The Patty Hearst Trail Heats Up

For the past ten months, there have been sporadic reports that she has been spotted, that the authorities have been playing a waiting game, that the long chase would soon be over. But the leads always turned out to be false, and the FBI always had to admit that, despite one of the most massive searches in its history, it had no idea where Patty Hearst was.

She was abducted from her apartment in Berkeley, Calif., on Feb. 4, 1974 by members of the Symbionese Liberation Army. On April 15, with a carbine cradled in her arm, she appeared with S.L.A. members during the robbery of a San Francisco bank. After six of her S.L.A. companions were killed in a violent shootout with Los Angeles police on May 17, Patty disappeared. Last month, on the eve of the anniversary of his daughter's kidnaping, Randolph Hearst admitted: "We don't know anything about Patricia. We don't know where she is, and we don't know whether she is well. But we believe she is still alive."

Last week the search for Patty Hearst suddenly heated up. There was a flurry of grand jury action on both coasts. If they did not know where she was, at least the searchers were sure that they knew where she had been. In keeping with the bizarre nature of the entire episode, the latest chapter involved a radical athletics director named John V. Scott who had once been employed by Oberlin College in Ohio, and--the strangest touch of all--Bill Walton, the talented, eccentric 6-ft. 11-in. basketball center of the Portland Trail Blazers.

Berkeley Plot. After the Los Angeles shootout, law enforcement agencies now believe, Patty Hearst fled to Berkeley with at least two S.L.A. members, William and Emily Harris. There they were joined by Wendy Masako Yoshimura, 32, who has been a fugitive since March 30, 1972. She is wanted for possessing explosives that were to have been used in a plot--never carried out--to blow up the naval architecture building on the campus of the University of California at Berkeley. Patty and the Harrises apparently linked up with Scott, 33, who is an intense, articulate critic of American athletics. Scott argues that most college sports programs are an extension of a society that he calls racist and militaristic. Looking for a fresh approach, Oberlin hired Scott as athletics director in 1972, on the theory that he was the right man to enliven the college's de-emphasized athletics program. It did not work out, and Oberlin and the reformer parted company last year, with Oberlin paying Scott the amount of his unexpired contract: $42,000.

TIME has learned that early last summer a West Coast radical leader summoned Scott to Berkeley and asked him to help Patty and her friends. Then either Scott or his parents, Mr. and Mrs. John S. Scott, picked up Patty and the Harrises near Berkeley and took them to the motel the elder Scotts managed in Las Vegas. The trio stayed there for about a week. Patty and the Harrises then traveled to New York City and moved into an apartment on West 92nd Street. The younger Scott and his wife Micki joined the trio in New York.

Ideal Spot. In early October, police thought they saw Patty in the Times Square subway station. The girl, who looked remarkably like Patty, was so incensed at being examined by police that she resisted strongly and was arrested, and the story got into the newspapers.

Alarmed, Patty's group fled Manhattan and rented an isolated farmhouse near South Canaan, a hamlet in northwest Pennsylvania about 25 miles from Scranton. They had picked an ideal spot. There were already a number of established hippie communes on the region's abandoned farms, and no one was likely to notice another group arriving in a dusty van to set up housekeeping. Scott paid the total rent of $1,200 in cash.

For unexplained reasons, the Scotts, the Harrises and Patty pulled out of their sanctuary in late fall and began driving west. At one point, the van was stopped by a highway patrolman. Scott, who was driving, bluffed his way out of the jam by telling the cop that he and the others were driving home from a football game in Pennsylvania.

Officials now believe that Patty, the Scotts and the Harrises decided to split up and go their own way. A Pennsylvania grand jury began looking into reports that the S.L.A. band had found shelter in the area. The FBI used bloodhounds to help link Patty to the suspected farmhouse. Given her scent from a piece of Patty's clothing, one dog led agents to a bed in the house.

Last week the grand jury heard the testimony of Jay Weiner, 20, a would-be sportswriter who is a student at Philadelphia's Temple University, but who attended Oberlin from 1972 to 1974. Scott became Weiner's mentor. After his appearance before the grand jury, Weiner refused to say anything about the group, but he did ask newsmen to send his greetings to Tania (the underground name that Patty has adopted) and "my comrade Jack and my dearest sister Micki," who clearly were the Scotts. Weiner also said that he hoped the Scotts and Patty were safe "in or out of this monster's belly," an apparent reference to American society.

As part of another grand jury investigation in San Francisco, FBI agents questioned U.C.L.A. Graduate Walton. An enigmatic, moody man, Walton is a bitter critic of U.S. society. "I don't believe in capitalism," he said when he signed his pro contract. "I believe wealth should be spread around." Walton's deal gave him $2.5 million.

When Walton met Scott and his wife, he was so attracted by the couple that last year he invited them to move into his $100,000 A-frame house outside Portland. Last week, after talking to the FBI, Walton said that his new guru had never mentioned any involvement with the S.L.A. Walton said that he had last seen Scott two or three weeks ago, when his friend had told him he was "going away for a while." Added the basketball star: "All I can go on is my personal experience, and I had some of the most beautiful experiences in my life with Jack Scott and some of the worst with the FBI."

At week's end Patty Hearst remained at large, and the long chase continued as the FBI hunted for clues in Pennsylvania and California. The elder Scott was to testify this week before the San Francisco grand jury. The New York Times reported that Jack Scott had phoned one of its reporters to say that his lawyer "was discussing his situation with federal authorities." The Times also said that Scott "implied" he knew something about Patty's activities since last June. Declared a Justice Department official: "The FBI agents are convinced that Scott--if he were willing--could lead them right to Patty Hearst."

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