A Symbionese Easter

By a strange confluence of events, I was working yesterday on the portion of my new memoir book (to be published next year by Encounter) concerning the Symbionese Liberation Army when I heard the news of Sara Jane Olson’s rearrest. I didn’t know Sara Jane, but I did know her cohorts in the SLA, Bill and Emily Harris, the kidnappers of Patty Hearst. Many years ago I was almost hired to turn their life story into a movie – whatever that would have been – when the film’s putative director – Milos Forman – couldn’t enter the jail with me to talk with the Harrises. Milos was stateless then and was, justifiably, afraid any association with the Harrises would jeopardize his citizenship. There is more to the story than than, of course, but you will have to wait for the book. Those events had seemed so far away when I was writing them – only to see Sara Jane’s name popping up on my computer screen. This means nothing, other than idle chance, of course, but it was an odd resurrection of another sort for Easter.