Not the Camilla We Knew: One Woman’s Path from Small-Town America to the Symbionese Liberation Army

In this affecting account, creative writing professor Hanel (We’ll Be the Last Ones to Let You Down: Memoirs of a Gravedigger’s Daughter) delves into the life of Camilla Hall, who was raised in rural Minnesota by religious parents and died at 29 in a 1974 shoot-out between members of the Symbionese Liberation Army, the radical group that kidnapped Patty Hearst, and the Los Angeles police. Hanel looks at several theories, including survivor’s guilt (Hall’s three siblings died young), to explain why this seemingly normal Midwestern girl, who became a Berkeley, Calif., street artist, joined a terrorist cult. Her surviving drawings and poetry paint a picture of a happy young woman; in 1971, she fell in love with Patricia Soltysik in her first open lesbian relationship. She stayed close to Soltysik even after their romance ended and Soltysik took up with criminal Donald DeFreeze. Soltysik and DeFreeze later cofounded the SLA and recruited Hall into its ranks. Hanel concludes: “There’s no one explanation for why Camilla did what she did. It’s a complicated story formed by grief, loss, adventure, independence, love, and a wish to leave the world a better place than she found it—in short, what almost all of us experience and desire.” This nuanced portrait will resonate with many. (Dec.)