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American Heiress: The Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, Crimes and Trial of Patty Hearst

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On February 4, 1974, Patty Hearst, a sophomore in college and heiress to the Hearst Family fortune, was kidnapped by a ragtag group of self-styled revolutionaries calling itself the Symbonese Liberation Army. The weird turns that followed in this already sensational take are truly astonishing--the Hearst family tried to secure Patty's release by feeding the people of Oakland and San Francisco for free; bank security cameras captured "Tania" wielding a machine gun during a roberry; the LAPD engaged in the largest police shoot-out in American history; the first breaking news event was broadcast live on telelvision stations across the country; and then there was Patty's circuslike trial, filled with theatrical courtroom confrontations and a dramatic last-minute reversal, after which the term "Stockholm syndrome" entered the lexicon. 

Ultimately, the saga highlighted a decade in which America seemed to be suffering a collective nervous breakdown.

384 pages, Hardcover

First published August 2, 2016

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About the author

Jeffrey Toobin

22 books663 followers
Jeffrey Ross Toobin (J.D., Harvard Law School, 1986; B.A., American History and Literature, Harvard University) is a lawyer, blogger, and media legal correspondent for CNN and formerly The New Yorker magazine. He previously served as an Assistant United States Attorney in Brooklyn, New York, and later worked as a legal analyst for ABC News, where he received a 2001 Emmy Award for his coverage of the Elian Gonzales custody saga.

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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,557 reviews
Profile Image for Matt.
963 reviews29.1k followers
October 2, 2021
“[A]t each stage of her life, Patricia [Hearst] used the tools at her disposal. She was a straightforward person, and starting on February 4, 1974, she reacted to her challenges in rational ways. Surrounded by passionate, charismatic outlaws who told her that the police were out to kill them all, Patricia joined them in a pact of mutual self-defense; when the police did in fact kill nearly all of them, Patricia hit the road with her comrades to try to escape. Little wonder that in such emotionally fraught surroundings a young woman would have fallen in love – twice. But when she and her comrades were caught, Patricia was rational once more. A jail cell, and the prospect of many more years in one, prompted her to make haste to embrace her former life of privilege. A clear thinker, if not a deep one, Patricia understood that for her rich was better than poor and freedom was better than confinement. She chose accordingly…”
- Jeffrey Toobin, American Heiress: The Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, Crimes, and Trial of Patty Hearst

By any measure, the 1970s were pretty tumultuous decade. There was the trial of Charles Manson, the end of Vietnam, the Watergate scandal, and Nixon’s resignation. A lot of people distrusted the government. A smaller number tried to change the government by force. To that end, as Jeffrey Toobin notes in American Heiress, there was an average of 1,500 terrorist bombings a year in the early ‘70s. There were so many, in fact, that people sort of stopped paying attention to them. It was an era of discord, distrust, and scandal. With so many things happening, with so many public figures falling, with so many pipe bombs exploding, it would seem hard to find a symbolic event. But it’s not. The story of Patty Hearst captures it all.

On February 4, 1974, the young heiress to the Hearst fortune was kidnapped by members of the Symbionese Liberation Army. The SLA, as they styled themselves, was a small, ersatz collection of audacious imbeciles, led by an ex-convict who called himself “Field Marshal Cinque.” This violent political action committee had a mushy mission statement – something about liberation, disliking the status quo, etc. ad nauseam – but very real ambitions and energy. To that end, these hair-trigger revolutionaries, rebelling against nothing and everything all at once, made the shortsighted decision to capture Patricia Hearst and stick her in a walk-in closet.

As Toobin tells it, the SLA then made a series of outrageous ransom demands, more to stall for time than anything else. While the police and the FBI fruitlessly attempted to track Patricia down, she slowly came to befriend her captors. Or she was absolutely brainwashed. No one can know with certainty, though everyone who reads this story will have an opinion.

Whether Patricia “went rogue” or was a Manchurian beatnik, there is no debate that she took part in a number of SLA crimes, including bank robberies, kidnapping, and bomb-making. She remained on the lam until September 1975, when she was captured and charged in Federal Court. And just to make sure this case had enough notoriety, Randolph Hearst hired F. Lee Bailey to be her defense counsel.

This is an incredible tale. It is part thriller, with twists and turns and outlaws on the run; part character study; and part Shakespearian tragedy, peopled with flawed characters who hurt, kill, deceive, and betray. It is true – depending on your definition of “truth.” The big events actually happened. Patricia was kidnapped. She robbed a bank. People around her died, the innocent and the guilty alike. But the central question, of Patty Hearst’s agency, is elusive.

Toobin is the perfect writer for this material. He did an exceptional job covering the O.J. Simpson trial in The Run of His Life by being thorough, judicious, and engaging. He has a perspective, but it never feels like he’s ramming it down your throat. Moreover, he can back up what he writes. Patricia Hearst refused to be interviewed for this (more on that in a moment), but Toobin seems to have spoken with everyone else who is still available. More than that, he managed to purchase 150 boxes of material from former SLA member Bill Harris, which allows Toobin access to incredible details. He appears to have tracked down every extant scrap of paper, even love letters that Patricia wrote from jail to fellow prisoner/lover Stephen Souliah.

Toobin is a former Federal prosecutor turned talking head. His forte is legal matters, as he demonstrates in his incisive retelling of Hearst’s trial. Though he is critical of many of Bailey’s tactics (and his life decisions in general), he is fair enough to note both the high and low points of his representation. (After The Run of His Life, which also featured Bailey, I propose that Toobin write a full-scale bio of the disgraced attorney).

Even outside the courtroom, though, Toobin does an excellent job. His style is informative but also fast-paced. He does a good job of balancing the central drama of the SLA with the larger context in which they existed. His portraits of the SLA members are memorable, especially the erratic Bill Harris. I think the best testament I can give to American Heiress is that I wasn’t constantly reaching for my phone to look things up. I didn't have to, because Toobin’s narrative did not leave any glaring holes.

When I finished, my first and only thought was: When is the movie? Turns out, never. Patricia Hearst squashed it. More than that, she has had some unkind things to say about American Heiress in general, and Jeffrey Toobin in particular. I think that’s understandable. After all, we all want to be in charge of what is said about us.

In is worth mentioning, though, that Patricia Hearst has never been reticent about her story. She is not some shrinking violet. On the contrary, she has given many interviews, and written her own memoir about these events. What she objects to, in the end, is that her story is not the story being told.

You can’t come across the Hearst saga without having an opinion on its essential figure. You can’t read this without wondering: Who is Patty Hearst?

Patricia would say – and has said – that all her actions were coerced and the product of threat and force.

Robert Mueller, the former director of the FBI (you might have heard him mentioned in the news), believed she was a committed criminal, and opposed the presidential pardon that Bill Clinton eventually gave her.

Toobin contends that Patricia had a chameleon-like ability to adapt to and embrace her circumstances. He rejects the notion that her will was entirely overborne, and mentions the many, many times when she could have walked away. Even so, he is rather sympathetic to Hearst’s plight, especially at the start. He does not neglect, however, her own damning words and actions, or the fact that her family’s immense wealth gave her legal outcomes that ordinary Americans would never receive.

Ultimately, I don’t think an objective answer is possible. Patricia Hearst is something of a Rorschach test on our notions of free will. The way you answer the question of her culpability probably says more about you than it does about Patty. That’s part of the reason I found this book so fascinating. It raises interesting ideas about the stories we tell ourselves, about ourselves, in order to justify the way we live our lives.
Profile Image for Jaidee.
644 reviews1,319 followers
April 23, 2023
5 "absolutely fucking bonkers" stars !!

6th Favorite Read of 2022

This is an absolutely fantastic journalistic exploration of the life and times of Patty Hearst.

I knew so little about about this old dame as when this all went down in 1974 I was a mere three years old. I do remember my mum being quite engrossed with the tv news at this time and saying to my dad in their native tongue...they need to find this witch or was it bitch lol !

Mr. Toobin has done meticulous research and interviewing of all these players (except for Mizz Peppermint Patty herself who declined) and collated and syncretized a huge amount of information.
He valiantly presents all sides but does not stay neutral and I respect him all the more for that ! This was released in 2016.



I love the way he organizes the information so that you get a real impression of what crazy California was like in the seventies, the background of all these marxist groups and their disillusionment and a real delving into all the personalities of the people involved. He then gives us a blow by blow of the kidnapping and conversion of Patty and all the subsequent crimes, politics, infighting, shenanigans and sex involved. What happened was awful but Mr. Toobin takes a tongue in cheek approach as a good 45 years or more has passed. He is able to be both compassionate and objective to all that transpired. So much of this is so fuckin unbelievable and yet this was crazy California. TRUTH IS STRANGER THAN FICTION FOLKS !


By the end of this book you might be able to determine for yourself who the fuck Peppermint Patty is ...

Was/Is she

a- a poor little rich girl that was violently violated in every which way and brainwashed to become a left wing political extremist

b- an intelligent and idealistic feminist that truly believed in all her actions of overthrowing the government

c- an opportunistic rich bitch malignant narcissist that used her cunning and her disillusionment to create difficulties for her much maligned family and work out her own intrapsychic conflicts

d- a psychopathic she- devil that did not get her just dues for all the crimes she commited

I will not disclose which of the above I feel best describe her !

This was an intelligent rip roaring crazy ride. Thanks for all your hard work Mr. Toobin !



Patty with her friend John Waters (director)
Profile Image for Diane S ☔.
4,825 reviews14.3k followers
September 13, 2016
I remember seeing this on the news, Patty Hearst's kidnapping, her picture carrying a gun into the bank as they robbed it and her subsequent capture eighteen months or so later. But, this is all I knew. Never knew what came later, was fairly young and probably more interested in my own life at that point.

Tobin does a fantastic job, explaining the radical undercurrents of the seventies, details about all those in the SLA., never knew they were so small a group. How unprepared the FBI was in dealing with this type of terrorism, the trial, the inconsistencies, Patty's parents and their reactions, very through., well written. Loved the way this was laid out, and I loved the ending chapter where the author caught us up on where all the key players are now, what happened to them. Have to admit to not liking Party very much, though I suppose despite varying opinions she is the only one who really knows if she was a willing participant or not. Still another prime example of money and power buying what others were not able to achieve. The last sentence in the author's note is a humdinger, and maybe in an ironic way the only justice to be found in this case.

ARC from publisher.
Profile Image for Karin Slaughter.
Author 115 books70.8k followers
October 7, 2016
Holy crap is it just me or are all terrorist cut from the same pathetic loser cloth? It's shocking that some things never changed. Oh and I listened to this on audio. Fantastic reader. Highly recommend.
Profile Image for Paul Bryant.
2,280 reviews10.6k followers
June 17, 2022
There’s only one thing wrong with this brilliant book, the title – yeah, oops. What? Was Jeffrey Toobin attempting to win the coveted “Most Exciting Book with the Dullest Title” award? If so, he did it! The award is his!

This book should have been called Absolute Batshit : The Patty Hearst Saga.

So just to be clear : Jeffrey Toobin gathers together an immense amount of detail but he moves this complicated story along like a bullet train.

I’d vaguely heard of this Patty Hearst/Symbionese Liberation Army stuff but it seemed almost too crazy to believe. I was right about that. This story is off the scale.

The story begins in Berkeley, the heart of radical California, in the early 1970s. There was a prison education program set up at Vacaville, the prison nearest to Berkeley, and some rad young women got interested in that. There they met a black guy named Donald DeFreeze. A couple of years earlier George Jackson had been killed in Soledad prison and DeFreeze was caught up in the aftermath of that, it was all revolution this, revolution that, and massive amounts of half-baked Marxism.

DeFreeze busted out of prison. That’s putting it too strongly. He wandered out of prison when the guards were looking elsewhere. He hooked up with this disparate group of white female prison visitors and within a week they had conjured up this thing, this imaginary thing called the Symbionese Liberation Army, the goal of which was – well, as ever, paradise on Earth.

Mr Toobin has some harsh words for Mr DeFreeze :

DeFreeze amounted to a junior varsity George Jackson. In almost every respect, DeFreeze was a lesser man – not as intelligent, not as good-looking, not as strong, not as charismatic, not as competent… if George Jackson was tragedy, then Donald DeFreeze was farce…He fancied himself as a leader of the African American people, even though the SLA never had a single black member except for himself.

The first “action” the SLA did was the worst and earned them their mad dog image immediately. They assassinated a black guy. This was Marcus Foster, school superintendent of Oakland. His crime was to introduce armed security guards into schools to combat gang culture. He was gunned down on 6 November 1973. Then they issued a communique :

On the afore stated date elements of The United Federated forces of the Symbionese Liberation Army did attack the fascist Board of Education, Oakland, California through the person of Dr Marcus A Foster, Superintendent of Schools…

DEATH TO THE FASCIST INSECT THAT PREYS UPON THE LIFE OF THE PEOPLE


This “action” was supposed to galvanise “the people” to rise up against their oppressors. Instead it galvanised people to rise up against the SLA. The Black Panther Party denounced Foster’s murder and demanded that the police capture his killers.

The SLA sulked and plotted another action. By this time there were nine members. One of them saw an engagement announcement in the local paper featuring Patty Hearst. They saw where it said she was a student at the local university. They then remembered that the university had a directory of students’ home addresses available to the public at the university admin building. So – a Hearst heiress! Lightbulb moment! And they just strolled along and got her address and planned the kidnap.

What they were supposed to do with her after they violently snatched her up on 4 February 1974 and shoved her in the trunk of a car was never exactly clear. And what happened exactly in the weeks and months that followed is the heart of the mystery. But two things were matters of fact. On 12 February DeFreeze sent a tape to a local radio station, explaining that Patty Hearst was now a prisoner of war, denouncing the Hearst family as fascist insects and issuing the following demand :

Before any forms of negotiations for the release of the subject prisoner be initiated, an action of good faith must be shown on the part of the Hearst family. This gesture is to be in the form of food to the needy and the unemployed

This was followed by detailed instructions about how much, where and how this free food was to be distributed. Randolph Hearst, Patty’s father, took a deep breath and started to comply. It cost a couple of million, it lasted a few weeks, one of the giveaways ended in an unseemly riot with frozen turkeys being used as weapons, but the big free food giveaway was actually done.

After that, the SLA sort of wandered off the idea. Meanwhile, something had happened to Patty. There are two versions. There is Patty’s version, and there is everyone else’s version. Everyone else who survived, that is.

Either a) she gradually got to know her captors, to talk with them at great length (hey, they didn’t have anything else to do), she began to get caught up in their rhetoric, and to find, somehow, that she liked them a whole lot. They were keen to tell her they didn’t want her to come to any harm & that the only risk of her catching a bullet would be if the FBI bust down the door of their safe house. Meanwhile, she was convincing them that she was being converted to their far-out violent utopianism. Patty was merging into the SLA, as the weeks ticked by. And that included merging into the SLA’s sex life, which was fluid and frequent, they were all militantly opposed to bourgeois monogamy.

Or b) she was terrorised form the get-go, threatened with death, raped by two men, denied toilet facilities and eventually forced to comply with everything they wanted her to do. That’s Patty’s version.

This book, presenting as much of the facts as there are, and there are a lot, is respectfully incredulous of Patty’s own account. Well, this flies in the face of the modern mantra believe the victim. So, here we have a tough case.

The proponents of the majority view will say – what happened next? Lay out the facts.

Well, next came the famous bank robbery on 15 April 1974, so only two months after the kidnap. They planned the raid very well and deliberately stationed Patty inside the bank with a big fat gun underneath a security camera, so everyone could see that she was now a fully participating member of the SLA.



In one of the many jaw-dropping turns of events in this saga, Patty’s face then turned up on the FBI’s WANTED poster. From victim to perp in 2 months.

I realise that I could carry on summarising the lurches from tragedy to comedy and back again that characterised the next few years for Patty and the gang – including what Mr Toobin describes as "the biggest police gun battle ever to take place on American soil" but hell, I should stop now, and simply say this is a true crime CLASSIC and for anyone interested in what happened to the American counterculture and the history of the 1970s this is a MUST READ.
Profile Image for Matt.
4,000 reviews12.9k followers
October 10, 2016
In this brilliantly crafted piece of non-fiction, Toobin explores one of the most sensational events of the 1970s, which commenced with the kidnapping of teenager Patricia Campbell Hearst. In a decade still hungover on the push for counterculture and raging against the Man, the capture and turning of Patty Hearst illuminated how things had changed from the active 1960s, where change through any mean was acceptable. Toobin uses the early portion of the book to lay the groundwork for Hearst kidnapping, describing the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) and their rationale for choosing Hearst, whose family riches could surely be used to the Army's advantage. After Hearst was taken and locked away from her captors, the SLA began making demands, not to line their own pockets with the millions the Hearst Empire surely possessed, but to feed those in need. As Toobin describes, the SLA's demands helped create the People in Need (PIN) food distribution network. While there were some good incentives to be realised, the delivery was fraught with mishaps, including riots, injuries, and collusion within the chain of command. Negative reactions by the Hearst family to the PIN initiative soured their connection to the SLA, who continued to profess demands to facilitate Patty's safe release. It was at this time, posits Toobin, that Patty Hearst may have not only softened towards her captors, but also sought a role in the Army. Hearst went from being their captive to a member of the team in a series of events within the SLA's 'clubhouse'. From here, Toobin explores the SLA and their hiding while they plotted to line their own pockets with cash, through a major bank heist, where they would publicly prove that Patty Hearst, using the moniker Tania, was no longer a prisoner but a willing combatant in the war against the fascist state. As the Toobin narrative flows, the reader is able to see the extent to which 'Tania' sympathised with the SLA and how she took on a life in the underground to keep herself from being caught. One of the FBI's Most Wanted, Hearst was forced to sneak around in order to protect herself and those around her, which would lead to further crimes so that she might stay afloat. The tumultuous 18 month manhunt ended when Hearst was arrested for her crimes and sent to trial, which turned out to be another circus of media frenzy. It was during her trial, now in front of the spotlight, that her notoriety rose even more and those closest to her at the defence table, namely F. Lee Bailey, sought to use her fame to boost his own reputation. Toobin goes through the trial in his legal analyst manner and recounts some of the foibles, which would lead to her conviction. However, many questions were raised in testimony, some of which I am happy to explore below. That Patty Hearst became a name most anyone in the 1970s could have recognised is beyond dispute. However, the transformation this 19 year old took from the day she was forced into the trunk of a car until she was eventually led away in handcuffs over a year later is fascinating. Toobin did a fabulous job directing this journey, sure to impress the reader who has the patience to wade through the rollercoaster journey.

I thought I ought to take a few minutes to explore the Symbionese Liberation Army as presented by the author. Formed by the politically-minded Donald DeFreeze and some like-minded youths, the SLA sought to create a renewed buzz of the counterculture movement, pitting themselves against the State, which it felt was fascist in nature. However, as Toobin mentions repeatedly, no other groups on the left trying to make political statements within the United States would associate themselves with the SLA. They were too radical and tried to make statements with little regard for the larger picture. While DeFreeze tried to align himself with some Central and South American guerrilla groups, the associations floated out in the public without solidarity on the part of the international organisations, a deafening two-step away from the SLA and their creed. That said, there was a brief time during which the SLA captured the minds of the public, immediately after the Patty Hearst kidnapping. As mentioned above, forcing the creation of the People in Need initiative allowed the poor in California to receive food, funded by Randy and Catherine Hearst in order to see their daughter returned safely. This 'Robin Hood Complex' allowed the SLA to make themselves somewhat respected, if only for doing the right thing and not falling into being greedy while lauding the fact that they held Hearst as their captive. Their early communiqués were poignant and even pushed a commentary that had been strong in the 60s, but it soon turned into excessive rambling. Even before the 24-hour news cycle, the SLA lost the general public, which the ongoing search for Patty Hearst never lost its buzz, partially because of the SLA. When Hearst agreed to become a soldier in the SLA and took up the name Tania, her public prominence on-screen during the bank robbery injected new drama into the SLA-Hearst situation, as speculation swirled about what had been done to turn Hearst. For the months that followed, it was a manhunt around the country and the FBI using their Most Wanted List to turn Americans into snitches and forced them to be on the lookout at every moment. Toobin clearly illustrates how the cat and mouse game was what fuelled television ratings, rather that the SLA's ongoing desires to change the way things were being done in America. Perhaps losing their way and becoming a bunch of criminals on the run is what truly killed the impetus of the SLA movement.

One cannot review this book and not spend at least a little time looking at Patty Hearst, whose life was turned upside down that February 4, 1974 night when she was pulled from her home. Toobin effectively argues that this was both a fearful experience for her and one that made her a symbol of her family's vast empire and collection of assets. However, being the granddaughter of the famous William Randolph Hearst did not work in her favour, as Patty was not able to garner the financial means that it was expected she might. Her father, Randy, was not as wealthy as might have been expected, much of his wealth tied up in trusts and third-party holdings. Additionally, Patty was not political, so her being held was not the coup the SLA might have expected when they undertook to remove her from the house. As has been insinuated above, there came a time when Patty Hearst changed, not only adopting the Tania persona, but left being the victim and became a member of the cause. Much was made at her trial about brainwashing or the newly-coined term 'Stockholm Syndrome', something that the Toobin narrative does not posit during the kidnapping period. However, while the transition Hearst undertook as a captive took a month or so, she appears to have reverted after her capture, happy to sell anyone and everyone up the river to save her skin. Toobin exemplifies how quickly Hearst was prepared to cry 'rape' and 'inhumane conditions', which led her to make choices she would not have otherwise made. The State left the question on which the jury could percolate during deliberations: "Why did Hearst not flee at some point during the eighteen months in the SLA?" Surely, there must have been at least one instance when she could have revealed herself and allowed the authorities to take her into protective custody. The innocent kidnap victim became not only a hardened criminal, but duplicitous along the way. Surely the silver spoon upbringing helped to foster a belief that she need only act and the world would do as she wanted. Toobin presents this theory as the Hearst family lobbied many of those in positions of power to commute Patty's sentence because she was acting under duress while a captive of the SLA. Former California Governor Reagan bought into it, John Wayne lassoed it as his own personal truth, and even President Jimmy Carter succumbed to the pressures and signed the commutation order. Further political maneuvering had Carter pull on the heartstrings of the departing President Clinton to offer a full pardon to Patty Hearst on his final day in office. Power and money surely turn the winds of justice, allowing a woman who played the system to flip the bird at the entire population incarcerated in the United States and those whose lives she affected while a soldier with the SLA.

As with many of the Toobin books I have read, this was laid out in such a way that the reader can easily follow all arguments made and keep the historical references in some semblance of order. Toobin pulls on a period that was dramatic, with its iconoclastic photo of Patty Hearst holding the machine gun ahead of her first bank heist. However, having not lived through these events, I relied heavily on the author's ability to act as narrator and historical tour guide as I tried to make sense of the entire ordeal. Toobin has taken much time to develop some of the backstories of key characters who crossed paths with Hearst, as well as tangential events in history that helped precipitate the key events known to many who followed the Patty Hearst saga in 1974-75. While there is surely a bias woven into the perspective, Toobin gives the reader the reins to synthesise much of the information and evidence presented within these pages, which makes the book all the more enjoyable. I left this feeling better informed and have created some of my own sentiments on those stormy eighteen months. Surely a collection of events people can use to ask "do you remember when...?"

Kudos, Mr. Toobin for another great effort. I will surely recommend this book to anyone with an interest in Patty Hearst, as well as those who might not know the details of the SLA and all that went down.

Like/hate the review? An ever-growing collection of others appears at:
http://pecheyponderings.wordpress.com/
Profile Image for Jim.
383 reviews92 followers
December 5, 2017
I went into this slowly, anticipating that it would be interesting for the first few chapters and then bog down in courtroom dreariness in the last half of the book. I need not have worried, as Mr Toobin has managed to hold the reader's interest throughout, even in the stuffy confines of the courtroom.

When you are writing non-fiction tales that present still-living persons in a less than flattering light, it behooves you to do your research. Jeffrey Toobin has researched this thing to death, and as a consequence is able to give a remarkably detailed account of the movements and motives of the pathetic Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) and their victim/comrade/betrayer Patricia Hearst. Heck, he can even tell you that Patty pissed herself when she was arrested, a fact I found gratuitous but strangely satisfying.

There are two stories here, the most obvious being that of the kidnapping of Hearst and her subsequent assimilation into the SLA, her wholehearted participation in criminal activities, her capture and the ultimate disposal of the case. The second story is a tale of what is wrong with the American justice system, where having enough pull in the form of cash or fame can buy you some easy (short) time for what should have been a capital offence.



Profile Image for Wendy.
1,749 reviews610 followers
October 17, 2018
I have always been fascinated by the Patty Hearst story, not only the kidnapping but the aftermath as well. Author Jeffrey Toobin satisfied my many questions with answers, many being quite surprising.
Patty Hearst refused to be interviewed by Toobin yet he gives us a well-researched, comprehensive account of her story.
This really was a wild saga! Toobin's storytelling leaves the reader to wonder whether or not Patty was an actual "urban guerrilla" or a brain-washed rich young woman just trying to stay alive.
A very interesting and captivating read!

Profile Image for Julie.
4,135 reviews38.2k followers
August 29, 2016
American Heiress by Jeffrey Toobin is a 2016 Doubleday publication.


In 1974, I was too young to understand the constant news coverage of the Patty Hearst kidnapping. I do have memories of the story making headlines for what seemed like forever. But, I honestly had no interest in the debate surrounding her guilt or innocence.

As I got older, I developed a curiosity about the case and hoped to find a book on the subject that would not have an agenda attached to it, or was slanted in some way. I wanted an in depth analysis of the events, told in a journalistic manner, which is hard to find. There have been countless books, TV documentaries, movies based on actual events, all telling their own version of events.

When I saw how highly rated and well received this book was, I thought this was probably my best chance of learning the real and unbiased facts surrounding the bizarre kidnapping of Patricia Hearst and the aftermath of it.

It may be impossible to write such a book without having already formed an opinion, or for one to develop once the task has begun. Despite his best efforts to keep to the facts in the case, the author’s personal opinion of Patricia is obvious.

Despite that, the book seems to have been meticulously researched, is very well organized, and is told with a clear, strong voice that commands the reader’s attention from start to finish.

For those, like myself, who were not old enough to remember the details of the case, or the climate in the 1970’s. This book will take you back to an era of violence and conflict that in our consciousness, we seem to have forgotten all about. In fact, only a month or so ago, I wrote a book review in which I expressed the opinion that the sixties were turbulent and violent, but once the seventies arrived, things settled down and the violence soon tapered off.

Toobin immediately challenges that concept, pointing out various politically motivated crimes, Watergate, serial killers and assassination attempts on the President, Jim Jones, as well as factions like the Zebra killers. The seventies was not all about dancing under mirror balls after all. In fact, it was one of the most violent decades to date. So, I stand corrected.

So, not only is this book about the Hearst kidnapping, but is also about the state our country was in during the seventies, which apparently was rather bleak.

I was shocked by some of the names that cropped up in this book, those associated with the Hearst family, but also those associated in some ways the SLA ,(Symbionese Liberation Army), of which I had never heard a thing about before now.

The transformation of Patricia Hearst, from being a nineteen year old college student, sheltered and perhaps naïve, only moderately rebellious against her parents, to a gun toting bank robber, spouting off extremist rhetoric, and back again, was shocking, jarring, and amazing.

The transformations she went through are very curious and the general consensus is that she was brainwashed and suffered from ‘Stockholm Syndrome.’

It’s impossible to argue with the facts, and the fact is, Patricia was taken by force, at gunpoint, while she was quite young. Living a pampered, perhaps slightly isolated life, she may have been easily molded by these extremist radicals, but there is enough doubt, based on the facts presented in this book to give one pause.

Although we live through the events of Patricia’s captivity, the trial, the aftermath and fallout of this eighteen month ordeal, in the end, Patricia Heart remains an enigma. It is my understanding that she in no way participated in or endorsed this book, and still lives a relatively quiet life, never again causing controversy or exhibiting any hint of violence.

Yet, I have to wonder if she’s ever expressed or felt remorse or guilt for her role in the deaths of innocent people. I must say, that by the end of the book, the author had me convinced he was right about Patty. But, it is up to you, once you’ve read this accounting of events to make that decision for yourself.

Overall, this is a very thought provoking book, which will appeal to history buffs, as well as true crime readers.
4.5 stars

Profile Image for Esil.
1,118 reviews1,429 followers
September 26, 2016
3.5 stars. I listened to the audio of American Heiress: The Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, Crimes and Trial of Patty Hearst. This piece of history is fascinating because following the kidnapping, it is evident that Hearst participated actively in some of the criminal activities of her captors. Toobin’s account of the story focuses on some of the discrepancies between what actually happened while Hearst was held captive on the one hand, and her defence at trial and account of what happened after she was released on the other hand. Toobin does an excellent job of setting up the historical context and providing a detailed account of the kidnapping and its aftermath. It was interesting and sad to hear about how inept and misguided these apparent revolutionaries were, and how Hurst fell under their spell. In the end, what was missing for me is a true sense of who Hearst is. She was only 20 years old when she was kidnapped. It is clear that she became an active participant in her captors’ activities. She then denounced them and claims to have been motivated by a fear for her life. The truth may lie somewhere in the middle in that as Toobin suggests Hearst may have developed Stockholm syndrome. But Toobin does not appear to have had the benefit of her own voice today, so she remains somewhat opaque and as a consequence comes across as fairly unsympathetic. Having said that, this was interesting and I certainly don’t regret taking the time to listen to American Heiress.
Profile Image for Howard.
372 reviews295 followers
September 14, 2017
“Seventeen minutes after 9 p.m. on Feb. 4, 1974, two college students, 25-year-old Steven Weed and 19-year-old Patricia Hearst, were having a quiet evening at home when they were surprised by a knock on the door. A woman said she’d backed into Ms. Hearst’s car and asked if she could come in and use their phone. Before the young couple could reply, two armed men barged through the door, demanding money. Mr. Weed said, ‘Take my wallet. Take anything you want.’ They did, they took Ms. Hearst.” – John Greenya, Washington Times

Patricia Hearst, the most famous American kidnap victim since the Lindbergh baby in 1932, was arrested nineteen months later and tried on a charge of armed bank robbery.

The jury was faced with deciding if: 1) she truly renounced her family and embraced the revolutionary beliefs of the Symbionese Liberation Army that had kidnapped her; or 2) she had been brainwashed; or 3) she had acted under duress in fear for her life.

Jeffrey Toobin builds a strong case that she ….

No, I can’t say, because that would be like spoiling the plot of a whodunit page-turner, which aptly describes Toobin’s work of nonfiction – and so does the subtitle: The Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, Crimes and Trial of Patty Hearst.


--------------------------------------------

"Even for those readers who've long since forgotten the Patty Hearst saga, or who grew up long after it ended, this account is well worth the time and attention." -- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette


“Toobin has crafted a book for the expert and the uninitiated alike. A smart page-turner that boasts a cache of never-before-published details.” – Kevin Canfield, SFGATE
Profile Image for The Pfaeffle Journal (Diane).
147 reviews11 followers
October 19, 2016
I was twenty-four years old and living in the Bay Area when Patty Hearst was kidnapped. It was without a doubt one of the strangest things to happen during the counter-culture movement of the late sixties – early seventies.

Toobin retells the story of Hearst’s kidnapping and her conversion to an SLA member. He has unusual insight into Hearst’s motives and actions. I believe that his telling of the story and his insights are 100 percent accurate.

Toobin believes she willingly became a member of the SLA and I agree with that.
“The shoot-out at Fifty-Fourth Street cemented Patricia’s transformation into a committed revolutionary. She was kidnapped on February 4. On March 31, she convinced the comrades of her worthiness to join the SLA; on April 3, she sent the communique in which she vowed to “stay and fight” under her new name of Tania; on April 15, she participated in the robbery of the Hibernia Bank; on April 24, she sent the communique that mocked the idea that she had been brainwashed; on May 16, she fired her machine gun (and another gun) at Mel’s to free Bill Harris from the clutches of his pursuers; on May 17, she watched her comrades, including Willy Wolfe, die excruciating deaths.”

"If you look at her actions ... over the following year, you see the actions of a revolutionary, not a victim," Toobin says. "There was some glamour to what she was doing, the swagger of wearing berets, of carrying machine guns — the romance of revolution was an undeniable part of the appeal of the SLA."


What intrigues me is what would happen today if Patty Hearst did what she did forty years ago? Would we be so forgiving? Would she be considered a domestic terrorist?



This review was originally posted on The Pfaeffle Journal

Profile Image for Tracey.
1,098 reviews268 followers
March 9, 2018
The stupid runs very deep in this story. Patricia Hearst was young and ignorant and self-centered; the revolutionaries were pretty much morons, or delusional at best; the FBI wasn't any too sharp...

The other notable characteristic of the people featured in this book is a marked lack of loyalty. That is, among the SLA there seemed to be cohesion – sort of, for some, sometimes – but Patricia Hearst's erstwhile fiancé Steve Weed seems to have been the weediest and weaseliest of weeds, universally despised (including by the author – and me). And of course Patricia herself turned on a dime, bending with whatever breeze most benefited her. Jeffrey Toobin's sympathies obviously lie with her parents, most especially her father Randy; it's natural, and I agreed, but it's also a little startling to see such blatant bias in what I expected to be a journalistic biography/history.

Toobin is the reason I requested this book, along with the fact that I knew surprisingly little about the whole saga. The author's name rang bells, and when I Goodsearched him his face brought instant recognition (if not exact memories of where from). But I wasn't overwhelmingly impressed by the writing; it tends to loop and double back on itself, and the repetetiveness gets a bit old now and then. (Cujo was the love of Patricia's life. I know. I know. So was Soliah. I know.)

It's a story of how the idealism of the 60's died ("Nixon might not have brought the Vietnam War to a close, but he did end the draft. Freed from the threat of conscription, many thousands of otherwise apolitical young people drifted away from the antiwar movement.") The sheer number of bombings in the country at the time is shocking in this day of modern terrorism; the world hasn't gotten more dangerous, in a way, but the danger now tends to come from different sources. Jaded cynicism seems to have been the rule in the 70's, and is embodied by the … I hesitate to say "heroine" of the story.

Patricia, not Patty, declined to be interviewed for the book – which I have to say, given the tone of the book toward her, might not have been a good idea. It reminded me a little of the book about Mary Decker and Zola Budd; Decker refused to participate, and Budd was given a far kinder treatment in the book. Toobin's attitude toward Patricia wasn't quite so blatant, but he was less than kind in places; where there is any doubt as to her motivations or honesty or level of compulsion, he tends to land on the side of doubting her.

There were some side angles in the book which took me by surprise. I didn't know anything about the "PIN" (People In Need) program that was initiated by the initial ransom demands, and the whole thing was disheartening. (For one thing, this Reagan quote: "It’s just too bad we can’t have an epidemic of botulism.") The psycho contingent connected with the project was surprising as well – I won't spoil it in case it's news to you as it was to me, but … gosh.

The book covers how the kidnapping came to happen, one version of the events of the long period of Patricia's captivity-slash-participation and how it all came crashing down, and the repercussions to all involved. It's not a great book; I'm not sure it's even all that good a book. But it was entertaining, and it's good to have a gap in my education filled in.

Lessons learned from this book:
—Rich isn't necessarily rich.
—Stupid is at least as scary as smart.
—Building bombs generates team spirit.
—Just because there's no smell of cyanide doesn't mean it's not there – you might just be one of the ten percent who can't smell it.
—Always know where your shoes are.
—Always know where your Molotov cocktails are.
And, most prevalent and most important:
—Change your story enough times, and no one – possibly including you – will ever know the truth.

The usual disclaimer: I received this book via Netgalley for review.
Profile Image for Bren fall in love with the sea..
1,666 reviews339 followers
August 12, 2022
“The biggest police gun battle ever to take place on American soil had begun, and it was on live television. —”
― Jeffrey Toobin, American Heiress: The Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, Crimes and Trial of Patty Hearst



Although I moderately enjoyed this book I did not love it. The subject of Patty Hearst is one that has always fascinated me and I am a big fan of Jeffrey Toobin but I just did not take to this book as much as I thought I would.

One reason for that maybe because I have read so many books about her already and seen films on her life as well. But also..I could not deny that there seemed..in my opinion anyway..to be a snarkiness in some of Toobin's words particularly toward the end.

I did not get the feeling he liked Hearst very much which is fine. But in a book like this..with so much still unknown.. I really like to see both sides presented. I want to be able to judge for myself. I felt Toobin had already made up his mind which may not be true but that is how I interpreted it. So although I moderately enjoyed this and felt the quality of the writing was good, it was not my favorite book on Hearst.
Profile Image for Dan.
1,195 reviews52 followers
January 25, 2023
Jeffrey Toobin is a go to author for 4-star non fiction. He always does a good job with his story telling and most importantly matching my attention span.

In this Patty Hearst bio, which I was initially reluctant to read but went for it after liking Toobin’s other books, we get a day by day account of the events from her kidnapping through her trial. There are short bookends on her childhood and the decades following her release from prison. I won’t go into the synopsis since it would be a spoiler.

Toobin is a fair-minded biographer. The pace in the book is solid. There are a lot of characters that come and go. He does not spend a lot of time on salacious details. In this case he really didn’t need to go too deep with the psycho analysis section because Patty Hearst did not initially show much remorse for the violent crimes she committed. Since I did not know the history of Hearst on the run, the latter half of the book was especially fascinating for me.

This book was not five-star fugitive material like Hampton Sides’ Hellhound but it is a solid 4 and Toobin seems to always write interesting books.

One big take away for me in the epilogue was the idea that rehabilitation is possible. After a few years in the pen, Patty Hearst was pardoned by Jimmy Carter in 1979. According to Toobin Hearst went on to live a lawful and fulfilling life as a mother and wife, although she would not be interviewed for the book. I would not have guessed that she could turn it around after committing so many stupid and dangerous acts.
Profile Image for Rene Saller.
361 reviews24 followers
August 31, 2016
Three-and-a-half stars. Toobin is a stellar researcher, and American Heiress is well-organized and clearly presented. I found his thesis--that Hearst was always a rational actor, making decisions that supported her own best interests rather than a brainwashed dupe--quite persuasive, too. Hearst, both as Patricia and as "urban guerilla" Tania, remains something of a cipher nonetheless, but this never struck me as a failure of imagination on Toobin's part. Personality is a construct, and personalities under duress tend to become compartmentalized, fragmentary, contextually contingent. We meet at least three versions of Ms. Hearst--bored and unfulfilled rich girl, ardent SLA comrade, and wealthy dog-breeding matron--and all seem reasonable under the circumstances, if not always entirely admirable. Toobin does a good job establishing the facts of the case and supporting his own positions with evidence from legal documents and numerous primary sources.

All that said, I don't think Toobin is a natural fit for the material. As a writer (and perhaps as a person) he is resolutely middlebrow, always seeking out the compromise between the extremes, always gravitating to the moderate/liberal/reasonable perspective. For a book about a radical group led by an African-American ex-prisoner and several radical feminists, American Heiress gives surprisingly short shrift to the ideological underpinnings of the more committed SLA members, often treating their beliefs with condescension bordering on contempt. When Toobin dismisses the works of Shulamith Firestone as "incomprehensible," he says more about his own limitations as a scholar than he does about this serious thinker, whose influence on the SLA and on Hearst's own political transformation is undeniable. He also glosses over the significance of radical feminism and the extent to which the women of the SLA were, for better and for worse, the agents of their own revolutionary agenda. There were many times when I wished Toobin would have put a bit more effort into exploring the philosophical implications of these ideas instead of treating them all as by-products of the post-hippie youth-culture lifestyle. Toobin makes many generalizations about the 1970s--usually in comparison with the 1960s, 1980s, and 1990s--and, like most generalizations, these are often too reductive, too pat. I cringed a few times when he resorted to clichés and platitudes, which includes the book's last sentence, wherein Toobin smugly observes that Hearst, in the end, has turned into her mother. Like several of his assertions, the irony seems too easy, too obvious. Like most real-life human beings, his subject teems with contradictions. These contradictions can't all be tied up at the end with a neat little bow, and Toobin should have been intellectually honest enough to resist the temptation.
Profile Image for Lisa B..
1,309 reviews6 followers
August 8, 2016
I wanted to read this because I remember very little about Patty Heart’s kidnaping. Mostly that she was kidnaped, the infamous picture of her during the bank robbery, and that after she was caught, her defense was that she was brainwashed. Mr Toobin fills in all the gaps. I am someone who likes details and there is no shortage of that in this book. Not only does he provide us with a lot of information, he makes it interesting and sometimes even funny. I have found this to be the case with his other books.

From the beginning to the end, I was totally caught up with the story. Well done Mr. Toobin!

My thanks to Doubleday, via Netgalley, for allowing me to read this in wxchange for an unbiased review.
Profile Image for Dawn.
248 reviews
October 15, 2018
A detailed and comprehensive account of the Patty Hearst kidnapping saga. I knew very little about this epic event in history other than people associating her name with Stockholm Syndrome. It is very interesting how events played out, her role in them, and the aftermath. One of the more interesting pieces of the story for me was that actor John Wayne actually sent a letter to President Carter asking for her clemency. He cited the recent Jim Jones tragedy in Ghana and how one man could get 900 people to commit suicide. Wayne clearly felt that the Simbionese Liberation Army (SLA) could clearly brainwash one girl into committing bank robbery then. Carter granted her clemency without ever publicly commenting on why he did. Great audiobook read by Paul Michael. 4 stars.
Profile Image for Jessica J..
1,042 reviews2,218 followers
November 14, 2016
Let me tell you the extent of my knowledge of Patty Hearst before I read this book.

I had heard her name and knew that she’d been kidnapped and that “Stockholm syndrome” was a part of the collective consciousness in part because of her. I don’t think I realized that she was a member of the publishing family—if you’d told me, I might have said, “Oh yeah, of course, that makes sense” but I don’t think I’d have been able to tell you that on my own.

And then a question about her came up at this year’s Quizzo Bowl, a large bar trivia championship in Philadelphia that my husband and his friends attend every year: What name had Patricia Hearst used when she was fighting alongside the revolutionaries that had kidnapped her? Our team stared at each other for a long moment. Seven out of the eight of us had been born in the early 80s and had no firsthand knowledge of the story. And then my husband, whose ability to retain obscure facts of all flavors is both absurd and legendary, said, “Maybe it was Tania?” With no other ideas and knowing any other idea would be just a guess, we went with it and were stunned when it turned out to be correct.

I remember asking Andrew the next morning how he knew the answer to that question and his response was that he had no idea. He knew about as much about the Hearst story as I did, but that name had stuck in his brain somehow. A few months later, I saw an announcement of this book and thought to myself that I should pick it up and actually learn a little something about the whole story.

That’s a really long explanation of why I picked up this book, but really it’s just this: I knew practically nothing about Patty Hearst and when my realization of that fact corresponded closely with the realization that there was a book coming out about the subject, I decided to put it on hold at the library. And what I found in this book is a completely and utterly fascinating tale that opened my eyes on a lot of different subjects (every time I learn a new fact about Ronald Reagan—who played a small role here; remember that I was too young to remember his presidency and we never got that far in American history classes—I dislike him just a little more).

Hearst was kidnapped by small group of far-left revolutionaries calling themselves the Symbionese Liberation Army, who come across here as sort of a ragtag group without a clear focus other than a general sense of “down with The Man.” Over the course of a few months, she began to appear sympathetic to their cause, releasing tapes that admonished her wealthy family and eventually joining the SLA in their criminal activities. Hearst had become separated, along with Bill and Emily Harris, through a series of mishaps before a firefight with the police killed the other SLA members. The three survivors sought help from other people they knew in the counterculture movement and hid out from the police for nearly a year before they were captured. In her trial, Patty Hearst’s lawyers argued that she had formed a traumatic bond with her kidnappers and had essentially been brainwashed into going along with them. Nevertheless, she was convicted and served 22 months in prison before her sentence was commuted by Jimmy Carter.

Jeffrey Toobin does a lot in this book. He lays out, briefly, the social stature of the Hearst family, as well as explaining why Patty’s father was not as wealthy as the SLA assumed. He explains what drove the various SLA members into the movement in the first place. He remains largely neutral in the face of the question Was Patty Hearst brainwashed or did she choose to become a criminal revolutionary? He acknowledges that there is no clear answer, pointing out that she had reason to go along if she believed it would save her life, that her psychological state was clearly in turmoil, but also pointing out that she was eventually given ample opportunity to walk away if she'd wanted to.

But what I gained most from this book is a greater understanding of the general mood of the country—and specifically the Bay area—in the 1970s. For those of us who grew up in the next decade, I think we associate counterculture with the 60s and the Summer of Love and all that. But many of us kind of forget how turbulent the 70s were. I knew Vietnam was still happening, I knew Nixon was a thing and that Watergate was for many the final straw in the public’s faith in government, I knew there was a gas crisis and inflation, but I still don’t think I ever really thought of the 70s as turbulent the way we’re taught that the 60s were. It’s particularly interesting to me to see a direct line between these events and Reagan’s rise, and the new frame this puts around modern conservatism for me (blech, I’m sorry, everything is going to be tied into this horrifying election somehow).

I’ve read some criticism that Toobin’s a little too hard on the SLA, too quick to dismiss them as bumbling dolts that no one took seriously, even among the revolutionary world, when that wasn’t necessarily the case. It’s sometimes hard to really comprehend why anyone would help these people, and Toobin perhaps could have shed some more light on that side of things. And then there’s the fact that Patty herself chose not to participate in the publication of this book, for reasons that aren’t exactly clear (maybe he’s gotten something wrong, maybe she’s just decided she doesn’t want to revisit this, who knows?) But overall, this was completely engrossing, the perfect read for anyone caught up in the current true-crime trend.
Profile Image for Vanessa.
687 reviews99 followers
November 9, 2023
Patricia Hearst was a woman who, through no fault of her own, fell in with bad people but then did bad things; she committed crimes, lots of them. Patricia participated in three bank robberies, one in which a woman was killed; she fired a machine guns (and another weapon) in the middle of a busy city street to help free one of her partners in crime; she joined in a conspiracy to set off bombs designed to terrorize and kill. To be sure, following her arrest in 1975, she was unlikely to commit these kinds of crimes again......the prisons teem with convicts who were also led astray and who committed lesser crimes than Patricia. These unfortunate souls have no chance at even a single act of clemency, much less an unprecedented two. Rarely have the benefits of wealth, power, and renown been as clear as they were in the aftermath of Patricia's conviction.

--Jeffrey Toobin

Here is a heartwarming tale of how a desultory young heiress was kidnapped by a group of malevolent pseudo-Marxism spouting dipshits, was inarguably terrorized, became one of those dipshits, did a lot of bad stuff we don't talk about enough, got arrested and made a brisk, ruthless (but practical) decision to turn government witness against those dipshits, and then cynically used the very machinery of wealth and privilege she violently opposed in her pseudo-Marxist dipshit days to have her sentence commuted (by Carter) and, later, pardoned (by Clinton), seemingly without ever expressing any meaningful remorse.

Why, it's the American dream: if you have enough cash, you must be innocent.


Patty Hearst committing her first and most famous of what would be three bank robberies carried out over a year. This was before the other kidnapping that she was a participant in, the final bank robbery that resulted in the murder of one bank patron and one miscarriage when one of her frustrated cronies kicked a pregnant teller who was lying on the floor in the stomach, and the numerous failed attempts at making, planting and detonating pipe bombs to kill pigs--and random other unfortunates (p.s. Patty ended up marrying her bodyguard who was, you guessed it, a police officer.)


Such was the whitewashing of this event, I spent most of my life thinking of Patty Hearst as a victim. I wasn't even in 1st grade when she was kidnapped but over several years in the zany k-hole that was the 70's I heard my dad's soliloquys about the bullshittery of her excuses and I was like "UHG WHATEVER, DAD!!" And now it turns out he was right. Shit.

I want to rant because I learned so much from this book but that's not why we are gathered here today. Toobin did exhaustive reporting, poring over a vat of documents that were given to him by a living former SLA member, Bill Harris. He also had access to previously unreleased love letters between Hearst and Steve Soliah, her bomb-making revolutionary boyfriend she eventually fell in with in the wake of most of the SLA being killed by an LA SWAT team (She just as quickly dumped this love of her life, offered testimony against him, and quit spelling America with three k's when her lawyers told her she could be charged with capital murder for the THIRD bank robbery she participated in, in Sacramento.)

Not that surprisingly, Hearst refused to speak to Toobin, as she likely gathered this wasn't going to be a puff piece, but he explains in the appendix how he uses Harris' documents, trial testimony, interview transcripts and recordings, and Heart's own autobiography to draw the picture, at least slightly, from her perspective.

This is towering narrative non-fiction and reporting. Jeffrey Toobin belongs on a shelf with the likes of Jon Krakauer, John Carreyrou, Sebastian Junger, and Eric Larsen. Also, like my friend Jaidee said in his review, this story is fucking bonkers yall!!
Profile Image for Koeeoaddi.
482 reviews2 followers
August 29, 2016
Had I rated this half way through it would have gotten 3 stars for being a fairly well written rehash a all the other Patty Hearst books, suffering from trying a tad too hard to be objective at the expense of being interesting. After the shootout and through the trial -- Jeffrey Toobin can write trail minutiae like nobody's business -- it picked up significantly.

I enjoyed the author's barely contained amusement at the SLA 'death to the fascist insect' rhetoric and I thought he handled the questions about what might or might not have really happened with sensitivity, but I wish he had not presumed to know what Patty was thinking and feeling. Even if those parts were informed by her own accounts, it just seemed presumptuous.

A thorough and thoughtful book, despite initial reservations.
Profile Image for SundayAtDusk.
690 reviews28 followers
September 12, 2016
This is the first book I've read by someone associated with The New Yorker that I did not find to be a dull chore to read. In addition, it fortunately was not a book where the reader ends up being buried alive under the author's research. While Jeffrey Toobin most certainly did his research, he also obviously kept in mind that the telling of the story was as important as researching it. This is a breezy read that never bogs down. Why only three stars? Because I think the author believes what he wrote is exactly what happened, and he has no way of knowing that. He was not there. He also was never a kidnapped teenager, was never dragged away from his everyday life and thrown into a bizarre existence with some bizarre people. An existence filled with nonsensical propaganda, guns, bombs, trash, constant smoke, and often little nourishing food. Not to mention the threat of harm and death.

As Mr. Toobin tells the story, though, the only harm Patty Hearst experienced was being kidnapped. After that, she was never really threatened by her kidnappers, and definitely not sexually assaulted. She quickly and willingly became a member of the SLA. And when it came time for the piper to be paid for this radical transformation, the Hearst money bought her freedom. Only the Hearst money bought the services of F. Lee Bailey, a disastrous choice for an attorney. The Hearst money also made many want Patty Hearst to pay, just because her family had so much money. Who knows if some jury members felt that way, too? We don't know. Mr. Toobin doesn't know. There's lots and lots of speculation going on. Patty Hearst never shot anyone, much less killed anyone, and she was a victim of kidnapping; never once showing any signs of identifying with radicals before the night she was kidnapped.

When I was a teenager watching and reading about this case back in the 1970s, I was so happy to hear Patty Hearst was going to jail. She deserved it! She should not get special treatment because of her family's wealth. That was the viewpoint of a teenager who saw things often in a black and white way, and who was growing up watching police shows and Western lawmen. I don't see things quite the same way today, and I don't quite believe all that Jeffrey Toobin wrote in this book. He was not there. Most of those who were there were dead before Patty Hearst ever went to trial. And those who were not? They were all totally honest individuals telling the truth? I think not. I think Patty Hearst was not totally honest, either. But she did not become a violent radical after leaving prison, and has not been arrested since that time. Justice did prevail, in my opinion, although maybe not in a law and order sort of way. It was not her family's "wealth, power and renown" that bought her freedom, as Mr. Toobin declares. It was exactly those three things that got her kidnapped in the first place. It was those three things that got her sent to prison . . . where she lost her freedom . . . just as she lost her freedom when she was kidnapped.

P.S. 9/1: I've just watched a CBS morning show interview with Jeffrey Toobin and am reducing my star rating from three to two. What an arrogant jerk! He talked like he was God and knew exactly what happened with Patty Hearst. You really have to wonder what his motives are, too. Why go after someone like Patty Hearst? Is he so jealous of wealthy people? Does he focus so strongly on the guilt of others so he doesn't have to deal with his own guilt? He even made a snide comment at the end of the CBS interview about her participating in dog shows. Why does he feel such a need to degrade her? There's something strange about the whole situation. Who or what does Patty Hearst represent to him that he so despises?
Profile Image for Jill Hutchinson.
1,513 reviews103 followers
January 7, 2017
The Patty Hearst kidnapping totally dominated the news in the the mid 1970s. The heiress to the dwindling fortune created by William Randolph Hearst, the infamous newspaper owner, is snatched from her apartment by a group (and I use that term loosely) of terrorists(?), the Symbionese Liberation Army and held for ransom. The SLA is a pseudo revolutionary group with no goals or particular purpose which is laughable if it weren't for the kidnapping. Ransom is demanded including the feeding of poor people in the city of San Francisco which of course turns into a fiasco. The Hearst family is desperate to rescue their daughter and try their best to meet the demands of the kidnappers. But then the story takes an unexpected turn......Patty suddenly appears to embrace the group and, taking the name Tanya, is involved in a bank robbery. What is going on? Is she a victim of Stockholm Syndrome or just trying to stay alive or actually believing in the undefined purpose of the SLA?

Jeffrey Toobin does a great job with this very complicated story and allows the reader to decide what was going on in the mind of Patty Hearst. This book is worth the read....enjoyable but puzzling.
Profile Image for Elizabeth.
185 reviews12 followers
September 7, 2017
Did you know that Patricia Hearst did not like Jane Fonda? Jeffrey Toobin must really want us to know this, as he mentions it at least 3 times in his account of Hearst's kidnaping and its aftermath.

There's a lot of interesting information in this book, and some parts are quite readable. Most of the "meat" in Toobin's retelling, however, has been published elsewhere. He provides selected endnotes by chapter that are not (at least not in the Kindle version) linked to actual text, so it's sometimes hard to know the basis for assertions he makes. The fact that he makes some obvious mistakes, such as repeatedly saying the FBI's code name for their investigation was HERHAP, rather than HEARNAP (HEARst kidNAP) -- see https://vault.fbi.gov/HEARNAP ) makes me wonder what else he might have gotten wrong.

Beyond that, the book feels on the whole like a missed opportunity. Toobin notes at the start how turbulent the early 1970s were, but he then mostly sets this aside and doesn't use this observation for story context. Hearst's kidnaping occurred less than 6 years after the brutal assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr and Robert Kennedy, and in the wake of both Watergate and the end of the US's very dismal and duplicitous involvement in Vietnam. Many people had very good reason not to trust government institutions, including the FBI and local police forces. Rebellion wasn't just a matter of "bored" young people, as Toobin often seems to suggest, but of reaction to very serious failings by the establishment. Some more acknowledgement of this with respect to revolutionary groups and individuals (such as those who helped the SLA members on the lam without hesitation) would have been welcome. And I could have done with out his undercurrent of contempt for certain individuals and viewpoints. For example, Toobin referred to Patricia Hearst writing in "pidgen Marxism" that was "nearly unreadable" then provided a sample that I had no difficulty understanding. Don't get me started on his biased use of "sic".

It hit me the other day that the book reads like a treatment for a future season of American Crime Story. The People V. OJ was largely based on Toobin's book The Run of His Life (Toobin even has screenwriting credits for the series). Maybe the surfeit of descriptive but sometimes ignorable facts (as well as colorful characters who appear momentarily with little connection to the main story) is there to give future show-runners a lot to choose from but, for me, it clutters an otherwise interesting story and doesn't leave much space for analysis.
Profile Image for Jill Meyer.
1,173 reviews116 followers
August 2, 2016
Most people who were around in the mid-1970's will remember the kidnapping of Patty Hearst by a hapless band of revolutionary players, the Symbionese Liberation Army. This group, whose main members were - as Jeffrey Toobin puts it in his new book, "American Heiress: The Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, Crimes and Trial of Patty Hearst" - as differentiated as a fox-hole in a war-time movie. There was the black revolutionary - "Cinque" or Donald DeFreeze - the white revolutionaries - Emily and William Harris, the gay revolutionaries - Nancy Ling Perry and Patricia Soltysik, and various, other hangers-on. The SLA was a group of urban guerillas, who seemed determined to wreck the system, but were stymied on what to put in it's place.

And who was Patricia Hearst? As Toobin describes her, she was the heiress to a fortune but was sort of drifting through life, so far. The daughter of mismatched parents, she was the middle of five daughters, raised by her mother to aim for the conventional wealthy woman's life - marriage to an eligible man and a life raising children of her own. In stark contrast to the free-living members of the SLA, Hearst at 19 was living with a much older man - Steven Weed - in a married-like life, while studying at the Berkeley campus of the University of California. On the night of February 4, 1974, Patricia Hearst was kidnapped from the town house in Berkeley by the SLA and forcibly turned into a "revolutionary" by her kidnappers. Or, did she join in the ensuing mayhem willingly?

There began an almost two year spree by the SLA, with Hearst - now called "Tania" - as an active participant. Bank robberies, shootouts, and blackmailing for food distributions to the poor were all part of mid-1970's in San Francisco and Los Angeles. This group - which literally and thankfully couldn't shoot too straight - made headlines. I can still remember where I was when I heard Patricia Hearst had been found and rescued. But what was she rescued from? And what was her role in the SLA's crime spree?

Author and attorney Jeffrey Toobin does an excellent job in relating the people, the times, and the effects this rag-tag group - with its "prize" member - had on California and society at large in those years. Hearst has now became the settled society matron her mother had groomed her to be, raising daughters and prize-winning dogs. The others who are still alive are living with various degrees of revolutionary fervor. His book is beautifully written with much less sensationalism than you might expect on the subject.
April 18, 2017
Extraordinary rehash of not only one of the greatest crime syndicates of the 1970s but also the headlines and players of pop culture ; these were the years of my early childhood, so young I remember nothing but haze always wondered about our country's history at that time. This was the perfect resource.
Tóobin opens this masterpiece with the kidnapping of the later century-that of Patricia Hearst by the SLA. The SLA had already made themselves known by shooting an Oakland education board member numerous times in a parking lot. Faking a phone emergency (boy do I remember being warned of these doorbell strangers when I was young) the SLA members stormed into Patricia's apartment scaring off her fiancé, Steve Weed, and wrapping her in a blanket to stuff her in a trunk of a car. But then they asked themselves, "ummm what do we do with her?" You see, the SLA wasn't exactly organized or goal-oriented. Or bright. At all
In fact listening to their exploits on this audiobook was like envisioning a Three Stooges episode.
I've always thought the phenomenon of the Stockholm Syndrome has been around for many, many years, but is was in its early stages of study when Patricia was abducted, which probably boosted its definition. She was a classic case. She happily ingratiated herself with the SLA and in fact became one of the most fanatical members. She had multiple opportunities to return to her family or, after committing various crimes, turn herself in to the police, and she refused to leave her new clan; however unbalanced, confused, impulsive, and violent they were. Until she was arrested along with the other surviving members. Then suddenly she was a cowering victim again. I call BULLSHIT. She spent TWO YEARS in prison, eventually securing a complete pardon from President Clinton on his last day of office. She now lives with all restored citizen's rights. What a travesty of justice!
I found myself constantly interjecting throughout this book. It's so true it just couldn't be made up. Toobin has once again done a masterful job reporting a crime of the century that to this day festers great anger in Americans.
Profile Image for Debbie.
1,751 reviews101 followers
July 23, 2016
Oh you trivia friends of mine (and you know who you are), I got some major ammo out of this book. It's crazy. I lived during all of this. I knew the girl was kidnapped and that she said she was brainwashed. I had no idea it went on as long as it did. I remember the picture. I remember she married her bodyguard. I remember Squeaky Fromme trying to kill Ford, but not Sara Jane Moore just 17 days later. Creepy I know more about the Manson case than this one.

Well, now I know a LOT about this one. It's amazing the connections that are involved in all of this. At first, I thought I was going to be bored, as it started out a little slow. There was also a little redundancy. However, for the most part, I thought this was a great book. I can also see how she was just bored with her life and hey, here comes something new and different. She is a year or two older than me, so yeah, I can totally relate to what she did. The big question - didn't a lot of us do that? Did all of us get that second chance? I think this was be a great debate book for a book club.

There's also a lot of researched information in here and I definitely recommend it for those who love to absorb and learn interesting facts!

Thanks to Doubleday Books and Net Galley for the free e-galley in exchange for an honest review.
Profile Image for ♥ Sandi ❣	.
1,403 reviews40 followers
January 31, 2023
3.75 stars

The story of Patty Hearst is one that I followed as it went along in the 1970's. The 'Urban Guerillas', as they called themselves, were all mostly my age at the time and their life style seemed so far removed from mine. The crimes and antics of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) were headline news nation wide. I knew all that the news was releasing at the time, but not all that current books detail.

Patricia Hearst, third daughter of the Randall Hearst newspaper empire, was kidnapped in 1974 by the SLA and after a few months was photographed holding an AR-15 and helping to rob a bank, probably the most known photograph of her. There was talk as to whether she was behind her own kidnapping or if it had been for a ransom.

This book details her life on the run with the SLA and the crimes they committed. Her agreement to become one of them and why she chose that lifestyle over her life of wealth and comfort. It also chronicles the lives and backgrounds of the other members of her infamous gang of activists.

The story takes you right up into the 2000's, her trial, her imprisonment and her exoneration. As it ends Patty is a widow, with children and grandchildren, and dogs winning at Westminster. The Epilogue breaks down everyone mentioned in the book and tells of their current life status.

I learned a bit more of what transpired and was never reported on in the life of Patty Hearst. I do not agree with it all - especially Patty's early release from prison thanks to President Jimmy Carter's pardon. She was only given 7 years for her active participation in multiple bank robberies, bomb making and planting and all the gun activity laying down a cover for her fellow SLA members. There were many many times that 'Tania', Patty's SLA name, was left alone and could have easily left and sought help - she never did. However once caught she changed her story to fit her own needs and cried that she was coerced and held against her will and only party to her crimes in a way to save her own life. I find that extremely hard to believe - I doubted her then and after reading this book I am convinced she enjoyed every day of criminal life and had she not been caught she would have either hurt someone or been killed in a raid as Tania - member of the Symbionese Liberation Army.
Profile Image for Barbara (The Bibliophage).
1,088 reviews156 followers
March 26, 2017
American Heiress is not just about Patricia Hearst's kidnapping. It's about the group of people who perpetrated this crime. It's about the state of the United States in the years surrounding 1974. It's not the most fascinating historical book I've ever read, but it absolutely pulled me right along.

I was just ten years old when Hearst was kidnapped, and I thought my lack of clarity about these events was my own faulty youthful memory. But as I read this book, I understood that events were manipulated by the parties involved. What truly happened will probably never be completely clear.

What a tumultuous time it was during the 70s in the United States! Cities like San Francisco were absolutely ripe for activism. Reading this book, I was struck by how much the Symbionese Liberation Army achieved in a cell phone-free world. And how miserably they failed at accomplishing all their plans due to their own ineptness.

Based on the book, it seems to me that Patricia Hearst was not a victim of coercion or brainwashing but of simple peer pressure. In a sense, the SLA were her new peers after the kidnapping. And then, upon capture, she again shifted her personality and perspective to help win her case.

As the prosecutor against Hearst said:

"“In dealing with intent,” Browning said, “we can’t unscrew the top of a person’s head and look in.” Intent must be proven by outside factors—by circumstantial evidence."

Toobin tries his best to look inside his "characters'" heads, and present the circumstances of the case. It makes for some pretty interesting reading.
Profile Image for Kirsti.
2,653 reviews117 followers
August 27, 2016
"You're not going to believe this, but we like her." --Three of Patricia Hearst's abductors, who expected her to be a stuck-up débutante instead of a dope-smoking Berkeley student who had a long-term sexual affair with her high-school teacher

I've been reading lots of 1970s history because I never got much of it in school--I grew up in Massachusetts, so it was all Stamp Act riots and Crispus Attucks and Paul Revere. Toobin does a terrific job explaining who the members of the Symbionese Liberation Army were, what they wanted, and how they got away (temporarily) with kidnapping and murder. He is sympathetic to Hearst without agreeing with everything she has ever said.

I wish there had been more about the police and FBI investigations and Hearst's parents' anguish, but I don't think the sources for those points of view are alive anymore. I'm glad he went into detail about the murder victims' lives and accomplishments.

It's helpful that Toobin is a lawyer and legal analyst as he takes the reader through the various arraignments and trials and appeals. I was a bit amused at how often he offers his opinion on rulings, along the lines of "the circuit court was right to decide such-and-such." Yes, we know you graduated from Harvard Law and write for the New Yorker, but that doesn't mean you're right about everything.
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