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Emily Harris (born February 11, 1947, as Emily Montague Schwartz) was, along with her husband William Harris (b. 1945), a member of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), an American left-wing group involved in murder, kidnapping, and bank robberies. In the 1970s, she was convicted of kidnapping Patty Hearst.

Key Information

In 2003, she was convicted of murder in the second degree for being the shooter in a 1975 slaying that occurred while she and other SLA members were robbing a bank in California. She was sentenced to eight years in prison for the murder.

Early life

[edit]

Born in Baltimore, Maryland,[1] and raised in Clarendon Hills, Illinois,[2] Emily Montague Schwartz was the daughter of Frederick Schwartz, an engineer, and his wife, and had a middle-class upbringing. She graduated from Indiana University Bloomington with a bachelor's degree in language arts.

Founding the Symbionese Liberation Army

[edit]

She married William Harris, whom she had met at Indiana University in Bloomington. They moved to Berkeley, California, in 1973, traveling with friends Gary Atwood and Angela Atwood. They soon joined a left-wing group organized through the university in Berkeley that, among other things, visited inmates in prisons in northern California to tutor them and prepare them for life outside. Late that year the Harrises met an escaped prisoner, Donald DeFreeze, who was staying with white leftist activists in Berkeley.

He and Patricia Soltysik, a white woman also called Mizmoon, co-founded what became the Symbionese Liberation Army, a leftist group that promoted joining all the progressive causes. Other founding members were Nancy Ling Perry, Joe Remiro, Russ Little, Willie Wolfe, Angela Atwood, Thero Wheeler, and Camilla Hall. Rejecting the group's plans for armed confrontations, Wheeler left in the fall. DeFreeze was the only remaining Black member. Remiro was Latino; all the others were white. The Harrises, also white, joined the group.

Emily Harris and the others took noms de guerre as SLA soldiers: hers was 'Yolanda'.[3] On November 6, the SLA committed its first public act, the assassination of Marcus Foster, Oakland, California, school superintendent and the first black superintendent of any major public school system. SLA activists mistakenly thought Foster had approved a plan to require student identification cards for Oakland high schools, which they denounced as fascist, thinking they could recruit followers by their action. But Foster was popular in the black community, and people were outraged at his murder.

In February 1974 SLA members kidnapped Patty Hearst, a college student and one of the heirs to the Hearst newspaper empire. This action attracted much more media attention, as did the group's demands that Hearst's family provide compensation to the poor in California as a kind of ransom.[4]

Later SLA and Opsahl murder

[edit]

Emily and Bill Harris and Hearst, who had joined the SLA, were involved in other activities on May 17, 1974, when six core SLA members were confronted at their safe house in South Central Los Angeles. In the shootout with police that followed and a subsequent house fire, all six were killed, including erstwhile leader DeFreeze.

Emily and Bill Harris claimed the leadership of the SLA, and fled the city with Hearst. They spent more than a year eluding the authorities with Hearst, including some time in hiding on the East Coast. After their return to California, they acquired new members Wendy Yoshimura, a California radical who had assisted the trio in the East, and several Soliah family members and relations: Kathleen Soliah and her boyfriend Jim Kilgore, her sister Josephine and her husband Mike Bortin, and their brother Steven Soliah. [citation needed]

Hearst had become a participant in SLA crimes. Yoshimura, Patty's closest friend while underground, was a fugitive because explosives had been stored in a garage she rented. During that year on the run the SLA committed a string of crimes, including an April 21, 1975, armed robbery of Crocker National Bank in Carmichael, California.[citation needed]

During the robbery, customer 42-year-old Myrna Opsahl, a mother of four, was fatally shot. Opsahl was depositing a church collection at the time. Hearst stated in her autobiography Every Secret Thing (1982) that Emily Harris was the shooter. Hearst wrote that Harris had said, "Oh, she's dead, but it doesn't really matter. She was a bourgeois pig anyway. Her husband is a doctor." Reportedly other SLA members had urged Harris against bringing the shotgun to the robbery, as it had accidentally discharged twice during preparations.[citation needed]

The Harrises were eventually arrested, convicted of their part in the Hearst kidnapping, and served eight years in prison. They were represented by attorney Leonard Weinglass. Imprisoned at the California Institution for Women in Corona, California, Emily Harris spent the first half of her term in solitary confinement. Emily learned computer programming in prison.[citation needed]

Life after first prison term

[edit]

After her release from prison in 1983, Harris became a computer programmer. She began a successful computer consulting company.[5] She worked at MGM Studios (and The Walt Disney Company) until her second conviction. She and her husband divorced.

Opsahl murder charges

[edit]

For over 25 years no one was charged in the Opsahl murder. The SLA wore wigs and masks during the Crocker Bank robbery, and left little evidence behind.[6]

However, with new forensics techniques, the FBI was eventually able to link shotgun pellets removed from Opsahl's body to shotgun shells found in an SLA hideout.[7] Additional evidence mounted. In January 2002 Harris and three other SLA members were charged with the Opsahl murder. Harris's bail was set at $1,000,000, which her supporters quickly gathered.[citation needed]

Three former SLA members who had been granted immunity – Hearst, Steven Soliah, and Wendy Yoshimura – were set to testify for the prosecution in the Opsahl case.[citation needed]

Facing a possible conviction, Harris and the others pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in November 2002.[8] Emily Harris was sentenced to eight additional years in prison; Bill Harris was sentenced to seven years, and Kathleen Soliah and Michael Bortin were each sentenced to six years for their roles.[citation needed]

Emily Harris was paroled in February 2007 after having served four years in prison.[9]

References

[edit]
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Emily Harris

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Emily Harris (born Emily Schwartz; February 11, 1947) is an American former member of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), a small domestic terrorist group that espoused Marxist-Leninist ideology and engaged in assassinations, kidnappings, and robberies in the early 1970s. Along with her then-husband William Harris, both of whom had middle-class backgrounds and prior involvement in left-wing activism, she joined the SLA shortly before the group's February 1974 abduction of Patty Hearst, the 19-year-old daughter of newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst Jr., and subsequently participated in the group's fugitive operations and violent crimes. In April 1975, during an SLA robbery of the Crocker National Bank in Carmichael, California, Harris fired the shotgun blast that killed bystander Myrna Opsahl, a 42-year-old mother of four. Convicted in 1976 of kidnapping and armed bank robbery related to the Hearst case, she served approximately two years before her sentence was commuted; decades later, in 2003, she pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the Opsahl killing and was sentenced to eight years, of which she served half before parole in 2007.

Early Life and Background

Family Origins and Upbringing

Emily Montague Schwartz, later known as Emily Harris, was born on February 11, 1947, in Baltimore, Maryland, to Frederick Schwartz, an , and his wife. She grew up in Clarendon Hills, an affluent suburb of Chicago, , in a well-to-do family environment that provided a stable, middle-class upbringing. The family's professional background, centered on her father's engineering career, reflected conventional American values of the postwar era, with no publicly documented indications of early radical influences in the household.

Education and Early Career

Emily Montague Schwartz, who later adopted the surname Harris upon marriage, attended Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, where she became a member of the Alpha Chi Omega sorority. She graduated from the university with a bachelor's degree in language arts. Following her graduation, Harris began her professional career as a junior high school English teacher at Binford Junior High School in Bloomington. In 1971, she taught a course on communism to her students. During her university years, she met William Harris on a blind date in 1968; the couple married in 1972 and relocated to Berkeley, California, shortly thereafter.

Path to Radicalism

Political Influences and Activism

Emily Harris, born Emily Montague Schwartz on February 11, 1947, in and raised in the suburb of , entered in 1965 as a relatively apolitical student focused on French and English literature. She initially participated in mainstream campus social activities, including membership in the Chi Omega sorority, reflecting a conventional middle-class background rather than overt radical engagement. Her political awakening occurred primarily through her relationship with William Harris, whom she met at ; Bill's charisma and commitment to leftist causes drew her into radical circles. Influenced by Bill and mutual acquaintance Gary Atwood's involvement in the Young Socialist (YSA), a Trotskyist group advocating interracial revolutionary alliances, Emily adopted reformist radical rhetoric emphasizing multiracial coalitions against capitalism by the late 1960s. The couple married in 1970 after Emily completed her degree and began teaching elementary school in , where her activism remained tied to campus and anti-establishment protests rather than independent initiatives. Following Bill's military service in (1964–1967), which catalyzed his own radicalization through opposition to the war—he joined in 1968 and protested at the in that year—Emily aligned with his escalating commitments. By 1973, after relocating to the in the fall with friends, she engaged in more militant activities, including frequent visits to prisons to support inmates and membership in the Chabot for firearms training, signaling preparation for armed struggle. She also participated in the Venceremos Organization, a Maoist group promoting solidarity with Cuban revolutionaries through brigades and domestic agitation, and connected with the Black Cultural Association in Berkeley, a prison-based collective that incubated early (SLA) ideas. These involvements marked her shift from intellectual sympathy to practical radicalism, though her actions consistently followed Bill's lead rather than originating independently.

Marriage to Bill Harris and Move to California

Emily Schwartz met William "Bill" Harris while both were students at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, where they began dating during her junior year. The couple married in 1970 in a campus chapel ceremony characterized as "chic hippie fashion," featuring dancing that lasted through the night. Following their graduation—Emily with a degree in English literature and Bill in —the Harrises initially remained in , where Emily worked as a high and Bill held a position with a magazine publishing firm. Their relocation to the occurred in late 1972, prompted by a desire for deeper engagement with progressive causes amid growing disillusionment with mainstream society. Upon arriving in , they reconnected with college acquaintances Gary and , whose own radical leanings introduced the Harrises to underground networks that would shape their subsequent political trajectory. This move marked a pivotal shift, exposing Emily and Bill to the intensified activism of the Bay Area's scene, including Venceremos organization study groups and critiques of institutional and .

Role in the Symbionese Liberation Army

Formation and Early SLA Activities

The (SLA) coalesced in early 1973 in the , area, originating from radical prison outreach efforts connected to the Black Cultural Association at Vacaville Medical Facility. , a Black convict who escaped from Soledad Prison on March 5, 1973, and adopted the revolutionary name Cinque Mtume, emerged as the group's leader, styling himself as a advocating armed struggle against , , and . Bill and , a white married couple who had relocated from to the Bay Area in 1973—where Bill taught philosophy at a local college—joined as founding members, with Bill using the alias Teko and Emily adopting Yolanda. The Harrises' involvement stemmed from Bill's prior engagement in circles, including anti-war activism, which drew them into contact with DeFreeze and other radicals like Russell Little and through shared safe houses and ideological cells. Emily Harris, originally from a middle-class family and described by contemporaries as less politically extreme than her husband prior to their move, participated actively in the SLA's formative phase by contributing to group discussions, storing weapons and ammunition in the couple's Berkeley apartment, and supporting logistical needs for the nascent organization. The Harrises aided efforts, with Bill leveraging connections from his teaching and activist networks to persuade Berkeley acquaintances—such as former students and leftist sympathizers—to align with the SLA's vanguardist vision, though many resisted the shift toward violence. By late , the group numbered around 10 core members, including white radicals like and , who provided intellectual and operational backing to DeFreeze's leadership. In August 1973, the SLA relocated to a safe house in Concord, California, for weapons training, manifesto drafting, and planning initial operations aimed at sparking urban guerrilla warfare. Their first overt action occurred on November 6, 1973, with the assassination of Oakland Superintendent of Schools Marcus Foster, who was ambushed and shot with cyanide-tipped bullets after an SLA meeting; Russell Little and Joseph Remiro executed the shooting, but the group—including the Harrises—had collectively targeted Foster for allegedly endorsing a student identification card program viewed as fascist surveillance. Emily Harris later attributed the killing to Foster's perceived collaboration with oppressive systems, reflecting the SLA's broader ideology of preemptive strikes against authority figures. This event, claimed in an SLA communiqué on November 8, 1973, marked the group's public debut, prompting a manhunt and forcing members underground while solidifying internal commitment to revolutionary violence.

Leadership After Initial Shootout

Following the May 17, 1974, shootout in , in which SLA leader and five other members—, , , , and Tommy Matthews—were killed by police, Emily Harris and her husband Bill Harris emerged as the primary leaders of the surviving SLA cell. This group included and a small number of associates, who evaded capture by fleeing the scene prior to the raid's conclusion. The Harrises' ascension to command marked a transition from DeFreeze's charismatic, authoritarian style to a more collective structure among the remnants, though they maintained the SLA's commitment to armed revolution against perceived . The Harrises directed the group's relocation northward to the , where they sought safe houses and planned subsequent operations to sustain the SLA's activities, including fundraising through robberies and propaganda dissemination. On June 7, 1974, under their leadership, the group released a taped to media outlets honoring the deceased members as martyrs and vowing to intensify the struggle; Hearst participated by declaring her continued to the cause. Emily Harris, who had demonstrated marksmanship skills during earlier SLA training, contributed to tactical preparations, positioning herself as a key operational figure alongside Bill's strategic oversight. This period of Harris-led command, spanning from mid-1974 into 1975, saw the SLA issue additional communiqués critiquing and while evading a massive FBI manhunt involving hundreds of agents. The group's size remained limited to a handful of committed members, relying on underground networks for support, though internal dynamics strained under fugitive pressures. and Bill Harris coordinated these efforts until their arrests in 1975, effectively dismantling the organized SLA structure.

Key Criminal Acts

Patty Hearst Kidnapping

On February 4, 1974, members of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), including Emily Harris as a key operative, abducted 19-year-old Patricia Hearst from her apartment in Berkeley, California. The assailants, armed and masked, forced entry into the residence shared by Hearst and her fiancé Steven Weed, subdued Weed with blows, and carried Hearst away in a nightgown, firing shots to cover their escape. The SLA, a small radical leftist group led initially by Donald DeFreeze, claimed responsibility via communiqués, demanding the release of prisoners like Russ Little and Joe Remiro, and a $400 million food distribution program to the poor as ransom conditions. Emily Harris, then known as Emily Schwartz Harris and married to fellow SLA member William Harris, participated in the planning and execution phases of the operation, leveraging her position within the group's urban guerrilla structure. The Harrises, recent recruits influenced by ideologies, helped select Hearst as a target due to her family's media prominence, aiming to amplify the SLA's message against perceived fascist oppression. Following the abduction, Hearst was held in safe houses under duress, where Harris and other members subjected her to , isolation, and threats, contributing to the group's control over her during the initial captivity period. The thrust the SLA into national spotlight, but internal dynamics positioned the Harrises as leaders after early arrests and later events. In September 1978, and William Harris pleaded guilty to the kidnapping charge as part of a plea agreement encompassing related felonies, receiving sentences of eight years each, which they served. This conviction reflected their operational responsibility within the SLA, despite the initial break-in being executed by a smaller team including DeFreeze and .

Hibernia Bank Robbery and Aftermath

On April 15, 1974, members, including , conducted an armed robbery of a Hibernia Bank branch in San Francisco's Sunset District, netting approximately $10,692 in cash. and entered the bank with weapons, demanding money from tellers while other members, including wielding an outside, provided cover and warned bystanders against pursuit. During the heist, gunfire erupted, wounding two bank customers critically. Bank surveillance footage captured Hearst's active role, identifying herself as "Tania" and shouting commands, which public prosecutors later cited as evidence of her willing participation rather than . Emily Harris, positioned inside the bank, participated directly in the armed takeover, consistent with her leadership role in SLA operations following earlier losses. The robbery marked the SLA's first major funding acquisition through violence, but the visible involvement of Hearst shifted media and legal scrutiny toward her complicity. In the immediate aftermath, the heist prompted federal indictments for armed against Hearst and SLA members, including Harris and her husband William. Heightened police pressure forced the group underground, with Harris, William Harris, Hearst, and others fleeing for to evade capture. This dispersal culminated in a May 17, 1974, shootout in that killed six SLA members, though Harris and her core allies escaped initially. Emily Harris faced trial and conviction for her role in the robbery, receiving a sentence later commuted as part of broader SLA plea deals. The event solidified the SLA's reputation for escalating violence and underscored internal dynamics where Harris assumed command amid mounting casualties.

Fugitive Period and Opsahl Murder

Underground Operations

Following the May 17, 1974, shootout in Los Angeles that killed six Symbionese Liberation Army members, including leader Donald DeFreeze, Emily Harris, her husband Bill Harris, and Patty Hearst escaped and entered a period of clandestine operations as the surviving core of the group. Adopting aliases—Emily as "Yolanda," Bill as "Teko," and Hearst as "Tania"—they assumed leadership roles, directing the remnants of the SLA from hiding. On June 7, 1974, the trio released a recorded eulogy for the deceased members via media channels, reaffirming their commitment to revolutionary struggle and signaling the group's continuation despite heavy losses. The fugitives employed rigorous operational security measures, including frequent relocation and reliance on a network of safehouses across the to evade . Early in their evasion, they utilized a farmhouse in South , , where fingerprints linked them to additional associate , though the site was abandoned by summer 1974. Returning to , they established bases in Berkeley and , drawing support from radical sympathizers such as Kathleen Soliah and Mike Bortin to sustain logistics and security. These underground efforts focused on survival, ideological propagation through occasional communiqués published in alternative newspapers, and preparation for resource-gathering actions to fund further activities. Emily Harris played a central role in managing daily operations, enforcing discipline, and coordinating movements between safehouses to minimize detection risks. By mid-1975, the group had settled into properties, including 288 Precita Avenue, rented under false pretenses, where the Harrises resided, and 625 Morse Street, which served as another hideout. This phase of low-profile existence, lasting over 16 months, relied on stolen identities, cash from minor thefts, and a web of accomplices to maintain the SLA's operational capacity amid intense FBI scrutiny. The period ended on , 1975, when led to simultaneous raids: the Harrises were apprehended at Precita after , while Hearst and Yoshimura were captured at Morse Street.

Carmichael Bank Robbery and Killing of Myrna Opsahl

On April 21, 1975, Emily Harris led a robbery team in a holdup at the branch in , a Sacramento suburb. The operation involved at least four masked participants inside the bank—Emily Harris, , Steven Bortin, and —armed with handguns and shotguns, who entered around 9:00 a.m. and ordered customers and tellers to lie face-down while announcing the robbery. , who had joined the SLA after her , provided support outside the bank but did not enter, later receiving immunity for her admitted involvement in exchange for testimony. During the robbery, 42-year-old Myrna Opsahl, a mother of four depositing a church collection of approximately $30 in cash and checks, entered the lobby and froze upon seeing the masked gunmen. As Opsahl made a sudden movement toward the floor, Emily Harris, wielding a sawed-off , fired a single blast that struck Opsahl in the back or side, severing her and causing fatal bleeding; she died minutes later on the bank floor despite attempts at . Hearst's post-robbery account, corroborated in her writings and testimony, identified Harris as the shooter, noting the shot was unintended but resulted from panic amid the chaos. The robbers collected about $15,000 from the tellers before fleeing in a getaway , leaving Opsahl unattended as they escaped without immediately realizing the extent of her . No arrests were made at the time, and the SLA initially denied involvement, but ballistic evidence later linked the shotgun to Harris, while the group used the stolen funds to finance their underground operations. The killing marked the SLA's first civilian death during a bank heist, contrasting with their prior robbery of the in , where no fatalities occurred.

Capture, Trials, and Imprisonments

1975 Arrest and Hearst Kidnapping Conviction

On September 18, 1975, Emily Harris and her husband William Harris were arrested by the FBI in , , along with and , in a safehouse apartment at 2880 Golden Gate Avenue. The arrests followed a year-long manhunt intensified by the Harrises' roles as de facto leaders of the surviving (SLA) faction after the deaths of original members in a 1974 . Authorities raided the location based on surveillance and tips linking the group to ongoing fugitive activities, seizing weapons, ammunition, and SLA-related documents. The Harrises faced immediate federal and state charges stemming from their involvement in the February 4, 1974, of Hearst from her Berkeley apartment, as well as related offenses including , with deadly weapons, and auto theft. On October 17, 1975, they entered pleas of not guilty to 11 counts in , including and charges tied to a May 1974 sporting goods store where Hearst had provided covering fire. In March 1976, Emily and William Harris were convicted by a in of and with a for the Mel's Sporting Goods incident, receiving indeterminate sentences of up to . However, the Hearst kidnapping prosecution proceeded separately in Alameda County . On August 31, 1978, as part of a , the Harrises pleaded guilty to a single count of simple , avoiding more severe charges like kidnapping for . They were sentenced to 10 years and 8 months to life in state prison, with credit for . Emily Harris served approximately eight years before her in February 1983, during which she participated in programs. The plea and reduced sentence reflected prosecutorial strategy to resolve lingering SLA cases amid Hearst's own clemency and the group's diminished threat.

2002 Rearrest and Opsahl Murder Conviction

In January 2002, Emily Harris (by then using the name Emily Montague following her earlier release from prison) was arrested and charged with first-degree murder in the of Myrna Opsahl, a 42-year-old mother of four killed during a bank robbery on April 21, 1975, at the in . The charges stemmed from renewed investigations prompted by testimony from former SLA associate and others, implicating Harris as the shooter who fired a blast into Opsahl's head while she was depositing a church check amid the chaos of the robbery. Harris, along with her ex-husband William Harris, Michael Bortin, and , faced accusations of participating in the armed holdup, during which Opsahl bled to from her wounds. Harris's bail was initially set at $1 million, which supporters raised to secure her release pending , allowing her to remain free until the proceedings advanced. In November , Harris and her co-defendants pleaded guilty to reduced second-degree charges as part of a agreement that capped potential sentences at eight years. During the , Harris acknowledged handling the hair-trigger that discharged the fatal shot, describing the killing as accidental but accepting responsibility for her role in the robbery's violence. On February 14, 2003, Sacramento Superior Court Judge Thomas M. Cecil sentenced Harris to eight years in state prison—the maximum under the plea deal—explicitly citing her as the one who fired the weapon that killed Opsahl. Co-defendants received terms ranging from six to seven years, reflecting varying levels of direct involvement, though all were held accountable for the foreseeable risks of the SLA's armed operation. At sentencing, Harris expressed , stating she would regret the incident for life, but prosecutors emphasized the premeditated nature of and the group's disregard for civilian safety.

Later Life and Reflections

Post-1983 Release and Name Change

Upon her parole from the in Corona on November 1, 1983, after serving roughly eight years of a sentence for the 1974 kidnapping of and the subsequent Hibernia Bank robbery, Emily Harris sought to reintegrate into civilian life by severing ties to her past identity. She divorced her husband, William Harris, shortly thereafter, a union that had originated before their involvement with the and endured through their incarcerations. To facilitate this transition, Harris legally changed her name to Emily Montague, reverting in part to her pre-marriage surname and adopting a low-profile existence away from public scrutiny. Montague relocated and secured employment as a and for a corporation, leveraging technical skills acquired during her imprisonment to build a stable, middle-class routine. This period marked a deliberate departure from her revolutionary persona, with Montague avoiding media attention and focusing on professional advancement in .

Parole from Second Sentence and Current Status

In February 2003, Emily Montague (formerly Harris) was sentenced to eight years in state prison for second-degree murder in the 1975 killing of Myrna Opsahl during the SLA's of a branch in ; she had pleaded guilty the previous November as part of a capping her term at eight years. At the sentencing hearing, Montague, then 55, acknowledged firing the that killed Opsahl but described the discharge as accidental, stating, "I will be sorry until the day I die" for the victim's death and its impact on her family. Montague served approximately four years before being granted parole in February 2007, having completed half her sentence under California's guidelines for good behavior and plea-related credits. This release followed her earlier imprisonment for the 1974 kidnapping of , from which she had been paroled in 1983 after serving about eight years. As of her 2007 parole, Montague had adopted a low-profile life in California, with no public records of further legal issues or SLA-related activities. She has not issued public statements or appeared in media since her release, maintaining privacy amid ongoing family advocacy from Opsahl's relatives for accountability in SLA cases.

Ideology, Motivations, and Controversies

SLA's Marxist-Leninist Framework

The (SLA) articulated its ideology through communiqués and actions as a force waging war against a "fascist" corporate state, drawing on Marxist critiques of and while incorporating Leninist notions of revolutionary discipline and leadership by a committed cadre. The group's core framework emphasized class struggle as intertwined with racial oppression, advocating armed expropriation and urban guerrilla tactics to dismantle institutions sustaining inequality, including prisons viewed as tools of bourgeois control. Their signature , "Death to the fascist insect that preys upon the life of the people," appeared on every major communiqué, symbolizing unrelenting combat against perceived enemies of the . Influenced by from Donald DeFreeze's prison organizing and models like the Uruguayan , the SLA promoted interracial "symbiosis" under black revolutionary guidance, rejecting white supremacist divisions to forge a unified front of oppressed peoples. extended beyond to include abolition of as a patriarchal capitalist relic and demands for immediate redistribution, such as the $400 million food program tied to Patricia Hearst's release in , framed as reparations for systemic exploitation. Communiqués positioned the SLA as the "people's army," prioritizing combat operations to inspire mass uprising against , , and economic injustice. Emily Harris, as a founding member and co-leader with William Harris following the May 17, 1974, shootout, actively propagated this framework through operational decisions and . The Harrises' communiqués, such as William's June 7, 1974, statement, defended white participation in black-led revolution as proof against racist ideologies, reinforcing the SLA's multi-racial claim. Their 1975 Hibernia Bank robbery, netting $10,000, was rationalized as ideological expropriation to sustain the struggle, echoing Bolshevik funding tactics during Russia's pre-revolutionary period. Harris later reflected on such actions as "idealized, ideological" efforts to seize government-insured funds without harming ordinary people. Critiques from Marxist-Leninist organizations, including the Revolutionary Union and October League, condemned the SLA's approach as adventurist , lacking the mass base and party-building essential to Leninist strategy, and alienating workers through isolated violence rather than organized class mobilization. These groups argued the SLA's foco-inspired tactics—small-group actions to spark revolt—ignored empirical failures of similar efforts in and contradicted causal necessities for proletarian hegemony. Despite this, the framework guided SLA remnants under Harris until their 1975 arrests, embodying a radical but flawed commitment to immediate revolutionary rupture over gradual reform.

Criticisms of Violence and Failures

The Symbionese Liberation Army's (SLA) embrace of urban guerrilla tactics, including targeted assassinations, armed robberies, and bombings, faced sharp rebuke for prioritizing spectacle over strategic efficacy, often resulting in civilian casualties that eroded public sympathy and fractured alliances within radical circles. Contemporary critics from the , such as those in Berkeley's activist community, condemned the group's initial murder of Oakland school superintendent in November 1973—framed by the SLA as opposition to his support for school identification cards—as an act of misdirected violence that alienated potential revolutionary partners rather than advancing anti-fascist goals. Emily Harris's participation in the SLA's April 21, 1975, robbery of the in , underscored these tactical flaws, as she fired the shotgun blast that killed 42-year-old bystander Myrna Opsahl, a mother of four depositing a church check amid the chaos. Prosecutors and Opsahl's family later characterized the death not as but as deliberate , highlighting the SLA's failure to control operations or prioritize non-combatant safety, which further isolated the group from broader societal support. The SLA's operational shortcomings compounded these violent missteps, manifesting in recruitment stagnation—despite appeals rooted in Marxist-Leninist , the group attracted few beyond a small cadre of mostly white, middle-class adherents—and logistical breakdowns that invited rapid crackdowns. High-profile failures, such as aborted bombing plots in 1975 and the May 1974 shootout that killed six SLA members including leader , exposed internal disarray and amateurish planning, ultimately dooming the organization to dissolution without achieving its aim of igniting mass insurrection. Patty Hearst, after her February 1974 kidnapping, provided testimony in subsequent trials detailing the SLA's coercive indoctrination and erratic command structure under figures like the Harrises, which she attributed to the group's ideological fanaticism overriding practical survival; this insider critique reinforced perceptions of the SLA as a self-defeating rather than a viable . Even supportive networks urged toward non-violent organizing, a counsel the SLA ignored, leading to its marginalization within 1970s radicalism.

References

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  20. https://localnewsmatters.org/2024/03/06/the-spontaneous-act-of-a-true-comrade-patty-hearsts-sla-kidnapper-bill-harris-on-the-day-she-may-have-saved-his-life/
  21. https://famous-trials.com/pattyhearst/2217-home
  22. https://rachaelhanel.me/category/sla/
  23. https://www.nytimes.com/1976/06/21/archives/trial-of-harrises-will-start-today-kidnappingrobbery-case-may-last.html
  24. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-nov-08-me-harris8-story.html
  25. https://www.nytimes.com/1975/09/20/archives/cold-trail-led-to-the-fugitives-cold-trail-led-to-the-arrest-of.html
  26. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-jan-17-mn-23215-story.html
  27. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-jan-20-mn-23792-story.html
  28. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sla-fugitives-nabbed-after-27-years/
  29. https://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/20/us/california-family-has-waited-27-years-for-justice.html
  30. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/guerrilla-myrna-opsahl/
  31. https://www.tahoedailytribune.com/news/olson-four-former-sla-members-charged-in-deadly-1975-robbery/
  32. https://www.facebook.com/SacramentoHistoryMuseum/photos/april-21-1975on-this-day-in-1975-members-of-the-symbionese-liberation-army-a-rad/10158358283727769/
  33. https://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=130535&page=1
  34. https://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/SLA-s-judgment-day-Four-members-of-radical-70s-2773569.php
  35. https://dks.library.kent.edu/?a=d&d=dks19751002-01.2.46
  36. https://www.nytimes.com/1975/09/20/archives/cold-trail-led-to-the-fugitives.html
  37. https://www.nytimes.com/1975/10/18/archives/harrises-plead-not-guilty-trial-date-set.html
  38. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1977/04/19/hearst-pleads-no-contest-to-2-charges/5a4e1677-2df6-49f2-a9e4-9140552ef9ff/
  39. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1983/01/09/Patty-Hearsts-kidnappers-to-be-freed/9001410936400/
  40. https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/five-ex-sla-members-charged-in-27-year-old-robbery-murder-case-1.322207
  41. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-feb-18-me-slasub18-story.html
  42. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/nov/09/duncancampbell
  43. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-feb-15-me-sla15-story.html
  44. https://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/15/us/4-in-radical-group-of-70-s-are-sentenced-in-murder.html
  45. https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/SLA-members-sent-to-prison-Ex-radicals-2634550.php
  46. https://www.recordnet.com/story/news/2003/02/15/former-sla-members-sentenced/50739147007/
  47. https://alumni.berkeley.edu/california-magazine/fall-2014-radicals/death-fascist-insect-looking-back-40-years-does-sla-make-any/
  48. https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/27-YEARS-LATER-4-SLA-FIGURES-ARRESTED-A-2882805.php
  49. https://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/20/magazine/was-this-soccer-mom-a-terrorist.html
  50. https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/20020615/sla15/new-life-old-murder-ex-radical-emily-harris-faces-charges-19-years-after-release-from-prison
  51. https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/20000124/4001105/life-after-the-sla
  52. https://www.timesargus.com/news/1970s-radical-released-from-california-prison/article_3b616d92-908d-5f5a-a77c-4c18e97e8630.html
  53. https://study.com/academy/lesson/sla-beliefs-history-members.html
  54. http://freedomarchives.org/Documents/Finder/DOC514_scans/514.SLA.WilliamHarris.Communique.6.7.74.pdf
  55. https://www.marxists.org/history/erol/ncm-1/ru-sla.htm
  56. https://www.marxists.org/history/erol/ncm-2/mlsg-sla.pdf
  57. https://blogs.helsinki.fi/leenamalkki/files/2012/07/Malkki-PhD.pdf
  58. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1974/5/29/the-sla-revolutionary-irresponsibility-pito-compound/
  59. https://www.postbulletin.com/news/col-in-understanding-olson-dont-forget-myrna-opsahl
  60. https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/SLA-s-legacy-a-violent-void-Late-arriving-on-2772219.php
  61. https://www.shortform.com/podcast/episode/last-podcast-on-the-left-2024-07-12-episode-summary-episode-581-patty-hearst-part-iv-the-missing-year
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