so we get our stuff from the pontiac and we move that into this car. we left. we made it out of there, we beat the cops out of there, and we re gone. the shoot-out at mel s is for me the single most important piece of evidence that patty hearst had joined the sla. patty hearst is no longer a captive, but she is a participant in the terrorism of the sla. i know a lot of people made a big thing of the fact that she sprayed mel s sporting goods with bullets when she could have jumped in the car and gotten away. i don t think that s as definitive as other people do. it s not that simple. but she had changed. on some level, she thought she was tania. by this time, this is three or four hours since the altercation at mel s. we knew we couldn t go back to the safe house. we re driving in a stolen car. we couldn t keep driving around so we had to figure out another
angeles mel s sporting goods store. their escape was covered by a machine gun-firing girl. today patty hearst pleaded no contest to charges of robbery and assault in connection with that shooting. the sentence could have been as much as 15 years to life. the l.a. case was the worst case for her. there was tons of evidence against her in l.a. there was probably at least a year between our case in l.a. and her case. when we were arrested, we only remained in the san mateo jail for three days and we were transported to go to l.a. to go to trial in the mel s case. after deliberating for nine days, a los angeles jury found william and emily harris guilty today of kidnapping and robbery in the holdup of a sporting goods store. we were convicted to a six-year term. as soon as we were convicted, we could tell that there was pressure from the hearsts. they had removed the judge.
we had already had a system of rendezvous points. they were set up just for the l.a. area. they had it planned to meet their other comrades at the century drive-in. their signal was a coffee cup on the top of the vehicle. we bought food, fed tom and waited. the sla suspects entered this sporting goods store, and they were caught stealing. they ran firing as many as 30 shots from a 30 caliber machine gun. one suspect dropped this revolver later traced to emily harris, a member of the sla. seeing the news of the mel s shoot-out, the six others realize the lapd knows they are in town. so they figure they need to get out of where they had been with bill, emily and patty and they start looking for somewhere else to go. they re on 84th street and they drive through south central looking for a new place to stay.
put it into the pontiac and we took off. we hadn t gone but a block and a half and the car just absolutely stops. holy shit. and right here in front of me two black men standing in the driveway and i say to them, look, i m really sorry, gentlemen, but i need to take your car. we re with the sla and the cops are chasing us. we assumed if we revealed ourselves to be the sla after the food program and everything that people would feel calm and realize that us approaching them was not an aggressive act. he looks at me and goes, sure. he reaches in and gives me the keys to his car. in his pocket, right? so we get our stuff from the pontiac and we move that into this car. we left. we made it out of there, we beat the cops out of there, and we re gone. the shoot-out at mel s is for me the single most important piece of evidence that patty
hearst had joined the sla. patty hearst is no longer a captive, but she s a participant in the terrorism of the sla. i know a lot of people made a big thing of the fact that she sprayed mel s sporting goods with bullets when she could have jumped in the car and gotten away. i don t think that s as definitive as people do. it s not that simple. but she had changed. on some level, she thought she was tania. by this time, this is three or four hours since the altercation at mel s. we knew we couldn t go back to the safe house. we re driving in a stolen car. we couldn t keep driving around so we had to figure out another way. in 1974 i was 18 years old. i was a senior in high school. i had a ford econoline van for sale.