THE SYMBIONESE LIBERATION ARMY
A STUDY
PREPARED FOR THE USE OF THE
COMMITTEE ON INTERNAL SECURITY
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
(FEBRUARY 18, 1974)
FOREWORD
In the House Committee on Internal Security publication entitled "Political Kidnapings" issued in August 1973, I noted that the United States had been fortunate to escape the rash of political kidnappings which have occurred increasingly since 1968 and I forewarned that authorities in the United States should never take the position that "it cannot happen here."
It has happened here in the shocking kidnaping of Patricia Hearst, and the kidnapers, obviously emulating the Robin Hood tactics of the Argentinian terrorists, have made demands that hundreds of millions of dollars worth of free food be distributed to the needy in California.
Several weeks ago, I instructed the Committee on Internal Security staff to prepare a study on the subject of terrorism to supplement the "Political Kidnapings" study mentioned above, and this will be produced shortly. The committee has, however, received so many requests for information concerning the Symbionese Liberation Army, which claims credit for the Patricia Hearst kidnaping, that I have ordered the staff to prepare the following document which sets forth available facts concerning this organization and the kidnaping.
Richard H. Ichord, Chairman.
THE SYMBIONESE LIBERATION ARMY
(Note.-The word "Symbionese" is newly coined, and is probably based on the noun "symbiosis," as used in biology meaning the partnership or close association of dissimiar groups or organisms for their mutual benefit.)
On February 4, 1974, Patricia Hearst, 19, daughter of the president and editor of the San Francisco Examiner, was kidnaped by a heavily armed team which later identified themselves as members of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA). As of February 12, the SLA made a bizarre demand as a precondition to negotiations for her release-the free distribution of $70 worth of food to every disabled veteran and welfare recipient in California.
Two members of the SLA, Russell Jack Little, 24, aka Robert J. Scalise and George Devoto; and Joseph Michael Remiro, 27, are now in San Quentin prison awaiting trial for the murder last November of Dr. Marcus A. Foster, the superintendent of Oakland's public schools.
A third member of the SLA, Nancy Ling Perry, 26, aka Nancy Devoto and Lynn Ledworth, is a fugitive. She is wanted on arson charges stemming from a fire last month which was set to destroy evidence in a house used by the terrorist group as a headquarters.
On February 9, the San Francisco FBI office released composite sketches of three suspects in the kidnaping, one white female and two male Negroes. There is no description of a white female and a white male who are believed to have been a part of the abduction team.
Since the SLA blasted its way into the headlines 3 months ago with the slaying of Dr. Foster and the attempted murder of his deputy, Robert Blackburn, speculation has run rife regarding the SLA. Even now with the added impetus of a major ongoing investigation, too little is known about the SLA, its formation, membership, numerical strength, or operational extent. However it is evident that this new revolutionary terror group is linked with revolutionary Maoist communist organizations operating both overtly and covertly in California.
This report attempts to detail and consolidate available public information on the Symbionese Liberation Army.
THE FIRST ATTACK
On November 6, 1973, firing .380 caliber bullets packed with cyanide, and a shotgun, an unknown number of assailants, probably three in number, killed Oakland's school superintendent Dr. Marcus Foster, and severely wounded his deputy, Robert Blackburn. On November 10, the Oakland Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, and radio station KPFA, part of the Pacifica network, each received an identical letter claiming that the attack had been made by the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA).
Dated November 6, 1973, the letter purported to come from the Western Regional Youth Unit of the SLA. It stated that Foster and Blackburn were marked as targets by a "Court of the People" which had found them "guilty of supporting and taking part in crimes committed against the children and the life of the people."
Specifically, the letter complained of a school identity card system, of cooperation among police, probation officers and school officials, and of planning the creation of a school system police unit. These issues have been loudly vocalized by a radical Oakland group, the Coalition to Save Our Schools (CSOS) which includes former members of the revolutionary Maoist Venceremos Organization (VO).
The Venceremos Organization (VO) was a splinter group of the Revolutionary Union (RU). It was the most violent of the Maoist communist groups operating in the U.S. from 1971 until it began to disintegrate in the spring of 1973, a process that appeared complete by September. The VO openly called for the overthrow of the U.S. Government and advocated the use of weapons for "self-defense" against "repression."
Several members or former members of VO have been indicted or convicted of participation in the escape of convict Ronald Beaty from Chino Prison in 1972. A guard was killed in that ambush-escape. It is considered of some significance that SLA appears to have emerged in August 1973, and that another self-styled Bay Area terrorist group, the August Seventh Guerrilla Movement (ASGM), also developed at the time that Bay Area members of VO ceased their overt operations. A Report by the House Committee on Internal Security, "America's Maoists: The Revolutionary Union-The Venceremos Organization" (June 1972) provides detailed information collected by the committee staff on these groups.
The SLA letter of November 6, 1973, was mailed in an envelope bearing an 8¢ Revolutionary War Bicentennial commemorative stamp with the slogan, "Rise the Spirit of Independence." As a cover to its three pages of text was a photocopied drawing of a coiled seven-headed cobra, similar to the part-serpent, part-human "naga" of Hindu and Buddhist mythology. A similar design appeared on the 1967 record album by Jimi Hendrix, "Axis:Bold as Love."
SLA explained the cobra in a leaflet as "one of the first
symbols used by people to signify God and life," traceable
to "Egyptian temples and their seven pillars, to the seven
candles of the pre-zionist North African religions, to the
Buddhist and Hindu religions and to North and South
American Indian religions."
The murder team was described by a witness who saw them fleeing the murder scene as between 15 to 20 years of age, all with dark, shoulder length hair or wigs, and all of medium height and slender build. According to this witness, each wore a uniform of dark pants, knit hat and a denim jacket with a white patch on the right breast. Their complexion was described as olive or tan, and it was indicated that one or more of the team could be female.
From information developed during the investigation, it is believed that the murder team established a base in a third floor, two-room apartment at 1621 Seventh Avenue, Oakland, in October 1973. This Seventh Avenue address is five blocks from the Oakland School District offices outside which Dr. Foster was shot. Witnesses say that in October a woman resembling Nancy Perry rented the apartment in the name of Lynn Ledworth, paying the rent by money order. Residents of the apartment house have also tentatively identified Joe Remiro as having been seen in the building.
Analysis suggests that the SLA maintained some form of surveillance on its victims prior to the attack, mounted their assault from the rented apartment and returned there on foot after the murder to hide out. There was little evidence that the apartment was occupied on a "lived-in" basis.
On November 15, the Oakland school system said that the I.D. card system would be discontinued "until the feelings of students and parents can be reassessed." The same day, the SLA sent out a second letter saying the School Board's action indicated "an attempt to heed and respect the wishes of the people" and had resulted in a Symbionese decision to withdraw the "shoot-on-sight order." But the letter warned that attempts to reinstitute "programs of political police forces in our schools" would result in the death warrant order being reactivated without warning.
THE LETTERS
An analysis of the language of the first SLA letter was made by Dr. S. I. Hayakawa, nationally recognized semanticist and retired president of San Francisco State University, who characterized it as the work of a "high grade intellect, devoted to revolutionary ideology," in an Oakland Tribune article on November 12.
Dr. Hayakawa's report continued, "It is an articulate letter. The grammar and spelling are faultless, and the use of 'legal habit' is also interesting. * * * This type of expression is a direct continuation of the same propaganda from the late 1960's."
The Oakland Tribune continued, "Dr. Hayakawa categorized the letter and the slaying of Dr. Foster as 'the kind of destruction aimed toward society by the SDS [Students for a Democratic Society] and the Weathermen.' In the letter were references to details about the pasts of both men. * * * 'The use of these details,' said Hayakawa, 'would seem to indicate a determined effort at premeditation.' The letter also refers frequently to the 'Black, Chicano, Asian and conscious White youth.' Dr. Hayakawa said the repeated phrase helps explain the use of the word 'Symbionese' on the letterhead. 'They appear to have used symbiosis as the root word. Symbiosis means the partnership of dissimilar groups for their mutual benefit.'"
THE CAPTURE
Despite massive investigative efforts, the killing of Dr. Foster and the shooting of Mr. Blackburn remained unsolved until January 10, 1974, when the case broke suddenly and by chance. At about 1:20 a.m. on that date, Sgt. David Duge of the Concord Police Department [Concord is a suburban town 20 miles northeast of Oakland] patrolling in the Clayton Valley area of Contra Costa County observed a red 1965 Chevrolet van, license number 806 GUD, roaming the streets aimlessly.
After maintaining a watch on the van, Sgt. Duge pulled it over in the vicinity of Ayers Road and Sutherland Drive and approached it on foot. He saw that there were two men in the cab and obtained the identification of the driver, Russell J. Little, who was using the alias Robert Scalise, and returned to his cruiser to complete the checking process. As he did so, either Little or the passenger, Joseph M. Remiro, or both, opened fire on him.
The shots missed Duge, but shattered the window of the patrol car. Sgt. Duge returned the fire; Little attempted to drive away in the van but was prevented by a shot puncturing his tires and a superficial shoulder wound. The van ran off the road, and Sgt. Duge was able to arrest Little who was armed with a .38 Colt revolver. Remiro ran away when the van crashed. Four hours later, hiding under a parked car in a yard by Ayers Road and Sutherland Drive, Remiro was arrested by officer Jim Alcorn. He was armed with a .380 Walther semi-automatic pistol, but offered no further resistance.
A search of the van, which was registered to a Nancy Devoto, 3856 Whittle Avenue, Oakland, resulted in the discovery of some 2,000 SLA leaflets in English, Spanish, Chinese, and Swahili, a 9-mm rifle and a carton of tools.
Later that day both Little and Remiro were charged with assault with intent to murder Sergeant Duge; bail was set at $250,000 each, and as a security measure they were quickly transferred from Contra Costa County Jail to San Quentin State Prison.
PROFILES
Russell Jack Little, 24, was born in Oakland. Under that name he had most recently been living at 5939 Chabot Road, Oakland. However, under aliases, he had established residences in at least one other area. When booked at the Concord Jail, Little gave the police the alias of Robert James Scalise, 27, of 1621 Seventh Street, Oakland. It was later determined that the alias was a name that belonged to an Oakland child who had died at the age of six in 1953 of leukemia. The Seventh Street address turned out to be a parking lot. However, it was at the same street number on Seventh Avenue that the SLA had established its "command post" for the Foster slaying.
Under the name George Devoto, Little had since August been living at 1560 Sutherland Court, Concord, a house, it was later found, that had been used by the SLA as a headquarters and armory. This house had been rented by Nancy Ling Perry, alias Nancy Devoto.
Little had been ninth in his high school class of 600. He graduated with a degree in philosophy from the University of Florida and in the spring of 1973 took courses at North Peralta College, giving the Chabot Road address on his registration forms.
For an undetermined period of time, Little has been associated with the United Prisoners Union (UPU), 3077 24th Street, San Francisco, Calif. UPU seeks to organize convicts for the abolition of prisons and is heavily infiltrated, if not controlled by, former members of Venceremos organization. Little was active with the Black Cultural Association, an ad hoc group which includes members of revolutionary inmate organizations.
Joseph Michael Remiro, 27, was a member of the 101st Airborne Division and served two voluntary hitches in Vietnam. Released from the Army in 1968, he returned to San Francisco where he was born and where his family still lives. Remiro gave his family's address and the occupation "machinist" when purchasing a .380 Walther, in July 1973, from the Traders Gun Shop in San Leandro.
Remiro was arrested in San Francisco in 1970 on a charge of desecrating the American flag by wearing it sewn on the seat of his pants. The charge was reduced to disorderly conduct and he was given a 30-day suspended sentence. Reports state that he was charged with smuggling marijuana in 1967 when he was in the Army, but no disposition is known of that case.
A founding member of the East Bay chapter of Vietnam Veterans Against the War/Winter Soldier Organization (VVAW/WSO) in 1972, Remiro took an active role in that organization until March 1973. He worked in the VVAW/WSO office at 4919 Telegraph Avenue, Berkeley, where the telephone was installed and listed in his name.
While living at 4614/4616 Bond Street, Oakland, Remiro, who had lived with known Venceremos organization members, was also involved with the Oakland electoral campaign of former Black Panther Party leaders Bobby Seale and Elaine Brown; with boycott activities of the United Farm Workers; and other "community" activities. He studied auto mechanics and made the dean's list at the College of Alameda, a part of the Peralta District campus in the spring of 1973.
Nancy Ling Perry, 26, whose address is reported as 3856 Whittle Avenue, Oakland, was born in Santa Rosa, Calif. She attended Whittier College in 1966, and transferred to the University of California at Berkeley and obtained an AB in English literature. According to one report, she then commenced graduate studies in chemistry as part of a pre-med course.
In 1967, Nancy Ling married Gilbert Scott Perry, a Negro musician from whom she separated in February 1973. Since then she had worked as a topless blackjack dealer in a San Francisco nightclub and as a counter-hand at a Fruity Rudy juice stand in Berkeley. The owner of the juice stand has stated that Nancy Perry worked there until August 1973; that she earned $140 a week and that she gave $130 of it to Vacaville prison inmates, visiting them every week.
Nancy Ling Perry has been associated with the UPU in San Francisco and has made regular visits to convicts in Vacaville and Folsom state prisons. In Vacaville she is believed to have visited with the Black Cultural Association, and with two inmates, Albert Taylor and Raymond Sparks, both serving long terms.
The prisoner groups with which the SLA has been involved are described as follows in House Report No. 93-738 entitled, "Revolutionary Target: The American Penal System," which was published in December 1973 by the House Committee on Internal Security.
The Black Guerrilla Family, a revolutionary Marxist-Leninist organization, was formed in late 1971 from elements of the Black Panther Party. The Black Guerrilla Family follows the teaching and leadership of former Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver and to all intents and purposes, the Black Guerrilla Family and the Black Liberation Army are one and the same organization.1 * * *
The Black Guerrilla Family maintains outside contacts through publications, visitations, and correspondence. It engaged in a continuous recruitment program and frequently holds political discussions relating to Marxist theory. In addition, members of this group are known to have engaged in physical training and to have participated in karate drills.
* * * * * * * * * *
It is estimated that the Black Guerrilla Family has 50 members at San Quentin Prison facility and a total of some 200 inmate members within the entire California prison system. Recently the Black Guerrilla Family has formed an alliance with Nuestra Familia, a Mexican-American inmate group, which is at war with the Mexican Mafia, another Mexican-American group. The Black Guerrilla Family leadership has indicated that when a full-scale prison disorder takes place, its members will not only consider the Mexican Mafia to be enemies but intends to kill correctional officers as well.
* * * * * * * * * *
The Polar Bear Party started out as a predominantly white group which follows the racist philosophy of the Aryan Brotherhood. It has described itself as "a politically oriented group with the aim of raising the conscience of our brothers here inside in order to promote prison reform and fight for the abandonment of prisons entirely." * * *
* * * * * * * * * *
It recently joined in an alliance with the Venceremos organization and has established contact with the Venceremos members both inside and outside the prisons. As a result, the Polar Bear Party had begun to espouse the Maoist revolutionary line of the Venceremos. * * *
* * * * * * * * * *
The United Prisoners Union is an organization composed of ex-convicts, parolees, and inmates. It has as its purpose the formation of a "prisoner class" union. * * *
This organization, which has more than 150 members within the prison facilities in California, was characterized during the committee hearings as very radical and revolutionary in nature. It is particularly hostile toward correctional officers. It is reportedly very close to, if not dominated by, the Venceremos organization. The Venceremos have used the United Prisoners Union as a mail drop and it is one of the groups utilized by the Venceremos in its contact with the Polar Bear Party.
The Prison Law Collective, * * * an affiliate of the National Lawyers Guild in San Francisco, also has close ties with the United Prisoners Union, primarily in contacts between the guild and the Venceremos organization.
William "Willie" Wolfe, in his mid-20's, was seen leaving the Concord house with Nancy Ling Perry at the time of the arson. Few details are yet available on Wolfe except that he also was involved in prison activities, that he went to the same junior college as little and lived in the same Oakland rooming house, and that he shared a house with Remiro from October of 1973 until December.
SLA HEADQUARTERS
Investigations have established that in August 1973, Nancy Ling Perry, using the name of Nancy Devoto, rented 1560 Sutherland Court, Clayton, and that since that date the home was used as an armory, bomb factory, and headquarters of the Symbionese Liberation Army. According to the property owner, a security deposit of $100 and a month's rent of $500 was paid by Nancy Devoto in August by money orders. The money orders were reportedly from "an Eastern U.S., probably a New York City bank." Subsequent rental payments have been made, up to January 2, 1974, by money orders or cash.
The $31,000 house, located in the center of a cul-de-sac, was lived in by George and Nancy Devoto, according to neighbors. Reports mention no other occupants and there was no telephone. Neighbors identified George Devoto as Russell Little, and stated that the Devotos had "New York accents," and were unemployed.
One inexplicable incident is reported by the Devotos' Concord neighbors. On November 11, the weekend after Dr. Foster was slain, a boy of about 16 knocked on the Devotos' door and confronted Nancy Ling Perry asking to see her husband, George. She later told police, who were called at the insistence of neighbors, that when she asked who he was the boy pulled out a gun. She said she shoved him and kicked him. He fired one wild shot and fled on a motorcycle but was subsequenly arrested.
On January 10, 1974, a fire was set in 1560 Sutherland Court. Gasoline from a five gallon container was splashed onto floors and walls; black powder was scattered on the floor. At 6:21 p.m. the Concord Fire Department was called by local residents. Their prompt response prevented an explosion, confined damage to the house to about $10,000, and preserved considerable evidence of the SLA's occupancy.
According to neighbors, as smoke was first seen in the house, Nancy Devoto with one, perhaps three others, left in a heavily laden Buick Riviera driven at high speed. The registration of this car was traced to William "Willie" Wolfe of 4616 Bond Street, Oakland (Remiro's Oakland address).
Following the fire, the Sutherland Court house was searched. Materials found included several pounds of potassium cyanide, bullets with the tips drilled and packed with cyanide, pipe bombs, explosives, ammunition cartons for 12-gauge shotguns and .308 caliber rifles, two boxes of 9 mm. ammunition, parts of dismantled weapons and stocks for carbines.
Also in the house was evidence that the SLA had new Lafayette walkie-talkies, wilderness maps for adjoining counties and the Grand Tetons, and maps of Oakland and vicinity marked to show possible escape routes in and around the city.
Papers discovered in the house included a list of California prison officials and their wives marked for assassination together with a record indicating that a form of surveillance was being kept on some of them. Grand jury testimony released on February 7 stated that "death warrants" aimed at Kaiser Industries, General Tire and Rubber, a candy corporation, and others were found. The house also contained the original of the SLA communique announcing the "execution" of Dr. Foster, an SLA communique not sent to the media, and press clippings relating to the claim made by the August Seventh Guerrilla Movement that they had shot down an Oakland Police Department helicopter, killing two officers on October 2, 1973.
A number of revolutionary posters together with books and other literature were also present. Literature included such books as "History of the Communist Party, Soviet Union"; "Racism and Class Struggle"; "The Fall of America"; "Criminal Investigations-Basic Perspectives"; "Anti-Aircraft Defense"; "Germ Warfare"; "The Manual of Guerrilla Warfare"; and "For the Liberation." The latter two are by Carlos Marighella, the Brazilian urban guerrilla killed in a shootout in 1969.
SEARCH WARRANT RESULTS
The various addresses given by Remiro and Little were the subject of intensive searches. A search warrant for Little's address at 5939 Chabot was executed. It produced hundreds of rounds of pistol and rifle ammunition, an M-1 rifle, two typewriters, an electric hand drill and 28 separate drill bits, pairs of boots, jackets, a box of papers, and four posters.
Examination of the physical evidence, including the Walther pistol, linked both Remiro and Little with Dr. Foster's murder and provided the basis on which they have been charged.
Additional evidence found indicated that the SLA was planning to finance itself by well-organized burglaries and may have already started that operation. Other physical evidence suggested that a prison break-in and escape was under consideration.
SLA LETTERS OF EXPLANATION
On January 19, the San Francisco Examiner received a letter, believed to be authentic, from "Fahizah, former name Nancy Ling Perry" in which she wrote that she, Little, and Remiro are members of "an information/intelligence unit of the United Federated Forces of the Symbionese Liberation Army." She explained that as members of such a unit their duties are to support such acts as the assassination of Dr. Foster, not to carry them out. Other members, she claimed, take "credit" for the slaying.
The five-page, single spaced typewritten "Letter to the People" vows that Little and Remiro, "my closest companions," will be defended. "You have not been forgotten and you will be defended because there has been no set back and all combat forces are intact." The letter also claimed that there was no connection between SLA and the August Seventh Guerrilla Movement. Criticizing that group, Perry said ASGM was a police plot to "discredit revolutionaries and confuse the people."
The letter from Nancy Perry continued, "As a member of the SLA information/intelligence I fight against our common oppressor and this I do with my gun as well as my mind." The writer criticized other radical organizations which support armed revolution abroad but "when it comes to the struggle here in Amerikka [sic] they consistently denounce militancy and revolutionary violence."
Other passages of interest from the letter include: "I believe that whenever people are confronted with oppression, starvation and the death of their freedom that they want to fight. * * * there has never been a precedent for a non-violent revolution. * * *" and "All members of the SLA recognize that we, right here in Amerikka [sic] are in a state of war and that in a state of war all must be armed and understand the true meaning of self-defense."
On February 9, a reporter for the Palo Alto Times received a telephone call from a self-claimed member of the SLA, giving the name "Sanzinga," who discussed the kidnaping of Patricia Hearst. During this conversation the woman stated that the Nancy Ling Perry letter of January 19 should have been published in full. On February 10, the San Francisco Examiner published the full text of the letter.
THE ABDUCTION
At about 9:20 p.m. on February 4, in Berkeley, Calif., two men and a woman forced their way into the apartment of Patricia Hearst, 19, daughter of the president and editor of the San Francisco Examiner who is also chairman of the board of the Hearst Corporation. Some reports indicate that there is a possibility that her address had been obtained from an IBM card index at the University of California at Berkeley where she is a sophomore.
Entry to the ground floor townhouse apartment at 2603 Bienvenue Avenue, four blocks south of the campus, was obtained by the female SLA terrorist tapping on the glass patio door and asking to use the telephone to report an accident.
Miss Hearst's fiance, Stephen A. Weed, 26, opened the garden door and the woman pushed into the apartment accompanied by two Negro males, one armed with a rifle, the other armed with a pistol and perhaps also a rifle.
Weed was beaten about the head and shoulders until semiconscious and tied up. Steven K. Suenaga, 21, a neighbor who heard the noise and ran into the Hearst apartment, was also beaten.
Patricia Hearst was taken into her kitchen, tied up, and dragged out of her home screaming and fighting, to be dumped by her assailants into the trunk of a 1963 Chevrolet Impala. The female member of the kidnap squad got into a second vehicle, a white station wagon. Both cars sped away with the kidnapers in each car firing a fusillade at the apartment house where the noise had alerted other occupants. Empty shell casings found at the scene indicated that the fire was from a .30 caliber M-1 rifle.
The Impala in which Miss Hearst was abducted was later found abandoned six blocks away. It was registered to a Peter Benenson, 31, a Lawrence Radiation Laboratory mathematician. A search was instituted for Benenson when police believed that he also had been kidnaped. However, the next morning he called the police to say that he had been seized by the SLA the previous night. Benenson, whose apartment building's garage was separated from Miss Hearst's patio door by a courtyard, said he had been tied and blindfolded in the back of his own car while it was used for the kidnaping. When Miss Hearst was transferred to the station wagon, Benenson claimed he was able to release himself. He stated that he was so terrified by the SLA that he immediately went into hiding, not contacting the police toward whom he has exhibited a hostile attitude and who have been unable to secure his full, willing cooperation.
On February 8, the FBI released composite sketches of suspects in the kidnaping of Patricia Hearst. They were of a male Negro, early twenties, 5' 10", 160 lbs., short hair; a male Negro, age 20, 5' 11" to 6', short hair, mustache, who may wear glasses; a white female, American, early twenties, 5' 5" to 5' 6", 120 lbs., long dark hair.
LETTERS FROM THE SLA
On February 7, similar letters headed Western Regional Adult Authority of the Symbionese Liberation Army were received by radio station KPFA and the Berkeley Barb, an underground newspaper. The letter to radio station KPFA contained a Mobil Oil Company credit card issued to Randolph A. Hearst which the SLA had taken from his daughter's purse during their brief violent stay in her apartment.
The SLA letter was headed:
Subject: Arrest and protective custody; and if neccessary execution.
Target: Patricia Campbell Hearst, daughter of Randolph Hearst, corporate enemy of the people. Warrant issued by the court of the people.
The terrorists' letter contained no demand as the basis for releasing Miss Hearst. It stated she was unharmed and warned that "should any attempt be made to rescue the prisoner, or to arrest or harm any SLA element, the prisoner is to be executed." Moreover, Miss Hearst was to be "maintained at adequate physical and mental condition" through "protective custody of combat and medical units."
This SLA letter also stated that the weapons carried by the "United Federated Forces" that effected the abduction were cyanide-packed when they "served an arrest warrant on Patricia Hearst." The letter continued that orders had been given not to harm "civilians" during the abduction, but that "if any citizens attempt to aid the authorities or interfere with the implementation of this order, they shall be executed immediately."
The letter further stated that "all communications from this court must be published in full, in all newspapers, and all other forms of the media. Failure to do so will endanger the safety of the prisoner."
The SLA communication, labeled "Communique No. 3, Feb. 4, 1974," which termed the kidnaping "a part of its war against the fascist state," concluded, "further communications will follow."
ASSOCIATES
Press reports have linked the following persons (Eds. note: as far as I've been able to determine, none of these people were ever arrested or charged in connection with any crime committed by the SLA) with the SLA investigation. To date these include:
Jean Tarshis Dolly, nee Bonner, of 4616 Bond Street. Mrs. Dolly, a former member of the Palo Alto Venceremos chapter, is now associated with the West Oakland VVAW/WSO Discharge Upgrading Project. In December she was nominated for the post of national coordinator of VVAW/WSO.
Bob Hood, 28, who shares 4616 Bond St. with VVAW/WSO's Jeannie Dolly, is the VVAW/WSO Regional Coordinator who operates the Telegraph Avenue office formerly used by Joe Remiro.
Reese Erlich, who lived with his wife at 4616 Bond last year, has been associated since 1967 with groups in the Bay Area ranging from student antidraft activists through the International Liberation School to the Venceremos organization. He reportedly took a major part in organizing the November 15, 1969, antiwar riots in Washington, D.C.
Dan Siegel, a former student activist, treasurer of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) and a vocal Maoist was admitted to the state bar last October after a protracted fight regarding his suitability because of his student arrest record. Siegal, who now writes for the Guardian, was present at both the Chabot and Bond Street addresses acting as a legal advisor to the occupants during the period of the police searches. The Guardian describes its purpose as "to assist in bringing to birth a new revolutionary political party, based on the working class, armed with the science of Marxism-Leninism, committed to socialist revolution."
Robin M. Yeamans, a member of the NLG, graduated from Stanford Law School in 1969 and has traveled to Cuba as a member of the Venceremos Brigade. She is a member of the Menlo Park Law Commune.
On November 15, Wilbert "Popeye" Jackson, 43, chairman of the UPU, was acquitted of charges of possession of heroin and marijuana. His attorney was Robin Yeamans. According to Liberation News Service, the acquittal was attributed to the defense exposure of a police infiltrator in UPU, Jessica Vodquen.
Two weeks after Jackson's arrest, Vodquen allegedly told UPU members that she was working for the police and detailed her activities. At Jackson's trial, the District Attorney released a statement in which Vodquen said her earlier statements had been made under coercion, "that Venceremos members threatened her with a shotgun and a knife while Yeamans told her what to say."
Vodquen then said she had been kidnaped to a Venceremos hideout in Los Altos from which she escaped. UPU witnesses were called to rebut her story, as was Bill Schechner of KQED-TV who has been a staffer for Pacifica's KPFA-FM.
Robin Yeamans was the attorney of record for Joseph Remiro at his arraignment, but Remiro is now represented by a public defender. Little is also represented by the Oakland public defender's office.
On January 15, Ray Hofstetter, 31, who has been identified as the titular head of VO in San Francisco and the operational leader of UPU, with a Robert McBriarty, 25, after identifying themselves as investigators from Robin Yeamans' office were permitted to remove material from the rubble at 1560 Sutherland Court by the police.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
On February 12, radio station KPFA received a cassette tape recording accompanied by an 8-page cover letter from the SLA. The tape recording contained a somewhat disjointed 15 minute message from Patricia Hearst and two messages from males who identified themselves as SLA members.
One of the two male voices on the tape who called himself "Field Marshal Cinque" (pronounced Sin-Q) stated that he was "quite willing to carry out the execution" of Miss Hearst who was selected as their victim "for the crimes that her mother and father have by their actions committed against we, the American people and the oppressed people of the world." Cinque was the leader of a slave ship rebellion in the 19th century.
The four pages of the letter following the statement of demands was a pseudo Declaration of Independence; the last three pages were retyped versions of two SLA documents which had been discovered by police in the Sutherland Court headquarters on January 10. These were entitled, "Terms of the Military/Political Alliance" and "The Symbionese War Council." Dated Dated August 21, 1973, these were filled with turgid revolutionary jargon about "repression" and "exploitation" and declared "revolutionary war" on the United States.
The first page contained demands for the free distribution of $70 worth of to all of California's poor, aged, disabled veterans, and ex-convicts as a gesture of "good faith" to be met before negotiations for Miss Hearst's freedom could be started. The cost of this "good faith" gesture has been estimated at from $250 to $350 million.
The SLA "Communique #4" detailed the number of stores in various communities to be involved in this food giveaway and demanded that only "top quality" goods be distributed. In a message "to the people," the SLA said that those not satisfied or "harassed" in connection with this plan should "voice their discontent" in the streets, at bus stops, in movie houses, and other public places for Symbionese ears to hear.
The communique also demanded that community groups including Nairobi College in East Palo Alto, Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco, the Black Teachers Caucus, National Welfare Rights Organization, the United Farm Workers, American Indian Movement, the Third World Women's Alliance, and the United Prisoners Union supervise the massive food distribution project.
The demands included that reports on the progress of the distribution be published by representatives of the "people's news services" such as Getting Together, the publication of the oriental Maoist I Wor Kuen group; Triple Jeopardy, a tabloid by the Third World Women's Alliance; the Black Panther; and the UPU's Anvil.
It is reported that the typewriter used to produce Communique #4 is the same as used to type the 5-page "letter to the people" by Nancy Ling Perry and is the same as the one used to type the February 7 letter announcing that the SLA had kidnaped Miss Hearst.
It was reported on Friday, February 15, that one of the SLA men, probably "Field Marshal Cinque," had been tentatively identified as Donald David De Freeze, who escaped from Soledad in March 1973.
The second man has been named as Thero M. Wheeler, 29, a self-identified member of the Venceremos organization. After considerable activity with Venceremos, he sent a letter of resignation to the group and was transferred to a minimum security prison facility at Vacaville. Assigned to work cutting grass outside the walls, he escaped on August 2, 1973.
ANALYSIS
Superficial analysis suggests that these crimes have been committed by a small, close-knit group of at least six with a probable maximum number of ten. Tactics used by the SLA indicate that at least two members have had combat training, that at least one member is a skilled machinist, and that at least one member has an extensive knowledge of language.
From the associates of the SLA it must be presumed that some members and former members of the Venceremos organization know the SLA and are willing to support their terrorist acts.
If the pattern of emulating various Latin American urban terrorists continues, it can be presumed that after the fufillment of the propaganda demand for free food for the welfare recipients and disabled veterans of California, or an effort to meet it, an attempt will be made to force the release of Remiro and Little. Demands for the release of other prisoners such as the San Quentin 6, or leaders of the Black Guerrilla Family or Polar Bear Party are also possible.
The SLA's operations have shown a high degree of premeditation and planning, and a capability for improvisation under pressure. The SLA's many rental expenses, arms cache, etc. imply that the group is well funded.
The possibility must also be faced that the SLA's exploits and massive media impact may result in emulation by other small bands of domestic revolutionaries, as the bombings claimed by the Weathermen inspired new left affinity groups to similar acts.
To find out more about the Symbionese Liberation Army and the Soliah/Olson trial that starts September 24, 2001:
