Alice Mazzillo was 47 when she was fatally shot on September 25, 1982, in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Her death occurred during a mass shooting carried out by George Emil Banks that began at his home on Schoolhouse Lane and continued at the Heather Highlands mobile home park. Alice, of Italian-American background, was killed after she tried to call police; her daughter Sharon, 24, and her grandson Scott, 7, were also killed there.

Two of Alice’s younger children, Keith, 10, and Angelo, 9, survived by hiding in a closet and later escaping to a neighbor’s house. George Banks was arrested soon after the shootings, charged with multiple counts of first-degree murder, tried with an insanity defense argued by his attorneys, and convicted on all counts; he was sentenced to death. The killings left surviving family members coping with profound grief and trauma.