Reward now up to $50,000 for fugitive Eubanks
MANSFIELD – U.S. marshals have increased the reward from $25,000 to $50,000 in the case of convicted child killer Lester Eubanks, on the run for the past 47 years after being convicted of murdering 14-year-old Mary Ellen Deener of Mansfield in 1965.
Wednesday, U.S. Marshal Brian Fitzgibbon said this is the biggest reward offered for any Top 15 Most Wanted fugitive in the history of the U.S. Marshals Service. “We want to remind everybody that somebody knows something,” he said.
“We also run the witness protection program and we want people to know we can keep a secret,” he said, regarding tips shared with the agency.
Anne Murphy, a spokeswoman with the U.S. Marshals Service, said every tip is being reviewed.
“Hopefully someone in the public will come forward and give us a tip,” she said. “We've received dozens of tips.”
Eubank's story since has been featured since Oct. 20 in an episode of “Death Row Fugitives” on Netflix's “Unsolved Mysteries.” One of his aliases is Victor Young, according to authorities.
The “Unsolved Mysteries” segment said although authorities today would have considered Eubanks a “serial sex offender,” the fugitive was a talented artist and was allowed paint and brushes to paint canvas while incarcerated at the Ohio State Penitentiary in Columbus, something the show's narrator said was not unusual for the prison system in the 1960s and 1970s. Eubanks won awards for his artwork at shows in prison. In the new Unsolved Mysteries episode currently airing on Netflix, marshals reveal that Eubanks was tracked by police to Alabama where he worked as a janitor in a center for troubled youths after his escape.
Mansfield police Capt. John Arcudi was responsible for getting Eubanks featured on “America's Most Wanted” in the 1970s, sparking more than 500 tips to the marshals service.
A woman Lester had lived with in California saw the show and told authorities she had been Eubank's pen pal in prison. In the episode on Eubanks, there is a photograph of Kay Banks, posted in his cell. She told investigators she had been married to Eubank's cousin, Darrell Banks, that Lester was a bully, and she told him a lie by saying authorities had called her phone asking about Lester's whereabouts, after which Lester fled her apartment.
Lester's father, the late Rev. Mose L. Eubanks, was believed to have known his son's whereabouts and took phone calls from Lester, the show revealed. Authorities tapped Lester's father's phone and calls went to a teen treatment center in Alabama.
Mose L. Eubanks, 89, died March 26, 2012, after a brief illness.
Staff Lt. Mike Vinson of the Bucyrus Headquarters of the Highway Patrol is featured in the latest “Unsolved Mysteries” episode along with Arcudi and retired Mansfield police Lt. Dale Fortney, along with U.S. Marshal David Siler, who has dedicated much of his time to the case. On Wednesday, Vinson said the segment on Eubanks was filmed in 2019. Vinson had interviewed Lester's father. “He didn't admit that he knew where he (Lester) was. Just some of the statements he made. Why would he say, ‘People change' and ‘I pray for Lester every day' if he didn't know that he was alive and well?” Vinson said.
Vinson, who came to the Mansfield patrol post in 2005, said it's been 17 years since he worked on the case.
“Normally people don't get away for 47 years,” he said. “I specifically remember back when I was in plainclothes that there was a number of people who had done that, walking away, during that time frame, when they were doing that program. Over the years several of them would come back and get caught. For him not to be caught... And the other thing is did he re-offend somewhere and just never been caught?
Vinson said when Eubanks murdered Mary Ellen he was out on bail for attempting a similar-type crime before the murder. “There's just so many things that law enforcement and criminal justice can do with technology increasing over the years,” he said. “DNA in that time period was nonexistent.”
Vinson said Eubanks was convicted in May 1966, sentenced to death, beat two or three stays of execution and then U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty was unconstitutional.
Eubanks served only about six years of the sentence, escaping on Dec. 7, 1973, after allowed to go Christmas shopping in Columbus as an honor assignment.
“How did a person that was on death row, how did that person get taken to a mall and let loose?” Vinson asked. “It's very ironic that all those things lined up to allow him to be in the position to escape.” “If anybody is going to catch him it's going to be the marshals. They can dedicate the time and resources and they are very good at what they do,” he added. “Dave Siler is not going to quit,” Vinson said. “He's very passionate about doing the right thing and hopefully getting justice for the Deener family. Your heart breaks for that family and then everything else they've been put through over the years. From a human perspective, could you imagine having to be in those peoples' shoes?
Wednesday, Siler, a deputy U.S. Marshal in Cleveland, referred all questions about Eubanks to Fitzgibbon.
Mary Ellen Deener went searching for change for the laundromat on Nov. 14, 1965.
Eubanks grabbed the 14-year-old girl as she walked along the sidewalk. He dragged her behind a house in the 300 block of North Mulberry Street, raped her, shot her twice and left her for dead.
Eubanks had a warrant for his arrest but it was not placed in the national database.
But Mary Ellen didn't die right away. Eubanks, who lived in the neighborhood, reportedly heard noises and returned to the scene. He finished the teen off by smashing her in the head with a brick, the News Journal earlier reported.
She was found with a handful of nickels and dimes next to her.
Eubanks was convicted in May 1966 and sentenced to death. In 1972, the Supreme Court declared the death penalty unconstitutional, and his sentence was commuted to life in prison.
Eubanks could have faded from public consciousness, but he was back in the news after he escaped on Dec. 7, 1973.
Eubanks, 76, has been on the run ever since. At the time of his disappearance, authorities described him as 5-foot-11 with black hair and brown eyes, weighing approximately 175 pounds.
Anyone who has information on Eubanks is asked to call the U.S. Marshals Service tipline at 866-4-WANTED.
lwhitmir@gannett.com