Kidnapped heiress, bank robber, actress — and dog breeder?
Patty Hearst, granddaughter of powerful publisher William Randolph Hearst, was kidnapped in 1974 by the radical Symbionese Liberation Army and supposedly joined the cause.
She’s also one of three owners of the shih tzu named GCH Hallmark Jolei Rocket Power, which won the toy dog category Monday at the 139th Annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show at New York’s Madison Square Garden.
The dogs compete for best in breed and then for best in group. The seven groups are sporting, hound, working, terrier, toy, non-sporting and herding.
The seven dogs named best in group compete for the overall best in show title in the finals Tuesday night.
Hearst, 60, has been involved in the dog world for the past decade, a world away from the controversial revolutionary life she once led.
In a 1974 bank robbery after her kidnapping, surveillance cameras showed her with a rifle. She was arrested the following year and charged with armed bank robbery and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.
A jury didn’t buy her defense of brainwashing and fear that she would be killed if she did not join the Symbionese Liberation Army, and she served two years of her sentence before President Jimmy Carter commuted it in 1979. President Bill Clinton granted her a full pardon.
Married to her security guard shortly after leaving prison, Hearst had two daughters and dabbled in acting and writing.