Remember the Maine

By the time the USS Maine, an American warship in Havana Harbour was blew up under questionable circumstances with over 250 hands lost, the American public had already formed their united stand on the rebellion in Cuba. Two leading newspapers of the time, Joseph Pulitzer’s The World, and William Randolph Hearst’s the New York Journal, both informed their readers of the virtue of the Cubans and the perfidy and cruelty of the Spaniards.

Two editors were rivals and wanted to attract more readers, and to do so, both Pulitzer and Hearst claimed that the Spanish were the cause of the sinking of the U.S.S. Maine. Pulitzer covered the horrible explosion of the ship while Hearst focused on the enemy who set the bomb — and offered a reward of 50,000 dollars to anyone who can detect the perpetrator. To this day, what happened on 15 February under the cover of night at 9:40 p.m. remained a mystery.

The World says that the Maine was exploded by the Spanish because one of their journalists arriving from Cuba had “overheard” a plot to blow up the Maine. Thus began the long march of the war hawks: the assistant secretary of the navy, Teddy Roosevelt left his post to fight the Spain. From then on, it was “Remember the Maine! To hell with Spain!” all the way to San Juan Hill. The war was over in a matter of weeks, but marked the birth of the American imperial overreach.

Patty Hearst Kidnapping

A photograph released by the FBI shows Patty Hearst in front of a symbol of the Symbionese Liberation Army. It was a S.L.A. publicity photo.

Patricia Hearst, granddaughter of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst was herself the central character of one of the biggest news stories of 1970s. At 9 p.m. on Feb. 4, 1974,  the 19-year-old heiress was kidnapped by a ratty band of Bay Area anarchistic urban revolutionaries, the Symbionese National Liberation Army, from her Berkeley apartment. Her 26 year old fiancé Steven Weed was badly beaten by the group.

Patty was to spend most of the next 56 days in a closet while being both physically and sexually abused. The S.L.A. demanded as ransom that her father feed all the hungry in California. Although $6 million worth of food was distributed–resulting in near riots in some locations–Patty was not released, the group citing poor quality of the food. The S.L.A also hoped to “exchange prisoners” as two of their own were being held for the assassination of Marcus Foster.

Later, audio tapes from the group featuring a militant-sounding Patty Hearst began appearing; she soon informed the world that she was joining the group and had taken on the name ‘Tania.’ Criminal psychologists who studied the Stockholm bank robbery a year earlier knew what had happened to her. Public opinion towards Ms. Hearst turned when she was seen participating in the Hibernia Bank robbery on April 15, 1974. She was photographed wielding an M1 Carbine while robbing the Sunset District branch of the Hibernia Bank at 1450 Noriega Street in San Francisco. A warrant was issued and on 18th September 1975, she was arrested in a San Francisco apartment with other SLA members. While being booked into prison, she listed her occupation as “Urban Guerilla.”

In her trial, which commenced on January 15, 1976, her attorney F. Lee Bailey claimed that Hearst had been brainwashed, and coerced into taking part in the bank robbery. However, her refusal to give evidence against the other captured SLA members. weakened her case, and she was sentenced to 35 years imprisonment. Her prison term was also eventually commuted by President Jimmy Carter after 22 months, and was granted a full pardon by Bill Clinton on his last day in office on January 20, 2001. Nowadays, Hearst is a socialite, not a guerrilla, though she appears in a number of director John Waters’ subversive, sly and crude comedies.

Patty Hearst caught on a CCTV camera during the robbery. See the reel here.