This originally aired on The Final Straw radio show.

Have you heard about the case of adjunct professor James Kilgore at the University of Illinois, in Urbana-Champaign? Kilgore is an interesting guy. In the early 1970’s, he was a member of the Symbionese Liberation Army, which makes him a personal hero of mine. The SLA was an urban guerrilla faction that robbed banks, kidnapped Patty Hearst, and- along with the Weather Underground- effectively brought an end to the Vietnam War. As one demand for the release of Patty Hearst, the SLA had Hearst’s father, the publishing magnate, deliver millions of dollars in free food to the inner-city poor of Oakland.
There is a PBS documentary called “Guerrilla”about the SLA it’s inspiring.
Starting in 1975, Kilgore went underground and lived overseas until 2002. Kilgore came back to the U.S. and plead guilty to possession of explosives from 1975 and to passport fraud. He served six years in prison and since 2010, Kilgore has been on the faculty of the University of Illinois in Urbana, teaching classes on Urban Planning and Global Studies. Continue reading →