Word: affidavits
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...S.L.A. account does not name any of the persons who kidnaped Patty, but investigators believe that one was Bill Harris, her former comrade in arms. Patty now lives in fear of Harris and of other S.L.A. supporters, perhaps because of the attack on the S.L.A. in the affidavit that her lawyers submitted for her last month. Says a source close to the family: "She's scared she's going to be killed...
Brainwashing has never been used successfully as a defense in a federal court, as far as Justice Department officials can determine. However, some highly respected psychiatrists feel that the coercive practices described in Patty Hearst's affidavit, if they actually occurred, could have changed her personality so completely that she would have willingly joined the S.L.A. and taken part in its violent crimes. Technically, Patty's main defense may be mental incapacity or coercion, but the plea would be closely akin to brainwashing...
...four experts appointed by the court to determine if Patty is mentally competent to stand trial is Dr. Louis J. West, chairman of the department of psychiatry at U.C.L.A. and a leading student of thought control. Three days before Patty's lawyers released her affidavit, he discussed her case with TIME Correspondent Patricia Delaney. "It would be a mistake for people to judge the case prior to a careful examination of Patricia Hearst and all the facts," he said. "The Hearst case may be an example of someone enmeshed by the forces within a small group which...
After reading Patty's affidavit, other experts are skeptical about her account. Chalmers Johnson, a University of California political scientist who has studied brainwashing, doubts that Patty was ever as strongly influenced as she claims. "She may have been driven into hysteria and even into a catatonic state after her kidnaping," Johnson says, "but she was not brainwashed. No one can persuade me that Cinque [S.L.A. Chief Donald DeFreeze] was bright or skillful enough to brainwash anyone...
Albert Raven, a psychology professor at Michigan State University, feels that if Patty had been brainwashed she would not have snapped back as rapidly as described in her affidavit. Says Chicago Psychiatrist Marvin Ziporyn: "If people believe that this girl sat around for 18 months because she was brainwashed, then I'm going to start robbing banks tomorrow because they'll believe anything...