Bill Harris, Symbionese Liberation Army member, dies at 81

Bill Harris, a prominent member of the radical Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) involved in the 1974 kidnapping of newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst, has died at the age of 81. He passed away from a heart attack at a San Francisco hospital on September 10, according to his wife, Rebecca Young.

Harris, a former Marine who served in Vietnam, became a senior lieutenant within the SLA. He was a central figure in the abduction of the 19-year-old Hearst, the granddaughter of publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst, after a violent struggle at her Berkeley apartment. The SLA initially labeled Hearst a ‘prisoner of war’ and demanded her family fund food distribution programs for the poor rather than seeking a traditional ransom.

Harris previously noted that Hearst was chosen as a symbolic target because her family controlled a media empire that the group viewed as an arm of government propaganda.