PENNSYLVANIA MAN BEHIND THE MURDER OF MORE THAN A DOZEN PEOPLE THAT CAPTURED THE NATION’S ATTENTION IN THE 1980S, HAS DIED AT THE AGE OF 83. CONVICTED KILLER GEORGE EMIL BANKS DIED ON SUNDAY IN CHESTER COUNTY PRISON. BANKS SHOT 13 PEOPLE TO DEATH IN 1982, IN LUZERNE COUNTY. AMONG THE DEAD WERE SEVEN CHILDREN, INCLUDING FIVE OF HIS OWN. BANKS, A FORMER PRISON GUARD, WAS SENTENCED TO DEATH, BUT IT WAS OVERTURNED BECAUSE HE WAS DEEMED MENTALLY INCOMPETENT. TH
Pennsylvania mass murderer George Emil Banks dies in prison from kidney cancer
Updated: 1:02 PM EST Nov 4, 2025
A Pennsylvania man convicted of killing 13 people, including his own children, more than 40 years ago has died in a prison. George Emil Banks, the Pennsylvania man behind the murder of more than a dozen people in 1982, died on Sunday at the age of 83 in a Chester County prison. Banks, a former prison guard, shot 13 people to death on Sept. 25, 1982 at homes in Wilkes-Barre and Jenkins Township, Luzerne County. Seven children, five of whom were his own, died in the shooting spree. Jim Zardecki, the chief county detective on the case, spoke with WTAE’s sister station WNEP 40 years after murders. He said nothing could have prepared him for the sights he saw on Schoolhouse Lane. “The thing that stands out the most of all was that there was a little girl sitting in the bed with her back against the wall, and she had this look of fear in her eyes that you could see. There was a bullet hole between her eyes, her head was cocked, and blood was spattered behind on the wall,” explains Zardecki. Although Banks was sentenced to death, the sentence was overturned after he was deemed mentally incompetent. The coroner attributed his death to complications from kidney cancer.
LUZERNE COUNTY, Pa. —
A Pennsylvania man convicted of killing 13 people, including his own children, more than 40 years ago has died in a prison.
George Emil Banks, the Pennsylvania man behind the murder of more than a dozen people in 1982, died on Sunday at the age of 83 in a Chester County prison.
Banks, a former prison guard, shot 13 people to death on Sept. 25, 1982 at homes in Wilkes-Barre and Jenkins Township, Luzerne County.
Seven children, five of whom were his own, died in the shooting spree.
Jim Zardecki, the chief county detective on the case, spoke with WTAE’s sister station WNEP 40 years after murders.
He said nothing could have prepared him for the sights he saw on Schoolhouse Lane.
“The thing that stands out the most of all was that there was a little girl sitting in the bed with her back against the wall, and she had this look of fear in her eyes that you could see. There was a bullet hole between her eyes, her head was cocked, and blood was spattered behind on the wall,” explains Zardecki.
Although Banks was sentenced to death, the sentence was overturned after he was deemed mentally incompetent.
The coroner attributed his death to complications from kidney cancer.