1999: THE YEAR IN REVIEW

On June 16, FBI agents surrounded a minivan in an upscale neighborhood in St. Paul, Minn., barking, “It’s over, Kathleen.” So ended the 23-year flight of Kathleen Ann Soliah, accused in a 1976 grand jury indictment of plotting to kill Los Angeles police officers by planting pipe bombs packed with nails under squad cars.

The arrest stunned friends and neighbors of the 52-year-old homemaker they knew as Sara Jane Olson, a physician’s wife, mother of three, community theater actress, feminist and all-around doer of good deeds. She spent anxious moments at a Los Angeles hearing when bail was finally set at $1 million. About 250 people quickly tapped into retirement accounts and childrens’ college funds to raise the bail. Trial is set for February.

The case revived interest in the Symbionese Liberation Army, a small band of political radicals who gained infamy during the 1970s when they kidnapped and converted newspaper heiress Patty Hearst. Prosecutors say Soliah was a member of the SLA during its most violent period; she and other SLA members deny it.