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Patty
Hearst
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1954 '74 '75 '76 '79 '82 '90 '96 '01
February 20, 1954 Patricia Campbell Hearst was born in San Francisco, California. She grew up in wealth and privilege as the daughter of Randolph A. Hearst, chairman of media conglomerate Hearst Corp., and Catherine Hearst, a University of California regent.

February 4, 1974 A radical group called the Symbionese Liberation Army abducted Hearst at gunpoint from her Berkeley apartment near the University of California campus. The SLA kept Hearst locked in a closet for 57 days. Eventually, she joined the SLA, taking the name of Tania.

April 15, 1974 The SLA robbed a bank in San Francisco. Two bystanders were shot. Bank cameras pictured Hearst brandishing a rifle. She later said that she joined in the robbery out of fear for her life.

May 16, 1974 Hearst fired shots outside a Los Angeles sporting goods store to help free an SLA member who had been accused of shoplifting. She and the SLA's William and Emily Harris fled from the scene.

May 17, 1974 Six SLA members died in a shootout with Los Angeles police as their hideway house went up in flames. Hearst and the Harrises watched the conflagration live on television from a motel near Disneyland.

September 18, 1975 The FBI arrested Hearst in San Francisco more than 18 months after her kidnapping.

March 20, 1976 A federal court jury rejected Hearst's defense that the SLA brainwashed her, finding her guilty of the bank robbery and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony. Hearst was sentenced to seven years in prison.

1979 President Jimmy Carter commuted Hearst's prison sentence after she served nearly two years.

1979 Hearst married Bernard Shaw, a police officer who moonlighted as her bodyguard. The couple have two daughters and live in a Connecticut suburb.
1982 Hearst published "Every Secret Thing," a memoir describing her kidnapping and her ordeal with the SLA.
1990 Hearst made her movie debut in John Waters' "Cry-Baby." She has made several other movies for Waters, including "Serial Mom" (1994), "Pecker" (1998) and "Cecil B. Demented" (2000).
1996 With Cordelia Frances Biddle, Hearst co-authored "Murder at San Simeon," a murder mystery involving her grandfather's famous California estate.
2001 Hearst received one of the last-minute pardons that President Bill Clinton gave before leaving office.
1954 '74 '75 '76 '79 '82 '90 '96 '01

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