Fugitivity

Remember back in 1974 when Patty Hearst was kidnapped by a rag-tag bunch of revolutionaries calling themselves the Symbionese Liberation Army? It turned out to be one of the most well-known examples of the Stockholm Syndrome, in which the captive comes to identify with and even join the captors. Thus it was that Patty Hearst drove the getaway car for an SLA bank robbery in which a bank customer was killed. One of the SLA robbers, Kathleen Ann Soliah, became a fugitive.

Until this date in 1999, when Sara Jane Olson, living in the Highland Park neighborhood of St. Paul, was arrested.  Turns out Sara Jane  -- wife, mother, well-liked community activist -- was really Kathleen Ann.  So, after 25 years on the lam, she was hauled back to California and put in prison for a decade or so.

Patty Hearst served time, too, at the federal prison in Pleasanton, CA.  I visited there while she was an inmate, but did not meet her.

Coincidentally, today is also the birthday (1947) of Tom "Bones" Malone, a session musician, arranger, producer, and member of the Blues Brothers backing band. The Blues Brothers (at least in the movie) were also fugitives.  Indeed, the fictional Jake Blues had served time in the very real Illinois state prison at Joliet, which I have also visited.

So, please enjoy this old clip from an old movie...

Here's a related poem by Richard Brautigan.

Private Eye Lettuce

Three crates of Private Eye Lettuce,
the name and drawing of a detective
with magnifying glass on the sides
of the crates of lettuce,
form a great cross in man's imagination
and his desire to name
the objects of this world.
I think I'll call this place Golgotha
and have some salad for dinner.