19 year old Patty Hearst, daughter of wealthy newspaper publisher Randolph Hearst, is kidnapped from her apartment in Berkeley, California, by a group calling themselves the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA).

Three days after the kidnapping, the SLA says that it is holding Hearst as a 'Prisoner of War'. The SLA demand that the Hearst family donate food to every needy person from Santa Rosa to Los Angeles. The Hearst family donate $2 million, but the SLA demand more. The Hearst's offer to pay $4mn if their daughter is released unharmed.

In April, however, security cameras record images of Patty Hearst taking part in a bank robbery of a San Francisco bank. She was later to tape a confession that she had joined the SLA of her own free will.

On May 17, Los Angeles police raid the SLA's secret headquarters, but Patty was not there. 6 of the group's members were killed in the raid.

Hearst was eventually captured in an apartment in San Francisco on 18th September 1975. She says she was brainwashed by the SLA, but nonetheless was sentenced to 7 years in prison. President Carter commuted her sentence after 21 months, and President Carter would eventually pardon her in January 2001.