Tulsa murderer from 1999 returned to Oklahoma to face June 12 execution date

The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals has scheduled the execution of George John Hanson (also known as John Fitzgerald Hanson) for June 12, 2025, bringing a decades-long legal saga closer to its conclusion.

Hanson was convicted for the brutal 1999 kidnapping and murder of 77-year-old Mary Bowles, a retired banker and beloved community volunteer in Tulsa.

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond hailed the decision as a long-overdue step toward justice.

“The monster who abducted and murdered a 77-year-old woman more than 25 years ago is finally set to pay for his crime,” Drummond said in a statement Tuesday. “The family of Mary Bowles has waited many agonizing years for George John Hanson to be brought to justice, and on June 12, that day finally will come.”

The crime that led to Hanson’s death sentence occurred on August 31, 1999, when Hanson, then 34, and his accomplice, Victor Cornell Miller, carjacked Bowles from the parking lot of a Tulsa shopping mall.

Mary Bowles

According to court records, the pair forced Bowles into her own vehicle at gunpoint before driving her to an isolated dirt pit near Owasso. There, Hanson shot Bowles nine times, killing her execution-style. Her body was discovered a week later in a heavily wooded area north of Tulsa International Airport, ravaged by the elements and wildlife.

The senseless brutality of the act shocked the community.

The crime spree didn’t end with Bowles’ death. Jerald Max Thurman, a 42-year-old bystander who witnessed the murder, was fatally shot by Miller at the scene to eliminate him as a witness.

Hanson was sentenced to life without parole for his role in Thurman’s death, while Miller received a life sentence without parole for the killing after a series of appeals.

Hanson’s path to the execution chamber has been marked by delays and legal wrangling. A Tulsa County jury convicted him of first-degree murder in 2001 and recommended the death penalty, but he was already serving a life sentence plus 107 years in a Louisiana federal prison for a string of armed bank robberies in Northeast Oklahoma.

His execution was initially scheduled for December 15, 2022, but the Biden Administration’s Federal Bureau of Prisons refused to transfer him, citing it was not in “the public interest” amid a broader federal moratorium on executions.

The situation shifted earlier this year when Drummond renewed Oklahoma’s request for Hanson’s transfer on January 23, 2025, shortly after President Donald Trump issued an executive order mandating the enforcement of capital punishment laws.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi approved the transfer on February 13, and Hanson was moved from the U.S. Penitentiary in Pollock, Louisiana, to the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester on March 1.

“For the family and friends of Mary Bowles, the wait for justice has been a long and frustrating one,” Drummond said last month following Hanson’s transfer. “While the Biden Administration inexplicably protected this vicious killer from the execution chamber, I am grateful President Trump and Attorney General Bondi recognized the importance of this murderer being back in Oklahoma so justice can be served.”

Bowles’ niece, Sara Parker Mooney, described her aunt as the “family matriarch” in a 2022 letter to the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board. “She was the glue that held our family together,” Mooney wrote. “With her murder, we lost our sense of family. She was left like garbage in a field for the predators to scavenge.”

Hanson’s legal team has raised concerns about his case, arguing that the jury was unaware of evidence suggesting Miller may have bragged about killing Bowles, potentially shifting blame.

They also claim Hanson’s original attorneys failed to present evidence of his autism and related impairments, which could have influenced sentencing. Despite these efforts, Hanson’s petition for emergency relief to block his transfer was denied by a federal court in Louisiana in February.

The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board has tentatively scheduled Hanson’s clemency hearing for May 7, offering a final opportunity for his sentence to be commuted.

If the execution proceeds as planned, it will mark Oklahoma’s second of 2025, following the scheduled execution of Wendell Grissom on March 20.

Drummond’s office expressed confidence that the June 12 execution will bring closure to Bowles’ loved ones. “This vicious killer has evaded justice for far too long,” Drummond said. “The time has come for accountability.”