Patty Hearst as a member of the SLA, 1974. Bettmann/Corbis image.
Hearst at this year’s Westminster Kennel Club show. Photo by Associated Press.
Patty Hearst Wins Top Prize With Her Shih Tsu at Westminster Kennel Club Show
Rocket, the Shih Tsu that Hearst co-owns. Photo by Associated Press.
Some of you may know, but my current writing project centers on Camilla Hall, a member of the SLA who was killed in a May 17, 1974 shootout with police. Few people remember Camilla, but everyone remembers Patty Hearst. She pops up again today.
From my book’s introduction: “But Patty was always the blinding sun, and all the other SLA members orbited in the shadows on the periphery. How easy to forget there were others, or to never even know in the first place.”
If You Have Five Seconds to Spare 
I wonder if anyone has ever known what was in these letters….
If the Halls feel any rancor toward anyone involved in the SLA shootout, it is because the FBI has withheld a letter to her mother found under Camilla’s charred body. Although parts of the letter were read to them over the phone, including a birthday greeting to Mrs. Hall, they have never been allowed to see it. Mysteriously, the Halls also speak of a second letter from Camilla, addressed to the Los Angeles Public Defender’s office. Both believe it indicates their daughter did not intend to fight to the death. “We feel she and Nancy (Ling Perry) were trying to break free and give themselves up,” says Mrs. Hall. Although her husband is reassured by a recent report that Los Angeles police are reconsidering their own shootout tactics, he is still struck by the futility of “simply gunning [the SLA members] down.” “It’s really tragic,” he says. “They could be living today. They could be answering our questions.”
Wow.