Ex-Symbionese Liberation Army terrorist on University of Illinois faculty

University of Illinois Student Union, Urbana

My alma mater, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has a faculty member, James Kilgore, who is a former member of a notorious terrorist group, the Symbionese Liberation Army.

I guess the downstate campus felt left out from the uproar when unrepentant Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers was an education professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago. Kilgore is not a professor, but a research scholar according to the university's Center for African Studies.

Just who is James Kilgore?

From a 2009 AP article:

The last captured member of the Symbionese Liberation Army, the radical 1970s-era group notorious for bank robberies, killings and the kidnapping of Patricia Hearst, was released from a California prison Sunday morning.

James William Kilgore was paroled from High Desert State Prison in northeastern California after serving a six-year sentence for the murder of suburban Sacramento housewife Myrna Opsahl during an April 1975 bank robbery.

State Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokesman Oscar Hidalgo said Kilgore was met by his wife after parole agents picked him up at the prison in Susanville (Lassen County) and processed him there.

That allowed the couple to travel directly to their home in Illinois, rather than have Kilgore wait to check in Monday with a parole agent in Sacramento before leaving the state. He now has two weeks to report to Illinois parole officials. Kilgore's wife moved to Illinois after he was arrested in 2002 in Cape Town, South Africa, after nearly three decades on the run.

The ex-con's spouse, Teresa Barnes, is a History, African-American, Gender and Women's Studies professor at the U of I. In short, she is a typical whacko liberal academic.

From Jim Dey in today's News-Gazette:

It may surprise some that the UI hired a person of Kilgore's background for classroom and research duties. But universities have provided welcoming environments to other violent revolutionaries with criminal pasts — from the UI-Chicago, which employed Weather Underground co-founder Bill Ayers, to New York University, where convicted murderer Kathy Boudin is on the faculty.

UI officials were not interested in discussing the issue. Publicists for both UI President Robert Easter and Chancellor Phyllis Wise said neither had any comment about Kilgore.

But internal UI documents obtained by The News-Gazette through open records requests indicate that officials were aware of Kilgore's criminal history when he was hired. And even if they hadn't known, Kilgore's cleverly crafted resume includes references that might have raised concerns.

One footnote states: "All degrees at Deakin (University in Australia) granted under the name Charles Pape." (Kilgore obtained the alias from the death certificate of a child in the state of Washington).

And the University of Illinois won't get any of my money, except what I pay in Illinois taxes.

Kilgore wouldn't be able to get hired where I work--we do background checks.

In a book about her time with the SLA, Patty Hearst described Kilgore's shoplifting excursions and other thefts.

Kilgore declined an interview request from the News-Gazette, which is a shame because he has plenty to talk about to the paper--and to Illinois taxpayers.

Is Kilgore an unrepentant terrorist?

Speak to us, James!

Technorati tags: Politics Illinois illinois politics left wing extremists crime law legal illini Bill Ayers terrorism university of illinois uiuc UIC college education