Charles L. Gould, 77, Dies; Ex-S.F. Examiner Publisher
Charles Lessington Gould, publisher of the Hearst-owned San Francisco Examiner when Patricia Hearst was kidnaped and who became a leading opponent of her subsequent imprisonment, has died of cancer. He was 77.
Gould, who died Sunday in a San Mateo hospital, came to the Examiner in 1961 as publisher, a post he held until 1975 when he joined the Hearst Foundation and the William Randolph Hearst Foundation. Gould served the Hearst Foundation until his death.
He was assistant publisher of the New York Journal American from 1951 to 1961, when he went to the Examiner. He was publisher in 1974 when Patricia Hearst was abducted by members of the Symbionese Liberation Army. She subsequently was sentenced to prison after joining her captors in a series of crime sprees.
Gould maintained that she was a victim, not a criminal.
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