Roger Rapoport - Searching for Patty Hearst: A True Crime Novel





Nov 20, 2023





Roger Rapoport joins Ed Opperman to discuss one of the most controversial kidnapping cases of the twentieth century; Patty Hearst.On the night that Patty Hearst  was kidnapped in 1974, journalist Roger D. Rapoport, was a short drive  away in his El Cerrito home. He quickly became one of the primary  reporters covering the saga as it unfolded in real time. His reporting  gave local and national readers a window into one of the most bizarre  and polarizing crimes in U.S. history. Now, fifty years later, he has  written a novel, Searching for Patty Hearst,  that draws heavily from that time. In this compelling new book, he  explores alternative theories of the crime and delves into the complex  psychology of many of the key actors in a drama that kept the country  riveted. Using the techniques of fiction, Rapoport gives voice to much  of the story that fell outside of the bounds of journalistic coverage.  "I wrote this novel because I believed the American public deserved  nothing but the truth," he says. With a wry sensibility and insider  knowledge that Rapoport is one of the few people to possess, Searching for Patty Hearst,  goes beyond the tabloid headlines to tell the story in all its depth.  Rapoport takes on such questions as: Why did Patty participate in the  kidnapping of a high school student hours before six of the SLA  kidnappers were killed in a firefight with the Los Angeles police  department? Did celebrity coroner Thomas Noguchi, whom Rapoport  interviewed, mishandle the autopsies of six SLA victims? Why did Patty's  lawyers dump her fiancée Steve Weed as a key witness at her trial at  the last minute? It's often said that fiction can offer insights into  the truth that reporting can't. If that is the case, the story of Patty  Hearst, the SLA, and the kidnapping that carved them into the American  psyche just may be told for the first time with Searching for Patty Hearst.








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