Thomas Hargrove

Thomas Rex Hargrove (3 March 1944 – 22 January 2011) was an American agricultural scientist and journalist, who was kidnapped in Colombia by FARC narco-guerillas in 1994. Throughout the 11 months he was captive, Hargrove secretly kept a diary which was published as Long March To Freedom: Tom Hargrove's Own Story of His Kidnapping by Colombian Narco-Guerrillas. The 2000 film Proof of Life starring Meg Ryan and Russell Crowe was heavily based on Hargrove and his ordeal.

Hargrove obtained a double degree in agricultural science and journalism from Texas A&M University in 1966. He later earned a Ph.D. from Iowa State University.

During the Vietnam War, he worked for the Military Assistance Command introducing the high-yield IR8 rice cultivar in Chương Thiện. Hargrove subsequently learned that the Viet Cong targeted him, but decided to let him live because of the good he was doing.

After his military service, he became a writer and editor with the International Rice Research Institute.

In 1991, Hargrove began working for the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in Cali, Colombia. While driving to work on 23 September 1994, he encountered a roadblock set up by FARC guerrillas who kidnapped him at gunpoint. Hargrove was considered a high-value prisoner because the semi-literate guerrillas thought his CIAT identification badge was proof that he was actually working for the CIA.

Hargrove was held captive by FARC-associated guerrillas in several different primitive campsites in the Colombian Andes for a total of 11 months. During this time he secretly kept a detailed diary on checkbooks and other scraps of paper he either had on him at the time of his kidnapping or that he scavenged. Being mostly illiterate and uneducated youths from farming backgrounds, his captors either did not comprehend or ignored the implications of Hargrove's meticulous documentation of his experience.

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