SLA: Donald DeFreeze

By Wikipedia

Donald David DeFreeze, (November 16, 1943 - May 17, 1974), a.k.a. Cinque Mtume, was the leader of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), an American terrorist group operating in the mid-Super70s.

DeFreeze was born in Cleveland, Ohio but became a career criminal in California. In 1972, he was serving a sentence in Soledad Prison for armed robbery. He met with some radical extremists who were working as volunteers in the prison and was converted to their political ideas. After being transferred to Vacaville Prison, he escaped on March 5, 1973.

DeFreeze, along with Patricia Soltysik, founded the Symbionese Liberation Army and recruited a handful of other members for the group. The group perpetrated a number of crimes, the most famous being the murder of Marcus Foster and the kidnapping of Patty Hearst.

On May 17, 1974, the Los Angeles Police Department surrounded a house where DeFreeze and five other SLA members were staying. During the inevitable shootout, DeFreeze committed suicide by shooting himself in the head to avoid capture. His body was burned in the ensuing fire.

He is mentioned in the poem "Scar" by Audre Lorde.

Hibernia Bank... Donald De Freeze taking charge in the April 15, 1974 Hibernia Bank robbery. FBI photo.

References/Bibliography

• Shana Alexander, Anyone's Daughter: The Times and Trials of Patricia Hearst,
• Carolyn Anspacher & the San Francisco Chronicle, The Trial of Patty Hearst, Great Fidelity Press, 1976.
• Marilyn Baker, Exclusive!: the inside story of Patricia Hearst and the SLA, Macmillan Publishing, 1974.
• Mary F. Beal, Safe House: A Casebook Study of Revolutionary Feminism in the 1970's, Northwest Matrix, 1976.
• Jerry Belcher & Don West, Patty/Tania, Pyramid Books, 1975
• David Boulton, The Making Of Tania Hearst, Bergenfield, N.J., U.S.A.: New American Library, 1975
• John Bryan, This Soldier Still At War, (on Joe Remiro) Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1975
• Patty Hearst with Alvin Moscow, Patty Hearst: Her Own Story, New York: Avon, 1982. This was the title after the movie came out. Original title: Every Secret Thing.
• Sharon D. Hendry, Soliah: The Sara Jane Olson Story, Cable Publishing, 2002.
• Janey Jimenez (U.S. Marshal who escorted Hearst between prison and the court during the trial) with Ted Berkman, My Prisoner, Sheed Andrews and McMeel, 1977.
• Jean Brown Kinney, An American journey: The short life of Willy Wolfe, Simon and Schuster, 1976.
• Vin McLellan, Paul Avery, The voices of guns: The definitive and dramatic story of the twenty-two-month career of the Symbionese Liberation Army, one of the most bizarre chapters in the history of the American Left, Putnam, 1977.
• John Pascal, The Strange Case of Patty Hearst, New American Library, 1974.
• Findley & Craven Payne, Life and Death of the SLA, Ballantine, 1976.
• Robert Brainard Pearsall, Symbionese Liberation Army: Documents and Communications, Rodopi, 1974
• Fred Soltysik, In Search of a Sister 1976.
• Steven Weed, with Scott Swanton. My Search for Patty Hearst, New York: Warner, 1976. Weed was Hearst's boyfriend at the time of the kidnapping. That was the end of their relationship.
• Video: Patty Hearst, based on Every Secret Thing, directed by Paul Schrader, 1988.
• Video: The Ordeal of Patty Hearst (1979) (TV)
• Video: Patty Hearst: The E! True Hollywood Story (2000) (TV)
• Video: Neverland: The Rise and Fall of the Symbionese Liberation Army aka Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst, Directed by Robert Stone, 2004, documentary.

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