CBS News Special Report - Patty Hearst: Her Story

A CBS News special report from December 16th 1976 featuring an exclusive interview with Patricia Hearst (released on bail in November) by reporter Harold Dow, at San Simeon. Hearst made a prior arrangement not to discuss her involvement in a sporting goods store shootout in Inglewood, a Sacramento bank robbery and her time with William and Emily Harris. She is asked by Dow to discuss: her initial experience as a captive of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) after being kidnapped from her Berkeley apartment on February 4th 1976; Donald DeFreeze's (1943-1974) style of leadership in the SLA; the SLA's demand that Hearst's father Randolph Apperson Hearst give away $150-400 million dollars worth of free food; correspondence between the SLA and Heart's father; the Hibernia Bank robbery in San Francisco's Sunset District on April 15th 1974; statements by Hearst that were released by the SLA after the Hibernia Bank robbery; Hearst's impression of the relative threat to her life whilst being a part of the SLA; her location and personal feelings after watching the SLA's shootout with police in May 1974 on television (in Anaheim, CA); her experience at being on the road with the SLA; Hearst's mistaken belief that law enforcement and her family had effectively abandoned her to the SLA; her trial; the attitude she had ("that monkey thing") which meant Hearst never tried to reach out to her family whilst with the SLA; her plans for the future, now that she's at liberty; her reaction to psychologist Dr. Joel Fort (as cited by reporter Dow) claim during her trial that prior to the kidnap, Hearst had been "A rebel looking for a cause" and her feelings towards her family now that’s she’s able to spend her first Christmas with them since 1973. Ends with a brief perspective on Patricia Hearst’s current situation by CBS’s Charles Collingwood. Also includes brief views of Patricia Hearst walking with Dow and her parents and opens with a summary of what had happened to Patricia Hearst: from after she was kidnapped to the present time. Opening graphic designed by Carrie Hawks.