Overview
- The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections and the Montgomery County coroner confirmed Banks died Sunday at Phoenix State Prison from complications of kidney cancer.
- Banks was convicted for a Sept. 25, 1982 shooting spree in Wilkes-Barre and nearby Jenkins Township that left 13 people dead, including five of his children ages 1 to 6.
- A jury found him guilty on 12 counts of first-degree murder and one count of third-degree murder for killings carried out with an AR-15 rifle.
- He initially received a death sentence, which was overturned in 2001 and reinstated by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2004, before a 2006 incompetency ruling and a 2011 Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision left him serving life.
- Authorities said he surrendered after a four-hour standoff; reporting describes a radio tactic to suggest victims had survived, and survivors later voiced anger that he was never executed.