From the Archives: Patty Hearst arrives at the Hall of Justice
Staff photographer John Malmin took this image at a familiar spot for long-time Los Angeles photojournalist — through the chain-link fence at the basement inmate entrance to the Hall of Justice. The procedure was simple. The news media would be tipped off to the suspect’s arrival. Photographers then would jockey for position behind the fence.
On Feb. 4, 1974, Patty Hearst was kidnapped by a left-wing radical group, the Symbionese Liberation Army. Over the next year she became an active member of the SLA. After her 1975 capture, Hearst was convicted on March 20, 1976, of federal bank robbery charges.
When this image by John Malmin was taken, Hearst was in Los Angeles criminal court facing California charges.
In 1979, President Carter commuted her sentence. In 2001, President Clinton granted Patty Hearst a full pardon.
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