27 Years Ago in TIME

By Harriet Barovick, Elizabeth L. Bland, Janice M. Horowitz, Victoria Rainert, Rebecca Winters

Former Symbionese Liberation Army leaders Bill and Emily Harris, along with two others, were charged last week with the murder of a customer during a 1975 bank robbery. But when they were caught and arraigned that year, it was their old comrade PATRICIA HEARST who made TIME's cover.

Patty had changed during her hegira. Not only had her long dark blonde hair been cut shorter and dyed red but she had lost her healthy, cover-girl looks. Her face was noticeably drawn. But she did not look or act like a victim who had been forced by her abductors to rob a bank and denounce her grieving parents and her fiance as "pigs" and "clowns." She was as casual as if she had dropped by to answer a traffic summons. She was wearing stained rubber clogs and dark brown cotton pants, and beneath her striped, long-sleeved jersey she was braless... Next, Patty's friends Bill and Emily Harris went before [Judge] Woodruff. As Harris entered the courtroom, he scanned the expectant audience and cried out, "What do you say, comrades? Keep on trucking!" Then he lifted his left hand in a clenched-fist salute. The Harrises were arraigned on charges of illegal possession of arms; bail was set at $550,000 for each. As he was led from the courtroom by two U.S. marshals, Harris raised his right arm, his fist a hard ball, and announced loudly, "This ain't no big deal, comrades. Long live the guerrillas!"

--TIME, Sept. 29, 1975