The
Pennsylvania Department of Corrections confirmed Sunday that Banks died at
Phoenix State Correctional Institution from complications of metastatic renal
cancer.
Harrisburg,
Pennsylvania | George Banks, whose 1982 rampage in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania,
left 13 people dead — including five of his own children — has died at age 83
after more than four decades behind bars.
The
Pennsylvania Department of Corrections confirmed Sunday that Banks died at
Phoenix State Correctional Institution from complications of metastatic renal
cancer.
The
rampage that shocked the nation
- On the night of September 14, 1982, Banks — then 40 — returned home after drinking at a party and opened fire with an AR-15 rifle.
- Three women and five children were killed inside the house. He then attacked again outside, killing additional victims in a nearby trailer park.
- Fourteen people were shot in total; thirteen died.
- Key fact: 13 people killed in Wilkes-Barre (1982)
- Source: Pennsylvania Superior Court Records (1985)
He
surrendered after a four-hour police standoff, reportedly telling his mother,
“I killed them all.”
During
trial proceedings, Banks claimed he acted to save his children from “growing up
in a racist society,” an assertion experts described as evidence of severe
delusion.
Trial,
death sentence, and reversal
A
Luzerne County jury convicted Banks on 12 counts of first-degree murder and one
of third-degree murder, imposing a death sentence.
Subsequent
psychiatric evaluations found him mentally incompetent, and in 2010
Pennsylvania courts vacated the execution order, converting it to life
imprisonment.
Jim Olson, the teen who survived being shot, expressed frustration in 2012: “What is the sense of having a death penalty if you don’t use it?”
Legal and social legacy
Banks’s
case became a landmark in U.S. discussions about mental health and capital
punishment.
According
to legal scholar Dr. Helen Carter of Temple University’s Law Center, the ruling
“helped define national standards for determining a prisoner’s competency for
execution.”
The
case remains cited in appellate reviews involving Eighth Amendment protections
and the treatment of mentally ill inmates on death row.
Final
years and death
Banks
lived under continuous medical supervision at Phoenix State Prison.
Montgomery
County Coroner Dr. Janine Darby confirmed the cause of death as renal neoplasm
with metastasis.
Authorities
stated that he died peacefully on Sunday afternoon, surrounded by prison
medical staff.
Publication
date: 11 / 03 / 2025
By: Maria Perez | Editor-in-Chief, CRNTimes
Sources:
CNN (AP) | Pennsylvania Department of Corrections | Montgomery County Coroner |
Temple University Law Center