Patricia Hearst

Hearst's grandfather William Randolph Hearst created the largest newspaper, magazine, newsreel and film business in the world. Her great-grandmother was philanthropist Phoebe Hearst. The family wielded immense political influence and opposed organized labor, gold mine worker's rights, and communism since before World War II.

Hearst, who prefers to be called Patricia rather than Patty, was born on February 20, 1954, in San Francisco, California, the third of five daughters of Randolph Apperson Hearst and Catherine Wood Campbell. She was raised primarily in Hillsborough and attended its Crystal Springs School for Girls, Sacred Heart school in Atherton and the Santa Catalina School in Monterey. She attended Menlo College in Atherton, California before transferring to the University of California, Berkeley.

Hearst's father was among a number of heirs to the family fortune and did not have control of the Hearst interests. Her parents had not considered it necessary to take preventive measures to assure their children's personal security. At the time of her abduction, Hearst was a sophomore at Berkeley studying art history. She lived with her fiancé Steven Weed in an apartment in Berkeley.

On February 4, 1974, 19-year-old Hearst was kidnapped from her Berkeley apartment. A small urban guerrilla left-wing group called the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) claimed responsibility for the abduction.