US EditionMass murderer George Banks, spared from death penalty, dies in prison 43 years after rampage
George Banks killed 13 people during a 1982 rampage and was spared the death penalty due to mental incompetence, dying in prison 43 years later, officials said.
- George Banks, 83, died Sunday at Phoenix state prison, Montgomery County Coroner Dr. Janine Darby said he died of kidney cancer complications.
- In 1982, George Banks used an AR-15 rifle after a late-night party, shooting 14 people and killing 13, including five children ages 1 to 6 and four mothers of his children in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
- After his arrest Banks told his mother `I killed them.` and claimed he killed his children to spare them racism, while defense lawyers argued he was insane.
- He was sentenced to death in 1985, with a March 1996 execution date signed by Gov. Tom Ridge, but state courts blocked it over mental competency, leaving George Banks to serve life imprisonment.
- Wilkes-Barre investigators recall the case as one of the worst mass murders in American history, with Jim Olson later criticizing that Banks wasn’t executed, questioning the death penalty’s purpose.
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Who was George Banks: The man behind 1982 Wilkes-Barre massacre that killed 13, dies at 83
George Banks, one of America’s most notorious mass murderers, died at 83 while serving a life sentence in Pennsylvania. He killed 13 people, including five of his children, in the 1982 Wilkes-Barre massacre — one of the deadliest family killings in US history.
Mass murderer George Banks, spared from death penalty, dies in prison 43 years after Wilkes-Barre rampage
George Banks, one of the most notorious mass murderers in the U.S., has died. Banks, 83, died Sunday afternoon at Phoenix state prison in Pennsylvania, the state Department of Corrections said. Banks died of complications from renal neoplasm, or kidney cancer, said Montgomery County Coroner Dr. Janine Darby. Banks had been in prison since 1982 after shooting 14 people, and killing 13, including his own children, during a rampage in Wilkes-Barre.…
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