guys, just give him a minute. They did not have a minute. I guess

it's weird when someone puts a gun to you and says, "We want your car." It is weird.

It's weird. Don't keep it that weird. It's a unique experience for most people and it's like, give somebody a minute to really take that in.

Imagine if that's not a unique experience for someone. Like they're like, "Fuck, this happened last shit."

Well, that wasn't the case for our Peter. That sucks. Poor Peter. I know. Now, after they transferred Patty to the station wagon, the kidnappers abandoned Peter's car by the side of the road, which was why it was found, but with him still tied up on the floor in the back seat.

So, he's just like, "Hello." Yeah. But before they left, one of the woman women told him if he went to the police, they'd find him and kill him. So, eventually, he was able to untie himself and he got out of the car. But he was so traumatized and scared that he didn't report it to the police. He just went home.

I don't blame him at all. And I love that he just like left. It's not funny. I'm just like, "Oh, this poor man like just left his car." He's like, "Bye." It's just a strange experience.

Yeah. I'm like, "What do you do when you get home after that?" Cuz you really do probably want to just be like, "I don't want that car anymore."

No, I don't want anything to do with that car. To have it. Yeah. I I walk now. Yeah. I'm a walker now.

I'm a train guy. I'll take the bus. Like, [ __ ] that. So, to the Hurst family, the fact that Peter Beninsson had been released, it did give them a small little bit of hope.

Yeah. Because it doesn't it seems like now you know this isn't kidnapping for murder's sake.

Exactly. You know like this is there's a reason here. There's a plot. If the kidnappers had released him so quickly and didn't harm him. Randph Hurst said it showed they had quote a measure of compassion and are not senseless and brutal. He's like they clearly have a plan here.

Yeah. There's a there's a reason motivation and I'm sure he's you know the chairman of this whole organization. He knows what's going on right now which is probably

he's being exploited. His worst nightmare has come to fruition. Yeah. One of this poor guy has five daughters.

Yeah. Like he was like you every time he had a child, he was probably like, "Fuck."

Yeah. Literally so happy, but was also like, "Oh, god damn it." Like another I have to protect this person.

Yeah. From like so much more than the average than the average parent. Now, while investigators might not have identified that box of 38 caliber bullets with, you know, the cyanide fil filling them,

that whole thing, uh, they didn't identify that as a specific calling card, but they still suspected that the kidnapping might have been the work of the SLA. This was because after they had murdered Marcus Foster, the SLA wrote letters to take credit for the murder. And in those letters, they indicated their plan to kidnap a prominent person and raise money for their political cause. Oh, well that'll do it.

So, in their statement to the press that night, the hearse asked the kidnappers to get in touch with them immediately, and they promised. They said, "If she is released, we will not seek to imprison her abductors." And Randolph Hurst also noted that Patty might not have seen their faces, but Steve and some of the neighbors had, which meant that they could be easily identified if caught.

Damn. Meanwhile, Steve is probably like, "Fuck, dude." He's like, "I didn't see them. I didn't see shit."

I know. I was like, "You should just say you won't seek to imprison." Don't ever say that you saw their faces.

What was that movie that we just watched? The Mike Flanigan one when she's like, "I didn't see your face." And he's literally like, he just takes off his mask. That was the scariest part of that whole [ __ ] movie. Yeah, cuz he's like, "Well, now you have."

Yeah. So, the next day, the station manager of uh KPFA radio got a letter in the mail from the kidnappers. Inside was a mobile oil credit card that was Patty's and a strange note that kind of read like a business memo. It said communique 13 subject prisoners of war. Target: Patricia Campbell Hurst, daughter of Randph Hurst, corporate enemy of the people. Warrant issued by court of the people. On the aforestated date, combat elements of the United Federated Force of the Symbion, a liberation army, armed with cyanide loaded weapons, served an arrest warrant on Patricia Campbell.

I'm already annoyed by this. Yeah, me too. I'm irritated. I'm also terrified of it.

I'm just irritated. I'm like, stop it. That's who we are as people. Write a memo. Like, write a letter.

It I don't know why I'm making this correlation in my brain cuz it's not the same thing, but it reminds me of the mock trial that they do in yellow jackets and you're just irritated by it.

Yeah. Like just [ __ ] speak. You don't We know you're not a judge. Like, let's not a court of people. You're just

I don't even know what you want. Shut up. So, they said should any attempt be made by authorities to rescue the prisoner or to arrest or harm SLA elements, the prisoner is to be executed. All communications from this court must be published in full in all newspapers and all other forms of media. Failure to do so will endanger the safety of the prisoner. Symbion Liberation Army ND. And they simply signed the letter SLA. And included a footnote that said in all capital letters, death to the fascist insect that prays upon the life of the people.

Okay. A very like political Yeah, for sure. You know, move. Yeah. So the manager of KPFA immediately turned the letter and the credit card over to the FBI. He said, "Hello, FBI. I have something and they brought the card and the letter to the Hurst family in San Francisco." At the same time, the Hurst got their own ransom letter from the kidnappers, but it was a lot less orderly and formal than the typed letter that had been sent to the radio station. This one was handwritten in a mix of like uppercase and lowercase block printing. And um shout out to Dave. He kind of had to like decode this because it didn't really make a lot of sense.

Yeah. So, we're gonna read what Dave got. It says, "We're" and it's all spelled wrong. It says, "We are holding your daughter, Patricia Hurst, and we are never going to give her back unless you pigs let Romero and Little out of prison because remember two SLA members had been arrested." They said, "We're uh giving you 10 days, and when those 10 days are up, and don't hear from Russell and Little. We're going to kill her the same way we killed those four persons. My friend killed those three in that funeral home. And we're going to keep on killing if you don't let them out free."

Damn, that's scary. It's terrifying. That one's scary. No, that one's genuinely scary. And picture that written in upper and lower case,

just like a wreck. There's no sentence structure at all. Like that was Dave putting it in order. Yeah. So, like the letter sent to KPFA, the ransom letter to the Hurst also demanded that the contents be shown to the police and published in the press.

Yeah. Based on the postmark, the letters to the Hurst was, they found out was mailed from San Jose, but there was no way to identify the sender other than that,

meaning that they were just going to have to wait until the kidnappers reached out again,

which is that's horrifying. Exactly. Horrifying. Yeah. So FBI agents and local investigators were also confused by the reference to the murder in a funeral home.

They knew that the SLA had murdered Marcus Foster, but they weren't aware of any other murders.

So this detail would actually never be explained. Huh. Yeah. So who knows if it happened or if they were just bluffing to

just trying to make it seem to be more scary, right? But it was I mean this was a big deal. Their intent was clear. Everybody involved was supposed to cooperate or Patty would be killed. So, in their statement to the press, uh, an FBI spokesperson told reporters, "It will be up to the family whether the agency pursues the kidnappers. If they stay away, we stay away. Our first consideration is the safety of the girl. After the girl is saved, then we will find them."

Which is like, cool. That should be it. Yeah. Yeah. Everybody's working together here so far.

In the days that followed, investigators and the family just had to sit around and wait to hear from the kidnappers.

Oh my god. days passed and there was no communication. So Randph Hurst told a reporter, "The only thing we can do is wait and hope to hear from them soon."

I can't imagine that. Yeah. But obviously everybody, you know, had an idea of what was happening here. The expectation was that they wanted the SLA wanted to exchange Patty for the release of their imprisoned members, but knew nobody knew what the demands were going to be. Aside from that,

it didn't really matter, though. Randolph said, "We'll do anything we can to get Patricia back." I just hope they don't make demands that are impossible to meet because that must be a fear. Yeah. Is you're sitting here being like, I'm willing to do anything. Yeah.

Literally anything within my power or within this earthly realm to get my daughter back.

But I'm hoping they don't do something that is literally just not possible. That's always a an thing that could happen.

Right. And here's the thing. This family obviously has a lot of money, but I think I don't think people always realize like they don't have that in their bank account. they own companies that total that amount of money and that's put into their net worth and they

and that there's probably like processes to get that money or like you know what I mean like it I'm assuming they don't just like have it at their disposal right now.

They have a lot at their disposal but they're sitting here being like these people probably think that we could easily just go get like $100 million and we can't just do that overnight. But we would if we could.

We would if we could. But that's what he's saying where it's like I hope they don't say that because that's going to be more complicated

than just giving you like a couple million, you know, for them. So finally, after days and days, a new communi uh communication was sent from the SLA, not to the Hursts or the FBI, but again to KPFA radio, this time in the form of an audio recording.

The tape contained a message that was read by Patty herself. She started out by establishing that she was unharmed and then quickly pivoted into what most people believed was a statement that one of the SLA members had written out for her.

She said, "Mom, Dad, I'm okay. I had a few scrapes and stuff, but they washed them up and they're getting okay. I'm not being starved or beaten or unnecessarily frightened. I've heard some press reports and so I know that Steve and the neighbors are okay and that no one was really hurt. And I also know that the SLA members here are very upset about press distortions about what's been happening. They have not been shooting helicopters or shooting down innocent people in the streets. I think you can tell that I'm not really terrified of anything. I'm okay. I was very upset though to hear about the police rushing on that house in Oakland.

These people aren't just a bunch of nuts. They've been really honest with me. They're perfectly willing to die for what they're doing.

That's really scary. It is scary. That immediately That's a scary message. Who knows if Cuz that's the thing. They assumed it was written for her when she read it. But who knew if it was already

starting to sink in, starting to sink in that maybe she kind of understood what was happening here. Do you know what I mean?

Understand their message here. Yeah. Their message. Exactly. So eventually the message turned to the motive for kid uh for the kidnapping and finally the demands of the group were stated as a quote symbolic gesture of good faith from the Hursts. And this is insane. The SLA demanded that every person in California who was receiving federal food assistance be given $70 worth of food to be picked up at designated grocery stores around the state. They also, how would they ever be able to tell that that happened?

I don't even know. Like they couldn't confirm that they did that or didn't. That's the thing.

Yeah, it's that's a dumb demand. It's a wild It's exactly what Randolph Hurst was like. I hope they don't meet demands that are completely impossible to make because we'll also get into the semantics here

because that's something you can't confirm actually happened even if they tried to do it.

No, like they just I guess are you just going to drive around the state of California and like

stop at grocery stores and it's like how do you know every person got it? Just that doesn't make sense. And that wasn't it. The group also stipulated that the stores be clearly designated within each community I think so they could drive around and make sure it was happening. that there be five stores within each community. The food had to be of high quality. That's people had to be given the opportunity to voice their discontent if they weren't being treated well. And other revolutionary groups were supposed to be on hand to observe and coordinate the distribution process.

Yeah. See, this is this is that impossible demand that he was fearing. It is. Now, after receiving the tape, Randph Hurst, he said yes, that was his daughter's voice. And he said, "If they are taking good care of her, then I believe it."

Because you have to. Yeah. And when he was asked if Patty if he was worried that Patty might be hurt, he said, "I think it's unlikely. I would be worried if I thought they would do it, but I have assurances that they won't."

Yeah. And honestly, I hope he was able to put himself in that place of actually believing that.

I know. The release of the tape transcript and the demands of the SLA prompted an outpouring of support from the public and groups around the country. and actually rather than endorse the actions of the SLA and agree to assist in the distribution of food like they were also demanded to like these groups these militant groups around the world or around California.

Uh a ton of groups like the American Indian Movement, Black Teachers Caucus, and the United Prisoners Union released a joint statement to emphatically state that they do not condone terrorist activity whether it is carried out by either the SLA or the establishment. Wow.

They were like, "We don't support violence." They were like, "No, this isn't it." They were like this is actually everything that we are fighting against.

Yeah. It's like this doesn't work in a nonviolent manner. Residents of California also wrote letter letters of support and even offers of assistance to help Patty.

Wow. One letter writer said, "If this is the only way to save your daughter, I want to help you meet with such a high demand. I feel sick in my heart to think that money or the lack of it would take such a lovely treasure from you."

A calling your child a lovely treasure. Oh my god, that gave me chills. I know that statement. So, like you were just saying, you're like, I hope Randolph believed that.

Yeah. He seemed confident in front of the cameras. But behind the scenes, he was in an absolute panic

because there's no way you can convince yourself that, you know, I mean, like that this would this is every parent's worst nightmare.

There's no way that you can convince yourself that your daughter's not in danger. But also, the demands were entirely, like we were just saying, unreasonable and essentially impossible.

Yeah. just totally impossible to quantify. That's the thing or qualify because the members of the SLA, they either completely underestimated or they just had no idea how many people in California at that time got food assistance from the state.

An exact number is almost impossible to come by, but there were hundreds of millions of people getting food assistance, which put the total amount in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

It's just not possible to quantify. So, as an alternative to the impossibly high number, on February 19th, the day before Patty's 20th birthday, she's literally spending her 20th birthday in captivity.

Oh my god. But to to try to figure this out here and kind of almost compromise a little, Randph Hurst announced the establishment of a new organization that he was going to put together. And remember, his daughter's life is in danger and he has to figure out setting up an organization to somewhat meet their demands,

which I couldn't even do under not duress. I No. So, he set up People in Need or PIN, which he was launching with over $500,000 of his own money and $1.5 million from the William Randph Hurst Foundation. Wow.

Which is a prime example of the fact that like his money was tied up in other things and he needed to get different signoffs everywhere.

Yep. So PIN was to be a food distribution program to provide food to families in need around California with help from other activist groups as coordinators. So he really did like he did everything in his power to do exactly what they were asking.

It's honestly incredibly impressive. It is. In a press conference to announce the organization, he said it was a goodwill gesture and he said it's up to the SLA to believe me and hopefully make a gesture of their own, meaning like return my [ __ ] daughter. The announcement was met with another communication from Donald DeFreeze and the SLA which the family got on Patty's 20th birthday. They acknowledged the effort, but they said the Hurst contribution should reflect the family's capabilities and the needs of the people. And Donald Dere demanded that the amount of money be increased from 2 million to 6 million.

He said, "Nope, not enough." Yeah, nope. We're greedy. So despite the complexity of launching a program like PIN, they were able to get the project up and running in a few days.

That's unbelievable. This is literally an organization that is providing millions of dollars of food to almost every single person receiving this.

And he got it up and running in a matter of days. In a matter of days. Like it's like it's like the mom that will lift a car off, you know what I mean? To save their kid. It's like he he just went he would do to the walls. Um, so and they started distributing food on February 22nd.

Holy [ __ ] Like truly a couple of days. That morning, February 22nd, countless people flocked to the distribution centers to pick up food. But what started as an orderly maybe slow process by the end of the day had devolved into a mess.

As a lot of things when human beings are involved does, you know, like always does. frustration. There was chaos there. It turned out to be, you know, there were violent situations. By the time the distribution locations were shut down, 35 people had been arrested and the entire process had broken down completely.

In an interview, when asked why the process had fallen apart, one person said who was waiting in line, "Nothing's organized. They threw food at us like we're animals." They really that really brought the whole thing down.

Yeah. But it's like that wasn't on the Hursts. The hear sat there and tried to make this happen.

Yeah. that's on these distribution centers. You have to keep like you there's so many people to keep an order here.

Yeah. It it was never going to go well. That just sucks. It does. So, in the days that followed, the administrators of Pin would luckily become a better organized uh process or organization and the distribution process did become more orderly at all the sites around California. I also want you all for a second to picture California.

Yeah, it's a huge state. [ __ ] massive. Massive. But Randph Hurst was still concerned that the botched rollout put Patty's life in danger.

So he made another plea to the SLA and a counter offer to their previous demand of $6 million uh of an investment. In a statement released by PIN, he said the Horse Corporation is prepared to contribute to people in need a total of $4 million for a food distribution program for the poor and needy. Now with that counter offer made, there was nothing else they could do but sit and wait back. Wait to hear back from the kidnappers.

Holy [ __ ] And that is where we're going to end part one. God, I felt like I just threw like so much at you with

who Patty Hurst was, what the SLA was, the kidnapping, the organization, who Donald Freeze is. Yeah.

So much [ __ ] So, you know what their demands are. You know what they're trying to do.

And now, damn. You know, we're going to learn a lot more in part two about Patty's time with them. I'm very interested in this.

This I again like I I knew who Patty Hurst was. I knew she was kidnapped and spoiler alert she ends up staying with the kidnappers.

She's referenced in Gilmore Girls. Is she? Um I think when uh you always know that stuff.

I do. I always know the I think when Rory ends up like staying with Emily and Richard. She uh Lauraai says she's Patty Hurst and they're the SLA.

Oh god. I think I think that's literally what she said. When you have Richard and Emily Gilmore as the SLA, I'm like, not so much.

I'm like, damn, man. They're more like the Hursts, really. Yeah, honestly, that's funny.

But yeah, that's that's all I could think of when this started. I was like, oh [ __ ] more

alignment. This is a big case of uh a case for debate of whether she was a victim of brainwashing and Stockholm syndrome.

I was going to say, yeah, or just just understood the message, the message, you know,

got into it. So, there's a lot to unpack here. I like I said, I think this is probably gonna end up being three parts, but

yeah, we'll we'll see you for part two. We sure will. And um that will be on SiriusXM.

Yeah, but every you can get it everywhere. Just the only place, the literal only place you can't get it is Wondery Plus.

Yeah. Anywhere else. Just listen anywhere else. Yep. Just cuz I know that's still a question of like, can do I have to have Sirius XM? No.

No, it's true. You do not. You can listen to it anywhere. And also September 1st is Labor Day, so hopefully you're off of work and you can listen to part two.

There you go. Yeah. And you all get to listen to it at the same time. There's no more early release.

Exactly. So everybody can just be together. All morbid weirders are created equal.

Hell yeah. And we love you. And we love you. And we hope you keep listening. And we hope you keep it. Weird. But not so weird that you don't um that not so weird that you do a kidnapping.

Yeah. Don't not so weird that you, you know, like go to the grocery store and then you walk out and you're getting held up.

Don't do any of that. Don't Don't do a kidnapping. Don't support a kidnapping. Don't

stay away from kidnappings in general. Stay away from it, you know. So, yeah. We love you. Bye.

Bye.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "Episode 703: The Kidnapping of Patty Hearst (Part 1)"?

Ash (Host), Elena (Host), Patricia Campbell Hearst (Guest), Donald DeFreeze (Guest).

What is "Episode 703: The Kidnapping of Patty Hearst (Part 1)" about?

The discussion revolves around the chaotic personal lives of the hosts, Ash and Elena, who are coping with family health issues and various emergencies while preparing for a recording. They share their experiences with lack of sleep stemming from a dental emergency and a family member's hospitalization, illustrating the challenges they face while maintaining their podcasting routine.

What is mentioned in this Morbid | Podcast episode?

36 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Patty Hurst, Symbion Liberation Army, Randolph Hurst, SLA, Steven Weed, San Francisco. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Episode 703: The Kidnapping of Patty Hearst (Part 1)"?

The episode runs 1 h 5 min; the transcript is about 13,117 words in 348 timestamped sections.

More from Morbid | Podcast

About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated January 24, 2026.