Mayhem: The 1970s You Never Knew, Episode 8

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Preamble with Sharon McMahon
Episode: Mayhem: The 1970s You Never Knew, Episode 8
Release Date: May 25, 2026

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Main Theme

In this episode, Sharon McMahon guides listeners through the chaos and transformation of mid-1970s America, focusing on President Ford’s embattled presidency, multiple assassination attempts, the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), the high-profile kidnapping of Patty Hearst, shifting attitudes toward crime and punishment, and the 1976 presidential election. Through rich storytelling, Sharon explores how moments of violence, upheaval, and legal controversy reflected a nation in flux.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Gerald Ford: The Accidental President (02:15 - 04:17)

• Ford became President without being elected to the vice presidency or presidency after Spiro Agnew and Nixon resigned.
• Pardoned Nixon shortly after entering office, angering many Americans and damaging political trust.
• Presided over the end of the Vietnam War, which was viewed as a disaster.
• Faced personal struggles, including his wife Betty’s health and addiction battles.
• (02:15) “And then, in the span of three weeks, two women attempted to assassinate Gerald Ford... both in California, both used guns. Both failed to even graze Ford with a bullet.”

2. The Manson Family and Squeaky Fromme (04:17 - 09:56)

• Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, a devoted Charles Manson follower, attempted to assassinate Ford in Sacramento.
• Manson’s manipulative power over young women, his twisted “Helter Skelter” ideology, and his belief in coded musical messages.
• Fromme did not participate in the original Manson murders but acted as a spokesperson during his trial and remained loyal for decades.
• Fromme’s assassination attempt was claimed (by her) to be a bid for attention for Manson and a new trial for his followers, not to actually kill Ford.
• Ford recalls the moment:
  (09:13) Gerald Ford: “I noticed a person in the second or third row in a brightly colored dress who appeared to want to either shake hands or speak... I saw a hand come through the crowd in the first row, and that was the only active gesture that I saw.”
• Secret Service intervened; Fromme was arrested and sentenced to life, paroled in 2009.

3. The Second Attempt: Sarah Jane Moore (09:56 - 16:25)

• Only 17 days later, Sarah Jane Moore, driven by radicalization and instability, attempted to assassinate Ford in San Francisco.
• Moore’s involvement in People In Need (PIN), a food distribution org created as ransom after Patty Hearst’s kidnapping.
• Moore was an FBI informant but also supported leftist causes.
• She warned police about presidential security, had her original gun confiscated, but easily obtained another.
• Saved by a bystander, Oliver Sipple, a gay Vietnam vet; Sipple's life unraveled after Harvey Milk outed him, bringing unwanted attention and familial estrangement.
• Moore’s reflection:
  (13:44) Sarah Jane Moore: “Am I sorry I tried? Yes and no. Yes, because it accomplished little except to throw away the rest of my life. No, I’m not sorry I tried, because at the time, it seemed a correct expression of my anger.”
• Moore served 32 years, paroled in 2007.

4. Political Backdrop & 1976 Election (19:34 - 28:00)

• Ronald Reagan challenges Ford for the Republican nomination, a rare move.
• 1974 campaign finance reforms restrict donations and create new requirements for candidacy viability.
• Buckley v. Valeo (1976) case redefines campaign finance laws, upholds individual contribution limits, but strikes down expenditure caps.
• Democratic field crowded with 17 contenders, including Jimmy Carter, a relatively unknown governor with a progressive anti-racist past.
• Carter’s “walk the walk” style—his hands-on approach, faith-driven values, and outsider image—helped him secure the nomination and ultimately win the presidency.
• Narrow victory: Carter won by only 2% of the popular vote; Ford carried a record number of states for a losing candidate.

5. The Symbionese Liberation Army & Patty Hearst Kidnapping (28:00 - 35:24)

• The SLA was a radical leftist group seeking to overthrow the American capitalist system, began as a coalition of prisoners and activists in Berkeley.
• Patty Hearst—newspaper heiress—was kidnapped in a move meant to grab attention and extract concessions from the rich.
• Hearst’s father funded the creation of People In Need (PIN), which Moore joined, as ransom; the operation was fraught with fraud and disruption.
• The SLA brainwashed, isolated, and abused Hearst; she eventually aided the group in bank robberies.
• Legal battles revolved around whether Hearst was a willing participant or perpetually a victim—her conviction and sentencing to seven years (later commuted by Carter).
• Sharon: “Her lawyers likened Patty's experience to an extreme version of Stockholm syndrome... Patty’s testimony about her ordeal, her feelings that her family abandoned her, and her remorse for her actions."
• Both Fromme and Hearst served prison time in Pleasanton, CA—a “small world after all” moment noted by Sharon (35:24).

6. Changed Attitudes Toward Crime, Punishment & the Death Penalty (39:31 - 44:00)

• Hearst’s release, parole, and eventual pardon driven by grassroots activism and Carter’s personal empathy.
• Greg v. Georgia (1976): Supreme Court reinstates the death penalty in some cases, provided it's not applied arbitrarily.
  Sharon: “By a vote of 7 to 2, the Supreme Court upheld Georgia’s death penalty sentence. Their reasoning was that in some circumstances, including the deliberate murder of somebody, the death penalty could be an appropriate choice if the state takes measures..."

7. Final Reflections: Legacy of the 1970s (44:00 - End)

• Other milestone moments of 1976:
  • Barbara Walters became the first female network news anchor.
  • The cartoon “Garfield” takes shape.
  • Apple is founded in Steve Jobs’ parents’ garage.
  • Ernesto Miranda of Miranda rights fame is killed, a poignant detail—his legacy survives in police procedures.
• Carter’s presidency: attempts at national healing—pardons Vietnam draft evaders, acknowledges country’s turbulence, and starts to shape a “new South.”

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• (02:15) “Mid-decade mayhem indeed.” — Sharon McMahon
• (09:13) “I noticed a person in the second or third row in a brightly colored dress...” — President Ford recounting his assassination attempt.
• (13:44) “Yes, because it accomplished little except to throw away the rest of my life. No, I’m not sorry I tried, because at the time, it seemed a correct expression of my anger.” — Sarah Jane Moore from prison.
• (35:24) “It’s a small world after all...” — Sharon, reflecting on the shared prison between Fromme and Hearst.
• (39:31) “My heart went out to her when her case first came to me.” — Jimmy Carter regarding Patty Hearst.
• (44:00) “One element of sentencing that has always been controversial is capital punishment or the death penalty...” — Sharon, explaining major Supreme Court shifts.

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Ford's Accidental Presidency & Challenges: 02:15 - 04:17
• Squeaky Fromme & Manson Family: 04:17 - 09:56
• Sarah Jane Moore & Oliver Sipple: 09:56 - 16:25
• Reagan challenges Ford/Campaign Finance Law: 19:34 - 28:00
• The SLA & Patty Hearst’s Transformation: 28:00 - 35:24
• Patty Hearst’s Legal Outcomes & National Debate: 35:24 - 39:31
• Death Penalty & Greg v. Georgia: 39:31 - 44:00
• Carter’s Victory & Pop Culture Milestones: 44:00 - End

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Recap & Legacy

In a decade defined by tumult, the mid-1970s saw the American political system tested by scandal, violence, and ideological warfare. Sharon McMahon expertly puts these events in context, revealing their lasting impact on how the nation thinks about authority, criminal justice, and the potential for personal—and collective—redemption. As she notes, the events set the stage for major cultural and legal shifts, while the election of Carter hints at a national yearning for renewal.

Next episode preview: Star Wars, Fleetwood Mac’s 'Rumours,' Atari, and Focus on the Family—the cultural creations that defined a new era.

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Transcript

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Hello friends and welcome back to our series about the 1970s. You never knew Mayhem Gerald Ford was considered a bland but friendly replacement for Vice President Spiro Agnew following Agnew's resignation for Criminal Activity. And remember, shortly after Agnew had to resign, Nixon had to resign and Ford was the only person in US history who was never elected to the Vice presidency or the presidency. And he pardoned Nixon a month after he assumed office, which infuriated a lot of people. The Senate was not super happy about Ford's selection of millionaire Nelson Rockefeller as VP and held up his confirmation for months. Vietnam fell squarely on Ford's plate and it was an unmitigated disaster in many ways. Ford's wife had surgery for breast cancer and struggled with addiction to pain pills and alcohol. He was out there trying to save the world from inflation and he could not seem to rack up any political wins. And then, in the span of three weeks, two women attempted to assassinate Gerald Ford. The women were not working together and from all accounts, didn't even know each other, although both were in California, One was in Sacramento and the other in San Francisco. Both used guns. Both failed to even graze Ford with a bullet. And the man who saved the President's life by charging at one of the shooters later publicly said that it ruined his life and he regretted his action. And thus welcomed in the year 1976 and the 200th anniversary of America's founding. Mid decade mayhem indeed.

Sharon.

I'm Sharon McMahon and this is the Preamble podcast. Lynette Fromm, who went by the nickname Squeaky, was a 21 year old college student when she met Charles Manson. In an interview, she explained that she lived in a sterile home with a cold, disinterested father before he kicked her out. A happenstance encounter with Manson changed her life. For those unfamiliar with Charles Manson, he was born in 1934 to a single teen mom, and his childhood was a very unstable one. By the time he was 37, he had lived in institutions for so long that upon his release, he's said to have asked if he really had to leave. Manson became sort of a twisted Pied piper for young women and teen girls, particularly those who felt like they didn't fit in with traditional American systems, society and those who, like Fromm, were mostly middle class, white and intrigued by hippie culture. Manson gathered these people and considered them his family. As the head of the family, though, Manson did what he wanted and sometimes treated women poorly. And while yes, some men joined his group, the family was predominantly women. In the late 1960s, the family moved around California. And like any cult leader, Manson had strict expectations and rules for them. The most crucial one was they must do whatever he declared. And one of those things was murder. In fact, Manson had great plans for what he called Helter Skelter. After the Beatles song

when I get to the bottom, I go back to the top of the slide. We'll.

Decoding secret messages and song lyrics was popular at the time, and Manson believed the song about a playground slide was a call to start a war. He shared his interpretation with his followers. He liked to play the guitar, by the way, and he played the guitar while he was offering them guidance. Charles Manson really believed that he was supposed to be a musician, and he allegedly sent messages to the Beatles and thought they shared the same ideas. Later, at his trial, he blamed the music as the influence that drove his family to kill. What helped Manson, and later Squeaky loom so large in the American imagination was twofold. He had some Hollywood connections, but perhaps more frightening to many Americans was his ability to manipulate good teenage girls to commit crimes. Squeaky was an OG member of Manson's family. Her loyalty to him spanned decades and landed her in prison twice. Once for attempted assassination and the second for breaking out. When she heard that Manson was seriously ill, she was caught walking in the rain roughly two miles from the prison from where she had escaped. That impulsive act derailed her parole opportunity, and she received an additional five years on her sentence. Her devotion to Manson was steadfast. Despite the violence and manipulations he brought on family members. Squeaky did not participate in the manson murders in 1960, as some of his followers did. And while he was on trial and later in jail, she was the go between between what he wanted to say and the press. When all the participants in the Manson murders were sentenced to prison, Squeaky was devastated because her family was torn apart. Squeaky professed that she never really intended to kill Gerald ford. In late 1975, during her trial, she argued that she didn't even cock her gun, and that indicated murder wasn't her goal. Instead, it was to draw attention to Charles Manson. She told reporters that she just wanted to get some attention for a new trial for Charlie and the girls. She later claimed that there wasn't even a bullet in the chamber, although a police officer at the scene alleged that she had extra ammunition and was fumbling for it. It's unclear how effective Squeaky thought just pointing a gun at the sitting president would be, because thinking through things did not really appear to be Squeaky's strong suit. Here's what President Ford had to say about the first attempt on his life.

[Gerald Ford]

I noticed a person in the second or third row in a brightly colored dress who appeared to want to either shake hands or speak, or at least wanted to get closer to Me, as I stopped, I saw a hand come through the crowd in the first row, and that was the only active gesture that I saw.

[Sharon McMahon]

She pointed the gun, but the Secret Service agents prevented her from firing at the President. She was immediately arrested. Squeaky was judged competent to stand trial and was sentenced to life in prison. She was actually paroled in August 2009 after serving almost 34 years. If Ford thought he could let his guard down thanks to the quick actions of the Secret Service agents protecting him, he was wrong. Because a mere 17 days later, he was the target of a second assassination attempt. Sarah Jane Moore was 45 years old when she tried to kill the President. She had been divorced five times and was the mother of four children. Only one lived with her, though the rest were raised by Sarah Jane's mother. Sarah Jane was a bit unmoored following her fifth divorce, and she wanted something to do. And now listen carefully, because this is going to come up again later. Sarah Jane began volunteering at a new, hastily thrown together organization called pin, or People in Need. The goal of the organization was to help feed the hungry in California. But that was not the full story. We'll get to that in a minute. Sarah Jane took advantage of the organization's loose hierarchy and by continuing to show up dressed as someone who knew what she was doing, she declared herself the liaison with the press and later, this group's bookkeeper. It appears as if nobody objected, not even when she declared that God had sent her. Her appearance as a regular mom, decked out in slacks and a blazer and a strand of pearls, caught the attention of government officials who had a different job in mind for Sarah Jane. They wanted her to be a spy and infiltrate leftist organizations. So Sarah Jane played the FBI and the leftist organizations against each other in large part because she grew to believe in the mission of the organizations, especially the anti war ones. Ultimately, though, she had to choose. And when she was planning out her murder of President Ford, she decided to first warn the local police department that she just wanted to test out how good presidential security was. But it turns out the cops were not super keen on this idea. They were not into it. So they drove over to her house and they confiscated her gun, which was, you know, no problem, because the next day she just went out and got another one. But she didn't realize that the sights on the gun were off just slightly. So when she pulled the trigger, attempting to assassinate Gerald Ford, she was off by about 6 inches. During her trial, it came out that if she had had her previous gun with which she was very familiar and had practiced. Or if the newly purchased weapon had not been misaligned, Ford would have died. In the crowd that day was a Vietnam veteran. He heard the first shot, which didn't hit anyone, and ran toward Sarah Jane as she prepared to fire again. Oliver Sipple, who served in the Marine Corps and was wounded during two tours in Vietnam, grabbed Sarah Jane's arm as she fired a second time. The bullet ricocheted and hit a bystander. Secret Service hurried an unscathed Ford into a waiting vehicle. In the backseat of the speeding getaway car, Secret Service agents were lying on top of the President in order to protect him. And while Ford likely was grateful for their due diligence, he also really wanted to breathe. So he said, I'm sure very nicely, I'm going to be crushed to death. It's an armor plated car. Get off me. Sarah Jane pleaded guilty and, like squeaky, was sentenced to life in prison. At the time, this is what she had to say. Am I sorry I tried? Yes and no. Yes, because it accomplished little except to throw away the rest of my life. No, I'm not sorry I tried, because at the time, it seemed a correct expression of my anger. Sarah Jane served 32 years in prison before she was paroled in 2007. And in an interview two years after her release, she offered a new explanation. She said, it was a time that people don't remember. You know, we had a war, the Vietnam War. I became immersed in it. We were saying the country needed to change. The only way it was going to change was a violent revolution. I genuinely thought that shooting Ford might trigger the new revolution in this country. Harvey Milk, who we'll hear about in a later episode, was friends with Sipple, the man who saved Gerald Ford's life. Harvey Milk was an openly gay, aspiring politician in California, and he wanted the public to see that gay men didn't fit into this predator stereotype that had been foisted upon them. So Milk outed Oliver Sipple, which ended up ruining his life. Sipple's family had no idea that he was gay, and the very public discovery and accompanying spotlight challenged his family ties to the point of estrangement. Having lost his privacy and his prior relationship with his family and community of origin. And Sipple fought for years to sue newspapers that published information about him. But his lawsuit was ultimately dismissed. Why? He was considered a public figure thanks to his actions in saving the President. The public scorn he and his family faced haunted him, and he reportedly said that he wished he had not saved Ford. Sippel, who was disabled because of his military service with what was then called shell shock, spiraled into drug and alcohol abuse, and he met an unfortunate end. Ironically, so did Milk, although you'll have to wait until our episode on 1978 to find out why and how Ever

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Spotify or wherever you're listening now so, after enduring two assassination attempts on top of a difficult presidency and feeling perhaps the burden to restore wholeness to the office and the country, when Ronald Reagan called up President Ford In November of 1975, Ford may have thought, what now? And it was Reagan calling to say, I want your job and I'm coming for it. Former California Governor Reagan was a leading conservative in the Republican Party, and it was highly irregular then and now to run against an incumbent president in your own party. It's not usually successful and it doesn't paint a good picture of party unity, which is something the Republicans could have used then to differentiate themselves from the democrats, who had 717 candidates running in their primary. 17 after Watergate, there was a huge push for transparency in how campaigns were funded. The Campaign finance law of 1974 restricted personal donations to $1,000 and political action committees or PACs to $5,000 in donations. Each candidate had to raise at least $5,000 from individual donors in 20 states in order to be considered viable for the general election. This was supposed to show that the candidate had widespread support beyond their home state and thus would theoretically be capable of winning in a general election. Once candidates reached that donation threshold, they were eligible for additional funding. In 1976, the Supreme Court ruled on a case called Buckley v. Vallejo and this was was a complicated case with the two part ruling, but it's important the Justices affirmed that limitations on individual contributions to a single campaign didn't violate the First Amendment. So in other words, they upheld the law saying that it is fine to limit individual contributions. They said that the limits promote the integrity of our system of representative democracy and that they functioned to prevent inappropriate behavior. But they also struck down a portion of the Federal Election Campaign Act. They said that limiting a candidate's expenditures on campaigning was limiting their First Amendment because communicating to voters is an important part of the process and it necessitates spending money. And this ruling certainly affected the presidential elections of 1976. Remember, I said there were 17 Democrats, and those Democrats ranged from relative unknowns to famous senators, some former governors, a university president. Many of them lacked national name recognition. There was one person, a former Georgia governor, who worked mighty hard to change that. Jimmy Carter was born into a family of farmers who taught him the value of hard work. As a young adult, he served in the Navy and only resigned at age 29 when his father died and his family farm was in jeopardy. Jimmy and his wife and their young children moved back to Georgia and toiled to save the farm. It was an ordeal, but when they were finally successful, Carter thought that he might try his hand at politics because he was dismayed at the racial and class inequality he witnessed firsthand in the South. Jimmy Carter served one term in the Georgia House and one term as the state's governor. He was called the governor of the New south, which was supposed to mean that the south was past its issues with racism and segregation. The speech he gave after his election to governor was so striking that it landed him on the COVID of Time magazine. The title of the profile on Carter, Dixie Sings a Different Tune, revealed that Carter remained largely silent on racial equality during his presidential campaign until he was elected president because he thought that speaking up on the national stage sooner would end his political career. In his inaugural address, he made it very clear that he was anti racist and many people were surprised at what they considered a bait and switch campaign. However, if Carter and his history had been more well known to voters, they wouldn't have been surprised at all by his largely progressive views. Carter's mother, who trained as a nurse before choosing to be a stay at home parent, often crossed segregated lines in the 1920s to help black women in need of health care. Jimmy may have developed his ideas about what was right and wrong from his mom as well as his deep and abiding Baptist faith. On May 4, 1974, Governor Carter, along with Ted Kennedy, were guest speakers for the alumni of the University of Georgia School of Law. Carter took this opportunity to talk about injustice and inequality. He spoke about people in prison because they couldn't afford bail and how this form of class warfare was inherently discriminatory. He mentioned one prisoner who had to either pay a 750 fine, which is like $4,600 today, or serve seven years in prison. The man was leased out to work as a cook in the governor's mansion. Carter said, I don't know, it may be that poor people are the only ones who commit crimes, but I don't think so. But they're the only ones that serve prison sentences. Then he challenged the alumni to do the work to repair an unjust system. Another group that was interested in reforming what they viewed as an unjust system was the SLA or the Symbionese Liberation Army. They were a group of leftist radicals, or according to the FBI, a band of domestic terrorists. The SLA originated in Berkeley, California and began as a collaborative effort among prisoners, anti prison activists, and those who wanted to dismantle a racist and capitalist American society. They found it galling that so many blacks were imprisoned and some families had immense wealth while thousands of regular people starved. I mentioned a couple of episodes ago that college student and newspaper heiress, 19 year old Patty Hearst was kidnapped in 191974 by the Symbionese Liberation Army. The SLA was determined to destroy the capitalist state using whatever means necessary. One way to fight back against a system that they thought had failed all but the elite was to kidnap Patty Hearst. Prior to her kidnapping, she wasn't involved with the SLA or its mission, but to them, she was the perfect target. She was young, beautiful, and part of one of the richest families in America. Taking her would garner them some attention and some money. And just think what could happen if their planned indoctrination of Patty worked. So when Patty was abducted, the nation paid attention because Patty's story was always in the headlines. Shortly after taking her, the SLA demanded that Patty's father, William Hearst, use his vast fortune to set up an organization to feed the hungry. He complied and gave a donation of over $2 million and established the People in Need organization. You remember People in Need from the top of our podcast. Yes, this is the very program with which Sarah Jane Moore, the would be assassin of President Ford, worked. The program was hastily designed and quickly encountered issues of fraud. Riots broke out at food distribution centers and police were called to quell the crowds. Police involvement was not something the SLA wanted. So in response, they sent a tape to the police condemning Hearst for creating a real disaster with his organization. By placing the blame on the victim's family, the SLA cranked up the tension and kept moving the goalposts. The American public who read about the saga in newspapers and saw coverage on television may have Wondered if Patty would ever be saved. But the SLA had no plans of releasing their golden goose. Instead, they blackmailed her family and used physical abuse, solitary confinement, and brainwashing tactics to convert Patty to their cause. And it worked. Two months after her kidnapping, the SLA released another tape to the police. And on it, Patty said that she had joined the SLA in their fight to free the oppressed. Not even two weeks later, Patty and other SLA members robbed the Hibernia Bank. Dressed in a black beret and holding an assault rifle, Patty directed bank employees on what to do. The SLA stole almost $11,000, which is like 68,000 plus dollars today. And they shot two bystanders, one of whom died. And they were all caught on camera. The news played the recordings repeatedly, and law enforcement could not agree on whether Patty Hearst was a willing participant or a hostage doing what she was told. A month later, two SLA members were shoplifting from an ammunition case in a sporting goods store and were almost caught. But Patty fired an automatic rifle at their pursuers from the getaway car, which enabled them to escape. In neither instance did witnesses see anyone holding a gun to Patty's head or otherwise physically compelling her to participate in the moment. The following day, with TV cameras capturing the event, about 100 police officers surrounded a home thought to be an SLA hideout. When their demands to come out with their hands up were met with automatic gunfire, law enforcement, perhaps mindful of the cameras, took the bold step of smoking out the inhabitants with tear gas. The tear gas grenade started a fire, which then killed six SLA members. Patty and two others escaped. Although they didn't know this immediately, there was speculation that some of the remains inside might have been hers. Patty and her SLA boyfriend were living in her apartment in San Francisco when she was arrested a year later. And they were not keeping their side of the street clean. No. Patty and her SLA associate had put multiple bombs under police cars that year. Fortunately, none of them detonated, but that gives you an idea of their mindset. Despite her family's immense wealth and connections, including two top notch defense attorneys, and Patty's trial was protracted and complicated. She was tried for the Hibernia bank robbery as a solo defendant, and her co conspirators were either dead or on the run. The prosecution argued that Patty, who by this point had been deprogrammed by one of her lawyers, was a willing participant, a terrorist. The defense argued that she went along with her captors to save her life. They brought in experts and used the legal Defense of coercive persuasion. Basically, they said that Patty's actions could not be considered voluntary because she was traumatized by her kidnappers. She was psychologically and physically tortured and thus unable to consent. Her lawyers likened Patty's experience to an extreme version of Stockholm syndrome, a phrase that had been coined in 1973 after a bank robbery in Stockholm in which four bank employees were taken hostage. Their captors treated them well, unlike the police, who were slow to help. And during a six day standoff, the hostages began to side with the criminals. Hearst, however, did not have captors who treated her kindly. Instead, she was locked in a closet for most of the day for almost 10 weeks while being, being indoctrinated about the, quote, capitalist establishment and bourgeois pigs. When she wasn't in solitary confinement, Patty was blindfolded and always accompanied by an SLA member. Her lawyers gambled that hearing about her treatment firsthand would sway the jury, so they put Patty on the stand. Initially, jurors ate it up. Her testimony about her ordeal, her feelings that her family abandoned her, and her remorse for her actions. And then the prosecution asked her questions about the notebooks she kept while traveling with the group, the tapes on which she could be heard with other SLA members, and a necklace with a stone monkey given to her by an SLA member who was now dead that she kept in her purse. Why would you keep a memento from your captor? The prosecutor asked. Patty said that she was told the gift might be valuable, and she pleaded the fifth, 40 times. The jury was not moved by what seemed to be the actions of a spoiled rich young woman who rejected her cushy life and became an urban gorilla, which was what she listed as her occupation when she was arrested. And by gorilla, I don't mean like ape gorilla, I mean like guerrilla underground fighter. The trial lasted for eight weeks and the jury deliberated for 12 hours. They found her guilty of armed robbery and she was remanded to custody. While awaiting sentencing for this conviction and another trial for her role in firing a weapon in the ammunition robbery, nearly 30 months after her legal processes began, Patty Hearst was charged with armed robbery and the use of a firearm to commit a felony. She was sentenced to seven years, which exceeded what the prosecutor had requested. Her wealthy family ordered her lawyers to appeal, and Patty was released into her parents custody on $1.5 million of bail. That's like more than $7 million today. She pleaded no contest to the charges of armed robbery and assault with a deadly weapon in the second case, and she was sentenced to five months of probation and she was required to make restitution to the sporting goods store owners. The Los Angeles District Attorney signed off on this plea deal for a couple of reasons. One, Patty was not a criminal prior to her kidnapping, and perhaps more importantly, she had agreed to testify against other Symbionese Liberation army members. Her appeal of the conviction in the bank robbery was upheld in the appeals court. The family threatened to appeal all the way up to the Supreme Court, and that too proved unsuccessful. Patty was sent to prison in Pleasanton, California, the same facility that housed Ford's would be assassin Squeaky from It's a

Small World After All It's a small world after all It's a small world after all It's a small, small world

but listen, Patty Hearn's story does not end there. A grassroots letter writing campaign bombarded the White House with letters requesting that Patty's sentence be reduced or even commuted. The news was full of stories about cults and coercive persuasion, which helped the general public make sense of what had happened to the daughter of one of America's most famous families. Patty even gave interviews from jail and confessed that she hoped to get married when she was released. And at the end of January 1979, President Carter commuted Patty's sentence by executive order. She had served 21 months and would be eligible for parole in just under a year and a half at the time of the commutation.

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[Sharon McMahon]

President Carter felt so strongly about Patty that he ultimately persuaded President Clinton to grant her a full pardon in 2001. Carter later told a reporter that my heart went out to her when her case first came to me. So why would President Carter weigh in on a criminal case when it was just one of thousands that happened that year? The grassroots effort on her behalf worked. Carter agreed with those who wrote in to say that Patty's punishment was unfair given her kidnapping and her physical and psychological torture. The Justice Department added this statement to the paperwork for the clemency appeal. They said it is the consensus of all those most familiar with this case that but for the extraordinary criminal and personal offenses that the petitioner suffered at the hands of the sla, she would not have become a participant in these criminal acts and would not have suffered the punishment and other consequences she endured. In other words, they're saying had she not been kidnapped, there's no way she would be out there robbing banks and shooting at people. In April 1979, Patty Hearst got out of jail and got married, raised a family, and she and her husband remained together until he died in 2013. Today, Patty Hearst is very active in the competitive dog show circuit. She raises French bulldogs. The question of a fair and appropriate sentencing for convicted criminals didn't start with Patty Hearst, and it did not end with her release. One element of sentencing that has always been controversial is capital punishment or the death penalty. In 1972, the Supreme Court decided in the case Furman v. Georgia that the current application of the death penalty was unconstitutional in that it violated the 8th amendment clause against cruel and unusual punishment. As a result, Fuhrman put a temporary pause or moratorium on the death penalty penalty, which studies had shown was being unfairly used against minorities regardless of how minor their crimes were. Between 1972 and 1976, 2/3 of all states passed death penalty laws. Some gave juries guidelines on when it might be an appropriate sentence. Some made it mandatory for specific crimes. Some insisted on automatic reviews of capital cases. And still other states established a separation between determining a defendant's guilt and sentencing. Greg v. Georgia was a case about Troy Gregg, who was convicted of robbery and murder with what the state deemed aggravated circumstances. This designation enabled his jury to sentence him to death, and they did. But wait, you might be saying, didn't a moratorium mean that the death penalty couldn't be an option? Yes, the moratorium meant that the death penalty itself was illegal. A challenge to that ruling meant that the law itself must be reevaluated in order to reinstate capital punishment. The state of Georgia was able to work around the ruling in Furman with the application of aggravated circumstances to the charges against Tony Greg. It was that special designation that helped bypass the band. And when the Supreme Court agreed to hear Greg v. Georgia in 1976, they were not deciding on whether Tony Gregg was guilty. As I've explained before, that is not their job. What they were considering was whether the death penalty as applied in Georgia violated the defendant's right against cruel and unusual punishment and By a vote of 7 to 2, the Supreme Court upheld Georgia's death penalty sentence. Their reasoning was that in some circumstances, including the deliberate murder of somebody, the death penalty could be an appropriate choice if the state takes measures to ensure that a death sentence is not arbitrarily applied. Ways to mitigate an arbitrary application of the death penalty include things like evaluating the severity of the crime, comparing the crime and its possible punishments to similar cases, and having separate trials, bifurcated trials, to determine the guilt or innocence of the defendant, and, if they are found guilty, to determine whether or not that person should be sentenced to death. After that ruling, many states and the federal government began to reinstate the death penalty, using the measures to ensure it was not being arbitrarily applied. Among the backdrop of presidential assassinations, political kidnappings and Supreme Court rulings was the heated political campaign for the 1976 presidential election. Carter campaigned nearly every day for a year, bunking in the homes of volunteers and supporters, and his approach was successful. He won 17 primaries and was the presumptive nominee. Not all Democrats were happy with this relatively unknown newcomer, and as primary contender after primary contender dropped out of the race, the Democratic National Committee created an ABC faction. What does ABC stand for? Anybody but Carter. What helped Carter, though, was that he walked the walk and had a history of doing so. He played up his experience as a peanut farmer and presented himself as a simple, honest and religious man, a far cry from Nixon and Ford, at whom many people were still bitterly angry for pardoning Nixon. Election days are usually nerve wracking for candidates, and in 1976 election day was long and the results were nail biters. Both campaigns made critical mistakes along the way, and in response, both candidates had fluctuations in support. The outcome of the election was not at all certain, and the contest was not called until well after 3am Ford won 27 states, which was then the most states a losing candidate had ever won. Carter claimed victory. He had won the popular vote by a mere 2% and the electoral vote with 297 votes, only 27 more than what was required. Following the declaration of his win, President and Mrs. Carter flew to Plains, Georgia, where the town had a rally for him. And on January 20, 1977, during his inaugural address, President Carter thanked former President Ford for all he had done to heal our land. The following day, Carter pardoned all Vietnam War evaders by proclamation, thus in his own way helping to stitch together a country that had been torn asunder by an unwinnable war and a chaotic first half of the decade. While Those were some of the major stories of 1976, and it was a doozy. Other important things happened too. For example, Barbara Walters became the first female network news anchor in the United States. Her initial contract was for five years and she was paid a million dollars a year. An Indiana cartoonist published in a local newspaper his cartoon about a man and his cat, and two years later he made the cat the main character and changed the name of the cartoon from John to Garfield. That cat went on to worldwide acclaim and that man became very rich. The company Apple was created in the garage of Steve Jobs parents. He also became very rich. The year marked the death of a man whose experience fundamentally changed the process of law and order by creating an important concept still in use today. In fact, if you've ever watched any crime dramas, you might be able to recite it by heart. Ernesto Miranda, the plaintiff in Miranda v. Arizona, was convicted when he confessed to kidnapping and assaulting a woman because he didn't realize he had the right to an attorney when he was being interrogated by detectives. He appealed the verdict and won. His victory resulted in the mandatory implementation of the Miranda warning, which advises people in police custody about their right to remain silent to a avoid self incrimination and to be appointed legal representation regardless of their ability to pay for it. Ernesto Miranda was murdered at age 34. After his death, a Miranda warning card was found in his pocket. And join me next time as we delve into some of the major pop culture creations of the 1970s. Maybe you've got heard of a space opera made by George Lucas? You know, the one with a princess, Jedi warriors, talking robots, you know, Star Wars? We'll cover its development, production and impact on pop culture and Fleetwood Mac, y', all. You're not going to believe the Truth behind the Rumors album and we're going to talk about like Atari and focus on the family. Okay, you're going to want to come back next week. I'll see you then. The show is written and researched by Sharon McMahon, Amy Watkin, Mandy Reid and Kari Anton. Our audio producer is Jenny Snyder and it is executive produced and hosted by me, Sharon McMahon. If you enjoyed today's episode, we would love to for you to hit the subscribe button. Leave us a review or share this episode on your favorite social media platform. All of those things help podcasters out so much. We'll see you again soon.

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