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.
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.
He also visited a number of political activists who were in prison, including Willie Brandt, convicted for his role in anti-war bombings in the San Francisco Bay Area.
[7] The defendants, including Kilgore, subsequently pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in a plea deal, and all served time in California state prisons for this offense.
According to reports by British journalist Gavin Evans,[9] during his time as a fugitive, Kilgore constructed an alternative identity as Charles "John" Pape and worked as a teacher in Zimbabwe and South Africa.
Evans reported that Kilgore moved in 1991 to South Africa, where he became the director of Khanya College in Johannesburg, a small institution that prepared youth for university.
"[11]Statements of support for Kilgore were also made by representatives of the South African Municipal Workers' Union, Khanya College, the University of Cape Town, the Nelson Mandela Foundation, and by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
US Attorney General John Ashcroft noted that the arrest of Kilgore proved that "terrorists can run and they can try to hide overseas, but in the end we will find them and bring them to justice.
"[13] After being extradited to the United States, Kilgore eventually pleaded guilty to both the possession of explosives charge and his deadly role in the bank robbery in Carmichael.
He has subsequently published two other novels that he drafted in prison: Freedom Never Rests: A Tale of Democracy in South Africa and Prudence Couldn't Swim, a crime fiction story set in Oakland, California, and Zimbabwe.
"[citation needed] Well-known South African-based reviewer Percy Zvomuya, a Zimbabwean, described Kilgore's debut novel as "A fascinating book ... cleverly written, not overly sentimental and manages to capture the vibe of Zimbabwe in the early 1980s.
[17] He has written a number of articles for online and print platforms such as The Chronicle of Higher Education, Truthout, Counterpunch, Dissent, Radical Teacher, and Critical Criminology.
[18] He has carried out a research project on electronic monitoring in the criminal justice system, and was a keynote speaker on this topic at the 2014 Confederation of European Probation conference in Germany.
The withdrawal of his employment offer prompted a protest from faculty members and beyond, while victim's advocates said Kilgore was never qualified to teach at the college level and forged his doctorate degree.