For their first public act, the SLA assassinated Marcus Foster, the superintendent of Oakland's public schools. Three SLA members — Perry, Soltysik and DeFreeze, according to Hearst — ambushed Foster, shooting him with cyanide bullets Nov. 6, 1973, as he walked through a dark alley.

Foster was a strange choice. He was the first black to hold his post, and he was admired throughout Oakland's diverse community. Thousands mourned his death.

In a communiqué delivered to a radio station the next day, the SLA claimed responsibility for the murder and gave their motive: Foster's supposed support for mandatory photo ID cards for high school students. The SLA contended the program was a government scheme to establish prison-like surveillance at schools and that Foster was a CIA agent.

"This shoot on sight order will stay in effect until such time as all political police are removed from our school and all photo and other forms of ID are stopped," the communiqué stated.

In fact, Foster had withdrawn his support for the ID program and had publicly stated that no uniformed officers would ever be allowed to patrol his schools. The act served to alienate the SLA from many other radical leftist groups.

After Foster's murder, the SLA kept a low profile for about two months. Some SLA members kept their jobs while others holed up in a safehouse in Concord, crafting future communiqués and putting the SLA philosophy in writing

On Jan. 10, 1974, two SLA soldiers were arrested for the Foster murder. Little and Remiro were stopped by a police officer as they drove to the house in Concord. A shootout ensued and both men were eventually captured. Investigators found SLA leaflets in their van.

Concerned that police were closing in on its nearby safehouse, the SLA torched the house, and most members went underground. In the charred remains of the Concord safehouse, detectives found a notebook listing potential targets. Among those listed was Patty Hearst — identified as "that daughter of Hearst."


NEXT: The kidnapping of Patty Hearst