BERLIN -- With the governor’s proposed repeal of the death penalty taking center stage in the General Assembly this week, a brutal murder spree that began in Worcester County over two decades ago dimmed from memory over the years has come back into focus.
On Tuesday, Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley announced a renewed effort to repeal the death penalty in Maryland. The Maryland legislature reinstated the death penalty in 1990 and convicted murderer John Frederick Thanos, whose Labor Day weekend killing spree in 1990 began with his first murder along Route 50 in Whaleyville in Worcester, was the first in the state to be put to death by lethal injection under Maryland’s new policy and the first by any means since 1962.
While the debate about the death penalty rages on over two decades later, almost everyone close to the 1990 murder spree that began in Worcester agrees Thanos was the poster child for capital punishment in Maryland if ever there was one. Delegate Mike McDermott, who was a young law enforcement officer on the lower shore at the time, said this week Thanos wanted to die.
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1-18-13
ReplyDeleteI'm certainly glad this was brought up today as I was VERY close to this case.
I had occasion on the Tydings Bridge rehab job to work with Peter(Pete) Thanos who was the father of John Thanos. Now deceased, Pete Thanos related to me how his son repeatedly assaulted him and his wife (the biolodgical mother) to
muscle whatever money he could get to buy drugs with and even broke the ribs of the woman who bore him.These were hard working people of Greek desent that were saddled up with a hellian that should have been put in an incubator filled with cyanide gas the moment he was born. Never the less the mother was overtaken with grief as she watched her son recieve a lethal injection with a smile on his face to hurt her that much more.
He was truly a rotten bastard and my hopes are he is in the lowest reaches of Hell as we speak.
I wish OweMalley and his wife(the judge) had to endure the same treatment and then see if they beat their swords into plowshares.
I say liberal views such as those are good ole fashioned bull*&%$ and a cross section of just how stupid it is to elect an ass@#$% like him. I guess you all know his wife(the judge) retires with 67% of her current pay and full benefits for life. He in fact can draw part of hers and she part of his for life. Tell me that people like them give a damn about you and I. Again bull#$%^. How inapropriate is it with her being an officer of the Court for him to get involved with this anyway? My sincere hope is he ends up next to Thanos in HELL.
If I remember correctly Thanos' mother and his sisters attempted until the end to have his sentence commuted to life instead of death.
ReplyDeleteThey told horrible stories supposedly about Thanos' childhood, blaming the father of all sorts of sadistic and abusive behaviour. I'm not sure I believe them fully. I think the mother had the enabler/excuse maker thing going on.
John, I believe Pete was the father's brother and supposedly Pete fathered one of Thanos' sisters.
I think Thanos was truly evil and had an attitude that he didn't care about anyone or anything but himself. I believe this attitude was perpetuated by drug abuse and alcoholism.
he s hoping that once all the guns are gone the people with cars ,hammers,and bats will stop using them thus no need for the death penalty
ReplyDeleteWhile the Thanos issue was constantly in the news I wondered how many people he had REALLY killed.We may never know.
ReplyDelete12:20:
ReplyDeleteAmen!