"I had a really good life," Olson recalled. She acted in community theater and taught citizenship classes. She volunteered for groups aiding African refugees, the poor and other causes, and recorded books for the blind..."We were young and foolish," Olson said at the time in a letter to the court, and "in the end, we stole someone's life."
Today, she doesn't want to discuss the events that landed her in prison, but she has expressed remorse more than once in the past.
What is missing from the story?this quote:
"Oh, she's dead, but it really doesn't matter. She was a bourgeois pig anyway. Her husband is a doctor. He was at the hospital where they brought her."
Who was this "bourgeois pig"? Her name was Myrna Opsahl.
SHE HAS A NAME. And a family that loved her...
Myrna Opsahl was murdered April 21, 1975, while volunteering for her church. She was shot by the Symbionese Liberation Army upon entering the Carmichael Crocker Bank. The SLA gang members in the bank: Emily Harris, Kathleen Soliah, Michael Bortin, and Jim Kilgore let Myrna Opsahl bleed to death while they proceeded to rob the bank and flee the scene with $15,000.
In other words, she died because she walked into a bank where the robbery was taking place...and the explanation that it was an "accidental" shooting is shown to be a lie by the actions of Olson and her helpers: For they did not allow others to help her, nor allow the immediate medical attention that would have saved her life. Nor did Olson ever apologize or even admit her guilt until confronted with overwhelming evidence.
Her son's statement (PDF HERE) is one of the most powerful statements that I have ever read about the need for justice, and the need for repentance on the part of the criminal.
From the LATimes article, it sounds like Olson still doesn't feel remorse for the murder, only remorse that her pleasant suburban life was interrupted by this inconvenience...
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