Infamous mass murderer George Banks, who slaughtered 13 people including five of his own children, has died in state prison at the age of 83, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections.
Banks, who was serving life in prison after being deemed by the courts too mentally ill to be executed, died of natural causes on Sunday at State Correctional Institution at Phoenix in Montgomery County, DOC spokeswoman Maria Bivens said.
Banks gained notoriety on Sept. 25, 1982, when he murdered 13 people in what at the time represented the second-deadliest mass shooting in United States history.
Prosecutors said Banks had been drinking and taking prescription drugs when he used an AR-15 assault rifle to initiate the rampage by killing eight people at his home at 28 Schoolhouse Lane in Wilkes-Barre.
The victims at that location included three women, all mothers to his children, as well as five children, four of whom were his own.
While wearing camouflage fatigues, Banks then left the house while still armed with the rifle and fired at two passers-by outside in the street. One of them was killed and the other was wounded, prosecutors said.
Banks, who was at the time a 40-year-old state prison guard, then proceeded to go to a trailer at the Heather Highlands mobile home park in Jenkins Twp., where he murdered two more children — including his own son — along with the boy’s mother and two other adults.
After returning to Wilkes-Barre, Banks went to see his mother and admitted the murders, prosecutors said. He then holed up in a vacant home at 24 Monroe St., leading to a standoff.
Then-Luzerne County District Attorney Robert Gillespie convinced several area radio stations to broadcast reports saying all the victims were expected to survive in a ploy to convince Banks his crimes were not as serious as he may have thought. Banks eventually surrendered after a four-hour standoff.
Banks’ mother, Mary Yelland, had suggested the crime was motivated by Banks’ treatment earlier in his life, at one point telling the Baltimore Sun, “Georgie’s father was black. I’m white. He was born out of wedlock and the people here never let us forget it. They shunned me and the kids. They called me a (racial slur) lover and they did the same with George’s women. They ate at George. They just kept bugging him.”
Banks was tried on murder and related charges at the Luzerne County Courthouse with a jury selected from Allegheny County due to intense media coverage of the case.
On June 21, 1983, the jury convicted Banks on 12 counts of first-degree murder, one count of third-degree murder and related charges of attempted murder, recklessly endangering another person, robbery and theft of a motor vehicle.
The next day, the jury voted in favor of capital punishment. On Nov. 22, 1985, Judge Patrick J. Toole Jr. formally sentenced Banks to receive the death penalty for murder, plus another 25 to 50 years in prison on the other charges.
In February 1996, Gov. Tom Ridge signed Banks’ first death warrant, scheduling his execution for the week of March 3, 1996.
However, the execution date was repeatedly delayed as Banks filed a series of appeals with local and federal courts, seeking to take his case all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court.
During a competency hearing in 2010, psychiatrists testified Banks was willing to die because it would bring him freedom, saying it would lift him from the bounds of prison and the monotony of death row and return his soul “to Jesus” and “the Lord.”
On May 13, 2010, Luzerne County Judge Joseph M. Augello ruled that Banks was incompetent to be executed.
The state Supreme Court, in a 7-0 ruling, upheld that ruling in an order published Sept. 28, 2011, decreeing that Banks was mentally incompetent and cannot be executed.
As a result, his death sentence was effectively commuted to life in prison.
Banks, who had a history of erratic behavior in court, did appear apologetic for his actions in the aftermath of the rampage that shocked Luzerne County as well as the nation.
“God has touched me and a healing process has taken place to today. I have confessed my sins and have asked for forgiveness. I hope and pray he will show me his mercy,” Banks said during his sentencing hearing. “There is no excuse for anything that has happened. I loved my children. It is a painful thing to live with. I have thought about it a thousand times. There is nothing that can change anything. I am sorry about it all.”
Victims of George Banks
28 Schoolhouse Lane, Wilkes-Barre
- Reginia Clemens (29), girlfriend of Banks
- Montanzima Banks (6), daughter of Clemens and Banks
- Susan Yuhas (23), girlfriend of Banks, sister of Regina Clemens
- Bowendy Banks (4), son of Yuhas and Banks
- Mauritania Banks (20 months), daughter of Yuhas and Banks
- Dorothy Lions (29), girlfriend of Banks
- Nancy Lyons (11) daughter of Dorothy Lyons
- Foraroude Banks (1), son of Dorothy Lyons and Banks
- Raymond F. Hall (24), bystander shot on Schoolhouse Lane
- Wounded: James Olson (22), bystander
Heather Highlands mobile home, Jenkins Twp.
- Sharon Mazzillo (24), former girlfriend of Banks
- Kissmayu Banks (5), son of Sharon Mazzillo and Banks
- Scott Mazzillo (7), nephew of Sharon Mazzillo
- Alice Mazzillo (47), Sharon Mazzillo’s mother
