Sara Jane Olson is the assumed name of Kathleen Ann Soliah, a former Symbionese Liberation Army member who lived for nearly 25 years as a St. Paul, Minnesota housewife before her 1999 arrest returned her to Los Angeles to face charges for planting pipe bombs under LAPD patrol cars in 1975. She later pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for her role in a Sacramento-area bank robbery that killed 42-year-old Myrna Opsahl, a mother of four. She served roughly seven years in California prisons and was paroled in 2009.
Kathleen Soliah and the SLA
Born Kathleen Ann Soliah, she was drawn into the orbit of the Symbionese Liberation Army, a small revolutionary group formed in Berkeley in 1973 under the leadership of escaped prisoner Donald DeFreeze.1PBS. Rise and Fall of the Symbionese Liberation Army The group is best known for the February 1974 kidnapping of newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst, who was later filmed taking part in an SLA bank robbery.2FBI. Patty Hearst
On May 17, 1974, a televised shootout with Los Angeles police ended with an SLA safe house in Compton engulfed in flames. Six members died, including DeFreeze and Angela Atwood, a close friend of Soliah’s from a Berkeley theater production.3Seattle Times. Life After the SLA
Two weeks later, at a rally in Berkeley’s Ho Chi Minh Park on June 2, 1974, Soliah delivered a eulogy for the dead. “SLA soldiers,” she told the crowd, “I know it is not necessary to say, but keep on fighting. I’m with you and we are with you!”4Time. Sara Jane Olson: American Housewife, American Terrorist The speech would become a central piece of evidence tying her to the group. According to Patricia Hearst, Soliah and her boyfriend James Kilgore later met with Hearst and the surviving Harrises at a drive-in theater and handed them $1,500 in cash, and Soliah helped connect them with a journalist who arranged their escape east.5Chicago Tribune. The Role of a Lifetime
The 1975 Crimes
The LAPD Pipe Bombs
On the night of August 21, 1975, someone placed a pipe bomb under an LAPD patrol car parked at an International House of Pancakes on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. Patrons saw an object fall from the underside of the vehicle as the two officers inside, John Hall and James Bryan, pulled out of the lot. The device did not detonate.6Los Angeles Times. Arrest of Kathleen Soliah
Suspecting SLA retaliation for the 1974 shootout, LAPD Captain Mervin King ordered every police vehicle searched. A second pipe bomb was found attached to an unmarked car in the Hollenbeck Division. Both devices were packed with roughly a hundred heavy-duty construction nails. Neither exploded. Investigation of the bomb components pointed to Soliah and Kilgore.7LAPD. Former SLA Member Pleads Guilty to Attempting to Kill Los Angeles Police Officers
The Carmichael Bank Robbery
Four months earlier, on April 21, 1975, SLA members had robbed a Crocker National Bank in Carmichael, California, taking $15,000. During the robbery, Myrna Opsahl, who had come to the bank to deposit church funds, was shot with a shotgun and died shortly after reaching the hospital.8PBS. Myrna Opsahl Emily Harris, who later went by Emily Montague, eventually acknowledged firing the weapon but maintained the discharge was accidental.9CBS News. Former SLA Members to Do Time
No one was charged with Opsahl’s killing for more than 25 years. Her son, Jon Opsahl, pressed authorities for decades to act. He later said Soliah’s quiet suburban life was itself part of what disturbed him: “She participated in a crime that took her life, and then kind of assumed that life.”10ABC News. SLA Members Charged in Opsahl Murder
A New Life in St. Paul
Soliah fled California in the fall of 1975, just ahead of a raid that netted four of her co-conspirators. She surfaced in St. Paul, Minnesota, under the name Sara Jane Olson, married emergency room physician Dr. Gerald “Fred” Peterson in 1980, and raised three daughters.11MPR News. Sara Jane Olson’s Friends Loyal, Mostly Silent
She lived in a comfortable, middle-class neighborhood of lawyers, doctors, and professors. She volunteered for social causes, acted in community theater, and hosted dinner parties. Neighbors knew her as a politically active housewife and philanthropist.12CBS News. Former 70s Radical Freed From Prison
Arrest After a Television Broadcast
The double life ended after the television show America’s Most Wanted aired a profile on the case in 1999. A tip led FBI agents to St. Paul, where Olson was arrested on June 16, 1999, while driving a minivan.13NBC News. Sara Jane Olson Released From Prison
Her community rallied quickly. Neighbor Mary Sutton helped form the Sara Jane Olson Defense Fund Committee, which raised $1 million for bail from more than 250 contributors, some of whom mortgaged their homes or drew from college savings. The committee also raised close to $80,000 for legal costs by selling buttons, bumper stickers, and a cookbook titled Serving Time: America’s Most Wanted Recipes.14MPR News. Sara Jane Olson Defense Supporters included professors, actors, a rabbi, a Minnesota politician, and former Weather Underground members Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers.15Los Angeles Times. Support Network for Sara Jane Olson The Los Angeles Police Protective League called her a “sociopath.”16CNN. Sara Jane Olson Released From Prison
Her defense team included J. Tony Serra, who had won the acquittal of SLA member Russell Little, along with Stuart Hanlon and Susan Jordan, both veterans of earlier SLA cases.17Los Angeles Times. Sara Jane Olson Defense Team
Guilty Pleas and a Reversal on the Courthouse Steps
On October 31, 2001, Olson pleaded guilty before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler to two counts of attempting to ignite a destructive device, covering both pipe bombs.18Los Angeles Times. Judge Denies Olson’s Plea Withdrawal In the hallway outside the courtroom, she told reporters she was innocent.
Judge Fidler called her back on November 6 and had her reaffirm the plea on the record. A week later, she moved to withdraw it. “Cowardice prevented me from doing what I knew I should: Throw caution aside and move forward to trial,” she wrote. “After deeper reflection, I realize I cannot plead guilty when I know I am not.”19CNN. Olson Seeks to Withdraw Plea She said she had been coerced by Serra and feared jurors would be biased after the September 11 attacks.
On December 3, 2001, Fidler rejected the motion. “She pled guilty because she is guilty,” he said. “I couldn’t for a minute accept a guilty plea from a person who I believed was innocent.”18Los Angeles Times. Judge Denies Olson’s Plea Withdrawal In January 2002, he imposed two consecutive terms of ten years to life. The California Board of Prison Terms initially set a minimum of 14 years.20FindLaw. Sentencing the Symbionese Liberation Army
The Opsahl Murder Charges
In January 2002, Sacramento County prosecutors charged five former SLA members with Myrna Opsahl’s murder: Emily Harris Montague, William Harris, Michael Bortin, Sara Jane Olson, and James Kilgore, who was still a fugitive.10ABC News. SLA Members Charged in Opsahl Murder Jon Opsahl’s years of pressure were widely credited for the prosecution.
On November 7, 2002, Olson and three co-defendants pleaded guilty to second-degree murder before Superior Court Judge Thomas Cecil. Sentences were staggered by degree of involvement:
- Emily Montague received 8 years, having acknowledged firing the shotgun.
- William Harris received 7 years.
- Sara Jane Olson and Michael Bortin each received 6 years.9CBS News. Former SLA Members to Do Time
Kilgore was arrested in Cape Town, South Africa, one day later, on November 8, 2002. He had been living there as “Charles William Pape” and teaching English at the University of Cape Town.21FBI. Arrest of James William Kilgore He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in May 2003, received six years, and agreed that any money earned from telling his story would go to a nursing scholarship in Opsahl’s name.22NBC News. Last SLA Fugitive Sentenced
A Sentencing Error and Four Days of Freedom
Olson’s sentence went through years of recalculation. Her attorney Shawn Chapman Holley challenged the 14-year minimum on the bombing convictions, arguing that California’s “serious offender” laws, modified in 1979, should not apply to 1975 crimes.23MPR News. Sara Jane Olson Sentencing In July 2004, Judge Cecil threw out the 14-year term, ruling that the Board of Prison Terms had “abused its discretion by adopting the district attorney’s recommendation without independent evaluation.”24FindLaw. People v. Olson, Court of Appeal The result eventually landed at 12 years on the bombings plus 2 consecutive years on the murder plea, a 14-year total.25MPR News. Olson Returned to Prison
In March 2008, the California Department of Corrections paroled Olson. Four days later, on March 21, 2008, she was intercepted at Los Angeles International Airport while trying to fly to Minnesota and returned to custody the following day.26NBC News. Olson Returned to Prison After Calculation Error The department said a 2004 clerical error had failed to factor in her Sacramento murder sentence, releasing her a year early. Chief Deputy Secretary Scott Kernan blamed the complexity of a case spanning three decades of shifting sentencing laws and said the department “sincerely regrets the mistake.”25MPR News. Olson Returned to Prison
Holley called the re-arrest “ridiculous” and “illegal imprisonment,” noting the parole board had issued an October 2007 order confirming a March 17, 2008, release date.27Los Angeles Times. Olson Rearrested After Release In April 2008, Judge Cecil ruled the re-arrest legal, finding that Olson should have known her actual sentence length and that corrections officials had acted within their authority.28MPR News. Judge Rules Olson Re-Arrest Legal
Jon Opsahl told reporters the episode reinforced his frustration. “She’s out of prison too soon by far,” he said. “It’s another in a series of slaps in the face of victims by the justice system.”29The Hour. Victim’s Son Angered by Ex-SLA Member’s Release
Release and Parole in Minnesota
On March 17, 2009, Olson was released from the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla after serving roughly seven years. She returned to St. Paul to serve a one-year parole term.16CNN. Sara Jane Olson Released From Prison
The Minnesota parole drew objections from Governor Tim Pawlenty and the St. Paul Police Federation, both of whom asked that she remain in California. Under the Interstate Compact for Adult Offender Supervision, though, her husband’s residency in Minnesota made acceptance there mandatory.30Star Tribune. Officials Poised to Let Ex-Con Sara Jane Olson Return to Minnesota Peterson declined interviews, writing that his family wanted to be “left alone” and to “regroup in our home, and preserve our privacy as much as possible.”11MPR News. Sara Jane Olson’s Friends Loyal, Mostly Silent
Emily Montague, who fired the shot that killed Myrna Opsahl, had been paroled in February 2007 after serving about half of her eight-year sentence. She had previously served eight years for the Hearst kidnapping.31Times Argus. 1970s Radical Released From California Prison