Bill Harris, member of the group that kidnapped Patricia Hearst, dies at 81

Bill Harris, a member of the radical group that kidnapped newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst, died of a heart attack at a San Francisco hospital on September 10, according to his wife, Rebecca Young. He was 81 years old. Harris was born in Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and served in Vietnam as a Marine before attending Indiana University, where he became involved with Vietnam Veterans Against the War and met his first wife, Emily Schwartz. The couple moved to the San Francisco Bay Area and joined the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), a group known for its violent actions, including the assassination of Oakland schools superintendent Marcus Foster in 1973. Harris played a significant role in the kidnapping of Hearst on February 4, 1974, when he and two others forcibly took her from her apartment in Berkeley, California. Initially, the SLA did not demand a ransom but later called on Hearst's family to fund a food giveaway for the poor. Hearst was held captive for weeks before participating in a bank robbery with the SLA. After a year on the run, she and the Harrises were arrested in September 1975. Hearst was convicted of armed bank robbery in 1976, and her sentence was later commuted by President Jimmy Carter. Harris and his wife served approximately eight years in prison for their involvement in the kidnapping. After his release, Harris became a private investigator and married Young in 1988. In 2002, he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in connection with the death of Myrna Opsahl during a bank robbery in 1975. At his sentencing in 2003, he apologized to Opsahl's family and was sentenced to seven years, serving about four. Harris is survived by Young and their two sons, Cody and Shane.