James Kilgore

James Kilgore
Born
James William Kilgore

(1947-07-30) July 30, 1947 (age 77)
Other namesJohn Pape
Charles William Pape
EducationUniversity of California, Santa Barbara (BA)
Deakin University (MA, PhD)
Occupations
EmployerUniversity of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Known forInvolvement with Symbionese Liberation Army
Criminal charge(s)Second degree murder
Passport fraud
Possession of an explosive device[1]
Criminal penalty6 year state term in High Desert State Prison--later paroled
4 year 6 month federal term in USP Lompoc[2][3]
Criminal statusReleased and served

James William Kilgore (born July 30, 1947, aka John Pape) is a convicted American felon and former fugitive for his activities in the 1970s with the Symbionese Liberation Army, a left-wing terrorist organization in California. After years of research and writing, he later became a research scholar and ultimately worked at the University of Illinois' Center for African Studies in Champaign–Urbana.[4]

After the arrest of the core SLA members in 1975, Kilgore fled a criminal indictment. He lived as a fugitive for 27 years, working in Zimbabwe, Australia, and South Africa. During his time as a fugitive, Kilgore wrote a number of books and articles under the pseudonym John Pape. He developed a career as an educator, researcher, and far-left radical activist, before being arrested in Cape Town, South Africa, in November 2002. He was extradited to the United States, where he was convicted and subsequently served six and a half years in prisons in California on charges of participation in SLA criminal activities. During his incarceration, he wrote several novels. The first of these, We Are All Zimbabweans Now (2009), was published a month after his release by Umuzi Publishers of Cape Town. In 2015, he published a non-fiction book, Understanding Mass Incarceration: A People's Guide to the Key Civil Rights Struggle of Our Time.

  1. ^ "Another Plea of Guilty in SLA Case". Los Angeles Times. May 14, 2003. Retrieved December 17, 2015.
  2. ^ Kilgore, James (2011). "Bringing Freire Behind the Walls: The Perils and Pluses of Critical Pedagogy in Prison Education". Radical Teacher. 90 (90): 57–66. doi:10.5406/radicalteacher.90.0057. S2CID 144474757. Retrieved 31 May 2021.
  3. ^ Evans, Gavin (30 April 2010). "From fighter to writer: James Kilgore is free and flourishing". Mail & Guardian. Retrieved 31 May 2021.
  4. ^ "James Kilgore". www.ohioswallow.com. Ohio University Press / Swallow Press. Retrieved 3 September 2019.