Patricia Soltysik

Patricia Soltysik

Soltysik running out the bank with a bag of money; to her left is Patty Hearst and behind her is Donald DeFreeze.
Born May 17, 1950
Goleta, California, United States
Died May 17, 1974(1974-05-17) (aged 24)
Los Angeles, California, United States
Other names Mizmoon, Zoya, Pat
Movement Symbionese Liberation Army

Patricia Monique Soltysik (May 17, 1950 – May 17, 1974) was an American woman, best known as one of the founders of the Symbionese Liberation Army.

Early life

Patricia Soltysik was the daughter of a pharmacist, the third of seven children, the eldest of five girls. She grew up in Goleta, California, and graduated from Dos Pueblos High School in 1968 in the top 10 percent of her class and was the student body treasurer of her high school.[1]

She enrolled in the University of California, Berkeley on a state scholarship in 1968. While at Berkeley she became embittered by the "Bloody Thursday" incident where a protester was killed.[1] Drifting into radical groups she became a radical feminist and self-avowed revolutionary. When her brother asked about her plans of becoming a lawyer, she replied, "Sisters, none of us are free until we are all free." In 1971 she attached herself to the radical ex-convict group United Prisoners Union and dropped out of school. She and her neighbor, Camilla Hall, became lovers, and it was Hall who gave Soltysik the name "Mizmoon."[2]

SLA is born

On March 5, 1973, Donald DeFreeze escaped from prison and future SLA members Russ Little and Willie Wolfe took him to Soltysik's house because unlike their other associates, Soltysik hadn't visited the prisons.[3] The two became lovers and Soltysik and DeFreeze created the first SLA literature.[2]

On November 6, 1973 in Oakland, California, two members of the SLA killed superintendent of schools Dr. Marcus Foster and badly wounded his deputy Robert Blackburn as the men left an Oakland school board meeting. The SLA condemned Foster's plan to introduce identification cards into Oakland schools as "fascist". It was later revealed that Soltysik and Emily Harris were the two who shot Marcus Foster according to Patty Hearst's sworn testimony.[4]

L.A. shootout and death

Soltysik was one of the six SLA members killed in a shootout with Los Angeles Police Department on May 17, 1974. She was found underneath the floor of the house in a crawl space. She died from smoke inhalation, burn injuries, and several gunshot wounds as the house burned down around her.

References

  1. 1 2 Soltysik, Fred (1976). In Search of a Sister. New York: Bantam. p. 248. ASIN B0006WBNXU. 21-35
  2. 1 2 Toobin, Jeffrey (2016). American Heiress: The Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, Crimes and Trial of Patty Hearst. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. p. 11. ISBN 978-0385536714.
  3. ↑ Patrick Mondout. "SLA Chronology". Retrieved January 21, 2007.
  4. ↑ Russell Little (2004). Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst (Documentary) (TV special). PBS. Retrieved 2006. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)


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