Thero Wheeler
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Thero Lavon Wheeler (1945–2009), aka Bruce Bradley while a fugitive (1973–1975), was a founding member of the
Symbionese Liberation Army The United Federated Forces of the Symbionese Liberation Army (commonly referred to simply as the SLA) was a small, American militant far-left organization active between 1973 and 1975; it claimed to be a vanguard movement. The FBI and wider Am ...
, an American left-wing organization in the San Francisco Bay area. He left the group in October 1973 as he objected to its plans to undertake violent acts. Law enforcement later classified the SLA as a terrorist group. In the following several months, SLA soldiers committed two
murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...
s, kidnapped heiress
Patty Hearst Patricia Campbell Hearst (born February 20, 1954) is an American actress and member of the Hearst family. She is the granddaughter of American publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst. She first became known for the events following her 197 ...
, and conducted armed robberies of banks. Believed to be a member of the group, Wheeler was put on the
FBI's Most Wanted List The FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives is a most wanted list maintained by the United States's Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The list arose from a conversation held in late 1949 between J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the FBI, and William ...
. Six of the founding members died in a shootout and fire in a house in Los Angeles in May 1974, and Wheeler was thought possibly to be among them. But by late 1973, Wheeler was living as Bruce Bradley in
Houston, Texas Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...
. He worked there as an electronics technician. He had a girlfriend and their daughter was born in early 1975. Wheeler/Bradley was apprehended by the
FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...
in July 1975. After reviewing the case, the FBI said they did not want Wheeler "in connection with any SLA crimes". He was returned to California to serve time for the escape and complete his previous sentence.


Early life

Wheeler was born into an African-American family in
Schulenburg, Texas Schulenburg is a city in Fayette County, Texas, United States. Its population was 2,633 at the 2020 census. Known for its German culture, Schulenburg is home of the Texas Polka Music Museum. It is in a rural, agricultural area settled by Germa ...
, on January 28, 1945. His mother was Ethel Mae Anderson and his father was John Henry Wheeler. The family moved to California after World War II, in the second part of the Great Migration. He grew up in
San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
's Fillmore and
Western Addition The Western Addition is a district in San Francisco, California, United States. Location The Western Addition is located between Van Ness Avenue, the Richmond District, the Haight-Ashbury and Lower Haight neighborhoods, and Pacific Heights. ...
areas. He had two brothers, one of whom became a police officer.


Imprisonment and radicalization

Wheeler was convicted of assault and robbery at age 17. He was sentenced to one-year-to-life and sent to Vacaville Prison. There he began studying politics and history. He became a convict organizer, known as a "jailhouse lawyer." He read
Engels Friedrich Engels ( ;"Engels"
''
Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...
and
Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...
, socialist and communist theorists. He had joined the Black Panthers and a Maoist group, but resigned from both after critiquing their approaches. He also was involved for a time with Venceremos, a Chicano political group based in
Palo Alto, California Palo Alto ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. Th ...
. While held at
Vacaville Vacaville is a city located in Solano County, California, United States. It is located from Sacramento, California, Sacramento and from San Francisco, it is on the edge of the Sacramento Valley in Northern California. The city was founded in ...
, Wheeler met some student activists from
University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...
, including
Willie Wolfe William Lawton Wolfe (February 17, 1951 – May 17, 1974) was one of the founding members in 1972 of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), an American radical group based near Oakland, California. While in the group, he adopted the name "Kahjoh", ...
and Russ Little. They were participating in a prisoner outreach program organized in part by professor
Colston Westbrook Colston Richard Westbrook (September 14, 1937 – August 3, 1989) was an American teacher and linguist who worked in the fields of minority education and literacy. At the University of California, Berkeley, he established a program of prison outr ...
and associated with the
Black Cultural Association The Black Cultural Association (BCA) was an African-American inmate group founded in 1968 at the California Medical Facility at Vacaville, a California state prison, and formally recognized by prison officials in 1969. The primary purpose of the ...
in prison. They sponsored many programs, including discussions devoted to social justice and correcting wrongs in United States society. For a time Wheeler was involved in a small prison group, Unisight, organized by
Donald DeFreeze Donald David DeFreeze (November 16, 1943 – May 17, 1974), also known as Cinque Mtume and using the nom de guerre "General Field Marshal Cinque", was an American man involved with the far-left radical group Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) and co ...
, whom he had met through the BCA. In this period, Wheeler also met Mary Alice Siem, a white Berkeley student and heiress, and they began a relationship.


Escape

In August 1973, Thero Wheeler escaped from Vacaville; friends, perhaps from the nascent SLA, provided transportation and a change of clothes after he walked away from the complex. In a later prison interview, Wheeler said friends who aided his escape were "well-connected". That fall he joined ex-con
Donald DeFreeze Donald David DeFreeze (November 16, 1943 – May 17, 1974), also known as Cinque Mtume and using the nom de guerre "General Field Marshal Cinque", was an American man involved with the far-left radical group Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) and co ...
, whom he knew from the
Black Cultural Association The Black Cultural Association (BCA) was an African-American inmate group founded in 1968 at the California Medical Facility at Vacaville, a California state prison, and formally recognized by prison officials in 1969. The primary purpose of the ...
at Vacaville, and "a curious group of upper middle-class whites, most college-educated but menially employed", at a small house in
Oakland Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major West Coast port, Oakland is ...
. These were the founders of the
Symbionese Liberation Army The United Federated Forces of the Symbionese Liberation Army (commonly referred to simply as the SLA) was a small, American militant far-left organization active between 1973 and 1975; it claimed to be a vanguard movement. The FBI and wider Am ...
(SLA). Close friends say Wheeler split with the SLA in October 1973 because of their plans for violent tactics (as in the
Marcus Foster Marcus Albert Foster (March 31, 1923 – November 6, 1973) was an American educator who gained a national reputation for educational excellence while serving as principal of Simon Gratz High School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1966–1969), ...
murder) and he argued with DeFreeze and others competing for leadership. He called DeFreeze a "drunken fool" and was threatened with death. Wheeler was not impressed with the blind charge toward gratuitous violence. He was staying at the Concord house, with Mary Alice Siem. On occasion DeFreeze, Soltysik, and Perry aimed guns at Siem, and Wheeler interceded on her behalf. Wheeler and Siem decided to leave in October, their ex-comrades robbed her of $600 at gunpoint. The couple separated: Wheeler moved to
Houston, Texas Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...
, where he assumed a new name. Siem moved to
Redding, California Redding is a city in and the county seat of Shasta County, California, and the economic and cultural capital of the Shasta Cascade region of Northern California. Redding lies along the Sacramento River, north of Sacramento, California, Sacrame ...
."Woman quits SLA over death threat"
''
The Pittsburgh Courier The ''Pittsburgh Courier'' was an African American weekly newspaper published in Pittsburgh from 1907 until October 22, 1966. By the 1930s, the ''Courier'' was one of the leading black newspapers in the United States. It was acquired in 1965 by ...
'', May 4, 1974, page 3.
Reported but mistaken sightings of Wheeler around the time of the Hearst kidnapping led to speculation that he was still involved, and to the notion that he was one of those killed in the Los Angeles shootout and fire. On 4 May 1974, an article in ''
The Pittsburgh Courier The ''Pittsburgh Courier'' was an African American weekly newspaper published in Pittsburgh from 1907 until October 22, 1966. By the 1930s, the ''Courier'' was one of the leading black newspapers in the United States. It was acquired in 1965 by ...
'' quoted Wheeler's girlfriend Mary Alice Siem. It reported material published in ''
The San Francisco Examiner The ''San Francisco Examiner'' is a newspaper distributed in and around San Francisco, California, and has been published since 1863. Once self-dubbed the "Monarch of the Dailies" by then-owner William Randolph Hearst and the flagship of the H ...
''. She said that they 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 kidnapping, left the terrorist organization last October because they disagreed with the SLA's plans for 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 Perry or pear cider is an alcoholic beverage made from fermented pears, traditionally in England (particularly Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, and Worcestershire), parts of South Wales, France (especially Normandy and Anjou), Canada, Austral ...
, 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 Marcus Albert Foster (March 31, 1923 – November 6, 1973) was an American educator who gained a national reputation for educational excellence while serving as principal of Simon Gratz High School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1966–1969), ...
, for which the SLA claims responsibility, and four months before Miss Hearst was kidnapped. But after
Patty Hearst Patricia Campbell Hearst (born February 20, 1954) is an American actress and member of the Hearst family. She is the granddaughter of American publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst. She first became known for the events following her 197 ...
was kidnapped, a number of eyewitnesses contributed to identikit composite sketches of the men they had seen. The drawings appeared to resemble DeFreeze and Wheeler so closely that police soon attached names to these sketches. They mistakenly identified Wheeler as a suspect in the kidnapping.


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. In 1976, he married Cynthia Spencer. Wheeler died on March 2, 2009, in San Francisco.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wheeler, Thero American people convicted of assault Symbionese Liberation Army 1945 births 2009 deaths People from Schulenburg, Texas American people convicted of robbery