Hearst enrolled in the University of California for the winter and spring terms of 1972 to 1973. Majoring in veterinary science, she took courses in chemistry, math, and zoology. Again, her grades were average. The following school year she changed her major to art history, and immediately began to earn high marks.
At 9:20 P.M. on February 4, 1974--two months after Hearst and Weed had announced their engagement--two men and one woman broke into their apartment on Benvenue Street. Weed was beaten and knocked unconscious with a wine bottle. Hearst, who was screaming and partially clothed, was abducted at gunpoint.
Hearst's kidnappers were members of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), a left-wing terrorist group.(Left-wing terrorist groups pursue political goals by extreme, revolutionary, and sometimes violent means.) Founded in Berkeley, the group was headed by Donald Defreeze, an African American petty criminal who had escaped from Soledad prison in 1972. Appointing himself "general field marshal" in the army, Defreeze called himself Cinque Mtume, a Swahili name meaning"Fifth Prophet." Defreeze originally recruited nine members to his radical organization, including Russell Little (known as Bo) and Joseph Romero (known as Osceola).
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