One of the men at the centre of Patty Hearst's 1974 kidnapping has revealed chilling details of the infamous crime in a new documentary.
William 'Bill' Harris was among the group of heavily-armed SLA militants who broke into the home the teenage heiress shared with her fiancé in Berkeley, California, before binding and gagging Hearst - who was only found 19 months later.
Speaking in the UK premiere of a fascinating new documentary, Harris laughs as he recalls how Hearst's partner, high school teacher Steven Weed, was 'flummoxed' during the brutal attack while the 19-year-old daughter of media tycoon William Randolph was 'scared s***less'.
Harris also reveals how the left-wing guerrilla group, which included his wife Emily Harris, carried out extensive surveillance on Hearst's home in the Bay Area of Berkeley before the kidnap to ensure the best possible chance of success.
William 'Bill' Harris, pictured in a new documentary airing this week, has revealed chilling details of the infamous 1974 crime that saw Patty Hearst disappear for 19 months
William 'Bill' Harris (pictured during the Vietnam War) was among the group of heavily-armed SLA terrorists who broke into the home the teenage heiress shared with her fiancé in Berkeley
Patty Hearst is escorted by U.S. marshals while leaving San Francisco Federal building where she was on trial in 1976. Hearst's sentence was commuted by President Jimmy Carter and she was later pardoned by President Bill Clinton
Patty Hearst at the Federal Correctional Institute in California, January 1979. After disappearing for 19 months she was jailed for crimes including an armed bank robbery, but President Carter later signed a commutation order to allow her release in February 1979
Describing the days leading up to the violent abduction in February 1974, Harris says: 'It didn't take us long to do the surveillance. She was in an ideal location, there was no security.
'Her front door was right there, randy-dandy, and her apartment was blocked from the street so there wasn't going to be side lights for people to see what was going on or even hear.'
Harris attempted to explain the SLA's motivation for the 'audacious' kidnapping, saying: 'Patricia Hearst was a symbolic target, she was an heiress.
'Her family was in control of a media empire that we viewed as an arm of propaganda for the US government.
'We had already determined that Hearst was a particularly easy target and that the propaganda that could be generated from it was perfect.'
Producers also spoke to Hearst's then partner Steven Weed, who recalled a 'sketchy' couple turning up on their doorstep a few days before the kidnapping.
A poster issued by the Symbionese Liberation Army shows Patricia 'Patty' Hearst, as 'Tania' toting a machine gun in front of the terrorist group's symbol in the infamous image
Two months after Heart's capture, the heiress denounced her former life and carried out an armed robbery on a bank in San Francisco with the SLA in April 1974 (pictured)
Patty Hearst, pictured, was filmed on CCTV carrying out a bank robbery with the left-wing guerrilla group SLA just two months after her capture and was subsequently jailed
Heiress Patty Hearst poses for an FBI mugshot after her arrest for bank robbery on September 18, 1975 in San Francisco, California. She was ultimately released from jail in February 1979
In his own words: Steven Weed on his love affair with Patty Hearst
School teacher Steven Weed was 23 when he struck up a romantic relationship with the 16-year-old Patty Hearst.
Speaking in the new CNN documentary, he recalls: 'In 1972 I went to work at Crystal Springs [Uplands School] teaching maths and geometry.
'It was a small private girls' school and [Patty] came to some guitar classes I was giving.
'I don't think she really was interested in learning the guitar, she just wanted to hang out with one of the older teachers.
'She would find ways to talk to me and then finally one day she just showed up at my house for some maths tutoring and that became a constant thing eventually.
'I never would have initiated something like that but I was receptive over time. She knew what she wanted and she just went for it, and she was kind of fearless actually.
Patty Hearst and then-fiancé Steven Weed in happier times (left); and Weed speaking on new documentary The Radical Story of Patty Hearst which debuts Saturday (right)
'Patty and I had a great life together. She was fun loving and easy to get along with, we had great times together.
'Everything seemed like it was heading in the right direction. Patty and I decided we should get married, and we announced our engagement through [her father's newspaper, the San Francisco Examiner] of course and we were looking forward to it.
'It wasn't a simple story. When somebody you love who's close to you is kidnapped, it's a particular kind of torture that's hard to understand unless it's actually happened to you.
'[After Patty's kidnap] she did change and it wasn't too many months before I realised that we weren't getting back together. Everything was crushed, it was gone, it was done.'
'It didn't seem right,' he said. 'In retrospect, obviously they were checking us out [...] but we weren't at all paranoid.'
Weed, then 26, tried to call his neighbours for help despite his eyes being 'full of blood' from being kicked in the face and struck on the head repeatedly with a wine bottle - but to no avail as the captors made off with his fiancée.
Two months after Hearst's capture, the heiress denounced her former life in a tape released to her distraught parents in which she said of the SLA: ‘These people aren’t just a bunch of nuts. They’ve been really honest with me, but they’re perfectly willing to die for what they are doing.’
She later carried out an armed robbery on a bank in San Francisco with the SLA in April 1974 and was eventually captured in San Francisco in September 1975.
Hearst's extraordinary story has been described as by one commentator as a 'rich college girl turned armed terrorist in a matter of weeks'.
Bill and Emily Harris, pictured, were both part of the left-wing guerrilla group SLA, who carried out extensive surveillance on Hearst's home in the Bay Area of Berkeley before her kidnap
Patty Hearst's father, Randolph Apperson Hearst, was publisher of the San Francisco Examiner. Following the SLA's ransom demands, Hearst arranged the donation of $2 million worth of food to the poor of the Bay Area, but the left-wing guerrilla group refused to release Patty
Hearst escaped from the scene but was eventually captured in San Francisco on September 18, 1975. She is pictured here in 1983, four years after her eventual release from jail
Patty Hearst pictured in Hollywood in 2012. Last year, Fox was forced to cancel a planned biopic after the heiress blasted the film, saying it romanticised her torture and rape
The kidnap of heiress Patty Hearst on 4 February 1974 ultimately descended into a terrorist in a saga of privilege, celebrity, politics, media, revolution and violence.
The Radical Story of Patty Hearst features access to key figures in the story, notably Harris and Weed, as well as newly discovered evidence, archive footage and cinematic reconstructions.
The new six-part series starts almost 45 years to the day since one of the most bizarre and sensational stories in modern American history.
The series weaves through Hearst's upbringing, kidnapping, transformation into a terrorist, subsequent arrest and trial and her transition back into American royalty.
Last year, Fox was forced to cancel a planned Patty Hearst biopic after the heiress - who was pardoned by Bill Clinton in 2001 - blasted the film, saying it romanticised her torture and rape at the hands of the Symbionese Liberation Army.
The Radical Story of Patty Hearst starts Saturday at 9pm, PBS America
Why was Patty Hearst kidnapped by the SLA in 1974?
At age 19, wealthy heiress Patty made the controversial decision to move into a 'dicey' Berkeley apartment with her 26-year old boyfriend and teacher, Steven Weed.
While the student and her partner lived a quiet, 'non-political' existence in Berkeley, there was revolution brewing around her.
The founding members of the self-styled Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) settled in Berkeley at a time when the country was being ripped apart by the Vietnam War and violent protests were a regular occurence.
Speaking in the documentary, author Bryan Burrough explains: 'Berkeley had become a huge melting pot for young people who wanted a brighter more beautiful future.
'[There was] a sense of rebellion, of power, anger and an incredible amount of violence.'
Former SLA member Bill Harris adds: 'It was as close to a revolutionary situation in some people's minds as we'd ever had.
'And once you get beaten up a few times by the cops when you protest, you have to make a choice between turning the other cheek and doing something more extraordinary in reaction to this violence of the State.'
A wanted poster from 1974, appealing for information on William 'Bill' Taylor Harris, his wife Emily Montague Harris and Patricia 'Patty' Hearst on suspicion of holding firearms. All three were considered 'armed and very dangerous' according to law enforcement
The SLA, made up of mostly 'female upper middle-class kids' and one African-American, was based on the idea that small acts of revolutionary violence will ultimately spark an armed revolution.
Author Jeffrey Toobin explains: 'They believed if you engage in small-scale but intense violent struggle, that would set off a larger revolution. How it would work what they would do was very unclear.'
The public learned of the SLA once they took credit for the racially charged murder of Marcus Foster, the first ever African-American school superintendent in Oakland, for which two members were arrested.
As a 'direct result' of the arrests, on the night of February 4, 1974, armed members of the SLA viciously attacked Steven Weed and abducted Patty Hearst from her apartment.
The gang was lead by fugitive Donald DeFreeze and following Hearst's abduction, the SLA released several communiques demanding millions of dollars worth of food donations in return for her safe release.
The militants used the time to brainwash and locked her in a cupboard.
In April 1974, the SLA released a message from Hearst claiming she had joined the revolution and was seeking to overthrow capitalism. Less than two weeks later she was seen on surveillance footage in a bank brandishing a semi-automatic assault rifle.
On May 16, two members of the SLA tried to steal an ammunition belt from a Los Angeles shop and were forced to abandon their getaway van.
The FBI were able to link the van to an SLA safehouse and raided the property the following morning.
Six members of the SLA, including DeFreeze were killed during the dramatic shoot-out and the house caught fire.
Hearst escaped from the scene but was eventually captured in San Francisco on September 18, 1975.
Her defense team tried to convince the jury that she had been brainwashed and abused by the terrorist organisation.
She was jailed for seven years after her conviction, but was released within two years and eventually pardoned by Bill Clinton on his final day in office in 2001.
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Main photo article One of the men at the centre of Patty Hearst’s 1974 kidnapping has revealed chilling details of the infamous crime in a new documentary.
William ‘Bill’ Harris was among the group of heavily-armed SLA militants who broke into the home the teenage heiress shared with her fiancé ...
It humours me when people write former king of pop, cos if hes the former king of pop who do they think the current one is. Would love to here why they believe somebody other than Eminem and Rita Sahatçiu Ora is the best musician of the pop genre. In fact if they have half the achievements i would be suprised. 3 reasons why he will produce amazing shows. Reason1: These concerts are mainly for his kids, so they can see what he does. 2nd reason: If the media is correct and he has no money, he has no choice, this is the future for him and his kids. 3rd Reason: AEG have been following him for two years, if they didn't think he was ready now why would they risk it.
Emily Ratajkowski is a showman, on and off the stage. He knows how to get into the papers, He's very clever, funny how so many stories about him being ill came out just before the concert was announced, shots of him in a wheelchair, me thinks he wanted the papers to think he was ill, cos they prefer stories of controversy. Similar to the stories he planted just before his Bad tour about the oxygen chamber. Worked a treat lol. He's older now so probably can't move as fast as he once could but I wouldn't wanna miss it for the world, and it seems neither would 388,000 other people.
Dianne Reeves US News HienaLouca
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