WILKES-BARRE, LUZERNE COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU) — It's listed in the top 20 mass murders in the history of the United States of America, and it happened right here in Northeastern Pennsylvania.
George Banks went on a shooting rampage in the Wilkes-Barre area in September of 1982, and despite the passage of more than 40 years, the crime is still talked about by people in the area and beyond.
Northeastern Pennsylvania was the focus of the national and world media, and keep in mind, at that point in time, 1982, the words "mass shootings" were rarely used.
On Monday, 28/22 News heard from people who were on the crime scene who say they will never forget what they saw.
It was the unthinkable, and it happened in northeastern Pennsylvania.
George Banks went on a murderous rampage, shooting and killing 13 people, including seven children. He was father to five of those children.
He shot eight people inside a home on Schoolhouse Lane in Wilkes-Barre.
He shot two men who just happened to be walking by the Schoolhouse Lane House. One of them died.
Banks shot four other people at a home in Jenkins Township.
Among the adults he murdered, his girlfriends and mothers of his children, Gerard Dessoye was one of the first Wilkes-Barre Police Officers to enter the house on Schoolhouse Lane.
He remembers what a fellow officer said.
"He uttered something to the effect, 'Oh god.' Or, 'Dear.' Or whatever. So we have bodies in here. You know, we all made our way in, of course, there were a multitude of bodies on the first floor," Dessoye told 28/22 News.
Banks held police at bay in a home on Monroe Street in Wilkes-Barre, eventually surrendering.
Al Flora was Bank's defense attorney and talks about the motive for the rampage.
"He perceived there was going to be a racial war, and he actually shot his family to protect them from the racial war he predicted was coming," Flora stated.
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Dave DeCosmo and Mark Davis were television reporters, and both were there when Banks surrendered.
"I remember one of the officers saying, 'You better stand over here because here you're in his sights.' We were that close," Davis explained.
"Being so close to that kind of activity, I was scared, I was apprehensive," DeCosmo stated.
George Banks was convicted of 12 counts of first-degree murder.
He was sentenced to death, but a judge ruled he was incompetent to be executed.
He's serving a life sentence.
