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59 pages

English

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Patty Hearst & The Twinkie Murders is a darkly satiric take on two of the most famous cases of our era: the kidnapping of heiress Patty Hearst, and the shocking assassination of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and gay leader Harvey Milk. As a reporter for the Berkeley Barb, Paul Krassner was ringside at the spectacular California trials. Krassner’s deadpan, hilarious style captures the nightmare reality behind the absurdities of the courtroom circus.

Using his infamous satiric pen and investigative chops, Krassner gets to the truth behind the events: the role of the police and FBI, the real deal with Patty and the SLA, and what really happened in Patty’s infamous closet.

Plus: A merciless exposé of the “Taliban” wing of the gay movement and their scandalous attacks on alt-rock star Michelle Shocked.

Also featured is our Outspoken Interview, an irreverent and fascinating romp through the secret history of America’s radical underground. Names will be named.

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Histoire

History

Europe

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Publié par	PM Press
Date de parution	15 octobre 2014
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781629630496
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0500€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

PAUL KRASSNER
Counterculture Hall of Fame, 2001 Inductee
Winner,
Playboy Award for satire
Feminist Party Media Workshop Award
for journalism
Oakland PEN Lifetime Achievement Award
"I told Krassner one time that his writings made me hopeful. He found this an odd compliment to offer a satirist. I explained that he made supposedly serious matters seem ridiculous, and that this inspired many of his readers to decide for themselves what was ridiculous and what was not. Knowing that there were people doing that, better late than never, made me optimistic."
Kurt Vonnegut
"The FBI was right; this man is dangerous. And funny. And necessary."
George Carlin
"He is an expert at ferreting out hypocrisy and absurdism from the more solemn crannies of American culture."
New York Times
"As soon as we decided to create The Huffington Post, I knew I wanted Paul Krassner involved. His irreverence was just what the blog doctor ordered."
Arianna Huffington
PM PRESS OUTSPOKEN AUTHORS SERIES
1. The Left Left Behind
Terry Bisson
2. The Lucky Strike
Kim Stanley Robinson
3. The Underbelly
Gary Phillips
4. Mammoths of the Great Plains
Eleanor Arnason
5. Modem Times 2.0
Michael Moorcock
6. The Wild Girls
Ursula Le Guin
7. Surfing the Gnarl
Rudy Rucker
8. The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow
Cory Doctorow
9. Report from Planet Midnight
Nalo Hopkinson
10. The Human Front
Ken MacLeod
11. New Taboos
John Shirley
12. The Science of Herself
Karen Joy Fowler
13. Raising Hell
Norman Spinrad
14. Patty Hearst & The Twinkie Murders: A Tale of Two Trials
Paul Krassner

Portions of "The Trial of Patty Hearst" were published in the Berkeley Barb and Playboy. Portions of "The Case of the Twinkie Murders" were published in the San Francisco Bay Guardian and The Nation.
Patty Hearst & The Twinkie Murders: A Tale of Two Trials
Paul Krassner © 2014
This edition © 2014 PM Press
Series editor: Terry Bisson
ISBN: 978-1-62963-038-0
LCCN: 2014908068
Cover photo by Nancy Cain
Payphone by Alexander Graham Bell
Outsides: John Yates/Stealworks.com
Insides: Jonathan Rowland
PM Press
P.O. Box 23912
Oakland, CA 94623
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the USA by the Employee Owners of Thomson-Shore in Dexter, Michigan
www.thomsonshore.com
CONTENTS
The Trial of Patty Hearst
The Case of the Twinkie Murders
"Reflections of a Realist" Outspoken Interview with Paul Krassner
Why Was Michelle Shocked Shell-Shocked?
Other Books by Paul Krassner
About the Author
For Holly
"In the Halls of Justice, the only justice is in the halls."
Lenny Bruce
THE TRIAL OF PATTY HEARST
G ROUCHO M ARX SAID DURING an interview with Flash magazine in 1971, "I think the only hope this country has is Nixon’s assassination." Yet he was not subsequently arrested for threatening the life of a president. In view of the indictment against Black Panther David Hilliard for using similar rhetoric, I wrote to the San Francisco office of the Justice Department to find out the status of their case against Groucho.
This was the response:
Dear Mr. Krassner:
Responding to your inquiry of July 7th, the United States Supreme Court has held that Title 18 U.S.C., section 871, prohibits only "true" threats. It is one thing to say that "I (or we) will kill Richard Nixon" when you are the leader of an organization which advocates killing people and overthrowing the Government; it is quite another to utter the words which are attributed to Mr. Marx, an alleged comedian. It was the opinion of both myself and the United States Attorney in Los Angeles (where Marx’s words were alleged to have been uttered) that the latter utterance did not constitute a "true" threat.
Very truly yours,
James L. Browning, Jr.
United States Attorney
Browning was so anxious in his pursuit of justice that he successfully fought for the dismissal of charges against federal narcotics officers who had shot an innocent hippie in the back from their helicopter in Humboldt County. In 1976, I found myself sitting in a courtroom every day, observing Browning as he prosecuted a bank robbery case that seemed like a perverted version of a Marx Brothers movie.
Patricia Hearst had been kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army a group of white men and women led by an African-American, Donald "Cinque" DeFreeze. Patty was kept in a closet, then she joined them, changed her name to Tania, adopted radical rhetoric and robbed a bank with them. Now the philosophical paradox which has plagued the history of human consciousness Is there is or is there ain’t Free Will? was finally going to be decided by a jury.
The abduction occurred in February 1974. One of the SLA’s demands was a free food program. Patty’s father, Randolph Hearst, publisher of the San Francisco Examiner, arranged for such a project in Oakland. Then-governor Ronald Reagan responded to the long line of people waiting for free food: "I hope they all get botulism."
In June, I disclosed in the Berkeley Barb the non-fact that I had been brought to meet Patty underground. I wrote: "Since there is nothing of investigatory value in the interview, I will not speak with the FBI. Nor am I able to supply any information that might earn me a $50,000 reward. Tania insisted that she had not been brainwashed. My impression is that she was."
In view of conspiracy researcher Mae Brussell’s track record with the Watergate story (titled "Why Was Martha Mitchell Kidnapped?"), I decided to devote an entire issue of The Realist to her documented analysis, "Why Was Patricia Hearst Kidnapped?" the thrust of which was that the SLA was essentially an espionage plot orchestrated by our secret government in order to distort the message of idealism.
One year after the kidnapping, Patty Hearst was still on the lam with her captors, and Crawdaddy, a music magazine for which I wrote a column, "The Naked Emperor," wanted a feature article on the case. So I wrote an imaginary interview with Patty, and Crawdaddy published it in their April 1975 issue. An excerpt:
Q. There was a pornographic novel, Black Abductor, published a couple of years ago, which seems to parallel your case on several counts, although in the book the kidnap victim is raped.
A. That didn’t happen to me. I wasn’t raped, but I have made love of my own free will with each and every one of my comrades. Male and female. And it’s been extremely liberating. I’ll tell you, I’ve learned more about my own sensuality in the past year than in my whole previous life.
Q. There’s been a rumor that you used to visit Donald DeFreeze in prison?
A. That’s impossible. It’s a lie. I never did.
Q. And also that you knew [SLA member] Willie Wolfe before you were abducted?’
A. That’s another lie. I mean, I feel as if I’ve known him all my life, but that’s a false rumor.
Q. How have you been affected by the bisexuality?
A. I think it was an extension of heterosexuality. I had never been physically close to a black man like I’ve been with Cinque. I always thought nappy hair was tough like Brillo, you know? but it’s really soft. And so then to become intimate with another woman I could feel my inhibitions peeling off like layers of onion skin. And I became acquainted with my clitoris. My poor little neglected clitoris, ignored all these years. What a waste.
Q. What about the evidence that DeFreeze has been an informer for the Los Angeles Police Department?
A. That was his survival game. If he were still working for the pigs, we wouldn’t be in danger now. I mean, you can’t confuse somebody like Cinque with like, I met the Shah of Iran once, and he was absolutely charming, but he’s actually a vicious executioner. But I just hope that some of those Watergate bastards go to prison, just so they get even a little taste of it and perhaps understand the lengths that a prisoner will go to the deals and all to escape legally, if that’s really legal.
Q. What about music? What have you been listening to?
A. Well, we only have a radio here. At a previous safe-house there was a stereo, but we didn’t have a variety of records. Joy of Cooking, we played them a lot. Pink Floyd, too. And there’s a group called the Last Poets, and there’s one cut on their album where they give their interpretation of all the symbolism on a dollar bill, and we just sat around, wiped out on some really excellent grass, looking at a dollar bill while they were reciting that. It’s very powerful. I remember how I used to think, when I was a little girl, that real money was just official play money.
Q. I feel silly asking this, but have you been brainwashed?
A. No, I’ve been coerced, obviously, at the beginning, but I haven’t been brainwashed. You have to understand what it’s been like from my point of view. Instant introspection. The moment I was taken away, underneath the tremendous fear I felt, I was still aware that it was because I was the daughter of a wealthy family whose comfort depends on the suffering of others. I’ve always been vaguely aware of that but, you know, you try to repress that kind of thing so you can go on living comfortably yourself.
Q. Did your family know you were getting stoned?
A. Oh, sure. Listen, there was almost a pound of marijuana at our apartment when I, you know, went on this l