Full Text of HR0026 101st General Assembly
HR0026 101ST GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
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| 1 | | HOUSE RESOLUTION
| 2 | | WHEREAS, As recently as 2017, James William Kilgore has | 3 | | been an adjunct member of the instructional
staff of the | 4 | | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC); and
| 5 | | WHEREAS, In the 1970s, James Kilgore was a member of a | 6 | | California-based terrorist group that called itself the
| 7 | | "Symbionese Liberation Army" (SLA); and
| 8 | | WHEREAS, The SLA is best known for kidnapping heiress Patty | 9 | | Hearst in February 1974, sparking a
criminal manhunt that | 10 | | spread outward from the San Francisco Bay area throughout the | 11 | | United States; and | 12 | | WHEREAS, As part of their criminal activity, SLA members | 13 | | robbed a bank in Carmichael, California on
April 21, 1975; | 14 | | during the bank robbery, an innocent customer, Myrna Lee | 15 | | Opsahl, the 42-year-old mother
of four children, was brutally | 16 | | murdered; and
| 17 | | WHEREAS, Following this criminal activity, James Kilgore | 18 | | remained a fugitive for more than 27 years until his
arrest in | 19 | | November of 2002 in South Africa; he was found guilty of | 20 | | federal explosives and passport
fraud charges and was sentenced | 21 | | in April of 2004; and
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| 1 | | WHEREAS, In a six-part documentary series, "The Radical | 2 | | Story of Patty Hearst", presented by CNN in February of 2018, a | 3 | | team led by investigative reporter Jeffrey Toobin showed | 4 | | evidence that James Kilgore played a key role in the Carmichael | 5 | | bank raid and the Opsahl murder; and
| 6 | | WHEREAS, Although James Kilgore's friends say he is a good | 7 | | teacher, he is not known to have ever taught
anyone about the | 8 | | murder of Myrna Lee Opsahl, her hopes and dreams, or the hopes | 9 | | and
dreams of her motherless children; therefore, be it
| 10 | | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE | 11 | | HUNDRED FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that | 12 | | we declare our dismay that James William Kilgore has recently | 13 | | been a paid employee of the University of Illinois at | 14 | | Urbana-Champaign and may, at some point, re-sign contractual | 15 | | relations with the University; and be it further | 16 | | RESOLVED, That we call upon the University of Illinois at | 17 | | Urbana-Champaign to take immediate steps to
instruct its | 18 | | personnel that in the future James Kilgore shall not be | 19 | | considered to be a person
that should have any ties with the | 20 | | University; and be it further
| 21 | | RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be |
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| 1 | | delivered to Robert J. Jones, Chancellor of the
University of | 2 | | Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
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