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.
Read more about this topic: Symbionese Liberation Army
Famous quotes containing the words conditions of, conditions, initial and/or captivity:
“There is no society known where a more or less developed criminality is not found under different forms. No people exists whose morality is not daily infringed upon. We must therefore call crime necessary and declare that it cannot be non-existent, that the fundamental conditions of social organization, as they are understood, logically imply it.”
—Emile Durkheim (1858–1917)
“Purity is not imposed upon us as though it were a kind of punishment, it is one of those mysterious but obvious conditions of that supernatural knowledge of ourselves in the Divine, which we speak of as faith. Impurity does not destroy this knowledge, it slays our need for it.”
—Georges Bernanos (1888–1948)
“Capital is a result of labor, and is used by labor to assist it in further production. Labor is the active and initial force, and labor is therefore the employer of capital.”
—Henry George (1839–1897)
“Had it pleased heaven
To try me with affliction, had they rained
All kind of sores and shames on my bare head,
Steeped me in poverty to the very lips,
Given to captivity me and my utmost hopes,
I should have found in some place of my soul
A drop of patience.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)