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On February 4, 1974, strangers burst into the college apartment of Patty Hearst and kidnap her at gunpoint. While she begins her stay in captivity, she learns about her kidnappers. They are a ragtag collection of hopeful revolutionaries who call themselves the Symbionese Liberation Army. They are led by charismatic Donald DeFreeze, an escaped convict who helped the group execute a high-profile murder in Oakland, California. Join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons:  blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join Apple users join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes, bingeable seasons and bonus episodes. Click the Black Barrel+ banner on Apple to get started with a 3-day free trial. On YouTube, subscribe to INFAMOUS+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons. Hit “JOIN” on the Infamous America YouTube homepage.  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm4V_wVD7N1gEB045t7-V0w/featured For more details, please visit www.blackbarrelmedia.com. Our social media pages are: @blackbarrelmedia on Facebook and Instagram, and @bbarrelmedia on Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The kidnappers contact Patty Hearst’s family and make a strange and unprecedented demand. The SLA wants the wealthy Hearst family to set up a food distribution program throughout California. The Hearsts quickly organize a program, but it debuts with disastrous results. And the world hears the first communique from Patty Hearst since her abduction. Join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons:  blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join Apple users join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes, bingeable seasons and bonus episodes. Click the Black Barrel+ banner on Apple to get started with a 3-day free trial. On YouTube, subscribe to INFAMOUS+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons. Hit “JOIN” on the Infamous America YouTube homepage.  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm4V_wVD7N1gEB045t7-V0w/featured For more details, please visit www.blackbarrelmedia.com. Our social media pages are: @blackbarrelmedia on Facebook and Instagram, and @bbarrelmedia on Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode will be available for free on Wednesday Feb. 28, 2024. For instant access, ad-free listening and exclusive content, join Black Barrel+ After more than two months in captivity, Patty Hearst emerges from the shadows and helps the SLA rob a bank in northern California. The public is shocked to see images of the former college student who now looks like an armed revolutionary. A radio station receives a recording in which Patty proclaims her transformation is complete: she is an avowed soldier in the SLA. Join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join Apple users join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes, bingeable seasons and bonus episodes. Click the Black Barrel+ banner on Apple to get started with a 3-day free trial. On YouTube, subscribe to INFAMOUS+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons. Hit “JOIN” on the Infamous America YouTube homepage. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm4V_wVD7N1gEB045t7-V0w/featured For more details, please visit www.blackbarrelmedia.com. Our social media pages are: @blackbarrelmedia on Facebook and Instagram, and @bbarrelmedia on Twitter.

This episode will be available for free on Wednesday March 6, 2024. For instant access, ad-free listening and exclusive content, join Black Barrel+ The SLA feels heat from the FBI and law enforcement in northern California, so the group moves south to Los Angeles. Patty Hearst and two other members drive to a sporting goods store to buy supplies, but the simple errand takes a dramatic turn for the worse. The trio ends up on the run through L.A., and their error leads the police to the location of the SLA hideout. The revolutionaries engage the LAPD in a firefight that leads to the end of the original gang. Join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join Apple users join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes, bingeable seasons and bonus episodes. Click the Black Barrel+ banner on Apple to get started with a 3-day free trial. On YouTube, subscribe to INFAMOUS+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons. Hit “JOIN” on the Infamous America YouTube homepage. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm4V_wVD7N1gEB045t7-V0w/featured For more details, please visit www.blackbarrelmedia.com. Our social media pages are: @blackbarrelmedia on Facebook and Instagram, and @bbarrelmedia on Twitter.

This episode will be available for free on Wednesday March 13, 2024. For instant access, ad-free listening and exclusive content, join Black Barrel+ Patty Hearst and the other two surviving members of the SLA connect with new recruits and flee to Pennsylvania to hide from the police. Before long, the group returns to northern California and conducts a bank robbery that has fatal consequences. The FBI picks up the trail of the elusive fugitives and finally arrests Patty Hearst. Join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join Apple users join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes, bingeable seasons and bonus episodes. Click the Black Barrel+ banner on Apple to get started with a 3-day free trial. On YouTube, subscribe to INFAMOUS+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons. Hit “JOIN” on the Infamous America YouTube homepage. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm4V_wVD7N1gEB045t7-V0w/featured For more details, please visit www.blackbarrelmedia.com. Our social media pages are: @blackbarrelmedia on Facebook and Instagram, and @bbarrelmedia on Twitter.

This episode will be available for free on Wednesday March 20, 2024. For instant access, ad-free listening and exclusive content, join Black Barrel+ More than a year and a half after Patty Hearst was kidnapped, her legal saga plays out in court and in the media. In court, she portrays herself as an innocent victim who was forced to participate in criminal activities. In early media encounters, she sounds like she genuinely joined the revolutionary group and was a willing participant in all its illegal exploits. No one knows the truth, and the debate continues to this day. Join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join Apple users join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes, bingeable seasons and bonus episodes. Click the Black Barrel+ banner on Apple to get started with a 3-day free trial. On YouTube, subscribe to INFAMOUS+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons. Hit “JOIN” on the Infamous America YouTube homepage. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm4V_wVD7N1gEB045t7-V0w/featured For more details, please visit www.blackbarrelmedia.com. Our social media pages are: @blackbarrelmedia on Facebook and Instagram, and @bbarrelmedia on Twitter.

Lester Gillis shows a restless spirit at a young age and soon begins his criminal career with a gang that specializes in home invasions. His crew makes a name for itself during Chicago’s crime wave of 1930, and he receives the nickname that sticks with him for the rest of his short life. Join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join Apple users join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes, bingeable seasons and bonus episodes. Click the Black Barrel+ banner on Apple to get started with a 3-day free trial. On YouTube, subscribe to INFAMOUS+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons. Hit “JOIN” on the Infamous America YouTube homepage.  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm4V_wVD7N1gEB045t7-V0w/featured For more details, please visit www.blackbarrelmedia.com. Our social media pages are: @blackbarrelmedia on Facebook and Instagram, and @bbarrelmedia on Twitter. To purchase an ad on this show please reach out: blackbarrelmedia@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

 Lester Gillis – known as George Nelson, nicknamed Baby Face Nelson – wants to graduate from home invasion to bank robbery. His crew targets small-town banks with varying degrees of success, and their streak doesn’t last long. Nelson gets arrested and sent to prison, but he proves he’s resourceful and has no intention of staying behind bars. Join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join Apple users join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes, bingeable seasons and bonus episodes. Click the Black Barrel+ banner on Apple to get started with a 3-day free trial. On YouTube, subscribe to INFAMOUS+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons. Hit “JOIN” on the Infamous America YouTube homepage.  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm4V_wVD7N1gEB045t7-V0w/featured For more details, please visit www.blackbarrelmedia.com. Our social media pages are: @blackbarrelmedia on Facebook and Instagram, and @bbarrelmedia on Twitter. To purchase an ad on this show please reach out: blackbarrelmedia@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Baby Face Nelson flees to the West Coast to avoid a manhunt in the Midwest. He works for prominent gamblers in Reno, Nevada and a bootlegger in California, but he misses his family in Chicago. He meets famous robber Alvin “Creepy” Karpis and takes Karpis’s advice to form a new crew in St. Paul, Minnesota. The crew robs a bank in Grand Haven, Michigan, but the meticulous plan falls apart almost immediately. Join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join Apple users join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes, bingeable seasons and bonus episodes. Click the Black Barrel+ banner on Apple to get started with a 3-day free trial. On YouTube, subscribe to INFAMOUS+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons. Hit “JOIN” on the Infamous America YouTube homepage.  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm4V_wVD7N1gEB045t7-V0w/featured For more details, please visit www.blackbarrelmedia.com. Our social media pages are: @blackbarrelmedia on Facebook and Instagram, and @bbarrelmedia on Twitter. To purchase an ad on this show please reach out: blackbarrelmedia@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After the messy Grand Haven job, Baby Face Nelson looks for a new crew. It’s the fall of 1933 and newspaper headlines are dominated by the most infamous criminals of the era: Bonnie and Clyde, George “Machine Gun” Kelly, Charles “Pretty Boy” Floyd, Alvin “Creepy” Karpis and the Barker Family, John Dillinger, and Baby Face Nelson. Dillinger stages an improbable escape from a jail in Crown Point, Indiana, and then teams with Nelson for the first of two rip-roaring robberies. Join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join Apple users join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes, bingeable seasons and bonus episodes. Click the Black Barrel+ banner on Apple to get started with a 3-day free trial. On YouTube, subscribe to INFAMOUS+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons. Hit “JOIN” on the Infamous America YouTube homepage.  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm4V_wVD7N1gEB045t7-V0w/featured For more details, please visit www.blackbarrelmedia.com. Our social media pages are: @blackbarrelmedia on Facebook and Instagram, and @bbarrelmedia on Twitter. To purchase an ad on this show please reach out: blackbarrelmedia@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After two robberies that featured gun battles, the Nelson-Dillinger gang needs some time to cool off. Baby Face Nelson heads out west to do a little business, and then reunites with the gang at the Little Bohemia Lodge in Wisconsin. Unbeknownst to the gang, FBI Agent Melvin Purvis has organized an ambush at the lodge. The gang shoots it out with the agents, and Nelson commits the crime that will soon make him the most wanted man in America. Join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join Apple users join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes, bingeable seasons and bonus episodes. Click the Black Barrel+ banner on Apple to get started with a 3-day free trial. On YouTube, subscribe to INFAMOUS+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons. Hit “JOIN” on the Infamous America YouTube homepage.  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm4V_wVD7N1gEB045t7-V0w/featured For more details, please visit www.blackbarrelmedia.com. Our social media pages are: @blackbarrelmedia on Facebook and Instagram, and @bbarrelmedia on Twitter. To purchase an ad on this show please reach out: blackbarrelmedia@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shortly after the Little Bohemia shootout, the celebrity criminals of the 1930s start to experience a reckoning. They fall one by one: Bonnie and Clyde, then John Dillinger, then Pretty Boy Floyd. In the autumn of 1934, Lester Gillis, aka George “Baby Face” Nelson, becomes the third man to carry the title of Public Enemy No. 1. But his reign at the top of the criminal underworld is brief and ends in a hail of gunfire. Join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join Apple users join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes, bingeable seasons and bonus episodes. Click the Black Barrel+ banner on Apple to get started with a 3-day free trial. On YouTube, subscribe to INFAMOUS+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons. Hit “JOIN” on the Infamous America YouTube homepage.  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm4V_wVD7N1gEB045t7-V0w/featured For more details, please visit www.blackbarrelmedia.com. Our social media pages are: @blackbarrelmedia on Facebook and Instagram, and @bbarrelmedia on Twitter. To purchase an ad on this show please reach out: blackbarrelmedia@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices