Aug 09, 2017 KCTV5 By Angie Ricono, Investigative Reporter

James Kilventon is publicly questioning the convictions of five people held responsible in the fatal arson which killed a total of six firefighters back in 1988. (KCTV5)

The son of a Kansas City firefighter killed in an explosion is breaking his silence.

James Kilventon is publicly questioning the convictions of five people held responsible in the fatal arson which killed a total of six firefighters back in 1988.

 “I just want to get to the bottom of it. I mean I want closure. All the other families might think they have closure. I don't have closure,” Kilventon said.

Kilventon’s father, Capt. James Kilventon, and five others were called to a massive construction fire near U.S. Highway 71 and 87th Street. A trailer packed with explosives detonated and killed all the men.

Kilventon remembers his father and says his father would support his public questioning of the case and his push for more information.

“I think he'd support me. I think he'd have my back. He'd want to get to the bottom of it too. I think he'd want to know the truth,” he said.

Flatland KC April 25, 2017

A Reporter Recounts How Bryan Sheppard's Release from Prison Took a Village plus 20 years

What finally pried the cell door open last week for Bryan Sheppard, one of the defendants in the 1988 explosion deaths of six Kansas City firefighters, was a 2012 Supreme Court decision barring life sentences for juveniles.

But the run-up to Sheppard’s release, and an issue that may have influenced an extraordinary order by U.S. District Judge Fernando J. Gaitan releasing Sheppard with time served, was a sustained, yearslong questioning of the case by local attorneys, journalists, activists and even the local theater community.

Tom Jackman, a reporter for The Washington Post, covered the trial when he was with The Kansas City Star in 1997, and it has haunted him ever since. Under questioning from Jackman during a post-trial interview on Kansas City Public Television years ago, the U.S. attorney at the time acknowledged that the five-week trial failed to explain exactly what happened the night of the deadly construction site blast.

Shortly after the trial another former Star reporter, the late J.J. Maloney, an ex-convict himself, wrote a two-part series for the New Times newspaper here that simply declared the defendants innocent.

March 14, 2017 KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV)

March 8, 2017 By Mike McGraw Special projects reporter Kansas City Star

A federal judge’s decision last week to release a man serving a life sentence in the 1988 deaths of six Kansas City firefighters was, at least for some of the families of those men, a hurtful betrayal by the legal system.

For the families of the accused, it was the final arrival of justice long delayed.

And for both sides, it showed that decisions handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court can have wrenching and far-reaching effects on real people.

The decision may have an outsized impact on other Kansas Citians who remember the arson-fueled construction site explosion. The blast near 87th Street and Bruce R. Watkins Drive was so massive it cracked foundations, ruptured gas lines, broke windows and quickly elevated the firefighters to hero status.

At its core, the decision Friday by U.S. District Judge Fernando J. Gaitan to release defendant Bryan Sheppard — a juvenile at the time of the crime and a grandfather now — was based on a 2012 Supreme Court decision that bars automatic life sentences in such cases.

But Gaitan’s 22-page order in the case offers a deeper analysis of a high-profile 1997 prosecution that ended with the convictions of five defendants and has troubled many in the Kansas City legal community for two decades.

March 6, 2017 By Tony Rizzo Kansas City Star

Bryan Sheppard’s long wait for freedom ended late Monday afternoon in a deep embrace with the daughter who never gave up on him.

Sheppard, the youngest of five people convicted in the 1988 arson fire that killed six Kansas City firefighters, walked free Monday for the first time in nearly 22 years.

“It’s overwhelming, really,” Sheppard said moments after his release. “I didn’t know if it was ever going to come.”

Sheppard was released after a judge on Friday cut his life sentence to 20 years.