Conditions of The Initial Captivity of Patty Hearst
The FBI was conducting an unsuccessful search, and the SLA took refuge in a number of safe houses. While in the SLA's custody, Hearst later claimed she was subjected to a series of ordeals that her mother would later describe as "brainwashing". The change in Hearst's politics has been attributed to the Stockholm syndrome, a psychological response in which a hostage exhibits apparent loyalty to the abductor. Hearst was later examined by specialist psychologist Margaret Singer, who came to the same conclusion.
Although Hearst's attorney F. Lee Bailey used the Stockholm Syndrome argument in her defense at trial, Terence Hallinan, the first attorney who represented her, was planning to argue involuntary intoxication, a side effect of which is amnesia, due to similarities in her reactions after capture to previous experiences taking acid with her boyfriend Steven Weed.
At Hearst's subsequent trial, her lawyer claimed that she had been confined in a closet barely large enough for her to lie down in; that her contact with the outside world was regulated by her captors; and that she was regularly threatened with execution. In addition, Hearst's lawyer contended that she had been raped by DeFreeze and Wolfe, but, because both men died before Hearst's capture and trial, charges were never brought against them. Hearst was thought to have had a relationship with Willie Wolf, and described him at one point as "the gentlest, most beautiful man I've ever known." The SLA claimed to be holding Hearst according to the conditions of the Geneva convention.
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