PATTY HEARST’S STOCKHOLM SYNDROME

 On February 4, 1974, Patricia Hearst, the 19-year old granddaughter of newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst, is kidnapped from her apartment in Berkeley, California, by three armed strangers. 

Three days later, the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), a U.S. leftist group announced that is was holding Hearst as a prisoner of war. The story takes an unexpected turn when, on April 15, 174, Hearst is recorded on surveillance video while robbing a bank in San Francisco. Identified as “Tania” yelling “I’m Tania. Up, up, up against the wall, motherfuckers”. Through that artist Dennis Adams use of press images we can follow Pattys’ story until she’s arrested and convicted for the crime of bank and sentenced to 35 years imprisonment. But she only served 22 months since president Jimmy Carter commuted her sentence. And later, in 2001, president Bill Clinton granted Patricia Hearst’s pardon. 

Patricia Hearst A thru Z is included in the collections of Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC, Modern Museum of Art, NYC, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland