Oct 15, 2026 · 1 hr 18 min · 13 segments
Welcome to The Georgia Politics Podcast! It's 1976 again, and this time we explore the strange and controversial story of Patty Hearst. In 1974, the granddaughter of publishing magnate William…
Roger RapoportGuestCraig KiddHostAdam StoneHost
Jess MarlowUm, not only d- about what happened with Patty Hearst, I kinda wanna also shift the focus a little bit to the SLA, to the Symbionese Liberation Army.
And I kinda want both of you to, to answer this question, but let me go to you d- profess- first, Professor.
So who was the Symbionese Liberation Army? What did they want? Who were they? And what were sort of their ties to preexisting i- ideological movements, i- i- if you will?
But they were a revolutionary group that had this left-wing ideology, but they were very much in the crime business to, uh, to, to fund themselves, uh, kidnapping and then sort of other things.
Uh, and they took their ideological heritage from quite a bit of the radicalism that was in California at the time.
Uh, and, and, you know, it's, and there were, there were other radical movements in California, the Black Panthers being some of the most famous.
Um, but it's, it's questionable and, uh, but I would leave this to our, our, our expert here, whether they were, you know, ideologically there's some criminal motivation, but they certainly were, uh, you know, people you did not want to trifle with.
There are some who've argued in the current situation that they were a sort of a modern terrorist cell.
So, so Mr. Rappaport, following up on what the professor had said, um, the, the Symbionese Liberation Army, I guess what I'm trying to get to is, is I was thinking about this as I was reviewing notes and the like, was the SLA sort of a last gasp of a '60s counterculture kind of movement? A, a, a left-wing, if you will, cultural backlash against The, the m-- uh, uh, the establishment, if you will, that was personified so strongly in the '60s and early '70s.
Can you draw those direct ex- uh, ideological links to those movements, or were the SLA something so off on their own you can't make any kind of parallels?
Well, the first thing that happened, uh, after the kidnapping and, you know, all these communiques was that the establishment left pretty much divorced itself from the SLA, and this had actually preceded Patty's kidnapping.
You need to understand that prior to the kidnapping, they'd had another action in Oakland, and a much-loved Oakland school superintendent died, um-
... um, in a, yeah, in a sh- uh, basically in a shooting, and his assistant was badly injured.
And the left went way out of its way, you know, the, the prominent school organizations to disassociate themselves.
Um, not only d- about what happened with Patty Hearst, I kinda wanna also shift the focus a little bit to the SLA, to the Symbionese Liberation Army.
And I kinda want both of you to, to answer this question, but let me go to you d- profess- first, Professor.
So who was the Symbionese Liberation Army? What did they want? Who were they? And what were sort of their ties to preexisting i- ideological movements, i- i- if you will?
But they were a revolutionary group that had this left-wing ideology, but they were very much in the crime business to, uh, to, to fund themselves, uh, kidnapping and then sort of other things.
Uh, and they took their ideological heritage from quite a bit of the radicalism that was in California at the time.
Uh, and, and, you know, it's, and there were, there were other radical movements in California, the Black Panthers being some of the most famous.
Um, but it's, it's questionable and, uh, but I would leave this to our, our, our expert here, whether they were, you know, ideologically there's some criminal motivation, but they certainly were, uh, you know, people you did not want to trifle with.
There are some who've argued in the current situation that they were a sort of a modern terrorist cell.
So, so Mr. Rappaport, following up on what the professor had said, um, the, the Symbionese Liberation Army, I guess what I'm trying to get to is, is I was thinking about this as I was reviewing notes and the like, was the SLA sort of a last gasp of a '60s counterculture kind of movement? A, a, a left-wing, if you will, cultural backlash against The, the m-- uh, uh, the establishment, if you will, that was personified so strongly in the '60s and early '70s.
Can you draw those direct ex- uh, ideological links to those movements, or were the SLA something so off on their own you can't make any kind of parallels?
Well, the first thing that happened, uh, after the kidnapping and, you know, all these communiques was that the establishment left pretty much divorced itself from the SLA, and this had actually preceded Patty's kidnapping.
You need to understand that prior to the kidnapping, they'd had another action in Oakland, and a much-loved Oakland school superintendent died, um-
... um, in a, yeah, in a sh- uh, basically in a shooting, and his assistant was badly injured.
And the left went way out of its way, you know, the, the prominent school organizations to disassociate themselves.
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