About 9 PM on Feb 4, 1974 Patty Hearst, granddaughter of newspaper magnate William R. Hearst was kidnapped by members of the "Symbionese Liberation Army, SLA" from her apartment in Berkeley, CA where Hearst was a 19 year old college student at the time. Led by Donald DeFreeze, a hardened criminal, the group wanted to get America's attention by snatching someone of prominence and Patty Hearst was that person. The SLAs goal, according to the FBI agent who arrested her, Monte A. Hall, from the San Francisco Office of the FBI, was to incite a guerilla war against the U.S. Government and destroy the "capitalist state." They were one of the first examples of domestic terrorists in the US. What the FBI didn't plan on, however, was Patty Hearst joining the SLA and many here will remember the infamous video of Patty Hearst standing guard in a San Francisco bank holding what looks to be an AK-47 while DeFreeze robs the bank. This began an intensive FBI Manhunt for not only the SLA members, but now for Patty Hearst as well. She has the distinction of being of interest to the FBI as both a kidnapping victim and bank robber.
Heading up the FBI search for Patty Hearst was FBI SA Monte A. Hall (not to be confused with the game show host
, who was the lead case agent in the hunt for Hearst. Hall was a senior FBI agent at the time of the Hearst arrest in Sept, 1975 having joined the bureau in 1951. Hall was born in Ridgway, PA in 1921 and received a degree at the U. Pittsburgh, served in WWII and upon his return home from the War, worked for his father in the coal mines of PA.
He applied to the FBI and the CIA at the same time and heard back from the FBI one day earlier than the CIA so he joined the FBI. He completed his new agent training in Los Angeles, CA and was transferred to San Francisco later that same year, spending his entire FBI career 1951-1976 in San Francisco. Few agents today are afforded this opportunity.
The revolver SA Hall used in the arrest of Patty Hearst and other members of the left overs of the SLA is pictured below along with its original specially designed holster which SA Hall explains in a brief note also pictured. It was his personally owned weapon, POW, that he carried from the day he got it in 1957 until he retired in 1976. I am pleased to be able to own this little bit of both S&W and FBI history, but most of all for the privilege to have spoken to SA Hall on the phone from his home in N. California. He still has a mind as sharp as a tack and lives with his bride of close to 70 years to this day. Both are in their mid 90s.
Enjoy,
Chuck
Heading up the FBI search for Patty Hearst was FBI SA Monte A. Hall (not to be confused with the game show host
, who was the lead case agent in the hunt for Hearst. Hall was a senior FBI agent at the time of the Hearst arrest in Sept, 1975 having joined the bureau in 1951. Hall was born in Ridgway, PA in 1921 and received a degree at the U. Pittsburgh, served in WWII and upon his return home from the War, worked for his father in the coal mines of PA.He applied to the FBI and the CIA at the same time and heard back from the FBI one day earlier than the CIA so he joined the FBI. He completed his new agent training in Los Angeles, CA and was transferred to San Francisco later that same year, spending his entire FBI career 1951-1976 in San Francisco. Few agents today are afforded this opportunity.
The revolver SA Hall used in the arrest of Patty Hearst and other members of the left overs of the SLA is pictured below along with its original specially designed holster which SA Hall explains in a brief note also pictured. It was his personally owned weapon, POW, that he carried from the day he got it in 1957 until he retired in 1976. I am pleased to be able to own this little bit of both S&W and FBI history, but most of all for the privilege to have spoken to SA Hall on the phone from his home in N. California. He still has a mind as sharp as a tack and lives with his bride of close to 70 years to this day. Both are in their mid 90s.
Enjoy,
Chuck
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