Sara Jane Olson Released

Sara Jane Olson Released - Former Symbionese Liberation Army member Sara Jane Olson, who hid for years by posing as an ordinary housewife, was released from prison Thursday after serving time for attempted murder and second-degree murder in two separate cases, authorities said.

Olson, 61, formerly known as Kathleen Soliah, walked out of the Central Women's Facility in Chowchilla, prisons spokesman Bill Sessa said.

For almost 24 years, Olson was one of the nation's most sought-after fugitives - she disappeared in 1975, the same year two Los Angeles police cars were bombed. She changed her name from Kathleen Soliah and, over the years, lived as a mild-mannered Midwestern housewife. She married a Minnesota physician and became a celebrated cook and soccer mom in the St. Paul area.

She was captured in June 1999 on charges of planting the police car bombs. She subsequently pleaded guilty to attempted murder charges for the attempted car bombings. In 2004, a Sacramento judge vacated the 14-year sentence for the car bombs given to Olson after ruling that the state Board of Prison Terms did not independently review her case upon sentencing her in 2002 for the bombings. After a review, her sentence was reduced by one year.

Olson was also serving time for murder.

In 2002, Olson had pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for her role in the 1975 SLA robbery of the Sacramento area bank in which customer Myrna Opsahl, 42, was shot and killed. She received a sentence of six years.

In her 2002 probation report, police said Olson emerged as the leader of the SLA after a 1974 fire and shootout in Los Angeles in which six of the nine members of the SLA died.

Back when she was Kathy Soliah, Olson was president of the Palmdale High School Pep Club in Los Angeles County. Her mother said in an interview in 1975 that her oldest daughter was "into everything - Girl Scouts, the Rainbows, Sunday school."

And that's latest on Sara Jane Olson Released