Page 69 is a half a page of text. It is the beginning of Chapter 5, San Francisco's Radical Underground. It is just a slice of the book and would not give the reader any insight to the rest of the story. It is not representative of the scope of the book. If the reader read only this page they would consider it a history of the Symbionese Liberation Army and the architecture Vacaville prison.

The halls of Vacaville prison extend in opposite directions; so far out that it seems infinite. Inmates are housed in cells within the immense complex and form communities with their brothers to better cope with the vastness of the institution.

This chapter forms the background for the stage where Sara Jane enters the life of radical politics. It all began with the birth of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA).

A significant part of the book deals with the kidnapping of Patricia Hearst, her father Randolph and the food giveaway program, People in Need (PIN) the SLA demanded the Hearsts create before they would release Patricia.

The origins of the SLA are little known to most people. The members were largely former UC Berkeley students. The students formed an outside visitation program called the Black Cultural Association (BCA). It was designed to help specifically Black male offenders learn new skills.

BCA had thirty volunteer tutors, mostly from the University of California at Berkeley, who went to the prison to conduct educational programs in math, reading and writing, art, history, political science, black sociology, and African heritage.

Some of the more well known members of the SLA were Emily Harris and Patricia Soltysik who were studying at UC Berkeley on state scholarships. Berkeley radical Wendy Yoshimura was hiding out at Berkeley from a previous bomb charge. William “Willy” Wolfe was the son of an anesthesiologist. He attended prep schools and was a National Merit Scholarship finalist.

Inmate Donald DeFreeze, a BCA member, eventually left Vacaville for Soledad, escaped and became the leader of the SLA. He recruited the visiting college volunteers and they became the army known as the SLA.