Hello! Hello! I'm Kenna. I'm Koelle. And welcome back to Diagnosing a Killer!
I wanted to say mental breakdown! Mental breakdown! It's not the mental breakdown!
Which is next episode. They're like, wait, I clicked on episode 17, not mental breakdown.
I'm just used to doing like the m-m-m-mental breakdown!
Hi! How's it going? I know, it's just like jittering.
We got a new Patreon this week and I'm so excited. His name is JimBob56.
Thank you JimBob56. I appreciate that. We are now up to five total Patreons.
Thanks guys! Us included, so three. Thank you guys very much for that.
We're gonna just jump right into the case, I think. I have to do it.
It's gonna be a full-on episode. So today we are going to be talking about, I don't think you know this one, George Emil Banks.
George Emil Banks? No? No? I don't think so. Are you waiting for me to repeat it and say no?
No? No? Anybody? Yeah. Anyone? Seek up now for everyone please.
So George Emil Banks was born in the suburbs of Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania on June 22nd, 1942 to parents John Mack and Mary Yelland.
Mary Yelland? Yelland. Not Mary Ellen. No? Yelland. Why E-L-L? Mary Yelland!
Like you're yelling and it's the end. Yelland. Yelland. It's the end of your yell.
It wasn't a lot of sources and I think that it's important to note that the community that George was raised in had an 80% white population
because his father was black and his mother was white.
Now, although George's parents were not married, they were highly discriminated against as well as George
because the parents were raising biracial children and George was biracial himself.
On top of being judged and teased, like I said, the classmates would also frequently tease his mother for being in that relationship, which is awful.
Of course, this continuous teasing and discrimination took a huge toll on George and he carried that anger into his adulthood.
I'll go in a little bit more into that later.
So there's not much about his early childhood except for the discrimination and segregation.
They talk about that a lot in all the sources that I read.
But when George turned 17, he decided to join the army and make a successful, secure career for himself.
That's good.
Really admirable.
Now, during the two years that he spent with the U.S. Army, there was a number of disagreements noted between George and his superiors.
And ultimately, again, just two years later in the year 1961, George was discharged from the army.
Honorably?
It didn't say dishonorably or honorably, it just says discharged.
So I'm not sure.
So either way, it might have been because of the disagreements, but either way, he was discharged.
Yes.
And he was only there for two years?
Yes.
So he was 19 at this point.
So is at this time that George's violent streak would begin?
So again, at the age of 19, George and some accomplices, it said, it did not name these people, went to a tavern in South Scranton with the intention of robbing the store owner at gunpoint.
What?
Yeah.
Just strung him.
The sudden it seems, right?
I know.
With a shotgun in hand, the team of men walked into the tavern and during the struggle, the store owner was shot and injured, but ultimately survived the attack.
I know how scary, right?
That is so scary.
Now, George was arrested following this attack and he was sentenced to six to 15 years for armed robbery.
Three years into this sentence in 1964, George made a brief escape, it says.
What?
Yes.
Brief escape.
Oxymor.
Either way, it's an escape.
Yeah.
It's a matter of its brief.
Does it matter?
And following him being recaptured and returned to prison, of course, he got time added to his sentence.
Despite the time being added to his sentence, I mean, that's the whole story, right?
That's it.
The end.
Despite the time being added to his sentence, George only served eight years in full and was granted parole in 1969.
So other than the fact that he escaped, he's like a model in May and they just let him go.
Armed robbery, escape artist, and then on parole.
What?
Like that's the end.
Yeah, literally.
Now, it was at this time that George was released that he realized what he wanted in life, marriage and a family.
He got a job with the Department of Environmental Resources and the same year that he was granted parole in 1969, George found himself married to a young woman named Doris.
The same, I wonder if they met while he was in prison.
I'm not sure.
Didn't say.
They didn't say a lot.
They didn't.
This is a hard case to research.
The sauces.
Again, it is important for the story to note that Doris was a black woman and I'll explain why in a little bit.
They tied the knot on August 23rd, 1969, and during their time being married, they had two daughters together, Myrna and Daphne.
All right.
That's so cute.
Myrna and Daphne.
Now we're going to fast forward to 1974.
Governor Milton Shapp commuted George's sentence so he lessened his sentence so he was no longer on parole.
So he got off parole.
Two years later, on October 28th, 1976, George would file for divorce from Doris.
After the relationship ended, George and Doris were no longer, I'm assuming, talking and I believe that he left the family entirely.
Oh my God.
Because they don't show back up in the story.
Because that was like what he wanted to be like a family man.
So George would later say that he ended the relationship because he felt the torment from his childhood creeping back in.
And after that, he himself made the decision to date white women only from that point on.
In an attempt to shield himself and his future children or partner from racism.
Wow.
That's what he says about that later on.
That's so sad.
I know it is.
It's just sad that discrimination literally shapes your brain.
Oh yeah, absolutely.
Now during the timeframe of 1976 to around 1980, I couldn't get an exact date.
George dated a woman named Sharon Mazeo and they had even lived together for a while and had one son together named Kismayu.
Kismayu?
Kismayu.
Cute.
They ultimately separated as well.
And over the next few years, again, the timeline was not perfect.
And this is going to get kind of confusing.
So I'm going to try to be as clear as possible.
Okay.
George had met three young women who were all living on the streets and seemed as though they were in need of some help.
Maybe some shelter, some food.
But keep in mind, this is 1980-ish.
George is now 40 years old and he's offering to help out these young women.
Thinking that he's a stand-up guy that's offering to put a roof over their heads, the women trusted him.
It wasn't clear if he met them all at the same time and offered to have them a place to stay or he met them in separate occasions.
This is about like a six-year gap.
So it's very likely that he met them at different times and then offered them to come live with him.
He had a son, so this was in six years of him having his son.
Yes.
Exactly.
So it was at this point around 1980 that George had actually gotten a job as a prison guard, despite his record,
and was working at Camp Hill in Pennsylvania.
So why shouldn't these women trust him?
He seems like a stand-up guy.
He has a job in prison.
He's got a good job.
Yeah.
Now George purchased a house in Will's Bar, the same city that he had spent his whole life in,
and invited these women to live with him.
It wasn't clear if two of these women knew each other before, but two of them were actually siblings.
So it was his sister and her younger sister, and then a third woman that was not related to them.
Okay.
Either way, however it happened, by September of 1982, George was living with all of these women and had children with each of them.
Yes.
What?
Yes.
Canelozo.
Yes.
So again, the names may get a little confusing, but I felt it's important to name each of them for the purpose of the story.
Of course.
So I will try to be as clear as possible.
Now, from these three women came five children.
Dorothy Lyons had a daughter named Nancy from a previous relationship.
She was 11 years old.
Okay.
And her and George shared a son together who was one year old named Fora Roode.
Susan Yuhas had a son named Boende, who she shared with George, who was four years old, and also a 20-month-year-old daughter, Morin Tiana.
Morin Tiana.
These are just so unique.
Yes.
And Regina Clemens also had a daughter with George named Montanzima, and she was six years old.
But like how long was...
So, okay, wait.
So she's six.
She's six.
But how long had the women had only been living there for six years, right?
They had.
Because...
So was he like with her and also the previous lady?
Yes.
So it seems like the oldest child is six in the house.
His breakup with his ex-girlfriend Sharon was five years ago, right?
And so he clearly was...
Oh, was already with this woman.
Yes.
This woman Regina, it seems as though he had sex with her, gotten her pregnant, and then was in this relationship with Sharon maybe shortly afterwards, or while he was in the relationship with her.
Either way, he has a six-year-old with this woman Regina, with woman Regina now, and a five-year-old with his ex-girlfriend Sharon, who is not living in the house.
Okay, so he had had a previous relationship with her before the other five-year-old's mom.
Yes.
Oh my gosh.
It's confusing.
I know.
So the only biochild that's not his is Nancy, right?
Yes.
She's eleven.
And she's from a previous relationship, but she's living in this house.
But she lives there.
Okay.
So there's five children and four adults in the house.
Okay.
I know, it's hard to explain.
So it's very clear that Georgia's in relationships with all three of these women, or at least has been in the past, and has kids with all three of them.
Yeah.
Which again, it's not unusual for some religions.
Absolutely.
To have multiple two-each-ism.
Wise, or have multiple women that have multiple children.
Yes.
Things like that.
So, okay.
As long as they're happy.
Yeah.
Are they happy?
Uh.
I mean, I'm a woman.
He says it all.
Now on top of the three women and five children that are living in his home, he is also in a custody battle with his ex-girlfriend Sharon for their now five-year-old son.
Okay.
Sharon, however, was not living in the home, but instead was living in a mobile home only four miles away in Jenkins Township with their son.
Hmm.
This custody battle had been going on for a while, and although George had been granted parental responsibility, Sharon was not complying with court orders and was pretty much keeping his son from him.
So she's refusing to let the son.
She's like not in agreement with what he's doing.
Seems like it.
All the other children.
Maybe she couldn't hang with the multiple girlfriends.
Yeah.
I mean.
But that's still his kid.
Yeah.
I mean, especially if it's court order to be granted.
He's granted.
He has parental rights.
Yes.
He has parental rights.
Yes.
And she's keeping him from him.
Oh, hell no.
Yeah.
No.
Wild horses could not drag me away from my child.
So remember how I said earlier that he was working as a prison guard?
Mm-hmm.
Well, his stint in that job only lasted two years as well, and in early 1982, George had told a coworker that, quote, the world would soon be consumed by a race war, and that he also wanted, quote, to prevent the five children he fathered with the four white girlfriends from experiencing the torment and agony of racism.
No.
Yeah.
What's he gonna do?
Well, during the first week of September.
No, don't do this.
Okay.
All right.
It's not coming in.
Okay.
Oh, God, okay.
George was actually put on a leave of absence from this prison guard job following a disagreement with the supervisor.
Sound familiar?
Yes.
In this disagreement, George threatened suicide.
The argument began with George locking himself in a guard tower with a shotgun and threatening to kill himself.
What?
Yes.
This incident not only took him off prison guard duty.
Duh.
The prison had ordered George to be examined for mental health issues at a Harrisburg area hospital.
Here we go.
There we go.
This is the diagnosis part of the diagnosis.
Yeah.
Where they don't get diagnosed and they just get shoved off to, like, on the streets or whatever.
So he was placed on involuntary sick leave and was supposed to see a psychologist on September 29, 1982.
What does that mean, supposed to see a psychologist?
Like, when I hear shit like that, I'm thinking someone's going to make a house call.
Someone is going to actively check up with this individual, not just, like, we're going to schedule an appointment and hope that they show up.
So remember, this is in the beginning of September that this incident happened.
And they're telling him, oh, we booked you an appointment for the 29th.
You're going to have to wait three weeks to get this appointment with the psychologist.
But you got to go see them.
And not only are you going to wait three weeks, you're going to be out of work for three weeks while we wait to get this appointment.
So your entire routine is just fucked.
Like, you don't have a routine because you're not getting up going to work.
Oh, no, no.
And if you are suffering from a mental illness, disrupting your routine can be a big, freaking, issue.
Of course, yeah.
Because it's, I mean, it's, you're no longer being held accountable for anything anymore.
Yeah.
And you feel like that's like one of the things is when they say, like, not to compare mental illnesses with working out.
But that's what they say, like, when you start going to the gym, take a buddy, you know, because you keep each other accountable.
Yeah.
And if nobody is keeping you accountable for anything, I mean, fuck it.
Yeah.
Fuck it.
Literally.
Now, I said three weeks from now is when he's going to have the appointment.
Mm-hmm.
Two weeks later, on September 24th, 1982, this is it.
No!
This is five days before his appointment.
Oh my God.
George found himself at a party and heavily under the influence of straight gin, also on a dangerous amount of prescription drugs.
Oh, fuck.
At this party, he was noted as playing darts and drinking beer, of course.
And he was also fawning over a woman's t-shirt that he met.
The t-shirt stated, quote, kill them all and let God sort it out.
It's kind of a rad shirt.
Not in this sense.
He loved this t-shirt so much, in fact, that he and this woman actually switched shirts while at the party.
He wanted it.
Right?
He went to bed and, to his surprise, awoke the next morning in his home.
After waking up...
Surprised to be awoke?
In his own home?
Oh, because he was so drunk he didn't realize?
He was surprised that he woke up.
He drank so much and took pills the night before.
Oh.
That was me speculating.
I don't know if he was surprised.
He didn't say that.
Surprise.
You were surprised.
I was surprised.
After waking up, George picked up his AR-15, semi-automatic rifle, and began what would end up becoming a 13-person killing spree.
13?
Oh my god.
Content warning.
I'm not going to get too much into it, but content warning.
George began by killing everybody that lived in the house with him.
Without getting too much into it, again, his method of operation for each person was a fatal gunshot wound, either to the head or to the heart, bringing his body count to 8 within minutes.
So, okay, so we ate.
That's the three women and then the all five children.
Yes.
After he was finished in the home, George addressed himself in military fatigues that he wore over the t-shirt from the party and made his way outside.
Across the street, there was a house party, I guess that had ended and people were leaving the next morning, and just as George exited his home, so did 22-year-old Jimmy Olsen and 24-year-old Ray Hall Jr. across the street.
They're like random people?
As soon as George spotted the two men, he opened fire.
Ugh, I could do a math.
Like, literally you're just leaving a party.
You're hung over as shit.
Man, let's hit up the I-hop.
Literally.
Oh my god, that's so awful.
Both of the men were struck with bullets.
Ray Hall Jr. died at the scene, suffering gunshot wounds to his liver and kidney.
And surprisingly, Jimmy Olsen survived a gunshot wound to the chest.
Oh my god.
Jimmy would later tell investigators that he remembers George stating that the two men would not tell anybody about what happened before he opened fire.
Like, he was saying, like, do you think that maybe he thought that they, maybe they knew or something that he had hurt everybody in the family?
Or do you think it was like, I don't know, like, is it like-
I think that he was in a military uniform with an AR-15 in his hand and these two guys saw and he said,
Oh, you're not gonna say anything about what I look like or what I'm doing or whatever.
I mean, he obviously has a gun.
He's not, you know, I don't know.
I guess like he considered them to be witnesses.
Yeah, I think so.
And I mean, talk about Survivor's guilt with Jimmy Olsen and his buddy, you know, they were just leaving the party together and they both got shot and he survived.
I can't imagine.
Especially a wound to the chest like that.
Yeah.
Following this attack, George got in his car and drove off.
He knew exactly where he wanted to go and he headed towards Heather Highland's mobile home park where his ex-girlfriend Sharon and the son that they shared lived together.
Upon arriving, George forced his way in and immediately got to Sharon shooting her instantly in the chest.
He was then noted as placing the gun to his son's head while he was asleep and discharging a fatal gunshot wound.
Unbeknownst to George, Sharon's mother and two brothers, as well as her nephew, were also in the mobile home.
Oh my God.
This is too much.
I know, George turned the gun on Alice Mazeo, Sharon's mom, who was actually on the phone with police at the time and delivered a fatal gunshot to her face.
Sharon's nephew, Scott, had tried to get away but was kicked by George, hit with the rifle and ultimately shot fatally in the face as well.
Bringing his crime spree up to 13 victims.
George then left the mobile home.
Did Sharon's mom get to say anything on 911?
It'll come up later.
Now I mentioned that Sharon's two younger brothers were also there.
George didn't notice, but Sharon's younger brother, Angelo, at 10 years old, was hiding under the bed during this whole attack.
And her other brother, Keith, at 13 years old, was hiding in a closet.
Oh my God, smart boys.
After George left the mobile home, the phone that Alice had used to call the police, the line was still open.
So the boys picked up the phone and were able to identify George as the sheriff immediately.
No way!
Oh my God.
I just got the whole heave's in jeeps.
Smart heaves.
Oh my gosh, I can't believe that.
So I'm sure the operator probably heard gunshots and stuff.
After this report from the boys, police arrived at both scenes, the house and the mobile home, and were quickly able to connect the crime scenes with the men that had been shot across the street and with George Minks.
Now George had abandoned his car after leaving the mobile home and actually carjacked an unnamed individual who was left uninjured.
And at this point, George drove around for a while and then he pulled over in a grassy area and laid down for a little bit and ultimately passed out.
Like he was exhausted from all his crime doing?
Yeah, I thought this was important to note because that can be a sign of severe mental illness, like the dissociation with reality.
Yeah.
Like that's real, you know.
When George awoke, he immediately went to his mother, Mary's house, who still resided in Wilkes Bar.
When George arrived, Mary noted that he smelled like liquor and he was crying.
Mary remembers George telling her that she needed to take him where he wanted to go or that there was going to be a shootout.
Yeah, like what?
Like with his own mom?
Well, with the police.
I mean he killed his own children, but...
When Mary asked George what happened, he replied with, quote, it's all over. I did it. I killed everyone.
She then asked who he killed and he replied, quote, I killed them all, mom. I killed all the kids and girls. Regina, Sharon, them all.
Geez.
Very haunting.
After hearing this, of course, Mary was shocked and she proceeded to call George's home to confirm hoping that he was just drunk and just rambling.
Well, the police were still at his home doing their investigation, so they answered when the phone rang.
Oh my God.
Imagine that.
That is heartbreaking.
Upon the police answering the phone, George grabbed the phone from his mom and asked the cops how the children were doing.
What?
Yeah.
He's definitely suffering from some type of psychosis.
The police told George that the children were indeed alive in an attempt to keep him on the phone.
They were not, but they were trying to.
George responded by screaming that they were lying and saying, quote, I know I killed them.
He slammed the phone down, put 30 rounds of ammo in a duffel bag and left the home going to a vacant rental home.
Okay.
I assume that he was in a home either near the house or that Mary followed him, but either way, the police were able to locate the rental home or the vacate.
Yeah, the vacant home that George was in.
Yeah.
This is where a standoff took place.
Oh my God.
The police attempted everything they could to get George out of the home, including bringing Mary with them in order to try and talk him out.
They also feigned a news report that they played over WILK radio that stated that the children were alive and they needed blood in order to survive.
What?
So they made a fake news report over a radio and played it for him, that it was someone reporting that the kids are in desperate need of blood to survive, hoping that that would draw him out.
Didn't.
Yeah.
I'm sorry, like he already killed his children, so I don't think that there's, I think that even if there was a potential that they were alive, he probably, I mean, that sounds awful, but probably hoped that they would.
Yeah.
Because he already thought that he was saving them or helping them, you know?
None of these things seem to be working.
And after four hours, a former coworker of George's named Robert Brunson was able to talk George down and get him out of the house.
Was he a corrections officer?
Probably, right?
Oh, is it a former coworker?
Yeah, I'm assuming he worked at the prison.
Just five days later, George stood accused of eight counts of murder, attempted murder, aggravated assault, recklessly endangering another person, stealing a car, robbery, and theft.
Only eight counts of murder?
This is what he's accused of.
So we'll get to the trial.
Those are the things that they definitely knew he did.
Yes.
I see, okay.
Following the shootings, George was given many psychiatric interviews, one in which Dr. Michael Spodak, chief of psychiatry at Baltimore County General Hospital said, he spoke of, quote, a conspiracy he believes he had been plotted against him, overwhelming his thoughts.
Dr. Spodak was also noted as saying about George, quote, in my opinion, he was completely irrational.
He had lost touch with reality on a great many things.
He said he thinks someone moved the bodies around and put extra bullets into them and changed some of the clothes.
They were not rational expressions.
That's part of his illness.
Interesting.
While Dr. Spodak felt that George was, quote, terminally paranoid and not competent to stand trial, he was not the only psychiatrist that evaluated George.
Of course.
Dr. Robert Sadoff testified at a pretrial hearing on behalf of the prosecution and he stated that he felt that although George exhibited, quote, bizarre behavior, he fully understood the charges that were made against him, which, yeah, you can understand the charges, but do you understand what you did and were you saying at the time of your crimes?
Yeah, I do agree with the fact that, I mean, clearly he said that he admitted to doing it.
So I think that he knew what it was.
Now, whether or not he knows the gravity of that.
Yeah.
Because maybe he doesn't have the ability to be empathetic or sympathetic.
Yeah.
That's different, you know, but that doesn't necessarily mean that he's incompetent.
I agree.
The judge ultimately agreed with Dr. Sadoff and ruled George legally competent to stand trial.
On June 6, 1983, George's trial began at the Luzern County Courthouse in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania.
From the start of the trial and against his attorney's advice, George insisted in testifying on his own behalf.
Oh my gosh.
They totally let him.
They did.
They totally let them do that.
The defense team was arguing that George was criminally insane during the times of his crimes and therefore could not be held responsible for his actions.
However, George disagreed with his attorneys and was determined to take the stand with the statement that he was not insane.
His defense attorneys had the opportunity to speak first.
They stated that George was a man with disturbed and paranoid thoughts and that he had a fixation on an impending race war he believed was coming to the world.
They also said that he was suffering from paranoia during the time of the shootings and the defense psychiatrist argued that George truly believed that he had not killed his family.
That's the defense psychiatrist arguing for him, but George was saying otherwise.
Yeah.
Instead, George argued that he himself had only wounded some of his victims and that the police were the ones that actually killed them.
So he's totally changed at this point.
Although, again, we talk about that structure. There's no structure, there's no routine or anything, so he's probably just deteriorating in his brain.
Yes.
Once George took the stand, he exclaimed that it was indeed the police that killed his victims, that he had simply wounded them, and if they would let him exume the victims' bodies, he could prove his theory.
Oh my God.
I feel so bad for this man, although you can't feel badly for him because of the crimes that he committed.
But seriously, for somebody to go through that in their brain, how exhausting.
That's suffering so much and they don't even realize it.
And they don't know.
During his time on the stand, he also told police that he committed the crimes because he was drunk and on drugs and that his suffering from his childhood had built up into rage.
Many other people took the stand at the trial, including some of George's family members, who testified that George had been struggling with the weight of racism his whole life and his hard childhood brought out resentment for both the black and white races.
Jimmy Olsen, the man who survived the gunshot wound to the chest, also took the stand.
He testified that George was indeed the man that shot him and left him for dead.
A gas station attendant who now knew George as the man who carjacked him at gunpoint after telling him that he had just killed his children also took the stand to identify George as the perpetrator.
That guy remained anonymous.
He confirmed that George was carrying a semi-automatic weapon during this confrontation.
Perhaps the most compelling testimonies, however, were that of Sharon's two little brothers, Keith and Angelo, who remember they were in the mobile home during the second attack.
The 911 operator was also there to use the mother's and children's call for the record.
When speaking about Alice's call, the operator said, quote,
She said someone was there assaulting her and her kids and there was a noise.
The operator then recalled that the line was quiet for a while.
Quote, it sounded like a firecracker and a man's voice shouted, I'll kill you.
And then there was silence, but the line stayed open.
Then I heard a young male voice whisper, quote,
He killed my brother and my sister and my mom. He shot them all.
While both the defense and the prosecution agreed that George suffered from a paranoia psychosis diagnosis,
they disagreed on whether or not this would affect his ability to know right from wrong, especially during the time of the crimes.
The prosecution maintained that although mental illness may have contributed to his behavior and his actions,
George knew what he was doing and killed the women in his life and his children as he felt he was losing control over them.
Which I don't know if I agree with that part.
Yeah, I mean, that's definitely something a prosecutor would say.
They also brought in testimony that George had abused past girlfriends and witnesses who said they saw George
physically assaulting the women who lived in the house with him.
I mean, that's kind of damning.
Closing arguments took place 15 days later on June 21st, 1983.
Although the defense argued that George was insane, it was not enough to convince the jury that he did not know right from wrong.
The jury ultimately found George and Neil Banks guilty of 12 counts of first degree murder,
one count of third degree murder, attempted murder, aggravated assault,
and one count each of robbery, theft, and endangering the life of another person.
On June 22nd, 1983, on George's 41st birthday, the jury recommended the death penalty for George Banks.
I have full body chills right now.
That is intense.
That was so orange.
No, that's it. That's so much information.
I know.
Following the trial, George immediately went to the maximum security unit at Huntington and was there until November of 1985.
He was then sent to the Correctional Institute at Greater Ford after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to overturn his verdict.
From 1987 to the year 2000, George's attorneys continued to try and appeal his case.
On what grounds?
That he was insane. I think they were trying to appeal the death penalty, not any of his convictions, but they didn't want to overturn the death penalty.
However, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear his attorney's argument that he lacked the mental competency to be executed.
Since his conviction and during his numerous appeals, George repeatedly tried to take his own life and engage in a hunger strike,
resulting in the need to be force fed in order to keep him alive.
Oh my gosh.
How would they do that? I guess they would like...
Maybe a feeding tube or something?
Yeah, but like...
Shrap him down?
How do you have to... Yeah, exactly. You'd have to strap him down.
Probably to date him.
Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge even signed a death warrant twice for George, one in 1996 and the second in 1999,
with both times being unsuccessful, the federal courts staying George's execution.
It didn't say why it was denied.
The multiple sources said that they stayed his execution.
I had to look into this. The death warrant that the governor signed was pretty much like...
Expedited.
Killing now.
Expedited.
Yeah, that sounds bad. But then the federal courts are saying, no, I think it was because they were getting so much information from the defense attorneys,
from all these other sources, they were like, maybe we should...
Maybe we should turn these guys out for a little bit longer.
I don't know what the reason was, but either way, it was denied.
It might be like a tax dollar thing, honestly.
Yeah.
They're like, okay, there's too many medical resources going into keeping this dude alive.
But if the court finds that that's not true, that other people...
You know what I mean?
Yeah, I don't believe that it was unselfish that they didn't...
That they denied it.
No, it's definitely for selfish reasons.
Yeah.
From his conviction until the year 2000, George's defense team filed six appeals across the state Supreme Court,
the US Supreme Court, the federal court, and the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, all of which were denied.
In October of 2001, upon another appeal to the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit,
the death penalty for George Banks was overturned based on the ruling from Mills v. Maryland in 1988,
regarding how juries are instructed in death penalty cases with the Court of Appeals,
and deciding that this ruling should be applied to cases redating that trial.
Wow.
I know.
However, two years later, in June of 2003, this decision was overruled by the US Supreme Court,
and George Banks once again faced the death penalty.
Could you imagine being George Banks and being like, I mean, yeah, sure, whatever, like for years,
because you're gonna die, you're not gonna die, you're not gonna die.
Yeah.
But like at this point, does he even know what's going on if he's not getting proper psychiatric treatment?
I mean, let's be honest, in the early 2000s, he might not be getting proper evaluations in prison.
Yeah.
Scheduled for death for the third time, a last-minute decision was received from the state Supreme Court,
stating that George Banks needed to be re-re-revaluated to see if he had the mental capacity and competency to be executed.
Wow.
Yeah.
In 2010, another hearing was held on his competency.
His attorneys at his mental state had deteriorated significantly since 1982.
I bet.
Judge Joseph?
Judge Schiff?
Judge Joseph?
Judge Joseph M. Aguilo ruled that Banks was mentally incompetent for execution or to assist in his attorneys in seeking clemency.
He would continue to be held in a restricted housing unit at Graderford Prison.
There's a quote from this hearing.
I couldn't, I didn't know if it was from the judge or the attorney, I think it was from the judge, but it does say, quote,
Banks is out of touch with reality. He views his circumstances and the events around him through the prism of his delusions.
His delusional beliefs are at the core of his understanding of his current legal situation, including the reasons for his continued incarceration and his possible execution.
As of September of 2017, he was still on death row in Pennsylvania.
He was later transferred to SCI Phoenix in May 2018.
The last that I can find on George Banks was that he was 76 years old in 2018, still serving his sentence death row.
Yeah.
So he's like still alive and like in prison?
Okay, get this. I will get to that in just a second, but I do want to take one moment to identify all of the victims because it was very confusing.
And I'd like to identify their names and their ages just for the record.
So we have Sharon Mazeo at 24, Kisaymu Banks at five, Scott Mazeo age seven, Alice Mazeo age 47, Regina Clemens age 29,
Montanzima Banks age six, Susan Juha's age 23, Boende Banks age four, Mari Tanina Banks 20 months, Dorothy Lyons 29 years old, Nancy Lyons 11,
Fora Road Banks one, Raymond F. Hall Jr. 24, and the survivors are Keith Mazeo at 13, Angelo Mazeo at 10, James Olsen at 22,
and then the unidentified man that got carjacked.
But I just, I wanted to put that in there. I thought it was important because how long it took me to say that, that's like really compelling.
It is.
On a little bit of a lighter note, there was an article that I found like right before we started recording, he is in the same prison as Bill Cosby.
And there was a rumor that was circulating that Bill Cosby was like afraid of him.
And literally I have it right here. Hold on. I had to look.
The article title, this is from 2019, so only like two years ago.
The article titled George Banks, Not a Danger to Bill Cosby.
Like it's just so bizarre. Hey, hey, hey, his noise.
And then it's saying, I'm not going to read the whole thing, but is celebrity inmate Bill Cosby's life in danger at a state prison at the hands of notorious,
loser in County mass murderer, George Banks, Bill Cosby of all people.
It says, while Cosby and Banks are in the same prison, Banks remains isolated in the facility's death row wing,
and his interactions with other inmates like Cosby is heavily restricted.
So it's not funny at all, but the tabloids were trying to say like, oh, Bill Cosby's in danger.
And they're like, no, the fuck he's not.
But he's like the quite opposite of in danger.
And he's also in prison.
So like, anyways, I just thought that was really out there.
That he just happened to be like in the same prison as Bill Cosby.
But yeah, he is in prison.
I mean, I'm assuming he's still in prison.
And last I heard 2019, he's on death row in prison with Bill Cosby.
I'm sure if he had died, there was probably going to be an article about it.
Of course. Yeah. And I looked it up. I said, you know, George Banks definitely said it.
He has to be probably 78 now.
78, yeah. Yeah.
That's incredible.
Isn't that a wild story?
Oh my God, what a roller coaster.
It was a lot. There was a lot of names, but I felt that it was important to share those names with everybody.
I just have a couple of notes on what it means to be diagnosed with paranoia psychosis.
Yeah, it's actually now called delusional disorder.
So delusional disorder previously called paranoid disorder is a type of serious mental illness called a psychosis in which a person cannot tell what is real from what is imagined.
The main feature is the presence of delusions, which are unshakable beliefs and something untrue.
People with delusional disorder experience non-bizarre delusions, which involve situations that can occur in real life, such as being followed, poisoned, deceived, conspired against, or loved from a distance.
So it can be a good delusion or a bad delusion.
Oh yeah, that's the way I feel about V from BTS. He's in love with me. He just doesn't know it.
And then just one of the things that can cause this, I just wanted to look up because I thought that it did kind of relate to George.
Evidence suggests that a delusional disorder can be triggered by stress.
Alcohol and drug abuse also might contribute to the condition.
People who tend to be isolated, such as immigrants or those with poor sight and hearing, appear to be more vulnerable to developing delusional disorder.
This reminds me of the struggles that he went through in his childhood.
Yeah, I'm sure he felt isolated when he grew up in a predominantly white area and then being a biracial person.
And trying to understand the struggles that he went through, it's kind of, I mean, yeah, no wonder he felt isolated and probably outcasted.
These cases are kind of hard for me because it's like, I don't want to discount what the victims went through. I mean, that is absolutely awful and the victims' families and all of that.
And at the same time, he is struggling so much with this delusional disorder. It's like, who do you blame? Do you blame the disorder or do you blame him?
Yeah.
You know, and it's really hard. Kind of similarly to Andre Thomas. I don't know if I believe that he deserves to be on Death Row.
I do believe that he needs to be in an institution for, you know, the remainder of his life, but not necessarily on Death Row. I don't know if I agree with that.
That's just my opinion.
I found it interesting that you have to be competent enough to understand they're killing you.
Yeah.
That is very bizarre to me.
Yeah.
Like, I'm sorry, like the poor man out of his misery. Like he's clearly suffering. Like, and he doesn't know what's going on, but that is incredible to me that you would have to be competent enough to be killed.
Yeah.
That's a weird concept, right?
No.
I don't know.
That is so scary. If anything, they should say like he's incompetent. He's on Death Row.
Yeah.
You know.
I mean, it's the legal system, man.
It's full of holes.
I mean, he's only suffering more.
Yeah. And he's 78 too, you know.
Yeah.
But there's some people out there that would say, good. You should suffer.
Yeah.
Because of the amount of people he hurt.
Absolutely.
Well, if you'd like to tell us your opinions on this case, you can follow us on Instagram at Diagnosing a Killer.
We have a Twitter at Killerdiagnosis, gmail.com.
What?
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Again, thank you, Jim Bob.
Thank you for all of our Patreon donations.
Yes, and everyone else.
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All three of you that are Patreons.
We hope to hear from you guys soon and we'll be back with another mental breakdown in a few days, hopefully.
Yeah.
Bye.
Love you.
Bye.