On February 4, 1974, 19-year-old Patricia "Patty" Hearst was kidnapped from her Berkeley, California apartment. Because she was the granddaughter of American publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst, Patty's kidnapping left authorities confounded and the American public glued to its television screens watching the saga of an abducted American heiress unfold. THE LOST TAPES: PATTY HEARST tells the inside story, without interviews or narration, utilizing Hearst's own voice recordings, footage of her first interview following her release and first-hand audio tapes of the kidnappers. In addition, rediscovered news footage allows viewers to experience all of the confusion, fear and absurdity that held a nation in thrall for 19 months. THE LOST TAPES: PATTY HEARST premieres Sunday, November 26 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Smithsonian Channel.
Shortly after Patty's abduction, a left-wing urban guerrilla group, the Symbionese Liberation Army, claimed responsibility. The SLA intended to
LEVERAGE the Hearst family's fortune and political influence and issued a series of demands to Patty's father, Randolph Hearst. When his efforts to comply failed to satisfy them, the SLA released recorded messages of Patty to local news outlets, giving the public a direct line into the bizarre ordeal. In these communiqués, Patty speaks directly to her parents and law enforcement from inside the SLA's hideout, first assuring them that she is unharmed, but soon growing agitated with her parents' failures to meet SLA demands and with the FBI for antagonizing her captors.
Only a couple of months into her captivity, Patty is heard on tape renouncing her family, her fiancé and her own name - claiming to have joined the SLA as a machine gun-toting guerrilla known as Tania. When members of the SLA, including Tania, rob a bank at gunpoint, Patty Hearst, the kidnapping victim, becomes Tania, the fugitive. Hearst was eventually arrested for bank robbery, and the events came to a dramatic conclusion when a jury rejected her claims that she'd been brainwashed by her captors. She was convicted of bank robbery, among other crimes. THE LOST TAPES: PATTY HEARST features the chilling communiqués of Patty and other SLA members taken from their hideout, rare news coverage of the "People In Need" food program, intense on-the-ground footage of the massive LAPD shootout with the SLA and portions of the
CBS special
Patty Hearst: Her Story - one of the first interviews Patty Hearst gave in 1976 after being released on bail.
Previous installments of
THE LOST TAPES have included Pearl Harbor, the L.A. Riots and
THE SON of Sam.
THE LOST TAPES series is produced by Tom Jennings of 1895 Films, the same team behind the Peabody Award-winning MLK: THE ASSASSINATION TAPES. Executive producers for
Smithsonian Channel are John Cavanagh, David Royle and Charles Poe.
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