HR0026 101ST GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR0026 LRB101 04036 ALS 49044 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, As recently as 2017, James William Kilgore has been an adjunct member of the instructional staff of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC); and

WHEREAS, In the 1970s, James Kilgore was a member of a California-based terrorist group that called itself the "Symbionese Liberation Army" (SLA); and

WHEREAS, The SLA is best known for kidnapping heiress Patty Hearst in February 1974, sparking a criminal manhunt that spread outward from the San Francisco Bay area throughout the United States; and

WHEREAS, As part of their criminal activity, SLA members robbed a bank in Carmichael, California on April 21, 1975; during the bank robbery, an innocent customer, Myrna Lee Opsahl, the 42-year-old mother of four children, was brutally murdered; and

WHEREAS, Following this criminal activity, James Kilgore remained a fugitive for more than 27 years until his arrest in November of 2002 in South Africa; he was found guilty of federal explosives and passport fraud charges and was sentenced in April of 2004; and

WHEREAS, In a six-part documentary series, "The Radical Story of Patty Hearst", presented by CNN in February of 2018, a team led by investigative reporter Jeffrey Toobin showed evidence that James Kilgore played a key role in the Carmichael bank raid and the Opsahl murder; and

WHEREAS, Although James Kilgore's friends say he is a good teacher, he is not known to have ever taught anyone about the murder of Myrna Lee Opsahl, her hopes and dreams, or the hopes and dreams of her motherless children; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE HUNDRED FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we declare our dismay that James William Kilgore has recently been a paid employee of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and may, at some point, re-sign contractual relations with the University; and be it further

RESOLVED, That we call upon the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to take immediate steps to instruct its personnel that in the future James Kilgore shall not be considered to be a person that should have any ties with the University; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be delivered to Robert J. Jones, Chancellor of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.