Symbionese Liberation Army member released on parole

James William Kilgore, the last imprisoned member of the Symbionese Liberation Army, was released on parole today from a northern California prison.

Kilgore, 61, was arrested in Cape Town, South Africa, in 2002 in connection with a bank robbery and murder in Sacramento in 1975, said Oscar Hidalgo of the State Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Kilgore had been on the run ever since.

Hidalgo said Kilgore served a two-year federal sentence from 2004 to 2006 for possession of an explosive device and making false statements on an application for a passport. In 2006 he began a six-year sentence for second-degree murder.

He was released at 12:20 a.m. Sunday morning from High Desert State Prison in Susanville, near the border with Nevada and about 180 miles northeast of Sacramento.

The SLA earned notoriety after kidnapping Patricia (Patty) Hearst in 1974.

Kilgore is the last of five captured members to be released from custody, and will serve his parole term in Illinois where his wife lives, Hidalgo said.

Emily Montague-Harris was paroled in 2007, William Taylor Harris and Michael Alexander Bortin were paroled in 2006, and Sara Jane Olson was released in March of this year.

--Ari B. Bloomekatz

Comments

[Boils]

Hey Kilgore's victim wasn't important. She was just a nobody and who is to care? Notice that hte article doesn't even mention her name: Myrna Opsahl. She was a housewife and not related to anyone important. The shame is this is America where the rich always get off and get their reward here on earth too. Tis just a shame.

[Duane]

These cock roaches should have been put in jail and the keys thrown away!

[Lisa]

James Kilgore, Sara Jane Olson, Emily Montague-Harris, William Taylor Harris, and Michael Bortin killed Myrna Opsahl - a mother of four who was at a bank depositing funds for her church.

Myrna's children grew up without a mother -- but these five disgusting individuals are out living their lives. Sara Jane Olson is even married to a doctor and is now living in Minnesota promoting "progressive causes." Wow, lucky her!

It makes me sick. These people each served just a few years in prison and look what they took away from a family. This is not justice.

[Sally]

I agree with both initial comments.The 60s and 70s have been glorified by later generations as being positive, but I remember them, and they were not! So many college students thought they were "all grown up" and knew more than their parents. Instead of only going to bed with anyone and everyone, wearing filthy clothes, and letting their hair grow long as a way of separating from their parents, they spouted political stupidities, threatening people and killing them. They were still playing childhood games--with real guns.