Camilla Hall

Camilla Christine Hall (March 24, 1945 – May 17, 1974) was a member of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), a small, far-left militant group that committed violent acts between 1973 and 1975. They assassinated Marcus Foster, Superintendent of the Oakland Public Schools and the first black superintendent of any major school system, kidnapped heiress Patty Hearst, and committed armed robbery of banks.

Hall, one of the majority of white members in the group, died on May 17, 1974, with five other SLA members in a shootout with the Los Angeles Police Department in that city. Both her parents, George Fridolph Hall (1908–2000) and Lorena (Daeschner) Hall (1911–1995), were academics with positions at Gustavus Adolphus College in Saint Peter from 1938 to 1952. In addition, her father was a minister in the Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church and later the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Camilla Hall was the only surviving child of four. Firstborn son Terry died of congenital heart disease in 1948; Peter died in 1951, and Nan died in 1962, both of a congenital kidney disease. The family seemed burdened by grief.

In 1952, the Hall family moved to what is now Tanzania in East Africa. George and Lorena Hall taught in schools and did mission work, while Camilla and Nan played with the native children. In 1954, when Camilla was nine, the family returned to Saint Peter because of seven-year-old Nan's poor health. While Camilla attended elementary school in Minnesota and lived with relatives, her birth family moved to Montclair, New Jersey.

In Minnesota, Hall attended Washburn High School in Minneapolis, where she was involved in many activities. The 1963 Washburn Yearbook states, "Candy was a member of Blue Tri, Class Play, Poplars Staff, Quill Club, Forensics, Pep Club, and Hall of Fame".

In June 1968, Hall returned to Minneapolis, where she was a caseworker for the Hennepin County, Minnesota welfare office. In 1968, Hall was 23 years old. She carefully monitored the political situation in America, including the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago where there was so much violence. Although Hall didn't express dissatisfaction at being an artist, she decided to move again.

Hall moved to Berkeley in northern California in February 1971, which had become a center of political activism and social movements. In May 1971, Hall moved into an apartment complex on Channing Way where she met Patricia Soltysik.

In Berkeley, Hall continued being politically active. She participated in the People's Park reoccupation during the summer of 1972, following the shootings there the year before. She and Soltysik became involved with the Venceremos prison outreach project, through which they became associates of two white men, Russ Little and Willie Wolfe, who were also assisting in prisoner outreach.

In October 1972, Hall traveled to Europe. She stayed with friends while she traveled for three months. Once she returned to California, she continued being politically active. Through her association with Soltysik, Little, and Wolfe, she became a founding member of the Symbionese Liberation Army, a small, radical leftist group.

Funeral Hall's parents held a funeral for their daughter on May 23, 1974, at St. John's Lutheran Church, in Lincolnwood, Illinois, a Chicago suburb, where he was pastor. Seven of his fellow Lutheran ministers conducted the service. Camilla Hall's name was not mentioned. Her ashes were buried on August 19, 1974, in a small country graveyard where her late siblings were buried, who each died before she was 16. Her parents also have plots there.