Twenty-Fifth Issue: Sara Jane Olson

The summer I was eight years old, my family went to Minnesota for a month and a half to visit my grandparents. I barely remembered what the United States was like, so it was very new and exciting for me. We went to Toys R Us and I got a Tamagotchi that my brother smashed to death with a broom about a month later, but for that one month it was my prized possession. I bought a choker I wore all the time and still have, just in time for it to come back in style.

There were a lot of big houses and trees in my grandparents' neighborhood. There were wide sidewalks, and the sky was bluer than a picture. One day, my mom took me for a walk a couple blocks away from my grandparents’ house, and she told me there was a criminal who lived there. She had changed her name and gotten married and had kids. No one had known that she was someone who had killed people twenty years before, but they just found out and now she was in trouble. She pointed out the house to me. It was blocked from view by large hedges, but there was a man in a black SUV across the street, very conspicuously reading the newspaper. It was all very exciting and intriguing to me, who had just read Harriet the Spy and wanted to be a spy when I grew up. Below is the picture of the house in question.

 

 

It wasn’t until recently that I actually looked up this story to learn more. I’m currently reading a book on Patty Hearst, and the Symbionese Liberation Army (which kidnapped her and she later joined), which reminded me of this story. The neighbor of my grandmother’s who was part of the SLA was known as Sara Jane Olson, born Kathleen Ann Soliah. She grew up in California and went into hiding in 1976 after she was in trouble for being responsible for a bombing. There were a LOT of bombings in the 70s. To be quite honest that whole decade was a complete mess. Whenever you feel upset about how the world is now, read a little bit about the seventies and I guarantee you’ll feel better. If we got through that, we can get through this.

Okay, so Kathleen Soliah was originally born and lived in the Midwest until she was eight years old when her family relocated to California. She moved to Berkeley after she graduated college, and met Angela Atwood, an aspiring actress and one of the women instrumental in Patty Hearst’s kidnapping. The two of them were co-leads in the play, and became close. Still, Kathleen didn’t join the SLA until later. In 1974, Angela and some other members of the SLA were killed, after they murdered the Oakland school superintendent (His name was Marcus Foster and they killed him because they thought he wanted police officers in schools and ID cards for students when he actually didn’t). Kathleen and her brother and boyfriend organized memorial rallies to commemorate the deaths of their friends. The SLA itself was a very small revolutionary group that never had more than 20ish members.

 

 

Kathleen got a job at a bookstore, and an SLA member got in disguise and visited her. Kathleen agreed to help the rest of the SLA to find a place to stay hidden from the police, helping them get supplies and fake IDs as well. In 1975, the SLA robbed a bank, killing a woman in the process. Patty Hearst was the getaway driver for the job, and she told police later that Kathleen was one of the robbers and also kicked a pregnant woman in the stomach, which later led to her miscarriage.

Later that year, a bomb was found near a LAPD police car. It didn’t go off, but another bomb was found in front of a police department and Kathleen was accused of planting both in revenge for the SLA members (including her friend Angela) who were killed the year before. Kathleen was indicted the year after for the bombings, but she vanished before she could be brought to trial. For the next 23 years, Kathleen was a fugitive named Sara Jane Olson.

In 1980, Sara married a doctor named Fred Peterson, and later had three daughters. For a few years they were in Zimbabwe, where Fred worked for a missionary group, and when they came back to Minnesota, Sara became active in community acting and social causes. In the summer of 1999, when I was in Minnesota, Sara was profiled on America’s Most Wanted. She was arrested in June. She legally changed her name to Sara Jane Olson and published a cookbook called Serving Time: America’s Most Wanted Recipes. In October 31, 2001, she pleaded guilty to two counts relating to the bombing case – all other charges were dropped as part of a plea deal.

Sara said that she only took the plea bargain because 9/11 had just happened and she didn’t think that an accused bomber would have a fair trial. Sara said that she “did not make that bomb…did not possess that bomb…did not plant that bomb. But under the concept of aiding and abetting, I plead guilty." About a month later, she withdrew her guilty plea but the judge had enough of these shenanigans and refused to let her withdraw it. She was sentenced in 2002 to two 10 years to life terms. She would probably only serve two to five years though, most people said at the time. At her hearing, Sara’s daughter, husband, and pastor spoke in her defense.

As soon as Sara was sentenced for the bombing case, first-degree murder charges were filed against her and four other SLA members for the murder of Myrna Opsahl who had been at the bank when they robbed it. She was sentenced in 2003 for six years, but it was to be served at the same time as the 14 year sentence she was already serving for the bombing.

Sara served her time in California, and she had limited privileges and wasn’t allowed to relocate to a facility closer to Minnesota as she was obviously a flight risk. Her husband and daughters visited her all the time, and her daughter Emily said of her mother’s past, “She lived in Berkeley. It was kind of normal. I always tell people she wasn't a terrorist. She was an urban guerrilla." Sara never expressed regret or remorse for her actions. She was released on parole in 2008.

However, five days later, she was rearrested because the parole board messed up and let her out a year early. She went back to prison for another year. In 2009, Sara was released for good, and served her parole in Minnesota. People were mad about that, they should she should serve it in California. One assumes she’s moved back home and is living happily with her family now. I wonder if she is in the same house. I wonder what her community thinks of her. I wonder what it was like for her daughters, preteens and teens at the time, to find out that their mother wasn't who she said she was. It must have been wild. I am glad they seem okay. Below is a picture of Sara (left) and her daughter (right).

 

 

Here is an article with more in depth information about Kathleen/Sara, if you are interested. Thanks for reading!