Hey neighbor, it's the Labor Day sale at Birch Lane happening August 23rd through September 2nd.
Save up to 60% right now on classic furniture and decor.
Update your space and create a home you love with great deals on made to last sectionals, chairs, and more.
It's classic style for joyful living. Plus, enjoy fast, free delivery.
Shop the Labor Day event at Birch Lane, a Wayfair specialty brand through September 2nd at birchlane.com.
Hey weirdos, I'm Alayna. I'm Ash. And this is Morbid!
It's our first exclusive episode with Sirius!
Yay! I am... Like, the feeling in this room... Oh, it's...
It's palpable. If you guys are here, you can feel it.
It's palpable. We're cleaning the pod lab.
We're entering a new era. We're not just cleaning the pod lab.
We are revitalizing and gutting it because the energy in this place was fucking rancid.
Rank ass energy. Yeah, it was rancid as hell.
So we said, get the fuck out of here, energy.
And we're bringing new, wonderful energy. happy energy into this room yeah it's insane no particular reason for any of that just happy energy being brought into the room It's insane, like the actual physical baggage, but also like the emotional, energetic baggage that you can accumulate over a few years.
Yeah, it's true. It's nuts. You can, it's, and it sounds like crazy, but it really is like, you can feel the heaviness in this room.
That's why we were like, we opened the windows.
We were like, bye. Yeah. We got rid of everything.
Like we're starting anew. So this pod lab will look a little different when you see it on camera.
Yeah, and actually we're going to start doing listener tales, like switching off our sides of the room.
Yeah. Which I'm excited for. Yeah. Because like Elena's wall is so Elena and mine, I need to revamp mine a little bit. like it's still very me but I need to kind of like well we're we're revamping we're gutting exactly but yeah so that'll be fun like switching off Yeah, it feels like a new era.
We're very excited. I can't express to you how happy I've been like the last few days.
Oh, we, the three of us in this room. have been literally laughing so hard the last few days that we've been like crying, coughing, sputtering, falling on the ground.
Like we are just in a state of... We're very excited for Sirius.
We really love the people that we are working with at Sirius.
We feel very at home. Things are just fucking awesome right now.
In fact, things are so awesome that we said, why not do another live show?
Hey! You sold out the first one in under three minutes, which was truly insane.
Picture frames are falling on Alina. There's a lot of things around.
There's a lot of hoo-ha in here. unpacking yeah but um no you guys sold out the Wilbur you helped us do that in under three minutes so we said honey we gotta add another show there's a lot of weirdos that couldn't get tickets Exactly.
And you guys were saying like, shit, I wanted a ticket.
And we're like, let's get you one. We said, we'll do what we can, doll.
Like not going on a nationwide tour by any means.
You know, we'll add another show. And we did.
So that goes on sale September 8th at like the Wilbur website, wherever you got tickets.
Yeah, and the show will be the 28th, so the Sunday after the first show, which is on the 26th.
We did the Friday and then a Sunday. Give us a little break for a beauty rest.
You know, revitalize. Exactly. I'm so excited.
So yeah, September 8th, get those tickets.
It's at the Wilbur, so you can get them the same way you got the first ones.
Yep. It'll be the same show, just so you know.
Yep, same show. Just in case. If you got it.
You got it. You might want to see it. I don't know if you want to see it again, but just know going into it that it won't be a different show.
It's not going to be a different show, but we're very excited about it.
Yeah. And we'll get to meet some of you guys.
There's some meet and greet tickets up there too.
It's going to be special merch for just for the show.
Exclusive. And for the merch, that's going to be like special merch for the show's We collabed with Matt at the Black Veil, our buddy Matt.
We love Black Veil. Our good bud in Christ.
And he helped, he designed our merch, so I'm very excited about that.
And if you're familiar with Matt and Ryan, please have no fear.
We have Ryan working on some other stuff.
We do. There are big things happening. Yes.
Hey, hey, hey, big things happening. Big things happening.
We're going to be having a new... season of the rewatch are coming in a couple months gonna be covering true blood we're gonna be covering true blood so if you haven't joined the rewatcher crowd if you weren't you know if Buffy wasn't your thing that's okay Join for True Blood.
It's going to be fucking hilarious for True Blood.
I'm super excited. And we have some really cool things for True Blood.
We have a new theme song that we can't say what it is yet because we're going to make it a surprise.
You know what? A friend helped us. A friend helped us with the theme song.
Friend of the pod. So well, don't worry, you'll find out.
Yeah, you'll find out. But that's all very exciting things.
What other bit nasty do we have? Yeah, is there any other?
We're both looking at Mikey like, Michael.
Michael. Michael, tell me about my life.
This isn't bidney. Bidney? This isn't bidney.
This isn't bid nasty, but I have discovered that I can drink cold brew now.
Yeah. It's made me a brand new bitch. Yeah.
It gives her a high like I've never seen.
That's the thing. And it's not like a – it's nice because it's just like a nice, smooth happiness.
I used to drink cold brew and feel like my heart was literally racing out of my chest and going to just like fall onto the floor.
Now I'm just like, I'm so happy. I love everyone.
She's been hilarious. She's always hilarious, but she's been extra hilarious this week.
Oh, my God. We're also working on... So, like...
When you go to the Wilbur show, obviously, we're not out on stage right away.
It takes us a minute to get ready. So you listen to a cool playlist.
Yeah. That we are curating this playlist and it goes so fucking hard.
It's wild. It's very distinguishable who picked what song.
And it goes, again, it goes harder than any other playlist that I am aware of.
It is a wild playlist. I got out of breath earlier dancing to one of the songs.
She did. And it fell onto my chair. That is 100% the truth.
Mikey threw a wig on and was dancing. It was pretty intense.
I can't laugh too hard. I don't... Oh, yeah.
It's my case today. We're doing part two of Patty.
So... This one's like a little bit of a shorter one, but I had to break it in a certain way.
But before we get into everything, I just want to say sorry because my voice might be like a little weird.
I don't know if it's allergies. It's probably allergies.
Or if it's all the lolling, perhaps. It could be a mixture.
It's just a little bit weird, just so you know.
Yeah. And before we get into Patty, we just wanted to quickly say, because school is starting for a lot of parents and kids and all that fun stuff.
But it started off really poorly because we are so sorry.
About the school shooting at the Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis.
Yeah. Horrifying. They were literally. Two kids were killed.
17, I believe, are injured. A couple in critical.
17 were injured and I think it was... 14 of those 17 are children.
Yeah, and two of them are in critical condition.
It's fucking terrible. The kids killed, they said were eight and 10.
Eight and 10 babies. And they were only in school for a couple of days.
I mean, the school year hasn't even started for all of us.
The mass itself was celebrating the first week of school.
It's horrifying. It's horrifying. We need to do better than thoughts and prayers.
We need to do something. So... Contact whoever you can contact to get some shit moving because this just can't stand anymore.
This is insane. Yeah. It's just so upsetting.
And also, teachers need raises. We need to pay teachers better.
What are we doing here? That's what we were talking about earlier.
And Elena said, she's like, we're asking... so much of teachers.
We are literally asking teachers. Like, I...
When I sit in front of my kids' teachers before school starts for the parent-teacher thing, I'm like, I am asking you to throw yourself in front of my child.
To be a human shield. In the unthinkable event.
Yeah. Like, I'm literally, I'm asking you this right now.
And the wild thing is that, like, that we are putting so much faith in these teachers, and they are putting that on themselves.
Yeah. Oh, they're willing. They're doing it.
That's the thing. They're willing to be in that position.
But they're being paid shit. And they're often treated like shit.
Mm-hmm. And it's like, I mean, we've been very lucky that we've had amazing teachers.
Like my kids have had just the best teachers.
They really have. But it's like. It just makes me... I can't believe what we ask of them and what they have to take on.
And then they're given... Just fucking bare classrooms.
And they have to pay out of their own pocket.
And they do. And they do. To make it colorful, to make it fun, to make it engaging.
That's why we were just talking about it.
Every now and like whenever I see like on TikTok sometimes if I see a teacher talking about like their wish lists, a lot of times they have Amazon wish lists or something.
And when I can, I try to buy off of the wish list because I can't believe that teachers have to pay out of pocket to do anything for their students.
So many other jobs you are given the tools to do that job.
Yeah, like just given a bare room, like that's wild.
So we just want to say our listeners who are teachers, if you have wish lists...
And you need them cleared. You need some stuff off of them.
Please send them in to us. You can send them to morbidpodcast at gmail.com.
We obviously can't clear everybody's list, but we would love to start trying to help out as much as we can.
Because fuck, that sucks. And as soon as...
We've barely started the school year and there's already a school shooting.
It really makes it hit a little harder how much faith and... how much pressure we are putting on teachers, especially parents.
We should all be sitting there thinking about it, that as we send our kid off to school...
We're assuming that that teacher is willing to risk their entire self for your kid.
And they will. We've seen it time and time again.
So, yeah. If you want to send us your lists, morbidpodcast.gmail.com.
Just put in the title that it's a teacher list.
So, yeah. So do that. We'll do our best.
We want to help you guys out. Teachers, we love you.
I know that that's a horrifying beginning to the school year for teachers and parents alike, so...
Thinking of all of you in solidarity. Look out for each other, y'all.
Yeah, for sure. Alright, so with all of that being said, I think it is time to get into Patty Part 2.
Patty Part 2. Patty Part 2. This is like a little bit of a shorter part too.
And I didn't do that for any other reason other than the way that the story goes.
There's so much that happens that you kind of just have to break at certain points.
Just so you can understand the whole narrative.
Yeah, exactly. So I think this is probably going to end up being four parts unless...
It's just a really long part three, but I think I'm leaning towards four parts just to make it all kind of palatable.
Okay. So just to go over part one really quickly, we covered a lot of the background of this era that we're in, you know, like very late 60s, early 70s.
Mostly how the youths of the time were trying to start a revolution.
A revolution. Yeah, for change. And how some groups were doing it very peacefully, very kumbaya-like.
Hell yeah. And others, the Symbionese Liberation Army.
They were doing things like kidnapping Patty Hearst.
Yeah. A little different. Stuff like that.
Yeah. So if for some reason you're just tuning into part two and skipping part one, that's crazy.
What are you doing? Whoa. I'll help you out.
That's reckless. Patty Hearst was low-key the daughter belonging to one of the richest families in the world, so that wasn't awesome that she got kidnapped.
No. We ended part one with Patti's family getting a tape from her where she basically said that her kidnappers hadn't hurt her that badly.
They were being nice enough. She just asked her parents to comply with their wishes.
And Patty's family, her dad especially, Randolph Hearst, set up that food distribution center, and all of them around California, just trying to comply with the demands of the SLA.
So let's get into part two. Let's do it.
Patty herself was going through a pretty emotionally trying time and a pretty bizarre experience of her own.
Yeah. At first, the SLA was keeping her inside of a closet.
Wow. This closet was six and a half feet deep, a little over two feet wide and eight feet high.
What? And she was there like 24-7 for a while.
What the fuck? At night, she slept on a dirty foam mattress that they had cut to fit into the closet.
Oh. Yeah. So at all times, she was in total darkness.
And she barely, remember, two and a half feet wide.
So she didn't even have enough room to turn around most times. of the time oh my god the claustrophobia must have been next level now things obviously weren't quite as dire as she had worried when she was thinking about the kidnapping of barbara markle who was buried alive But in the pitch dark of that closet, it was kind of hard to tell the difference.
Yeah, it's pretty similar. So she was doing her best to stay calm, but the early days were very scary.
Eventually though, she kind of started tapping into the sounds around her.
She was trying to listen to... the voices of her kidnappers when they were talking near the closet, and trying to figure out what the fuck was going on here.
And whenever she was outside the closet for any reason, they kept her blindfolded so she couldn't see their faces.
But she really tapped into listening and realized that there were big differences in dealing with each of them.
Like Donald DeFreeze, for example, he was the head of the operation.
He was commanding. He was gruff. There didn't seem to be like a lot of intelligence or compassion behind his personality.
He was just intense. In the early days, he told Patty that she had been, quote, arrested, not kidnapped.
No. Because her father was a corporate enemy of the people.
Do you know what arrested means? He had a different definition.
Do you know what kidnapped means? Like sir?
Definitely kidnapping. Sir what? Yeah. Yeah.
When he was talking about the mission and the message, it didn't really seem to Patty like he was experienced in any way at what he was doing.
It just kind of sounded like he was a kid playing war.
Yeah, it does sound like that. Some of the other members, they seemed to patty entirely out of place among the more hardened members.
Like Bill Harris, the one who had grabbed her I was gonna say, yeah.
He spoke in a very soft, generally respectful tone.
And he and a few of the others in the group reminded Patty actually of kids that she went to school with.
It was like these kids, like the softer ones, had gotten caught up in the movement and things had gone too far and now they didn't know how to get out.
Yeah, that makes sense. But even though she was like, okay, these people are... like, you know, kind of like peers and it seems like they're a little lost here.
It was still a serious situation and that wasn't lost on her.
Oh, yeah. She didn't know a lot about these people, but she did know that they claimed responsibility for the murder of Marcus Foster.
So that was reason enough to take them seriously.
Yeah, that's terrifying. Yeah. So in the early days, Donald DeFreeze and some of the others were really trying to interrogate her about her dad's financial situation.
And they wanted to know about like his business dealings, what was going on there.
Which it's like, how much does she actually know?
Well, like. Exactly. You know? So she didn't know a lot about it.
She didn't really know a ton about where her family... She knew that they were wealthy.
She probably knew, like, generally what... maybe what he does but like kind of but she didn't know like where everything came from no and she like she was like yeah I think we're richer than most people but she was like I don't know how we spend it I don't know his I don't know a lot about this.
So they were getting frustrated with her.
And also, Patty, it was like, Patty was like, why are you asking me all of this?
Like, this is very strange and bizarre. Yeah.
But what was more disturbing was the fact that DeFreeze and others already seemed to know a lot.
Like they were berating her with questions, but at the same time, it seemed like they had info.
Not just about her father or her family wealth, but about her specifically.
Mm-hmm. A few days into keeping her, Patty was asking when she was going to be able to go home.
And Donald DeFreeze just looked at her and was like, what, you want to go home for your birthday?
Ew. like oh I knew it was her birthday yeah I hate that a lot yeah scary she said later that she remembered this as one of the most chilling moments of the whole thing Because for so many reasons.
For one, he knows it's your birthday. Yeah.
And then two, just being like, oh, you want to go home for your birthday?
Like that's so dehumanizing. It is. Like you just don't give a shit.
He definitely did it. And also, it made her realize too that she wasn't just the victim of a random kidnapping.
This was coordinated. This was well-researched.
And her kidnappers knew way more than she thought they did.
Now, within a few days, it occurred to everybody in the safe house that not knowing how long these negotiations were going to go on with the Hearst family...
They couldn't just keep Patty in that small-ass closet with no contact with anybody for the whole duration of her captivity.
So instead, Donald DeVries kind of put together this schedule where only three members would engage with her.
That way she couldn't identify the entire group because this is a big group.
He knew that he didn't have any kind of rapport with her, like they weren't jiving at all.
I wonder why. Yeah, it's crazy. So he assigned Nancy Ling, Angela Atwood, and Willie Wolf, which is an iconic name, I have to say.
Willie Wolf is a great name. Willie Wolf.
I kind of wanted Bill Harris to be in there.
I too was rooting for that. I felt like she would be a good fit.
Yeah, but Willie Wolf. Yeah, Willie Wolf stepped in.
So they were kind of like her handlers. And he figured, Donald DeVries, since the three of them came from upper middle class backgrounds, they would be better positioned to get information out of her.
She could kind of relate to them. Yeah. So there was some thought put into it.
So in the days that followed, she didn't really have a lot of communication with her kidnappers anymore.
Most of the time that she did spend with them was just to record the communications that they were sending to her family and to the radio station.
But when Patty wasn't making recordings, she was just sitting there listening in on conversations between everybody.
Most of what she was saying in recordings was written down for her to say.
But as she was doing more and more of these recordings and listening in more, she was starting to understand what they were saying.
And sometimes she was starting to understand why they were saying it.
Like she got the message. which is a little scary.
Yeah, that's interesting. Yeah. And with each communication that the family was getting, that the radio stations were getting, there seemed to be a noticeable shift in her voice.
It was something like confidence. Like, she didn't seem as scared to be being held anymore.
And it almost seemed like she was starting to... agree with what they were saying like their what their whole message behind what they were doing was yeah Author Jeffrey Toobin pointed out and we linked his book in the first set of show notes and we'll link it in this one too.
But he said it was kind of an impatience in her voice.
He said not with her captors, but with her parents.
Ooh. Yeah. That would be scary. Yeah. Especially for her parents to hear.
Like, they probably notice. Yeah, that's the thing.
Oh, they definitely did. So in time, the rigid schedule and the structure of the only three members handling Patty started to relax because she's spending more time there. they can probably see that she's starting to kind of hear what they're saying.
No one lost sight of the larger goals and nobody forgot that Patty was captive, but it also at the same time was kind of impossible to keep up these prison-esque formalities.
Yeah. no matter how much Donald DeVries thought that he was running a fucking military operation.
Thought. So by... by early March after a full month being held captive, another recording was delivered to the Hearst home.
In this one, it didn't seem actually like the message was written out.
It seemed like Patty herself was talking and she sounded genuinely frustrated with her parents.
She told them, I don't believe you're doing anything at all.
Ooh, that would kill me. And also, they were...
That's the thing, they were trying as hard as they possibly could.
In part one, we talked about how her Her father, Randolph Hearst, set up those food distribution centers and his organization PIN People in Need. immediately yeah and how like obviously it didn't go perfectly fine with the startup but not a lot does It never does with a startup.
And it went pretty well, all things considered.
Just being her parents and going through this ordeal, first of all, and then hearing her say, I don't think you're doing anything at all.
That would kill me. Yeah. Like knowing my child thought I wasn't doing anything to save them might kill me where I stand.
Yeah. Like I think I would die. That would be gut-wrenching.
I feel so hard for her parents. Yeah, that's just gut-wrenching to see.
I don't believe that you're doing anything at all.
Yeah. That would ruin my entire – I would never recover from that.
I don't know how you listen to that. Yeah.
And also know that you're doing everything you possibly can.
Yeah. Yeah, that's the thing. You know, but she doesn't.
And you're like, why isn't she realizing?
And are they not telling her? And why doesn't she believe? that I would do anything to save her?
Like, did I not instill that into her enough?
Well, now they're probably looking back on the relationship they did have with her.
Yeah. you know, she was the tougher one of the five daughters.
Did we somehow make her think we wouldn't move like, you know, mountains for her?
Exactly. Exactly. I think. There was probably a lot of, I was just going to say a lot of guilt.
Yeah. Ruminating. Which like not, you know.
Not valid guilt as in like they did something wrong, but like they're probably putting it on themselves.
Exactly. So by that point, the restrictions that the SLA placed on potty were pretty much gone altogether.
There was never any question of the power dynamics at play and she didn't forget that she was a prisoner.
But in time, she started to see her kidnappers as...
Something more and something different than a group of terrorists, which is what they were.
But there wasn't a lot else to do other than sit around and talk.
So Patty and the SLA members, several of them in particular, would have these long conversations.
They just sit around and talk about all kinds of shit.
And they ended up finding out that they had a lot more in common than they originally thought they did.
A lot of these people came from educated backgrounds.
They had interests in art, in literature, in politics, obviously.
And she did too. Not really in politics, but in like arts in literature.
And when you start feeling like you're connecting on a human level with people, it's hard to see anything else.
And to... See the situation for what it is.
That's the thing. Like she's sitting there genuinely connecting with other human beings and That's really hard to then be like, oh, wait, these are bad people.
You broke into my house in the middle of the night and carried me away and shoved me in a trunk.
Yeah, and like kept me in a closet for how long?
And it's like you just start seeing people that you get along with and that you probably genuinely are like, fuck, we might have hung out.
Like outside of this whole thing. That must be so weird because I do feel like whenever we talk about a kidnapping situation, it's usually a younger person being kidnapped by like an older person.
Yeah. These are her peers. These are her peers, exactly.
And they're from the same area. They're from the same background.
And now they have the same interests. That's the thing.
Exactly. Yeah. Now, sometimes, especially when it came to Donald DeFreeze, though, he would kind of talk at Patty rather than have a conversation with her.
Yeah. about revolution and the message and what they had to do and yada yada.
But other times, when she was talking to the other members, like we were just saying, it felt like she was chatting with her friends or at the very least just well-meaning activists.
Yeah. and after a while she realized that it didn't seem like they actually had any intention of killing her and she thought they genuinely just wanted her father's money to help the poor yeah So it wasn't long before she started gaining a lot of new perspectives on the world.
From the first day she was born, she had spent every day in luxury.
She really didn't have to struggle for much.
Like, obviously, she had her struggles, but she could have whatever she wanted in a material sense.
And the people around her at school, at home, at her father's company, they all lived similarly to that too.
And even though a lot of the members of the SLA had lived, like I've been saying, these somewhat privileged lives... they still knew that the same was not true for everybody.
Especially when it came to minorities, to the poor.
And they felt, and oftentimes were correct, that these people were put down and ignored by capitalist systems.
So talks like that made Patti think about Steve.
Remember her fiancé Steve? Oh, yes. Who she was already initially angry with on the night of the kidnapping.
Yeah. But at one point, she told Willie Wolf that even before the kidnapping, she was thinking of breaking things off with Steve.
Oh, damn. Which I do believe because they were already struggling before they got engaged.
She said she saw him as too rigid, too proper.
It bothered her that he seemed... kind of incapable of just taking things on as they came.
And he needed to schedule everything out.
And obviously, there was the night of the kidnapping when rather than trying to stop them from taking her, she felt, he told them, take anything you want.
Which kind of only confirmed her growing feelings of resentment.
Yeah I can see that. It's a tough situation.
I was going to say, and I think maybe he was being like, take anything you want, just... Things.
Things. Like, don't take my fiancé. My fiancé.
You can't really get mad at him for that, for being like, take anything in this house you want, just don't. hurt her i guess also on the other side of it if i had spent like a month in a closet after being kidnapped and like my mans hadn't really like done a whole lot i might be a little angry yeah I mean, I can't imagine this situation.
You're not in your right frame of mind, I would say.
No, definitely not. But unlike her relationship with Steve, Patty was starting to find it a lot easier to talk to Willie Wolf.
They would sit around the two of them and chat for hours about everything under the sun.
She learned that, just like her... He came from a wealthy family.
He had actually grown up in like the high society of Connecticut, which is wild because now he's literally in a liberation army.
Damn. Yeah. He knew what it was like to go to boarding schools just like she did, how hard it was to feel like you could never meet your parents' expectations, like, you know, rich kid problems.
Yeah. And he also shared Patty's love of animals and being outdoors.
Oh, cute. Now his path to radicalization, which is kind of fun.
Radicalization. I just like that word. The path to radicalization.
Yeah. Yeah. That's fun to say. I don't know why.
But his path to radicalization came in 1973 and that was his first year of grad school.
He accepted a position as a tutor at a prison, which is where he met Ramiro and Little, those two SLA members who were arrested and serving time in part one.
And then they kidnapped Patty and were demanding Romero and Little's release.
Oh, damn. So now we're going back a little bit.
This is where Willie met them. oh they were in prison they got out at a certain point because they escaped remember damn yeah speaking of prison yeah um One of my dogs.
I'm so sorry. Starting off a conversation.
Speaking of prison. When speaking of prison is.
Diabolical. I just had to take this little side tangent because you guys will think it's funny.
I love it. Blanche, my dog. She's like a counter surfer.
She always jumps up to try to eat food. We cannot get her to stop.
Sydney? Never. She's living her best life.
But Blanche just – she's a dingus. And so the other day she went to go grab something off the counter and John just looked at her and said – because she did get something –
She got a whole waffle. She did. She got a whole waffle, but we got it back.
Don't worry. Like we got rid of it. Yeah, she got like a bite.
But John just looked at her and said, -"Prison."
-"Prison." And it was the funniest thing in the entire world, and now every time she jumps up, we're just saying, -"Prison."
-"Prison." And I'm hoping that that will be a command That makes her stop.
Wouldn't it be so funny if what you had to say to her to get her to get off the counter was prison.
Yeah. Prison. Prison. Prison. Now we're trying it.
I love it. Prison Blanche. Prison Blidge.
I witnessed that happen and I almost cried.
I was laughing so hard. I just thought that was a fun little side.
Out of absolutely nowhere, John just goes... And he said it so exacerbated, just like... prison he was just like prison blanche prison so yeah speaking of prison um they were in prison and you know william's working there prison And they started to talk to Willie about their message, their views on politics, the current state of the world, and...
Yada, yada, yada. They were getting closer and closer until eventually one day, Willie found himself smuggling in books about the revolution for them.
And before long, he was a radicalized, full-fledged member of the SLA.
Wow. Yeah. That escalated quickly. Yeah, from prison tutor to member of the Symbionese Liberation Army.
Yeah. So that's good. So while Patty was getting to know her captors on a personal level, her dad was doing an investigation of his own. by holding regular meetings with Clifford Deathrow Jefferson.
Oh, Clifford Deathrow. I forgot about him.
Old Deathrow. You can't forget about Clifford Deathrow.
You cannot forget about old Death Row. And you never hear the last of Death Row Jefferson.
Yeah, you never will. So... I feel so bad for her father.
He's just like a media magnet. And he's just out here talking to Death Row Jefferson and other incarcerated people.
SLA members it's really rough because remember when the SLA was created they they like reached out to a lot of imprisoned people and had them join yeah which was a little Little cuckoo nuts.
Little cuckoo nuts. I don't know how much help they were going to be.
I don't know. Who knows? But so now Randolph is just having these meetings and he thought originally that Death Row Jefferson was the leader of the group, mostly because Death Row Jefferson himself also thought that.
I was going to say because Death Row Jefferson told him probably.
Exactly. So Randolph is sitting here like, okay, great.
I'm talking to the head guy in charge. Like I'm going to get some movement.
Yeah, who's not gonna think that a guy named Deathrow Jefferson is not the leader of whatever group you're talking about?
If your name is Deathrow, Jefferson, I believe you're the leader of all.
Yeah. And I'll listen. Whatever you tell me you're the leader of, I'll just probably assume you are.
I'll do what I can. to make things happen to do your bidding you know it's fine so he hoped randolph hoped that he might convince death row jefferson to demand the release of his daughter And as a result, I'm never going to stop saying the full name.
And it never sounds right. Dave was writing Jefferson in the notes and I was like, no, no, no.
No, no, no. Jefferson. So as a result, Death Row Jefferson, Little, and Romero, and other incarcerated SLA members, started sending letters to the press indicating that because Randolph was incarcerated, with the demands, Patty would be released very soon.
And by that point, the organization that Patty's family had set up that I was just talking about, PIN or People in Need...
They made their fifth and final food distribution per the terms of their agreement.
So one way or another, the situation had to come to Yeah, they did what they were asked to do.
They did everything they were asked to do.
They did the impossible. They really did.
So by the beginning of April, Patti had been in captivity for almost two months at that point.
And aside from just the small number of recordings, nobody had any idea what she was going through while she was being held.
No, and her parents can only think of the worst shit imaginable.
Exactly. But finally, on April 2nd, KSAN Radio in San Francisco got another communication from the SLA.
And this one had specific details regarding Patty's release.
It was finally happening. The statement indicated that Patty would be released from captivity within the next 72 hours.
And the letter should have been a cause for celebration.
But a second communication, this one in Patty's voice, a recording in Patty's voice, came just one day later.
And let's just say that if there was any celebration, it was short-lived.
Oh, no. So on April 3rd, just one day after the letter talking all about Patty's release...
KPFA Radio got a recording in Patti's voice.
Unlike the other recordings where she sounded concerned in the beginning, eventually maybe a little frustrated, This voice on the recording was confident and firm and the message was unexpected and straight up bizarre.
Oh boy. She said, mom, dad, tell the poor and oppressed people of this nation what the corporate state is about to do. warned black and poor people that they are about to be murdered down to the last man woman and child Tell the public that the energy crisis is nothing more than a means to get public approval for a massive program to build nuclear power plants all over the nation.
Tell the people that the entire corporate state is, with the aid of its massive power supply, about to totally automate the entire industrial state to the point that in the next five years, All that will be needed is a small class of button pushers.
Tell the people, Dad, that the removal of expendable access, the removal of unneeded people has already started.
It says, I have chosen to stay and to fight.
I have been given the name Tanya after a comrade who fought alongside Che in Bolivia.
It is in the spirit of Tanya that I say patria omerte venceremos, which translates to homeland or death we shall overcome.
Whoa. That's different. Super duper different.
That's different. And not what her parents expected.
Imagine being like so excited that you did all the things and you've been working so hard for two months to get your child back.
I know that's what we really need to focus on for a second here.
Yeah. 60 days. And they were working hard to get her back. and realizing, okay, because as every single day went on, okay, and we're getting these tapes, she's still alive.
She's saying they're not hurting her. We're going to get her back.
Maybe we'll get her back. And then I'm sure they had their bad days where they thought they would never get her back.
And they go through all of this emotional turmoil for 60 days.
And they get a communication. She's coming back.
She's going to be released. Awesome. And then one day later. she has completely flopped and is joining the army that kidnapped her in the middle of the night. have no words for it.
Like, that would just be... Shattering.
Also, this is the early 70s, so you weren't just calling up your therapist on speed dial.
No. How do you cope with that? Like this is just, that's shattering.
That's when you literally sit in your living room and stare at a wall for seven hours and just think, how has my life come to this?
Yeah. Truly. How is this my... That's one of those moments you and I were talking about the other day when you're just like...
How is this my life? How is this my life?
Why is this happening? Why? Like what's going on?
Yeah. Like just like what? I feel for her family.
Yeah. So for those working the case and those who had been close to Patty, the latest recording was just about the last thing any of those people would have expected.
She obviously had that rebellious streak in her teen years, and she loved going against the grain.
But this was a lot more serious than dating an older man or... messing around with the nuns at boarding school.
Yeah. The SLA was a known terrorist organization and don't forget they had murdered one person.
That's the thing. And she's saying she's joining forces with them understands their message and wants to be part of it like damn that's horrifying yeah So in a statement to the press, Randolph Hearst emphatically stated that he and his wife did not believe Patty had joined the group willingly.
He said, we've had her for 20 years. They've had her 60 days.
And I don't believe she's going to change her philosophy that quickly and not permanently. and I'll never believe it until she comes to me or her mother and is free to talk without any interference whatsoever.
At that time, if her choice is to become a member of an organization like this, we will still love her and she's free to do whatever she wants.
I mean, that's some parent shit right there.
That's a motherfucking dad. That's on some dad shit.
Just being like, I just want her to walk up to me and tell me with no interference and then I will still love her.
And she's free to do what she pleases. She's an adult.
I love her. Like, wow. Wow, whoa. That man loves his daughter.
Wow, whoa. Yeah. So obviously, in the 50 years since Patty's abduction, mental health professionals and law enforcement have come a long way.
And we've learned a lot about how a person can... basically end up brainwashed in a pretty short amount of time oh yeah radicalization can happen pretty fucking quick yeah if it's intense enough and you know she's sitting in a closet for Oh, yeah.
And then she's around all of these people who are her and she's not talking to any outside forces.
And it's just 24-7. Echo chamber of what they want her to hear.
Mm-hmm. And they're like endearing themselves to her, getting on a level, talking about literature and art with her.
That's really going to cement it right there.
Yeah, absolutely. So now we know that she was most likely brainwashed.
But in 1974... The idea that in just two months somebody could trade in their own beliefs and morality and join in on a terrorist organization seemed impossible.
People were like, what? Like, no. No way.
Of course not. Yeah. Patty clearly stated in her message, though, she said, I have never been forced to say anything on tape. nor have i been brainwashed drugged tortured hypnotized or in any way confused it's me the way i want it the way i see it i mean like That's not all true.
You were held in a closet for a little while.
Yeah, exactly. I would call that torture. say that it was it's all been great and I would probably think that you were confused when yeah I would say that's pretty confusion yeah especially since they were keeping a blindfold exactly and not letting you see where you were and you were talking to held in near total darkness for um a long number of days that's pretty confusing yeah In Torturous, I would think.
In my book. Yeah. Everybody has different books.
Yeah. I think you and I seem to have similar books.
Yeah, we have similar books, I think. So we can agree on that.
You can absolutely have your own book. think her book might have been different back then.
Yeah. I also think she was brainwashed. Yeah.
Personally. But the Hearst and the FBI were convinced much like myself that Patty had been brainwashed into adopting the SLA's mission statement and that once she was free from their grip she could finally realize the error of her ways But it would probably take some time.
If you know anything about this story, that's super duper correct.
Yeah. So astutely. Yeah. so so you don't just snap out of that she sure didn't and we're going to talk about that still we're not done yet we're not done Bye.
So it wasn't just the family and just the investigators that were very much caught off guard by Patty's statement and her quote-unquote decision to join the SLA.
Her friends and her fiancé... Oh, yeah.
Also pretty shocked at the news of Tanya.
Yeah. I mean, that would be shocking. You know, her newfound personality and totally, you know, self.
Yeah. According to friends, up until her kidnapping, Patti, quote, would have been totally bored by something like the SLA.
Totally bored. They said she, quote, intensely disliked rhetoric and stridency, especially in women, and had no sympathy for true believers.
Oh my God, that's actually funny. I just picture Emily Gilmore.
Yeah, that really is. Don't radicalize me.
I'm bored by that. Fuck that. Don't radicalize me.
Radicalized me. Gross. I dislike especially in women.
I have no sympathy for that. Yeah. But in fact, as far as her friends and her fiance knew, she didn't even read the newspaper and wasn't even particularly interested in politics at all. especially not the politics of Bolivia and Cuba.
Which also makes her a perfect... for radicalization.
Because she's got nothing. Because she's uninformed as fuck.
And when someone has... nothing, no foundation for something, you get to build the foundation.
And then you get to build the whole house.
And do you know how hard it is to knock down a house and the foundation?
When And you also build it with shock and awe.
And that's how you get somebody in. Exactly.
You tell them all these big scary things.
You build that foundation strong. Yeah, exactly.
Yeah. And that's why we should all be educated in politics, just saying.
She published her own account of the abduction and her time spent in captivity.
Patti detailed her full experience. And it put a lot of things into context and it put her actions in a very different light.
In addition to the long conversations where she learned about and occasionally absorbed the SLA's philosophies, there were other terrible, awful things that she went through during her time there. including coerced or forced sex, aka rape, with at least two of the men in the group.
Yeah. That paints it differently. Exactly.
She had countless menacing interactions with Donald DeFries, which I can only imagine were beyond terrifying.
But at that time, all the press and the public had to go by was what Patty and the others were saying in their communications.
And those statements at that time were pretty direct because... she had been brainwashed.
Yeah. Whether anybody believed that she was being held against her will or not, she wasn't captive at this point.
And by mid-April, there wouldn't be much room left to doubt that.
On the morning of April 15th, Vincent Greeley, a security officer at a bank in San Francisco, had just unlocked the doors to the bank for the day.
And he never even took notice of the small group of hippies standing around their car across the street.
Oh no. It was only about 45 minutes later that he saw them as Donald DeVries, Patty Hearst, Nancy Ling, Patricia Soltysik, So now she's in it.
She's in it. de frieze pointed his gun around the room and at all 18 members in the branch while he yelled to them this is a hold up the first motherfucker who don't lay down on the floor gets shot in the head holy shit Yeah.
Obviously not wanting to get hurt, all the employees hit the fucking deck and laid face down.
But upstairs on the second floor, the bank manager, Jim Smith, was there and he heard all this fucking wild ass noise.
So he flipped on the switch that turns the security cameras on.
That's where you get those pictures. Yeah.
Google patty. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know.
Yeah. So with Nancy Ling and Patty Hearst controlling the crowd, the others jumped the counter and started filling their bags with cash from the drawers.
Just when they thought they had everything under control, though, two new customers entered the bank completely unaware of what was going on. caught off guard by their arrival, Nancy Ling swung around and just fired wildly in their direction.
What the fuck? She hit one of the men in the hand and the other in his rear.
Oh, my God. And sent them scurrying back out the door toward the sidewalk.
They just come into the bank. Yeah, so she just shot two people.
Cool. Despite Nancy's panic and wild firing, though...
Patty seemed to be exhilarated by the experience and was literally wielding a machine gun in full view of the security camera, which, like you just said...
That single now iconic image of Patty carrying a machine gun would come to represent the entire story in the minds of America for decades to come, even now.
Yeah. People look at that and are like, oh.
That's it. Yeah. Yeah. So definitely Google that picture if you haven't seen it.
It's insane. So after cleaning up the drawers of cash, which back then was $10,660 in total.
The group made their way toward the door with Patty shouting, this is Tanya, Patty Hearst, as they rushed outside of the bank.
That's just dumb. Yeah. Like, I'll be real with you.
I'd be like, well, that was stupid. That was a dumb way to end it.
It was super dumb. Outside, four other SLA members were waiting in the car.
They all piled in and they fled the scene back in the direction of their safe house.
Later that afternoon, the press broke the story of the bank robbery, obviously, but there was no mention of Patty just yet.
Instead, police focused on the organization and the professionalism of the robbers and all that.
But the next morning, more news reports of the robbery started hitting.
And this time, there wasn't a lot of attempt to minimize Patty's involvement and the likely motive behind the robbery.
Captain Mortimer McHenry... Yeah. Everybody say that with me.
One, two, three. Mortimer McKinry. Yes, correct.
His only choice in life was to become a police captain.
Yeah. Or the president of the United States.
Something very impressive. Mortimer is a great first name.
It also makes me think of Tensie Mortimer.
There you go. Another important... It's two ends of the spectrum.
Yeah, it is. So anyway, Mortimer McHenry told the press, that this was a stage job to show off Patty Hearst as a member of their ranks.
Oh, that makes sense. Which, like... I can understand, like, why they would think that.
Yeah, it probably was. Yeah. a good amount of the motive.
Like, why would they put her in that if they didn't want to show her off?
Exactly. And also, why would she scream?
I was just going to say. It was me, Patty Hearst, y'all.
What up, y'all? Patty Hearst, Tanya in the house.
And then she just leaves. We got Patty Hearst on the track.
Forget London. Dude, that just makes me think of, I can always bring it back to TV.
Parks and Rec. Parks and Rec, when the DJ blunts.
And he's like, Tom Haverford is in the building.
Patty Hearst is in the building. Now she's leaving. dead that's what i was like that's dumb no it really was like not dumb as in like oh no you're gonna get caught it's like no it's just that's just a dumb thing like that like stop it like hey so i hate that it's It's tomfoolery.
It is. Nonsense. Ridiculousness. Ridiculous.
So investigators were willing to acknowledge that Patty was in the bank at the time of the robbery, but they still weren't willing to rule out the possibility that she still might have been there against her will.
And to back that up, it's a good point, an FBI agent pointed out that in the security camera footage, there's somebody right behind her holding a gun.
There sure is. So it's like... Like they've cropped... A lot of times you'll see that cropped photo of just her.
Yeah. Yeah. Standing there, right behind her in the full picture, is a person in full get-up using a gun.
And I'm pretty sure that's actually Donald DeVries.
So it's like... So the leader of the SLA.
Yeah, and the one that like scared the shit out of her the most.
Exactly. So... So, but regardless, U.S.
Attorney James Browning told the press if she was involved and the investigation shows that, we're going to charge her as a bank robber.
I mean, yeah. Which, yeah, you were there.
Of course. So until that point, the only evidence that anybody had that Patti joined the SLA was her own voice on those recordings indicating as much. but the camera footage from the bank was starting to make things harder for her friends and family.
Even they were starting to wonder if she had really ingratiated herself into a terroristic group. or a terrorist group, excuse me.
Randolph Hearst said, it's something that I think is one of the most vicious things I have ever seen or ever had happen to me.
Damn. That's so gut-wrenching. Imagine, and again, we're going to go through this, your daughter's been held captive for 60 days.
You think you're getting her back. She says, nah, I've joined this army.
My name's Tanya now. And then you see her... holding a fucking machine gun in the middle.
In full, like, revolutionary garb. holding up a bank yeah and then she leaves being like screaming proudly that she's tanya DJ Blunt is in the building.
Direct quote. The way he said that, for him to say, I think it's one of the most vicious things I have ever seen or ever had happen to me, Like that is like seeing your child like that.
Yeah. After you've been... trying so hard for months and like just devastated that they've been kidnapped.
Yeah. Wondering what they're going through, trying to get them back.
And then you see them like that. That must just be like...
What do you even do? How do you even grieve that?
Well, that's the thing. It's like you think of two possible outcomes. when I'm sure you're like I'm sure you think of two possible outcomes when your kid is kidnapped one you're gonna get them back hopefully or two unfortunately they will be killed yeah You never have it on your fucking bingo card that they're going to join a terrorist organization.
Technically. They'll be free, quote unquote, but... become a part of this horrible thing.
Yeah. Like be indoctrinated into this awful situation.
I'm sure nobody ever saw that coming. No.
But in the days that followed, the FBI released wanted posters featuring photos of everybody who was involved in the bank robbery.
But they were clear that unlike the others who were wanted for armed robbery, Patty was simply considered a material witness at that time.
Between the news of the robbery though and the circulation of the posters, the public was starting to question the official narrative that Patty had been brainwashed and was being held against her will.
Yeah, I get why it's a little hard to take.
You see somebody holding a machine gun. Yeah.
In the middle of a bank robbery, absolutely.
And remember, that's not really something people were seeing all the time back then.
No, exactly. So on April 20th, honestly, that's not really something we see all the time now.
Yeah, not bank robberies. Well, and heiresses being kidnapped.
No, we don't see that a lot. Joining in on... terrorist organizations, that's not common.
No, for sure. I think we can all say that with Gusto.
So on April 24th, Patti herself chimed in on the question of her participation in the activities and yet another recording.
What did she have to say about her participation? participation her participation oh she said about my participation about my participation she's like greetings to the people this is tanya On April 15th, my comrades and I expropriated... It's the comrades for me.
One single... One thing about me is that I just think the word comrades is wild.
Well, it's the comrades for me that I'm like, whoa.
Comrades. She's like, what's going on here?
Friends, loved ones, honored guests, comrades.
Like when she said like a former comrade, I was like, oh no.
Yeah. Where are we? Because she's using it in like the soldier term.
Yeah, it's not... Not feeling great. Not like my good girl Judy.
My camaraderie. Yeah. Like Sabrina Carpenter.
Yes. You know? Exactly. Anyway, she said, on April 15th, my comrades and I expropriated $10,660.02 from the Sunset Branch of Hibernia Bank.
I was positioned so that I could hold the customers and bank personnel who were on the floor.
My gun was loaded and at no time did any of my comrades intentionally point their guns at me.
I am obviously alive and well. As for being brainwashed, the idea is ridiculous to the point of being beyond belief.
It's really not. I don't know about that.
To those people who still believe that I am brainwashed or dead, I see no reason to further defend my position.
I am a soldier in the people's army. Patria, Omerte, then Saramos, which is the whole thing that she said earlier.
And then she said... Patty Hearst is leaving the building.
She said DJ Blunt's on the track. It's never going to get over.
It's not. No. So even still with that, there was still debate about whether or not she was willing to be part of this.
Because it... This is a multi-layered onion here that I don't think will ever really be understood because it's like...
You can be brainwashed and still believe... That you're not.
In the brainwashing. Like, you can still believe in... Like, that's...
Kind of what brainwashing is all about is making you believe that you believe the things that they want you to believe, which is brainwashing.
It's a cult. So it's all a vicious cycle of like, yeah, she could be brainwashed. and acting completely outside of herself or she's brainwashed she could be brainwashed and acting willfully because she believes the things she's been brainwashed by exactly so there's so many different levels here it's an onion it really is an onion that it's like it's this is by no means in my personal opinion a black and white no situation that we can just be like nope she was acting like this and that's why like I think there's so many things going on here To bring it back to the early days of Morbid, it's an evil onion.
It is an evil onion. It's one of the most evil onions.
It's a very evil onion. Yeah, like people were like, I don't know what's going on here.
Brainwashed, no. Valid. Brainwashed, yes.
Brainwashed, brainwashed, I don't know. But her parents were still unconvinced and they argued that she was suffering the effects of, quote, prolonged stress, fatigue, and demoralization.
Which I think they are very valid in that.
And also they know their daughter. That's the thing.
And also, yeah. Prolonged stress, lack of sleep and demoralization, being held in a closet, being raped.
That'll fuck you. That'll do it. So it's like they are 100% correct in that assertion.
But by mid-May, there would no longer be any doubt.
And that we're going to talk about in part three.
Fuck! We're going to talk about the events of mid-May in part three.
This is a... Very interesting case. I knew the name Patty Hearst.
Oh, yeah. I knew the general idea that there's like a Stockholm syndrome-y kind of vibe to this.
I didn't know all the details. I had no idea.
I'd never read further into it, so... I hadn't either.
I'm now admonishing myself for not reading further into it, but...
Well, don't because here we are. I know.
I'm finding it out in the best way possible.
Oh, my God. I love that. This is very interesting.
It really is. And wow, I can't wait to see what happens next.
Stay tuned for part three. Go get your tickets for the second Morbid show.
Send us your teacher lists. We're going to do our best to work on those.
Go get the butcher game. It's out now. You can put it in your back pocket.
You can. I demonstrated, so... She literally did.
Dude, it's pretty great. She put it in her pants.
You should put it in your pockets. Yeah, and you'll want to keep up with the story because...
You know, because you want to keep up with that story.
You know that TikTok tron, you know that TikTok tron right now that everybody's like, why do you ride like you're running?
Running out of time. Alina writes like she's running out of time.
We need to do that trend. I know I'd like to.
You can be Alexander Hamilton. Yeah. I'll be Eliza.
Eliza. Okay. So we hope you keep listening.
We hope you keep it weird. Keep it as weird as us.
We're so weird. Yeah. We're so weird. We're so random.
Bye. Thank you.
