Out-of-state parole approved for last of imprisoned SLA members

The last remaining member of the former Symbionese Liberation Army still in prison has been cleared to serve supervised parole in Illinois beginning next month, when he is scheduled to be released from custody, officials said Tuesday.

James Kilgore, 61, was sentenced to six years in prison after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in the death of Myrna Opsahl during the April 21, 1975, robbery of Crocker National Bank in Carmichael, Calif.

Kilgore had asked officials at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to allow him supervised parole in Illinois after his scheduled release next month from High Desert State Prison in Susanville. 

Corrections spokeswoman Terry Thornton said Tuesday that Kilgore's request has been approved by California, Illinois and the federal government in connection with the bank robbery and a federal conviction on explosives charges.

"He has to comply with conditions of three different entities," Thornton said.

The decision to grant supervised parole to the former SLA member has again drawn fire from the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union representing 9,800 Los Angeles police officers. The organization was highly criticalof the decision to release former SLA member Sara Jane Olson, who is now serving supervised parole in Minnesota. 

"Kilgore would be better monitored in California during his parole because the state has a stronger interest in the case," said Paul M. Weber, president of the L.A. police union.

The former honors student and UC Santa Barbara graduate participated in the SLA's radical activities in the 1970s and was one of the nation's most wanted fugitives for a quarter-century before he was arrested in Cape Town, South Africa.

Similar to Olson, who refashioned herself from radical Katherine Soliah into a Midwestern soccer mom, Kilgore became a university professor under an assumed name, Charles William Pape.

He eventually was sentenced to six years in prison. During his stint behind bars, he was transferred to federal custody and served time for federal explosives and passport fraud convictions.

--Andrew Blankstein

Photo credit: California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation

Comments

[Otis]

He's convicted of 2nd degree murder, skips the country for 25 years - he gets 6 years? Unreal. As Yakov Smirnov said, "what a country!"

[Doyle Dean]

boy what a load Kilgore and the rest of the SLA nuts were treated as if they commited a misdemenor crime instead of killing an inocent woman in a bank hold up! one of the major problems with the U.S.A. is that we do not protect our way of life! As a result we have violent offenders being treated as culture heros' and entire sections of major cities ceded to the criminal sub-culture! Oakland was once a beautiful city and so was Los Angeles! how about re claiming what was lost to crime and ignorance!