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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, As recently as 2017, James William Kilgore has
3been an adjunct member of the instructional staff of the
4University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC); and
 
5    WHEREAS, In the 1970s, James Kilgore was a member of a
6California-based terrorist group that called itself the
7"Symbionese Liberation Army" (SLA); and
 
8    WHEREAS, The SLA is best known for kidnapping heiress Patty
9Hearst in February 1974, sparking a criminal manhunt that
10spread outward from the San Francisco Bay area throughout the
11United States; and
 
12    WHEREAS, As part of their criminal activity, SLA members
13robbed a bank in Carmichael, California on April 21, 1975;
14during the bank robbery, an innocent customer, Myrna Lee
15Opsahl, the 42-year-old mother of four children, was brutally
16murdered; and
 
17    WHEREAS, Following this criminal activity, James Kilgore
18remained a fugitive for more than 27 years until his arrest in
19November of 2002 in South Africa; he was found guilty of
20federal explosives and passport fraud charges and was sentenced
21in April of 2004; and
 

 

 

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1    WHEREAS, In a six-part documentary series, "The Radical
2Story of Patty Hearst", presented by CNN in February of 2018, a
3team led by investigative reporter Jeffrey Toobin showed
4evidence that James Kilgore played a key role in the Carmichael
5bank raid and the Opsahl murder; and
 
6    WHEREAS, Although James Kilgore's friends say he is a good
7teacher, he is not known to have ever taught anyone about the
8murder of Myrna Lee Opsahl, her hopes and dreams, or the hopes
9and dreams of her motherless children; therefore, be it
 
10    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE
11HUNDRED FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
12we declare our dismay that James William Kilgore has recently
13been a paid employee of the University of Illinois at
14Urbana-Champaign and may, at some point, re-sign contractual
15relations with the University; and be it further
 
16    RESOLVED, That we call upon the University of Illinois at
17Urbana-Champaign to take immediate steps to instruct its
18personnel that in the future James Kilgore shall not be
19considered to be a person that should have any ties with the
20University; and be it further
 
21    RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be

 

 

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1delivered to Robert J. Jones, Chancellor of the University of
2Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.