Biography
Jay Weiner was a roughly 20-year-old aspiring sportswriter and Temple University student who was taken to the Pennsylvania farmhouse where Symbionese Liberation Army fugitive Patty Hearst had been hiding. Subpoenaed on May 19, 1976 before the federal grand jury in Scranton investigating the harboring of Hearst and William and Emily Harris, he refused to testify and was jailed for contempt — by his own account about four months in federal prison (United States v. Weiner, 418 F. Supp. 941). He went on to a long career as a Minneapolis Star Tribune sportswriter and wrote a memoir, A More Dangerous Game.
In a January 1977 interview at Allenwood, Weiner said that he would not testify against other people and described his confinement as an attack on his right to remain silent. The report states that he and Phil Shinnick entered Allenwood in November 1976. Weiner remained imprisoned after Shinnick’s January release and was tutoring other prisoners in the institution’s education department.
Congressional Record, House, February 2, 1977, pages 3342–3433, PDF page 66; Congressional Record, House, February 2, 1977, pages 3342–3433, PDF page 67; Congressional Record, House, February 2, 1977, pages 3342–3433, PDF page 68; Congressional Record, House, February 2, 1977, pages 3342–3433, PDF page 69; Congressional Record, House, February 2, 1977, pages 3342–3433, PDF page 70; Congressional Record, House, February 2, 1977, pages 3342–3433, PDF page 71; Congressional Record, House, February 2, 1977, pages 3342–3433, PDF page 72; Congressional Record, House, February 2, 1977, pages 3342–3433, PDF page 73; Congressional Record, House, February 2, 1977, pages 3342–3433, PDF page 74; Congressional Record, House, February 2, 1977, pages 3342–3433, PDF page 75.
