George John Hanson, who was serving a life plus 107 years in a federal prison in Louisiana, was transferred back to Oklahoma late Saturday so he can be executed later this year.
Hanson, also known as John Fitzgerald Hanson, is now in custody at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.
Hanson’s transfer came at the request of Attorney General Gentner Drummond, who petitioned for his return in a Jan. 23 letter to the U.S. Department of Justice. Newly appointed United States Attorney General Pam Bondi agreed to the request in February.
“Inmate Hanson viciously murdered an innocent woman. The victim experienced indescribable pain and terror before her violent death, and her family has suffered for decades as a result,” Bondi wrote in the directive asking the Federal Bureau of Prisons to return Hanson to Oklahoma.
Hanson, 60, was added to Oklahoma’s death row for the 1999 kidnapping and murder of Mary Bowles. Hanson and an accomplice carjacked and kidnapped Bowles from a Tulsa shopping mall and then shot the 77-year-old woman at an isolated dirt pit near Owasso.
When he received the murder conviction for Bowles' death, Hanson was already incarcerated at the U.S. Penitentiary in Pollock, Louisiana, for a series of armed robberies he committed in northeast Oklahoma.
In a press release, Drummond said he was thankful Hanson is back in Oklahoma’s custody.
“For the family and friends of Mary Bowles, the wait for justice has been a long and frustrating one," Drummond said. "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."
Drummond renewed Oklahoma's request for Hanson’s transfer after President Donald Trump issued an executive order calling for the restoration of the death penalty.
The U.S. Bureau of Prisons denied previous efforts to have Hanson executed in Oklahoma under the Biden administration. The Bureau said a transfer was not in “the public interest.”
The Attorney General’s Office is expected to ask the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals to schedule Hanson for execution later this year, likely in June.
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