Patty Hearst: Victim or Terrorist

When Patricia Hearst returned to the San Francisco Federal courthouse last week to petition for her freedom, she was backed up by her family, a phalanx of nine lawyers and all the resources of the formidable Hearst wealth.

Read more

The Case of Patty Hearst

Was Patty merely the victim of a kidnapping, brainwashed into cooperating with her captors as her father suggested – or was she in fact a voluntary convert to the SLA cause and a willing accomplice of its terrorism?

Read more

The BBC Blame Game Jimmy Savile

Tracing the Jimmy Savile pedophilia scandal in its entirety—including ongoing inquiries, in which executives have avoided taking responsibility and few have been axed—V.F. special correspondent Maureen Orth investigates why an exposé on Savile’s misdeeds mysteriously never aired. Speaking with many of the story’s key players, including BBC producers, the erroneously accused Lord McAlpine, and current New York Times C.E.O. Mark Thompson, Orth examines the consequences of “Auntie Beeb’s” finger-pointing at everyone—and at no one.

Read more

Letter from Paris Season of Scandale

For decades France ignored its presidents’ private lives, but the ascension of Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife, Carla Bruni, has turned that tradition on its head. Will rumors of infidelity, secret marriage contracts, and illegal wiretaps derail Sarkozy’s presidency? And is any of it true?

Read more