CA - Sara Jane Olson/Kathleen Solia

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it is sort of a long article. I was infurated after reading it and plan on cancelling my subscription to the magazine. I do not belive for a minute that her husband was in the dark about who she was. She has gotten everything she deserves and is not a victim as the article and her family want you to belive.

http://www.marieclaire.com/world/news/Mom-Secret
 
she robbed a bank and tried to blow up 2 police cars. i am sorry the kids suffer but its the moms fault.
 
IMO she got less then she deserved... All their boohooing about her being a target due to 9/11 is absolute BS.
Tell me what other terroist you know of that will be out in 2009?

Sounds like she raised a bunch of selfish brats. Not one mention about the lives their mother took just all about thier suffering.
Unbelievable!
I wonder how the families of those victims felt?
I tend to agree about the father .... The article summed it up when it quoted him as saying "20 years in prison"
He is going to be damn careful about what he says.
 
sherri79 said:
she robbed a bank and tried to blow up 2 police cars. i am sorry the kids suffer but its the moms fault.
Click to expand...

I remember this case very well, I lived in the area when they kidnapped Patty Hearst.

I feel so sorry for her children, the husband too, if he truly didn't know.

But the children, only know her for their mother and the person she was with them. It would be a shocked to find you had been living with a stranger all your life.
 
I don't believe for a second that her husband didn't know. The kids probably knew too. The oldest child quoted her as saying "I'm screwed" when the 2nd tower fell on 9/11. Why would that kid remember that unless she was able to put it into context? I think they all knew and I think that woman is exactly where she belongs.
 
She knew this was hanging over her head and an arrest was a possibility when she decided to have a family. No sympathy for Sara Jane. All my sympathy goes to the innocent children involved.
 
I don't have any sympathy for her, either. A woman died 30 plus years ago and Sara Jane/Kathleen simply ran off and lived her life all that time, time she took away from someone else.
 
Other people died even if not directly by her hand. Where's their sympathy? Do they get to come back after 20 years? Do their families & friends get them back? It's tragic on many sides, but at least they CAN still see their mom and she will be back someday - I'm sure others would love that chance.
 
Garnan said:
I don't believe for a second that her husband didn't know. The kids probably knew too. The oldest child quoted her as saying "I'm screwed" when the 2nd tower fell on 9/11. Why would that kid remember that unless she was able to put it into context? I think they all knew and I think that woman is exactly where she belongs.
Click to expand...


Remember that she was arrested in 1999. She was out on bail on 9/11/2001 when she said "I'm screwed." Everyone already knew at that point.

But I agree with you that she is where she belongs. I don't buy into the argument that she has already been rehabilitated just because she was enjoying a "nice" life in St. Paul where she was volunteering, etc. She committed serious crimes and should pay just like anyone else. She refused to face the consequences at the time and CHOSE to get married and raise children. She knowingly put her family in this position and I do not feel sorry for her.

However, I think it would be extremely hard for any of us to suddenly be confronted at the age of 18-20 with the fact that our mother is actually a felon and is responsible for murder and attempted murder. Those girls come across as in denial in the article, but they probably ARE in denial to some extent. I'm sure it will take years for them to come to terms with this. Right now they are still reflexively defending their mother, who they knew as loving. I think it's kind of cruel for journalists to try to interview them and to publish this story. They have suffered enough and the media should leave them alone, IMHO.

As for the husband...that's another story. He probably knew all along. I really do feel sorry for the kids. Their parents put them in a terrible position and have caused them great pain.
 
MSM said:
Remember that she was arrested in 1999. She was out on bail on 9/11/2001 when she said "I'm screwed." Everyone already knew at that point.

But I agree with you that she is where she belongs. I don't buy into the argument that she has already been rehabilitated just because she was enjoying a "nice" life in St. Paul where she was volunteering, etc. She committed serious crimes and should pay just like anyone else. She refused to face the consequences at the time and CHOSE to get married and raise children. She knowingly put her family in this position and I do not feel sorry for her.

However, I think it would be extremely hard for any of us to suddenly be confronted at the age of 18-20 with the fact that our mother is actually a felon and is responsible for murder and attempted murder. Those girls come across as in denial in the article, but they probably ARE in denial to some extent. I'm sure it will take years for them to come to terms with this. Right now they are still reflexively defending their mother, who they knew as loving. I think it's kind of cruel for journalists to try to interview them and to publish this story. They have suffered enough and the media should leave them alone, IMHO.

As for the husband...that's another story. He probably knew all along. I really do feel sorry for the kids. Their parents put them in a terrible position and have caused them great pain.
Click to expand...

Great post, MSM.

Local gossip around here seemed to indicate the kids were raised with a somewhat elitist attitude - the rules don't quite apply to "us." The article makes me believe that. I think the girls have been led to believe their mom's cause at the time was "noble." I heard a lot about it at the time. I worked in St. Paul for years and had friends and friends of of friends who knew them, etc.

She's where she belongs. She was g-d lucky she got a reprieve for so long - her victims surely did not.

Eve
 
Thanks Eve! I used to live in St. Paul, too, and lived there at the time of her arrest...I remember thinking that she chose the perfect alias for Minnesota--too many Olsons there to count! :)
 
Sara Jane Olson released from prison


03-20) 23:50 PDT San Francisco -- Former Symbionese Liberation Army member Sara Jane Olson, who hid for years by posing as an ordinary housewife, was released from prison Thursday after serving time for attempted murder and second-degree murder in two separate cases, authorities said.
Olson, 61, formerly known as Kathleen Soliah, walked out of the Central Women's Facility in Chowchilla, prisons spokesman Bill Sessa said.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/21/MN29VO8Q3.DTL
 
I just listenend to an interview with her son. he was 15 at the time his mother Myrna Opsahl was murdered in the bank. He was very calm, but of course disappointed that SJO was being released. She got 1/2 time credit for working in the yard at prison. I felt really sorry for him talking about growing up without his mother. Oh and he had no idea she was getting out. He saw it on the news!
Here is more info:

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/ap/index.cfm?page=view&id=D8VI424O0
Supporters cheered, but police, victim's son decry Olson release

Some supporters of former Symbionese Liberation Army member Sara Jane Olson say they are happy she's out of prison and hope she will be remembered for the good things she did during her years as a fugitive.
Olson was released from a California prison this week after serving six years for trying to bomb Los Angeles police cars in the 1970s. After years on the run, Olson was arrested in 1999 in St. Paul, where she had lived as a social activist, a doctor's wife and mother of three daughters.
"I'm glad that she's out and think that she can make a real contribution to whatever community she settles in," said Macalester College history professor Peter Rachleff, an Olson supporter. He called her "a very productive member" of the community when she lived in St. Paul.
"She taught immigrants how to read English. She worked with senior citizens. She enlivened theater productions," Rachleff said.
 
I'm sorry that her children suffered, but IMO she has not been a good example to them. Sarah Jane was very bitter that she received actual jail time. Instead of showing real remorse when the woman in the bank was murdered she didn't accept her major part in this tragedy. It appears that many sympathizers blame her youth and naivetie in choice of friends, but please remember she was running with a twisted murderous gang. She knew their secrets but still stayed and then conveniently disappeared when events turned against her. Marcus Foster and his assistant superintendent of schools in Oakland, CA were gunned down in the street for no reason. Marcus Foster died and his assistant was seriously wounded. I wish Sarah Jane could own up to her daughters that she participated in plots to murder and that she served prison time for this. Many innocent people's lives were ruined forever by the SLA. All the tutoring of the tortured is admirable but honesty and truth is a trait that I hope I can pass on to my children.
 
You know what? This whole thing has been overblown. The police had a vendetta against her. She lived a good life for all those years and often police do decline to prosecute when much time has passed. There was a case recently like that.

What Sarah Olsen did is nothing compared to the war crimes of our President and Vice-President. I respect the police but don't worship them or feel they should be placed on a higher plane than anyone else.
 
chiperoni said:
I'm sorry that her children suffered, but IMO she has not been a good example to them. Sarah Jane was very bitter that she received actual jail time. Instead of showing real remorse when the woman in the bank was murdered she didn't accept her major part in this tragedy. It appears that many sympathizers blame her youth and naivetie in choice of friends, but please remember she was running with a twisted murderous gang. She knew their secrets but still stayed and then conveniently disappeared when events turned against her. Marcus Foster and his assistant superintendent of schools in Oakland, CA were gunned down in the street for no reason. Marcus Foster died and his assistant was seriously wounded. I wish Sarah Jane could own up to her daughters that she participated in plots to murder and that she served prison time for this. Many innocent people's lives were ruined forever by the SLA. All the tutoring of the tortured is admirable but honesty and truth is a trait that I hope I can pass on to my children.
Click to expand...
I agree totally. My heart went out to Myra Opsahl's son when I heard him on the radio, that was really sad.
 
Amraann said:
IMO she got less then she deserved... All their boohooing about her being a target due to 9/11 is absolute BS.
Tell me what other terroist you know of that will be out in 2009?

Sounds like she raised a bunch of selfish brats. Not one mention about the lives their mother took just all about thier suffering.
Unbelievable!
I wonder how the families of those victims felt?
I tend to agree about the father .... The article summed it up when it quoted him as saying "20 years in prison"
He is going to be damn careful about what he says.
Click to expand...

Her kids are wonderful and not selfish brats. Imagine having your mother taken from you. Don't take your anger out on the kids.
 
kylie said:
You know what? This whole thing has been overblown. The police had a vendetta against her. She lived a good life for all those years and often police do decline to prosecute when much time has passed. There was a case recently like that.

What Sarah Olsen did is nothing compared to the war crimes of our President and Vice-President. I respect the police but don't worship them or feel they should be placed on a higher plane than anyone else.
Click to expand...
Blowing up police cars is a pretty egregious crime. She got off with a hand smack IMO.
 
kylie said:
Her kids are wonderful and not selfish brats. Imagine having your mother taken from you. Don't take your anger out on the kids.
Click to expand...
I feel bad for the kids. But the mother created their circumstances and she is solely to blame.
 
you know what is interesting is that IIRC Emily Harris actually pulled the triigger that killed Myrna and I think she was only given 6 years or so. I think SJO got more because of the police car bombings and her guilty plea in the murder of Mrs. Opsahl.
Gosh I think Mrs Opsahl's husband was an ER doctor that try to resucitate her wasn't he? Poor Myrna was depositing the church collection money in the bank that day.
Whole thing is a tragedy all the way around.
 
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