The SLA had few options for support in San Francisco since Foster's murder alienated much of the radical community there. In Hearst's autobiography, she says the trio turned to Soliah despite concerns they had about her "flakiness."

"The choice was down to a holdup of some sort or try Kathy," Hearst wrote.

According to Hearst, Soliah, aided by siblings Josephine and Steven, provided money and shelter for the group and introduced them to radical sportswriter, Jack Scott. Scott in turn arranged for the trio to spend the summer of 1974 at a farmhouse in Pennsylvania's Poconos.

The three lived there with Wendy Yoshimura, another radical fugitive, and passed the summer doing military exercises and arguing about the philosophy of the SLA. Scott said later that he had given Hearst the opportunity to go back to her family and she had insisted on staying with the group.

That fall, the SLA returned to California and with several new recruits, including, prosecutors say, the Soliahs, began planning a revitalization. They stole wallets to create fake identities, and on Feb. 25, 1975, robbed the Guild Savings and Loan in Sacramento of $3,729.

Two months later, four SLA soldiers — according to Hearst, Emily Harris and new recruits James Kilgore, Michael Bortin and Kathleen Soliah — stormed into the Crocker National Bank in Carmichael. In the process of robbing $15,000 from the bank, one of the perpetrators shot and killed Myrna Opsahl, a mother of four who was depositing money for her church. Hearst said she was later told that Harris was the shooter.

With the money from both bank robberies, the SLA began assembling weapons and explosive materials, and in August 1975, they plotted a series of bombings against law enforcement and other government targets. Pipe bombs destroyed police cars in Emeryville and Marin County, and prosecutors contend there were several failed bomb attempts in San Francisco and Los Angeles.


NEXT: The death of the SLA