Thero Wheeler

Thero Lavon Wheeler (1945–2009) was one of the founding members of the Symbionese Liberation Army.

Early life

Wheeler was born in Schulenburg, Texas, on January 28, 1945.[1][2] His mother was Ethel Mae Anderson and his father was John Henry Wheeler. He grew up in San Francisco's Filmore and Western Addition[3] areas, and had two brothers, one a police officer.[4]

Imprisonment and radicalization

He was convicted of assault and robbery at age 17.[5]

He was serving a one-year-to-life sentence. In prison, he began studying politics. A convict organizer, he was known as a "jailhouse lawyer." He read Engels, Marx and Lenin. He had joined and then—with thoughtful critiques—resigned from the Black Panthers and a Maoist group. Wheeler met some activists from University of California, Berkeley while he was in Vacaville prison. Through this group, he met his girlfriend at that time, a young heiress[6] who went by the name of Mary Alice Siem. She was a frequent visitor to him at the prison.[7]

Wheeler met Donald DeFreeze in November 1972[8] while both men were in prison. DeFreeze organized his own study group, separate to the Black Cultural Association (BCA), which he called Unisight, and invited two of the white student activists, Willie Wolfe and Russ Little, to join. Wheeler was also in the BCA.

Escape

In August 1973, the early SLA clique apparently engineered the escape of Thero Wheeler, providing transportation and a change of clothes after Wheeler walked away from Vacaville prison. Wheeler later said his friends who aided his escape were "well-connected".[9] He joined DeFreeze and "a curious group of upper middle-class whites, most college-educated but menially employed" at a small house[10] in Oakland. Curiously, there appeared to be no manhunt by the authorities for Wheeler after his escape.

Close friends say he split with the SLA over the Foster murder, under death threat after he called DeFreeze a "drunken fool."[11]

On 4 May 1974, an article appeared in The Pittsburgh Courier quoting Mary Alice Siem. She had originally spoken to The San Francisco Examiner. She said that she had left the SLA due to death threats from DeFreeze:

Mary Alice Siem, 24, Redding, Calif., told authorities she and Thero Wheeler, 29, unofficially identified two months ago as a possible suspect in the Hearst kidnaping, left the terrorist organization last October because they disagreed with the SLA's violent tactics.
Miss Siem ... said she and Wheeler, who were living together, attended about 20 SLA meetings. ...
On one occasion she said she was threatened at gunpoint by DeFreeze, Miss Soltysik, and Miss Perry, but Wheeler intervened. When they left the SLA, she said she and Wheeler were robbed of $600 by the other members.
According to the examiner, whose president and editor is Miss Hearst's father, Miss Siem told authorities that she and Wheeler left the SLA because Wheeler was opposed to the violence espoused by DeFreeze.
She said their departure took place in October, a month before the fatal shooting of Oakland Schools Superintendent Marcus Foster, for which the SLA claims responsibility, and four months before Miss Hearst was kidnaped.[12]

However, there are some discrepancies.

After Patty Hearst was kidnapped, a number of eyewitnesses contributed to identikit composite sketches of the men they had seen. The drawings both appeared to resemble DeFreeze and Wheeler so closely that police were soon able to attach names to these sketches.[13]

Later life

Wheeler moved to Texas and changed his name to Bradley Bruce. He relied on electronics skills learned in prison to gain employment. He formed a relationship with a woman and they had a daughter. His cover was blown while interceding in a dispute. When he sought hospital treatment, his alias was fed into a computer and the FBI arrested him. He was returned to California to face escape charges and continue serving his previous term.[14]

In 1976 he married Cynthia Spencer, when he was aged 31.

Wheeler appeared in some 2005 San Francisco local newspapers as a recipient of free eyeglasses through a program known as Project Connect.[15] In those articles, Wheeler was described as a Vietnam War veteran.

Death

Wheeler died on March 2, 2009, in San Francisco.

References

  1. ↑ Rieterman, T, They thought he was a kidnaper, The Free Lance Star Jan 7, 1976
  2. ↑ http://fbimostwanted.us/zc/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=0&products_id=1046
  3. ↑ Free Lance Star, op cit.
  4. ↑ People Magazine, op cit
  5. ↑ The Free Lance Star, op cit
  6. ↑ Burrough, Bryan, "Days of Rage: America's Radical Underground, the FBI and the forgotten age of Revolutionary Violence", Penguin, 2015, p
  7. ↑ Brussell, Mae, "The Realist" February 1974 http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php?topic=150154.0
  8. ↑ Brussell, Mae, "The Realist" February 1974 http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php?topic=150154.0 http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php?topic=150154.0
  9. ↑ Rieterman, T, "They thought he was a kidnaper", "The Free Lance Star" Jan 7, 1976 https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1298&dat=19760107&id=TuJNAAAAIBAJ&sjid=XYsDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7366,650988&hl=en
  10. ↑ McLellan, Vin, "The Man and the Mystery behind the Sla terror", People Magazine, April 29, 1974, http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20063998,00.html
  11. ↑ McLellan, Vin, "The Man and the Mystery behind the Sla terror", People Magazine, April 29, 1974, http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20063998,00.html
  12. ↑ "Woman quits SLA over death threat", The Pittsburgh Courier, May 4, 1974, page 3.
  13. ↑ "Woman quits SLA over death threat", The Pittsburgh Courier, May 4, 1974, p.3
  14. ↑ Rieterman, T, "They thought he was a kidnaper", "The Free Lance Star" Jan 7, 1976 https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1298&dat=19760107&id=TuJNAAAAIBAJ&sjid=XYsDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7366,650988&hl=en
  15. ↑ http://www.fogcityjournal.com/local/project_connect.shtml
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