The Symbionese Liberation Army: June 2017

This is how the FBI describes the moment when Patty Hearst lost her anonymity forever:

"Around 9 o’clock in the evening on February 4, 1974, there was a knock on the door of apartment #4 at 2603 Benvenue Avenue in Berkeley, California. In burst a group of men and women with their guns drawn. They grabbed a surprised 19-year-old college student named Patty Hearst, beat up her fiancé, threw her in the trunk of their car and drove off. Thus began one of the strangest cases in FBI history." 

Strange, indeed. Hearst’s kidnappers were part of a small group of self-styled revolutionaries called the Symbionese Liberation Army. The group distinguished itself with slogans like “death to the fascist insect that preys upon the life of the people.”

But the group was no joke. In November 1973, members had ambushed and murdered Oakland school superintendent Marcus Foster, the district’s first African-American school superintendent. Foster’s “crime”? The SLA branded him fascist because it mistakenly believed he had backed a plan to require ID cards for all Oakland high school students.

Three days after the kidnapping, the SLA  announced that they were keeping Hearst as a “prisoner of war.” They imprisoned her in a small studio apartment at 1827 Golden Gate Avenue in San Francisco.

The Hearst kidnapping transfixed the nation as it took one strange, scarcely believable turn after another. Shortly after Hearst’s disappearance, the SLA demanded that the Hearst family undertake a massive food distribution program throughout California as a condition for the release of the kidnapped heiress. The Hearst family agreed with the demand and put together an effort that by 22 February made its first food distribution within San Francisco.

It was a disorganized disaster. Scores of people were injured as panicked workers threw boxes of food off moving trucks as huge crowds of people unexpectedly showed up for the food. The SLA issued a "Communique" the next day demanding that a community coalition is put in charge of the effort.

Patty Hearst issued a series of tape-recorded verbal messages over a period of a few weeks. Among other things, she criticized her family’s poor response to the food distribution demand, and eventually declared she had joined the revolution and that “I would never choose to live the rest of my life surrounded by pigs like the Hearsts.” 

  The first time Patty Hearst was seen by the public after being kidnapped was 15 April 1974, when she was visible on bank surveillance cameras. She was armed with an M-1 carbine rifle, holding up the Sunset branch of the Hibernia Bank along with several members of the Symbionese Liberation Army. The robbers shot two people in the bank and stole more than $10,000.

THEN  This photo of the Hibernia Bank was taken in 1976. The bank was located on Noriega Street at Twenty-second Avenue. (Image courtesy of Western Neighborhoods Project.) Click on the image to see the full-size photograph.

In this picture from left to right are Nancy Ling Perry, Donald DeFreeze, and Patty Hearst. They are running out of the bank and are jumping over one of the two people they shot during the robbery. Both people survived their gunshot wounds.

It was early February 1974, and it was dark outside as three people arrived at 2603 Benvenue Avenue in Berkeley. 2603 Benvenue Avenue was a 4-unit apartment building built-in 1967. To build the structure, the owner of the property had to demolish the old single-family house that formerly occupied the site. The City of Berkeley approved the request to demolish, and two separate buildings were constructed on the site. The front building, shown above, contains two apartments: #1 and #2. Behind the front building is a second building which also includes two apartments: #3 and #4

Patty Hearst was a 19-year-old heiress to the Hearst family fortune. She and her boyfriend, Steven Weed, were Cal students and they rented the 2 bedrooms, one bath,1,024 sq ft apartment #4 at 2603 Benvenue Avenue because it was within 4 blocks of the Cal campus. On that February evening, three men walked up the walkway to the rear building; they knocked on the sliding glass door of apartment #4. The door was opened, and Patty Hearst was kidnapped by 3 members of the Symbionese Liberation Army. The ransom demand was 70 million dollars.

2603 Benvenue Avenue, Berkeley

19 April 1974

--------------

"A camera is a tool for learning how to see without a camera." Dorothea Lange 

"Photography has not changed since its origin except in its technical aspects, which for me are not important." Henri Carter-Bresson

"There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer." Ansel Adams

"The important thing is not the camera but the eye." Alfred Eisenstaedt

The first volume of the San Francisco Bay Area Photo Blog contains galleries of photographs posted on the Internet between 2002 and 2011. Click Here to view these photo galleries.

Question or comment? I may be reached at neil@mishalov.com 

San Francisco's Sunset District, Then & Now - part two: 10 June 2017

This is part two of a gallery of "then & now" photographs of the Sunset District of San Francisco. Part one may be viewed here.

Click on an image to view the full-size photograph.

NOW  The West Portal Station was reconfigured in the 1970s to accommodate a new streetcar system in use today. The view is looking north. 

THEN  This is the West Portal Station of Twin Peaks Tunnel. The tunnel, 2.27 miles in length, became operational on 3 February 1918. This photo was taken in 1922.

THEN  This photo of West Portal Station was taken in 1935. This image is courtesy of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency.

THEN  This photo was taken in 1917. Twin Peaks Tunnel is still under construction, and the work is expected to conclude within a short period. This is part of a car convoy consisting of City of San Francisco employees and the people involved in constructing the tunnel. They have the opportunity of being driven through the tunnel before it goes into service. Image courtesy of San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency.

THEN  The Parkside Theatre, located on Taraval Street near Nineteenth Avenue, opened in 1928. This photograph was taken in 1959. This image is courtesy of Tom Gray.

NOW  The theatre closed in 1988, and the building was converted into apartments and a preschool. Most of the buildings that surrounded the theatre are still standing. The view is looking southeast. 

THEN  This photo, circa 1940, shows some of the streetcar damage caused by two streetcars colliding at an intersection. The streetcar seen on the right is on the No. 17 line; it is stopped on Twentieth Avenue at Taraval Street. A Safeway market occupied a street front location in the corner building. This image is courtesy of Tom Grey.

NOW  The corner building has been demolished, and a bank now occupies a portion of the site. Most of the other buildings still remain. The view looks northwest. 

THEN  This picture is circa the 1940s; the view looks west, down Taraval Street. 

NOW  Most of the buildings are still standing. The location is Taraval Street at Twenty-first Avenue. The treed area on the right is a part of McCoppin Square. The Pacific Ocean is visible in the distance. 

THEN  This photograph was taken in 1915. The house is located on Seventeenth Avenue, near Rivera Street. The horse-drawn cart's purpose is identified by: the "Street Cleaning Department, Board of Public Works," which is painted on the side of the carriage. 

NOW  The house is standing amongst many homes on Seventeenth Avenue. The view is looking southeast. 

THEN  This photo was captured in 1898; it is a view of the Sunset District, looking northwest. This area was called the "Outside Lands." It consisted of barren sand dunes, and a chicken ranch is visible in the photo. This image is courtesy of Bancroft Library.

NOW  The sand dunes have been leveled, and the ground is now covered with housing. The western portion of Golden Gate Park can be seen on the right side of the image. The chicken ranch is now history. 

THEN  This photograph was taken in 1923. The view is looking southeast from Taraval Street at Twenty-seventh Avenue. 

NOW  The building seen in the above 1923 photo is visible. It is the fifth building from the corner. 

THEN  This building was constructed in the early Twentieth Century. The building is located on Taraval Street at Thirty-second Avenue, and this view looks south. This image is courtesy of the Chas and Ada Williams family.

NOW  This is the same building. It was remodeled and expanded in the 1920s. 

THEN  The Ocean Park Motor Court is located on Forty-sixth Avenue at Sloat Boulevard. It opened for business on 20 April 1937. This image is courtesy of Marc and Vicki Duffett.

NOW  The motel is still in business; it appears well maintained. The view is looking northeast. 

THEN  This is a view of Sloat Boulevard as seen from the Great Highway. In the distance is Mount Davidson. The photograph was taken in 1921. 

NOW  San Francisco Zoo is located in the treed area on the south side of Sloat Boulevard. The view is looking east. 

THEN  This picture was taken in 1927. The Chickery restaurant was located on the Great Highway at Vicente Street. This image is courtesy of Glenn D. Koch.

NOW  The building still stands, and it is currently being used as an apartment building. The view is looking east. 

THEN  This photo of Ring's Market was taken in 1951. The view is looking south from Taraval Street at Thirty-third Avenue. This image is courtesy of the Western Neighborhoods Project.

NOW  The building is still standing, minus the tower. 

THEN  This image is circa 1900. The view is looking south from within Golden Gate Park. Mount Sutro is ahead. In 1895 Affiliated Colleges of the University of California received a thirteen-acre building site donated by Adolph Sutro, then-mayor of San Francisco. The early buildings of the college are visible. This image is courtesy of Lorri Ungaretti.

NOW  The tennis courts are still busy, and the site of Affiliated Colleges is now occupied by the University of California San Francisco Medical Center. This photo was taken on 16 June 2017. The view is looking south.

THEN  This is the Taraval Police Station. The building was constructed in 1924; it is located on Twenty-fourth Avenue at Taraval Street. This image is courtesy of the San Francisco Police Department.

NOW  The Taraval Police Station was restored and renovated in 1996. This view looks southwest. 


The distance traveled was approximately 7.8 miles (12.5 kilometers). The cumulative elevation gain was about 718 feet (219 meters). Mile markers are displayed on the GPS-generated track. 


GO HERE to view part one of The Sunset District, Then & Now.

----------------------------------------

"A camera is a tool for learning how to see without a camera." Dorothea Lange 

"Photography has not changed since its origin except in its technical aspects, which for me are not important." Henri Carter-Bresson

"There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer." Ansel Adams

"The important thing is not the camera but the eye." Alfred Eisenstaedt

San Francisco's Sunset District (Then and Now)  by Lorri Ungaretti was helpful in assembling this gallery of "Then and Now" photographs.

The first volume of the San Francisco Bay Area Photo Blog contains galleries of photographs posted on the Internet between 2002 and 2011. Click Here to view these photo galleries.

A Panasonic GX7 camera body mounted with an Olympus 17mm lens was used to take these photographs.

Question or comment? I may be reached at neil@mishalov.com.

San Francisco's Sunset District. Plus, Patty Hearst and the Symbionese Liberation Army. 3 June 2017.

This was a ramble in the Sunset District of San Francisco. A brief review of the Symbionese Liberation Army is included at the bottom of this posting.

Click on an image to see the full-size photograph.

On April 15, 1974, Patty Hearst was seen on a bank surveillance camera. She was armed with an M-1 carbine rifle, holding up a branch of the Hibernia Bank; she was accompanied by several Symbionese Liberation Army members. The robbers shot two people in the bank and stole more than $10,000. Nancy Ling Perry, Donald DeFreeze, and Patty Hearst are visible from left to right. They are running out of the bank and jumping over one of the two people they shot during the robbery. Both people survived their gunshot wounds.

NOW  The Little Shamrock Irish Pub was established in 1893 by J.P. Quigley.

THEN  The Little Shamrock Irish Pub is located on Lincoln Way at Ninth Avenue, across the street from Golden Gate Park. 

THEN  Henry Doelger was a prolific builder of houses in the Sunset District. His most active period was during the 1930s. There is a section of the Sunset District known as Doelger City. This building was his main office. The right portion of this office building was built in 1932; the left wing was added in 1940. This image is courtesy of Mark Weinberger and the History Guild of Daly City/Colma.

NOW  The exterior of the building looks very similar to how it looked seventy-seven years ago. The building is located on the north side of Judah Street, between Eight Avenue and Ninth Avenue. In 2012 the building became San Francisco's historic landmark No. 265. 

THEN  The Loma Prieta earthquake struck on October 17, 1989. This brick apartment building, located on Judah Street at Seventh Avenue, was built in the 1920s. It received severe earthquake damage, and the City of San Francisco disallowed any continued occupancy of the building; the building owner demolished the structure. This image is courtesy of Lorri Ungaretti.

NOW  This replacement apartment building was constructed in the early 1990s. 

THEN  This photo was taken in 1948; a No. 6 streetcar is traveling north on Ninth Avenue. The streetcars are now gone, replaced by electric-powered buses. A grocery market occupied the street-level commercial space. This image is courtesy of Emiliano Echeverria; the photo was taken by Arthur Lloyd.

NOW  The apartment building is located at the southeast corner of Ninth Avenue and Kirkham Street. A clothing cleaning store now occupies the commercial space. 

THEN  This was the Irving Theater, located on Irving Street between Fourteenth Avenue and Fifteenth Avenue. The theater opened for business in 1926; it was sited between a Safeway market and a United Grocers market. The theater closed in 1962 and was replaced by an apartment building. This image is courtesy of Jack Tillmany.

NOW  This is the apartment building that replaced the Irving Theater. Note that the brick building that housed the Safeway market is still standing. 

THEN  This is a photo of a gas station as seen in 1951. It is located on Judah Street at Forty-fifth Avenue. This image is courtesy of the Western Neighborhoods Project.

NOW  The gas station building is desolate, boarded up, and behind a fence. 

THEN  This photo was taken in 1951. Roth's Drugs occupied this building; it is located on Irving Street at the southeast corner of Twenty-first Avenue. This image is courtesy of the Western Neighborhoods Project. 

NOW, This is the same building with the tower removed. The building is now occupied by a Bank of the Orient branch. 

THEN  This is a picture of a gas station located on Irving Street. The photograph was taken in the 1940s. The gas station closed in the 1990s. 

NOW  The remains of the gas station are still in place. The location is Irving Street at Sixteenth Avenue. 

THEN  This photograph was taken in 1914. The location is Twentieth Avenue at Kirkham Street. The view is looking north. In 1914, the No. 17 streetcar route ran along Twentieth Avenue. This image is courtesy of Emiliano Echeverria, and the photograph is by Randolph Brant. 

NOW  The streetcar tracks are gone, and cars now rule Twentieth Avenue. Golden Gate Park is ahead. This photo was taken on June 16, 2017. 

THEN  This photo was taken on Noriega Street at Twentieth Avenue in the late 1930s. This building housed a grocery market and a pharmacy. This image is courtesy of John J. Hills. 

NOW  The building is occupied by the East-West Bank. 

THEN  This photo of the Hibernia Bank was taken in 1976. The bank was located on Noriega Street at Twenty-second Avenue. This image is courtesy of the Western Neighborhoods Project.


THEN  This is the interior of the Hibernia Bank. The date is Monday, April 15, 1974; the time is 10:05 a.m. This image is from a security camera located in the bank. The bank is in the process of being robbed. The man and the woman in the picture each hold a short-barreled M1 Carbine rifle. This bank robbery was unusual; the two robbers in this picture are Patty Hearst and Donald DeFreeze. They are both members of the Symbionese Liberation Army, and the S.L.A. is on the offensive. More information about the S.L.A. can be found in the below photo gallery. 

NOW  Hibernia Bank is no longer in business. The building is now occupied by North East Medical Services. 

THEN  This photo was taken in 1951. The building contained a medical/dental business and a drug store on the ground level. This image is courtesy of the Western Neighborhoods Project.

NOW  A Vietnamese restaurant is located in the building. The site is at the southwest corner of Judah Street and Forty-sixth Avenue. 

THEN  This photo was taken in 1915, and the view looks west. Workers are installing a water pipeline on Irving Street; the Pacific Ocean is the distance. 

NOW  This is a view of the location as seen in 2017. 

THEN  In 1926, this building was constructed as a movie theater. The Surf Theatre was the third theatre to occupy the building. The Surf Theatre opened in 1957 and closed in 1985. The location is on the north side of Irving Street, just west of forty-sixth Avenue. 

NOW  The old theatre building is now home to the San Francisco Grace Christian Church. 

THEN  Busy Bee Market occupied this building from the 1960s through the 1990s. This image is courtesy of Robert Herbert.

NOW  Today, the building is occupied by the Mollusk Surf Shop. The location is at the northwest corner of Irving Street and Forty-sixth Avenue. The Pacific Ocean is nearby; the tides and rip currents are dangerous, and the water is frigid. Some resilient surfers live in the area and are always ready to go surfing. 

THEN  This photo was taken in 1926 while workers constructed the turnaround for the new N-Judah streetcar line. The turnaround is being built at the western terminus of Judah Street, a few hundred yards from Ocean Beach and the Pacific Ocean. 

NOW  A  two-car N-Judah streetcar is visible and is turning around and traveling to downtown San Francisco. The N-Judah streetcar line is the busiest streetcar route in the city. This picture was taken from a sand dune. 

The distance traveled was approximately 6.2 miles (10.0 kilometers). The cumulative elevation gain was about 369 feet (112 meters). Mile markers are displayed on the GPS-generated track.

Patty Hearst and the Symbionese Liberation Army 1973 - 1975

This is 2603 Benvenue Avenue, Berkeley, California. In 1974, Patty Hearst was a student at the University of California, Berkeley. She and her boyfriend lived in apartment #4 in this small apartment complex; she was kidnapped from this location on February 4, 1974. This photo was taken in 2013. 

This is a photo of 625 Morse Street, San Francisco. On September 18, 1975, the F.B.I. captured Patty Hearst living in the upstairs unit. This photo was taken in 2022.

This is how the F.B.I. describes the moment when Patty Hearst lost her anonymity:

"Around 9 o'clock in the evening on February 4, 1974, there was a knock on the door of apartment #4 at 2603 Benvenue Avenue in Berkeley, California. In came a group of men and women with their guns drawn. They grabbed a surprised 19-year-old college student named Patty Hearst, beat up her fiancé, threw her in the trunk of their car, and drove off. Thus began one of the strangest cases in F.B.I. history." 

Strange, indeed. Hearst's kidnappers were part of a small group of self-styled revolutionaries called the Symbionese Liberation Army. The group distinguished itself with slogans like "death to the fascist insect that preys upon the life of the people."

But the group was no joke. In November 1973, members ambushed and murdered Oakland school superintendent Marcus Foster, the district's first African-American superintendent. Why did they murder Foster? The S.L.A. branded him a fascist because it mistakenly believed he had backed a plan to require I.D. cards for all Oakland high school students.

Three days after the kidnapping, the S.L.A. announced they were keeping Hearst as a "prisoner of war." They imprisoned her in a small studio apartment at 1827 Golden Gate Avenue in San Francisco.

The Hearst kidnapping transfixed the nation as it took one strange, scarcely believable turn after another. Shortly after Hearst's disappearance, the S.L.A. demanded that the Hearst family undertake a massive food distribution program throughout California as a condition for the release of the kidnapped heiress. The Hearst family agreed with the demand and put together an effort that, by February 22, made its first food distribution within San Francisco.

It was a disorganized disaster. Scores of people were injured as panicked workers threw food boxes off moving trucks as vast crowds of people unexpectedly showed up for the food. The S.L.A. issued a 'Communique' the next day demanding that a community coalition be put in charge of the effort.
Patty Hearst issued a series of tape-recorded verbal messages over a few weeks. Among other things, she criticized her family's poor response to the food distribution demand. Eventually, she declared she had joined the revolution and that "I would never choose to live the rest of my life surrounded by pigs like the Hearsts." 

Patty Hearst was captured in San Francisco on September 18, 1975, and was arrested along with Wendy Yoshimura. They were hiding in a house located at 625 Morse Street in the Outer Mission District. On January 15, 1976, Patty Hearst stood trial for bank robbery. Her attorneys argued that fearing for her life, she began to sympathize with her captors. On March 20, 1976, she was convicted of bank robbery and sentenced to seven years in prison. In 1979 President Jimmy Carter commuted her federal sentence to the twenty-two months she had already served. She was then pardoned.

THEN  This is 1827 Golden Gate Avenue, San Francisco. This building was a hideout of the Symbionese Liberation Army. Patty Hearst was blindfolded and confined in a closet in apartment #6 for eight weeks.

NOW  This is 1827 Golden Gate Avenue today. All is now peaceful and quiet. This photo was taken on June 5, 2017

THEN  Here is Patty Hearst, as seen a few weeks after her capture by the F.B.I. She was brought back to 1827 Golden Gate Avenue to describe to the F.B.I. what she remembered while being held captive in apartment #6. In this photo, she is seen leaving 1827 Golden Gate Avenue. To her left is a female police officer whose right arm is adjacent to Patty Hearst's back. 

NOW  This is the view seen from within the entryway to 1827 Golden Gate Avenue. This photo was taken on June 5, 2017.

GO HERE to view part two of The Sunset District, Then & Now.

"A camera is a tool for learning how to see without a camera." Dorothea Lange 

"Photography has not changed since its origin except in its technical aspects, which for me are not important." Henri Carter-Bresson

"There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer." Ansel Adams

"The important thing is not the camera but the eye." Alfred Eisenstaedt

San Francisco's Sunset District (Then and Now), written by Lorri Ungaretti, helped in the assemblage of this then-and-now photograph gallery.

The first volume of the San Francisco Bay Area Photo Blog contains galleries of photographs posted on the Internet between 2002 and 2011. Click Here to view those photo galleries.

A Panasonic GX7 camera body mounted with an Olympus 17mm lens was used to take these photographs.

Question or comment? I may be reached at neil@mishalov.com.