THE TRUE STORY OF GEORGE EMIL BANKS

Sometime around 2:30 a.m., Jenkins Township Patrolman John Darski and Detective Captain Ray McGarry, while on routine patrol, received a call instructing them to investigate a possible shooting in Heather Highlands.� As the two veteran officers turned into the park entrance, they had no way of knowing the horror and carnage that they were about to witness, a memory that would stay with them for the rest of their lives.� Upon reaching lot 188, they immediately noticed that a Caucasian female, covered with blood, was lying next to the steps of the home.� She had no vital signs and it was apparent that she had died as a result of at least one gunshot wound.�

Upon a cautious and defensive entrance of the home, the officers discovered Kissamayu on the couch, Scott face down in the hallway and the decapitated body of Alice in the bedroom.� Realizing they were no longer in danger, Keith and Angelo came out from hiding.� Officers on the scene, while sick to their stomach from the bloody massacre, were relieved that at least two children had survived.� Alices sons, while in a state of shock, were able to tell investigators that George Banks was the man who had committed the appalling crimes.� The officers put out an all-points bulletin for Banks arrest.

At about the same time Jenkins Township police officers were arriving at Heather Highlands, Wilkes-Barre Police Lt. John Lowe, en route to a similar call, discovered the bodies of two Caucasian males lying next to the street on Schoolhouse Lane.� Lowe immediately called for backup before exiting his vehicle to evaluate the situation.�

Uncertain as to whether the perpetrator was still in the general vicinity, Lowe walked up to a small white house across from the victims bodies and cautiously stepped inside.� Hoping to spot the gunman in the home, he shined his light around the interior.� A nightmarish scene greeted Lowe.� The smell of fresh gunpowder still saturated the air and there were corpses scattered about the rooms.

Paramedics dispatched to the scene immediately treated James Olsen and Raymond Hall.� Both men had sustained serious injuries and were in critical condition upon their arrival at Wilkes-Barre General Hospital.� While the paramedics were treating the wounded, the local police department was just arriving at the scene.� Wilkes-Barre Detective Tino Andreoli was one of the first investigators to arrive at 28 School House Lane.� Detective Patrick Curley greeted him solemnly as he walked up to Banks front door:

Curley: We have a homicide.
Andreoli: How many?
Curley: I lost track.�

Detective Andreoli was horrified as he entered the home; in all of his years on the force he had never encountered anything like the slaughter that now presented itself.� The rooms were blood-splattered and riddled with bullets.� The detectives wondered to themselves how a person could murder young, innocent children in such a heinous cold-blooded manner?

Police had cordoned off all routes out of the city and were desperately trying to find their murder suspect.� George was well aware of the manhunt and decided to change vehicles to elude police.� After deserting his vehicle, he stopped a motorist near the Cabaret Lounge in Wilkes-Barre.� George put his gun to the mans head and forced him out of his vehicle.� He drove the mans 72 Chevy to the east-end section of the city and then abandoned it.� Still feeling the effects of the alcohol and drugs that he had consumed earlier, George walked into a desolate area, lay down in the grass and passed out.

At Wilkes-Barre General Hospital at 3:30 a.m., Raymond Hall, Jr. was pronounced dead.� A Life Flight helicopter rushed James Olsen to Geisinger Medical Center in Danville when his condition deteriorated.

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