Bernard Shaw
Bernard Shaw is the late husband of heiress turned rape victim, turned actress and author, Patty Hearst. The two were married for years before his death in 2013.
Bernard Lee Shaw was a police officer when he met Patty Hearst in the mid 70’s. At the time she was being accused of serious crimes as an alleged member of the Symbionese Liberation Army –a rebel group that kidnapped her in 1974.
You’ve probably heard all about the granddaughter of publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst, Patricia Campbell Hearst was born February 20, 1954 and made headlines at age 19 when she was taken from her Berkeley, California apartment. She spent 19-months with her kidnappers.
Patty went from being a kidnapped victim to becoming a fugitive. During her trial she said she was raped and threatened with being killed so she began participating in criminal activity in California. She was captured by the FBI in September 1975. She was convicted of bank robbery and sentenced to 35 years in prison. Hearst would serve less than two years, however; she was released in 1979, after President Jimmy Carter commuted her prison term. In January 2001, shortly before he left the White House, President Bill Clinton granted her a full pardon.
Two months after her release she became a married woman. Since then, Patty has also been an active entertainment member, appearing in a number of movies, “Cry-Baby” (1990), “Serial Mom” (1994), “Pecker” (1998) and “Cecil B. Demented” (2000). She’s also written an autobiography released in 1982.
Bernard Lee Shaw met Patty after he was part of a dozens-strong private security detail protecting her on bail. At the time he was a divorced father of two.
According to People, the pair became engaged on Valentine’s Day in 1978. Bernard Shaw would drive 60 miles from his home near San Francisco four times a week to visit her in confinement in Pleasanton, Calif.
The two tied the knot at the redwood-walled chapel on Treasure Island in the middle of San Francisco Bay. Following their marriage, they settled in Connecticut and had two daughters.
Shaw went from being her bodyguard to be named vice president of corporate security for Hearst Corporation. He had previously worked as a police officer in San Francisco for 15-years.
The husband and father of four succumbed to an extended cancer battle in 2013. Bernard ‘Bernie’ Shaw was 68-years-old.
