Hi Sand:
I've been looking at imagest to try and spot it in period pictures or bank videos. No joy. I got one of the other women with a revolver. And Hearst with either a shotgun or a sawed-off M1 Carbine. But not the Hi Standard.
And when all the Hearst stuff was going on, I was about 11!!! So it was on the news every night and I still remember seeing fuzzy black and white footage. But honestly can't say I specifically saw what I knew to be a Hi Standard. Just a blurry image of a pistol being waved. It was the biggest thing on TV at the time and since she was sort of a 'Kid'... all us 'kids' were obsessed with kidnapping. Hey, could happen to us, right?
So when I was at the Labs in c. 2008? ish? Getting a tour... I got to hold Dillingers pistol. The guy giving the tour to the two of us made a point of showing us the serial number, IIRC. Because supposedly there was some Internet Lore that there was no serial number or that the gun was 'not' Dillingers. I didn't get the reference. It was just sort of cool to hold it. Then he handed over the Hi Standard, which was on a peg to the left of Dillinger's Revolver, IIRC. And mentioned that it was Patty Hearst's. That was the cool gun. Then we walked through the rest of the reference collection/museum. Only about 20 minutes. I could have spent a week.
Maybe
@Skunk has more details on the Hi Standard. I can drop him a PM with some details I won't post publically.
Personally, your question now has me really digging! Is there a picture? DId she use it in a bank? Photographed with it? DId it have her prints on it? Did she pose for pictures with it? Was she 'captured/rescued'** with it? Now I want to know the whole story. There would be an amazing article in the history of that gun! Now you have my historian hat on bigtime!
So... more to follow! And PM Inbound. Lets find out more!
Cheers,
Sirhr
** And I think she was captured.... I know, Stockholm Syndrome and all that. But she was party to robbery, mayhem and murder. She went full SLA and turned on her family and America... at a level that wasn't just 'trying to get free. People died because of her. But Dad got her out and days after release she was 'fine' and appearing on talk shows telling her story and back wearing designer clothes and chipper as a little starlet. Meh... She should have at least had a trial. Well, whatever.