Thomas Hargrove

Thomas Rex Hargrove, born March 3, 1944, and died January 22, 2011, was an American agricultural scientist and journalist who worked on rice research before being kidnapped by FARC narco-guerrillas in Colombia in September 1994 and held for eleven months. During his captivity he secretly kept a detailed diary on checkbooks and scraps of paper, an account that later formed the basis of the 2000 film Proof of Life, and after his release he became a consultant on kidnapping and counter-terrorism, teaching at United States military institutions until his death from heart failure in Galveston, Texas.