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U.S.|George Banks, Convicted Mass Murderer, Dies at 83
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/03/us/george-banks-dead.html
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He fatally shot 13 people in Pennsylvania in September 1982 in what was then one of the nation’s worst mass shootings. Five of the victims were his own children.
Nov. 3, 2025, 10:23 p.m. ET
George Banks, who killed 13 people, five of whom were his own children, in a 1982 shooting rampage in Pennsylvania that was one of the nation’s worst mass murders at the time, died on Sunday in prison in Collegeville, Pa. He was 83.
His death in State Correctional Institution Phoenix, a state prison, was confirmed by the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. The cause was kidney cancer, Dr. Janine Darby, the Montgomery County coroner, said.
In the early morning hours of Sept. 25, 1982, Mr. Banks, a former prison guard and an Army veteran, shot and killed three women and five children, four of whom were his, at his home in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. He shot at bystanders as he was leaving, killing one and injuring another, The Times reported.
Mr. Banks, wearing Army fatigues, stole a car and went to Heather Highlands, a trailer park in Jenkins Township, Pa., where he killed one of his sons and the boy’s mother, and two of her relatives, one of whom was a 7-year-old boy.
Mr. Banks eventually surrendered to the police after an hourslong standoff. He was armed with an AR-15 rifle, according to The Times Leader of Wilkes-Barre.
After the rampage was over, Mr. Banks had killed five of his own children, ages 1 to 6, according to The Associated Press. Two other children and a teenager were also among the victims, as were four women Mr. Banks had been in relationships with, their relatives and a passer-by.
