Thero Wheeler

Thero Lavon Wheeler (1945–2009) was one of the founding members of the Symbionese Liberation Army.

Wheeler was born in Schulenburg, Texas, on January 28, 1945. His mother was Ethel Mae Anderson and his father was John Henry Wheeler. He grew up in San Francisco's Filmore and Western Addition areas, and had two brothers, one a police officer.

He was convicted of assault and robbery at age 17.

He was serving a one-year-to-life sentence. In prison, he began studying politics. A convict organizer, he was known as a "jailhouse lawyer." He read Engels, Marx and Lenin. He had joined and then—with thoughtful critiques—resigned from the Black Panthers and a Maoist group. Wheeler met some activists from University of California, Berkeley while he was in Vacaville prison. Through this group, he met his girlfriend at that time, a young heiress who went by the name of Mary Alice Siem. She was a frequent visitor to him at the prison.

Wheeler met Donald DeFreeze in November 1972 while both men were in prison. DeFreeze organized his own study group, separate to the Black Cultural Association (BCA), which he called Unisight, and invited two of the white student activists, Willie Wolfe and Russ Little, to join. Wheeler was also in the BCA.

In August 1973, the early SLA clique apparently engineered the escape of Thero Wheeler, providing transportation and a change of clothes after Wheeler walked away from Vacaville prison. Wheeler later said his friends who aided his escape were "well-connected". He joined DeFreeze and "a curious group of upper middle-class whites, most college-educated but menially employed" at a small house in Oakland. Curiously, there appeared to be no manhunt by the authorities for Wheeler after his escape.

Close friends say he split with the SLA over the Foster murder, under death threat after he called DeFreeze a "drunken fool."

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