Surreal End, Unexpected Beginning
Covering the murder trial, I wondered — like most of America — where the Hearst story would take us.
     Finally, after Hearst was captured, I watched her mother complain outside her arraignment that her daughter deserved to be allowed to post bail — an improbable request, since she had been photographed as the revolutionary “Tania,” carrying a rifle and with SLA symbols in sight. That convinced many people that the kidnapping victim had become a terrorist accomplice. It was years later, after convincing many that she had joined only after being tortured, that was she pardoned.
     The deaths of some of her comrades in a shootout with L.A. police made a surreal end to one phase of the story; her trial, conviction, imprisonment and release completed another phase.
     Now, a quarter-century later, still one more alleged member of the gang has been taken into custody. And the Hearst saga lives on.

John Martin is a National Correspondent for ABCNEWS.

SEARCH ABCNEWS.com FOR MORE ON...