Last Hearst gang fugitive arrested

Kilgore is wanted for robbery and murder

The last remaining fugitive member of the gang which kidnapped US publishing heiress Patty Hearst in the 1970s has been arrested.

Terrorists can run and they can try to hide overseas - but in the end we will find them and bring them to justice

US Attorney General John Ashcroft

James Kilgore, a former member of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) was reportedly detained at his home in Cape Town, South Africa.

He is wanted in the United States in connection with a 1975 bank robbery and murder.

His arrest comes a day after four other SLA members pleaded guilty in a California court to shooting dead a bank customer during a raid.

An FBI spokesman said that Mr Kilgore was apprehended in the luxury suburb of Claremont, and did not resist arrest.

He admitted his identity when challenged by police officers.

False name

Cape Town police spokeswoman Mary Martins-Engelbrecht said Mr Kilgore, 55, entered South Africa five years ago illegally and had been using the name Charles Pape.

Patty Hearst joined the SLA after the gang kidnapped her

She said he was working as a lecturer at the University of Cape Town.

Mr Kilgore is married and his wife also teaches at the university.

The FBI would not elaborate on exactly how agents tracked down Mr Kilgore, but said that the case had relied on "good, old-fashioned legwork".

"Terrorists can run and they can try to hide overseas. But in the end we will find them and bring them to justice," said US Attorney General John Ashcroft.

Mr Kilgore is expected to appear in court in Cape Town on Monday for an extradition hearing.

Robberies

The SLA, which staged a series of bank robberies in the US in the 1970s, was most notorious for kidnapping Ms Hearst in 1973 and converting her to its cause.

The extremist urban guerrilla group has long since disbanded, its members renounced its ideology and settled into civilian life.

Four of Mr Kilgore's former associates made a surprise appearance in a Sacramento court on Thursday, where they pleaded guilty to the second degree murder of a 42-year-old woman during a robbery at bank in Carmichael, California.

The plea means they can expect to receive jail sentences of between six and eight years, instead of facing possible life sentences for first degree murder.

Ms Hearst, who was also present at that hold-up, would have been a key prosecution witness had the case gone to trial.