Free Republic

James William Kilgore, the last captured member of the Symbionese Liberation Army, was released on parole Sunday morning from a Northern California prison. Kilgore, 61, was arrested in Cape Town, South Africa, in 2002 after almost three decades on the run. He was one of five SLA members who pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the 1975 death of Myrna Opsahl, a 42-year-old mother of four who was killed by a shotgun blast after she arrived at a suburban Sacramento bank. Kilgore apologized to Opsahl's family at his sentencing, saying he wished he could live that day over. He served...

Long before he became one of the most liberal Republicans in the Senate — and the target of Congressman Pat Toomey's GOP primary challenge — Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania demonstrated a knack for notoriety. In 1964, as a member of the Warren Commission, he invented the "single-bullet theory" to explain how Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated President Kennedy. Conspiracy junkies have obsessed over him ever since. (In Oliver Stone's movie JFK, Kevin Costner's character labels Specter "an ambitious junior counselor" behind "one of the grossest lies ever forced on the American people.") Between serving on the Warren Commission and becoming a...

A manhunt is on in Athens for a University of Georgia professor accused of shooting and killing three people. Police are looking for George M. Zinkhan III, a professor in the Department of Marketing and Distribution. George M. Zinkhan Two blocks were secured in Athens after the shootings.He is a 57-year-old white male, last seen wearing a polo shirt and blue shorts, according to the UGA web site. He may be traveling in a red car. The shooting happened late this morning at or near the Athens Community Theatre off Prince Avenue near downtown. Clarke County coroner Sonny Wilson confirmed...

Hundreds mourn man who killed police officers Leslie Fulbright, Chronicle Staff Writer Nearly 500 people gathered at an East Oakland church Tuesday to say goodbye to Lovelle Mixon, the 26-year-old parolee who was killed by police after he went on a shooting rampage that left four Oakland officers dead. The open-casket service, held at Fuller Funerals on International Boulevard, was about an hour long and had such a large turnout that a number of guests were forced to stand. Singers sang. Poets read, and speakers remembered Mixon as an intense and animated storyteller, for his big smile, love of boxing...

Naperville School District 203 has canceled an April 8 appearance at Naperville North High School by 1960s radical William Ayers, saying any value the visit could have offered students would have been lost in the controversy surrounding the event. "I simply wasn't comfortable that this was in our students' and our school's best interest," Supt. Alan Leis said Monday. "We tried to put some procedures in place, but clearly our community has let us know that they just don't think that's appropriate."

<p>SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) - Jimmy Carter came to Notre Dame in 1977. So did Ronald Reagan in 1981 and George W. Bush in 2001.</p> <p>The University of Notre Dame has a tradition of inviting new presidents to speak at graduation. But this year's selection of President Barack Obama has been met by a barrage of criticism that has left some students fearing their commencement ceremony will turn into a circus.</p>

Jon Opsahl said he doesn't think domestic terrorist-turned-housewife Sara Jane Olson served nearly enough time for his mother's murder, but he's relieved the saga ended with Olson's Tuesday release from prison. Sara Jane Olson was released from a California prison Tuesday after serving seven years. Sara Jane Olson was released from a California prison Olson, a member of the self-styled revolutionary Symbionese Liberation Army -- perhaps best known for kidnapping Patricia Hearst -- was released from a California prison after serving seven years, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said. She was released to her husband just after midnight...

Olson took part in two bank robberies to help fund the SLA, according to court documents. During the Carmichael robbery, Olson "entered the bank with a firearm and kicked a nonresisting pregnant teller in the stomach. The teller miscarried after the robbery," the documents said. In August 1975, Los Angeles police found homemade bombs under two squad cars. They were designed to explode when the car moved, but neither device detonated. Authorities cast the attempted bombings as payback for the bloody shootout that left Atwood and other SLA members dead. A probe into the gunbattle helped police arrest Hearst, the...

MSNBC's Chris Matthews thinks Gov. Kathleen Sebilius will encounter the "terrorism of the, of the anti-abortion people" during her nomination process. Matthews later clarified he meant "verbal terrorism." MATTHEWS: Who becomes the governor, the woman governor. She looks like her, in fact. Is she gonna get through the, the terrorism of the, of the anti-abortion people?

Author's note: A version of the following column first appeared in the Christian Coalition magazine. It also was posted on the Illinois Leader and, most recently, appeared on the Illinois Family Institute's web site. To see a video of Dan and his wife Julie discussing the pain of their long past, but haunting decision to abort, go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nuEU3YLlvg Nearly thirty years ago, my wife and I aborted a child. That decision will haunt us for the rest of our lives. Since that time, I've developed deep feelings on the subject of abortion. There are two primary reasons why I'm...

A seven-year-old boy who died defending his older sister from a potential rapist has been honoured posthumously. Zhenya Tabakov's mother received the order of courage medal on behalf of her son. Just over two months ago Galina lost her son and she's still struggling to get over the shock. Zhenya was brutally murdered by a robber, as the boy was trying to save his 12-year-old sister from being raped. It all happened in late November, in the small military town of Noginsk-9 - a place where even small crimes are rare. Around midday, a man rang the bell of...

ARLINGTON – Police Detective Tommy Le Noir remembers the alarm that gripped this city in 1996 after two young women were found strangled in the bathtubs of their east Arlington apartment complex. "There was a lot of fear in the community and in the Police Department," Le Noir said. "The fear is that you don't want this to happen again. At that time there was some incredible panic in those apartment complexes. People moved out in masses. It was just an incredible time." Tuesday night, almost 13 years after the crimes, the state plans to execute 35-year-old Dale Devon Scheanette...

Ted Kennedy was taken out of the Statuary Hall luncheon after suffering an apparent seizure -- a few minutes after Sen. Robert Byrd was removed in his wheelchair under the supervision of medical personnel. Byrd was conscious and had been having trouble eating, according to a witness. Kennedy, who underwent brain cancer surgery last year, was taken to the Rayburn room. A police radio picked up a call for paramedics to help someone stricken with a seizure, according to Politico's Patrick Kennedy.

HUNTSVILLE, TX ― A Grayson County man sentenced to die for killing his wife, her daughter and their son, gouged out his other eye in prison last month. According to the warden at the state prison in Huntsville, death row inmate Andre Thomas gouged out his left eye in early December and then ate it. Five days after the murders in March 2004, Thomas gouged out his right eye inside a Grayson County jail cell after reading a Bible verse. The state's top Criminal Appeals Court upheld Thomas' conviction and death sentence back in October of 2008. Thomas is now...

An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.” These are the words of Mahatma Gandhi. “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” These are the words of Martin Luther King Jr. Their names alone conjure up the images of leaders of history that invoked change through what they called “Peaceful Militancy.” However their words define what was on their hearts; words that moved others to action with a desired peaceful result. History attests to the fruitful results of such civilized methods of protesting injustice and...

Looks like it’s bride number 5 for Drew Peterson. “Yeah, he proposed and she accepted,” Peterson's attorney, Joel Brodsky... But Brodsky added, “I guess he's got to get divorced.” Peterson said he does not believe his marital status should prevent him from becoming engaged. “I was married to Kathleen when I was engaged to Stacy," ... Kathleen — Kathleen Savio, wife number 3 — was the victim of an unsolved March 2004 homicide. Stacy — wife number 4 — vanished in October 2007. “Last time I had a relationship, you guys screwed it all up," he said of 22-year-old tanning...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- An attorney who won an award for representing Terri Schiavo’s husband Michael in his efforts to kill his disabled wife is now an advisor to the transition team of incoming president Barack Obama.Thomas Perrelli, who raised over $500,000 for the pro-abortion presidential candidate and is the managing partner of a Washington law firm, Jenner & Block LLP, is helping advise Obama on putting together a Justice Department team.However, Perrelli provided Michael Schiavo with legal advice during his response to the Congressional bill that President Bush signed allowing the Schindler fail to take their lawsuit seeking...

Harvard University will bestow an honorary degree today on Senator Edward M. Kennedy at a special convocation. The ceremony will feature Harvard President Drew Faust and Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer as speakers, and musical performances by cellist Yo-Yo Ma and Harvard students. Kennedy will join an elite group who has received honorary degrees at special Harvard convocations, including George Washington, Andrew Jackson, James Monroe, Winston Churchill, and Nelson Mandela. In today's Globe, columnist James Carroll described, "why this honor is fitting, and why he belongs in such historic company." Kennedy had been scheduled to receive the degree at Harvard's...

I read in AT that a statue of bloodthirsty revolutionary Che Guevara has appearedChe in Central Park in Central Park, so I went to 5th Ave. & 60th street to see it for myself. The statue is supposed to be on display until, significantly enough, May 1, 2009. It is definitely not a permanent location. This Doris Freedman Plaza is a concrete cobblestone area located just outside the southeast entrance walkway to the park. A mounted poster states the exhibit of three statues, Julius Ceasar, the "Anthropomorphic cabinet woman" (from a Dali painting) and Che Guevera were all inspired by...

Christian Klar, now 56, will walk out of jail after 26 years on January 3 after a court ruling. The decision comes despite earlier demands that he make an apology for his murderous crimes still not being met. Klar is portrayed in 'The Baader-Meinhof Complex' which is currently playing in British cinemas. The movie documents the crimes of the urban terrorists before they took the name RAF and it has been heavily criticised in Germany, particularly by the families of victims, for portraying him and his cohorts as 'cool' and their methods justified. Klar has shown no repentance for...