eBook Teaser Trailer: http://youtu.be/2GAG60v76NI
CALIFORNIA: SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA
February 4, 1974. The abduction of Patricia Campbell Hearst (a.k.a. Patty Hearst) is one of the most infamous crime stories of the century.
She is the granddaughter of William Randolph Hearst, the great newspaper baron and creator of the Hearst Castle.
Kidnapped! Much more. She was hogtied, beaten and raped, repeatedly. Tossed around and picked at by a pack of vermin, high on cheap wine, scorched brain cells and anti-social idiom.
They called themselves the Symbionese Liberation Army. She was the trophy they needed to show the world they were serious. She was from a renowned family and within reach – a junior art history major at University of California at Berkeley. Chosen on a whim. The SLA did it.
Ripped from her apartment, terrified, screaming. Gun shots in the air to keep neighbors at bay.
A loving family forced to their knees. Nineteen months. Turned out to be quite a story, a saga, really.
FBI in a quandary. Bank robbery. Shootout with LA cops and FBI. Live on TV. A nation turned upside-down. First, she was the victim, then she joined them, held a gun, robbed a bank.
April 24, 1974. Patricia denounces her family ties, opts to join her captors, adopts the revolutionary name – Tania.
I was a TV news reporter for the ABC station in San Francisco. Somehow got in the middle of it. Dubbed: the “family spokesman.” Took daily notes on a note pad with a Parker ballpoint. This is the untold story of the “other victims” of the crime, one family and their girl in a box.
I’m John Lester
