Mass Murderer Behind Rampage Targeting His Kids, Their Mothers Dies Years After Escaping Execution

George Banks, who went on a 1982 shooting rampage that killed 13 people, including his children and their mothers, died Sunday afternoon at a Pennsylvania prison.

Banks died from complications of kidney cancer at a Phoenix state prison, The Associated Press (AP) reported, citing the state Department of Corrections. Banks shot 14 people in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, with an AR-15 rifle and was convicted on 12 counts of first-degree murder and one count of third-degree murder.

Five of the victims were Banks’s children, who ranged in age from 1 to 6 years old, according to the AP. Banks also killed the four mothers of his children and multiple bystanders — a teen, an 11-year-old and a 7-year-old among them. Banks had been drinking late at a party before going on the shooting rampage. The mass murder was viewed as one of the worst in U.S. history at the time.

Banks fatally shot three women and five children at his residence, according to authorities. He then saw four teenagers walking to their car and fatally shot one while the other survived, officials said. Banks stole a vehicle and traveled to the Heather Highlands Trailer Park, where the law enforcement discovered the corpses of his son, the child’s mother, grandmother and cousin.

Banks then traveled to his mother’s residence, and she told law enforcement he admitted to the murders, court records said. He then engaged in a four-hour standoff with police at a friend’s residence before giving himself up.

Banks’s mother, Mary Yelland argued his actions were motivated by unfair treatment her son had endured while younger, according to The Citizen’s Voice.

“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,” Yelland said.

Banks claimed he committed his actions because he wanted to spare his kids from growing up in a racist society, according to the AP. Banks also displayed graphic photos of his victims in court, even though his attorney had gotten the photos barred from being shown because they were gruesome and prejudiced his case.

A judge sentenced Banks to the death penalty in 1985 and his execution was scheduled for March 1996, but it was repeatedly delayed due to legal appeals. Following a 2010 competency hearing, a judge ruled Banks mentally incompetent and thus ineligible for execution. (RELATED: ‘Flipped Out Of It’: Ferris Wheel Ejects Two Girls In Horrifying Accident, Officials Say)

Banks’s former lawyer, Al Flora issued a statement in response to his death to WNEP.

“I knew that he was in failing health because the court had appointed a guardian for him, and in some ways the chapter’s closed, but it will always be a part of me,” Flora said. “He was a very complex person; there was no doubt he was severely mentally ill. The prosecution psychiatrist agreed to that point.”

Banks was 83 years old, according to the AP.