In the 1970s a prisoner walked out of a California prison. Within two years they became the most feared domestic terrorist-cell leader in United States History, killing multiple black leaders, kidnapping the heiress to Americas largest News Media empire, and brainwashing her into changing her name, denouncing her family and capitalism, and ultimately robbing banks for the cause. (Pic very related)
The only problem, investigative journalists found he was an informant with long-ties to the LAPD and potentially the CIA and that his kidnapping victim had actually visited him in PRISON before he ever escaped.
The public, after being made aware that something fishy was going on, was treated to a MASSIVE RAID on the groups "secret" base and everyone one killed in a blaze of gunfire and structure fire as the building was reduced to ashes in a matter of hours.
The heiress was not among the dead and it would be months before she turned herself in. Her court case was a WHOLE weird affair with her original lawyer wanting to defend her but her powerful family stepping in and giving her a MUCH worse lawyer who threw her case. One juror was quoted as having wept when they were forced to convict her after her lawyer said she robbed the banks of her own free will during his closing statements.
She's out of jail and married to one of the officers who supervised her release. She was in a few movies in the 1990s. Her story is mostly forgotten about today.
Do your own research:
The Terror Cell: Symbioneese Liberation Army
Terrorist Leader and Police Informant: Donald DeFreeze
Heiress: Patricia Hearst
The Book The Internet Tries to Hide: 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 by PAUL AVERY
https://archive.org/details/voicesofguns00mcle
Weird conspiracy side-note #1: Paul Avery is the journalist targeted by the Zodiac Killer in the 1970s and is played by Robert Downy Jr in the film. Although the movie is mostly character assassination because at the time he is in the boat fully burned out in the film IRL he is working on the Patty Hearst case and his book, while being one of the most detailed on the subject is largely forgotten about today, some would even say this work being forgotten is by design because anyone looking into the case will notice contradictions. Just like....
Weird conspiracy side-note #2: STEPHEN KING wrote a character based on Donald DeFreeze or inspired by him who has appeared in SEVERAL works including The Dark Tower, The Stand, and The Eyes of the Dragon. The characters name is Randal Flagg.
Weird conspiracy side-note #3: While DeFreeze was African American so too were 100% of the SLA's targets and victims. This along with MANY MORE contradictions in the case have lead some to speculate the SLA was a CIA sponsored hit-squad targeting the Black Panthers who were especially active in California at the time and any research you do into the SLA should include a little reading on what the Black Panthers were up to at the time (Fun Fact: Tupac's Mom was a black panther around this time.)