6. Patty became a fugitive
Following the raid on the SLA headquarters, Patty, William, and Emily became fugitives. They traveled across the country and four a while lived in a Pennsylvania farmhouse. Her appearances changed so dramatically that her later mugshot scarcely resembled the 19-year-old girl who was kidnapped from Berkeley, California. In fact, when she was in a car accident, the three police officers who assisted her did not recognize her – even though her face was plastered all across the country as a wanted fugitive. While living at the farmhouse in Pennsylvania, the group ran four miles every day with weights on their ankles to ensure that they stayed in shape for future guerrilla activities.
With Patty on the run, the FBI leveled 20 crimes against her, two of which carried life sentences. However, she was less than apologetic. She sent a tape to a radio station in which she gave a eulogy for her comrades-in-arms who had perished at the raid. On the tape, she said that even though life is precious to her, she would never surrender. Meanwhile, while the FBI was looking for her all across the country, she and the Harris’s busied themselves with training new SLA recruits in how to use firearms.
