The Bell Curve:

The family was evenly divided, and the debate moved into the dining room without resolution.

Randy and I remained in the kitchen, and, according to my notes, he told me: “The people who died in that house have parents, and they must have gone through the same hell we did today. I feel very sorry for them — for any parents who have to endure something like this. I keep asking myself if there is any place our children can be reasonably safe. What kind of life can we have if there isn’t?”

Several months later, Patty Hearst went underground, was discovered, tried and found guilty for crimes she committed as Tania. In the process there was no resolution of the question of whether those acts rather than punished, should have been forgiven as the result of the brainwashing she endured in constant fear of her life.

As for me, the article I wrote and the book I was promised were washed out in strong differences between the editor of the magazine I was writing for and the Hearsts, who owned the magazine, about including references to drugs and the impact of the kidnapping on the relationship between Randolph and Catherine.

I got caught in the middle of this dispute, which was finally resolved by not running anything.

But I have the experience and the memories that got jogged last week by the problems of Kathleen Soliah when she became Sara Jane Olson and then played out the final act of the Symbionese Liberation Army and the Patty Hearst kidnapping in a California prison.

JOSEPH N. BELL lives in Newport Beach. His column runs Thursdays.