Tuesday, March 31, 2009

'70s radical wants to serve parole in Illinois

'70s radical wants to serve parole in Illinois

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-sla-member-parolemar24,0,3922116.story

By Robert Mitchum | Tribune reporter
March 24, 2009

State corrections officials are reviewing a request by a member of a
1970s radical group convicted of murder in California to serve his
parole in Illinois.

James William Kilgore, 61, will be released from a California prison
in May after serving a 6-year sentence for the 1975 killing of Myrna
Opsahl in a bank robbery by members of the radical Symbionese
Liberation Army, which gained international notoriety after it
kidnapped newspaper heiress Patty Hearst.

In advance of his release, Kilgore filed a request to serve his one
year of supervised parole in Illinois, where his wife began a
professorship at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign last year.

On Monday, a spokesman for the Illinois Department of Corrections
confirmed that they had received the request and that it was under
consideration.

Last week, two police groups­the National Association of Police
Organizations and the Los Angeles Police Protective League­sent
letters to Govs. Patrick Quinn and Arnold Schwarzenegger opposing
Kilgore's request.

More than 1,000 parolees from the California system are under
supervision in other states, said a spokeswoman for the California
Department of Corrections.

Kilgore's wife, Teresa Barnes, has been an associate professor
teaching gender/women's studies and history at the U. of I. since the
summer of 2008, according to a university Web site.

Kilgore met and married Barnes while hiding from authorities in the
southern Africa nations of Zimbabwe and South Africa under an assumed
name since 1975.

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