Summary and Analysis of American Heiress: The Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, Crimes and Trial of Patty Hearst: Based on the Book by Jeffrey Toobin

By Worth Books

So much to read, so little time? This brief overview of American Heiress tells you what you need to know—before or after you read Jeffrey Toobin’s book.

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This short summary and analysis of American Heiress by Jeffrey Toobin includes:
 

• Historical context
• Chapter-by-chapter summaries
• Detailed timeline of key events
• Profiles of the main characters
• Important quotes
• Fascinating trivia
• Glossary of terms
• Supporting material to enhance your understanding of the original work

 
About American Heiress by Jeffrey Toobin:
 
Bestselling author Jeffrey Toobin’s American Heiress is a thorough true crime account of the kidnapping and trial of Patty Hearst, whose sensational journey gripped the nation and defined a tumultuous period in American history.
 
On February 4, 1974, Patricia Hearst—the heiress to the Hearst family fortune—was abducted by a group of left-wing revolutionaries called the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA). What started as a media sensation turned into a circus when a recording was released in which Patty claimed she was joining the movement and her new name was Tania.
 
Set against the backdrop of an already turbulent era, and based on hundreds of interviews and never-before-seen documents, American Heiress is a revelatory look at one of the most famous abductions of the twentieth century.
 
The summary and analysis in this ebook are intended to complement your reading experience and bring you closer to a great work of nonfiction.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Nov 29, 2016
• ISBN: 9781504043069

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Context

It’s been more than forty years since Patricia Hearst was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army. Surprisingly, aside from her 1982 memoir, Every Secret Thing, there’s never been a definitive account of the entire ordeal, from the day of the kidnapping to the commutation of her prison sentence that considers some fundamental questions: Was she brainwashed? Did she suffer from Stockholm syndrome? Did she actively and consciously choose to join the cause of the SLA?

Known for his expert analysis of legal matters and American history, lawyer and bestselling author Jeffrey Toobin presents a comprehensive view of the Patty Hearst story, based on extensive research. Sources include transcripts of court testimony, FBI documents, the reviewing of evidence, and speaking with persons germane to the story.

Though approached by Toobin, Patricia Hearst declined to be interviewed for American Heiress. According to The New York Post’s Page Six column, she confided to a friend, ‘I’m tired of being a cash cow for hack writers like Jeffrey Toobin.’

Overview

Part One

American Heiress begins by recounting the terrifying night that would change Patty Hearst’s life forever: On February 4, 1974, she was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army. Author Jeffrey Toobin works chronologically, with intermittent flashbacks to the background of the members of the SLA and their cohorts, the Hearst family, and the changing consciousness of the country itself during the tumultuous decade that was the 1970s.

Patty Hearst was nineteen when the SLA pushed through the doorway of the Berkeley, California, apartment she shared with her fiancé, Steven Weed. Their relationship, she would later say, had deteriorated to such a point that she was near suicidal on that fateful day. Although she was terrified (and believed that she would be murdered), there may have been a part of her that considered the kidnapping to be a reprieve from a life she no longer wanted.

Patty is the daughter of Randy and Catherine Hearst. Randy’s father, William Randolph Hearst, was the infamous newspaper magnate who inspired Orson Welles’s seminal film Citizen Kane. At the time, the Hearst family name was synonymous with wealth. Patty, however, wasn’t privy to the details of her family’s finances. When the SLA demanded that she tell them about her father’s business practices, she wasn’t lying when she said she had no real insight on the family’s fortune.

The SLA was a motley crew of young people swept up in a counterculture movement of the 1960s when Patty Hearst was kidnapped. However, the SLA had a violent edge, and was more similar to racial movements like the Black Panthers than the peace-loving West Coast commune dwellers. In fact,