On February 4th, 1974, Patty Hearst, granddaughter of newspaper mogul, William Randolph Hearst, was forcibly taken from her San Francisco apartment by members of The Symbionese Liberation Army, a group of eight young radicals.  Two months after her abduction, she had joined the “army,” taken on a new name, learned to expertly handle fire arms, and robbed a bank.  Was Hearst brain washed, did she suffer Stockholm Syndrome or was this an act she put on to save her life?  Toobin, in objective, straight forward prose, looks at all the angles and makes it pretty clear what he believes really happened to her.

If, like me, you are curious what the real story was or if you just want to read a true story that is often more unbelievable than a work of fiction, you will want to read American Heiress.