Man executed in Oklahoma for murder of 77-year-old woman

 The 22nd Execution of 2025

John Fitzgerald Hanson, 61, was executed for the 1999 murder of a 77-year-old woman. He pronounced dead at 10:11 a.m. Thursday, June 12, 2025 at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. "Peace to everyone," he said at the end of his last words while strapped to the execution gurney, reported The Oklahoman.

He had been scheduled for execution on Dec. 15, 2022, but the Biden administration refused to return him to Oklahoma from a federal prison in Louisiana. The transfer went through on March 1, weeks after Trump began his second term.

He was executed for the fatal shooting of Mary Agnes Bowles, who was kidnapped from the parking lot of a Tulsa mall on Aug. 31, 1999. The victim was 77.

Hanson and an accomplice, Victor Miller, wanted the retired banker's car for a robbery spree. Hanson has always denied being the shooter, his attorneys said.

Hanson had been serving a life sentence, plus 82 years, at the U.S. Penitentiary in Pollock, Louisiana, for federal crimes involving the robbery spree. Oklahoma's attorney general, Gentner Drummond, sought Hanson's transfer after Trump issued a sweeping executive order on his first day back in office "restoring" the death penalty.

Hanson was executed in Oklahoma as a direct result of President Donald Trump's return to office, reported The Oklahoman.

"It is the policy of the United States to ensure that the laws that authorize capital punishment are respected and faithfully implemented, and to counteract the politicians and judges who subvert the law by obstructing and preventing the execution of capital sentences," Trump stated in his order.

President Joe Biden opposed the death penalty. In December, Biden commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 people on federal death row.

“This case demonstrates that no matter how long it takes, Oklahoma will hold murderers accountable for their crimes," Drummond said in a news release after witnessing the execution. 

One of the inmate's attorneys said after the execution that Oklahoma had carried out an act of pointless cruelty.

"There was no need for Oklahoma to execute John Hanson," attorney Callie Heller said in a news release. "He would have lived the rest of his life in federal prison, costing the state nothing and posing no danger to anyone."

The execution took only 10 minutes to complete after Hanson made his brief final statement. It was the 17th in Oklahoma since lethal injections resumed in October 2021 after a long hiatus and one of the fastest.

It also was the third in the United States this week. A fourth execution is scheduled for Friday, June 13, in South Carolina.

Hanson blinked rapidly as the curtain to the execution chamber was raised at 10 a.m. He then said either "just forgive me" or "just forgiveness" when asked if he had any last words. Media witnesses differed on what he said at first because he spoke in a low voice.

A spiritual adviser, pastor Michael Scott, stood by the inmate's feet and read from a Bible as the execution drugs began to flow into his arms. Hanson could be heard snoring when the Oklahoma Department of Corrections operations chief announced he was unconscious.

Who was Mary Bowles?

The retired banker was from Tulsa. She was kidnapped after walking at the Promenade Mall for exercise. She had done volunteer work earlier that day at a Tulsa hospital in the intensive care unit for babies.

The two men took her in her car to a dirt pit near Owasso.

There, the accomplice shot Jerald Thurman, the owner of the dirt pit, after he spotted them on his property, according to trial testimony. Thurman died about two weeks later.

Hanson shot Bowles four to six times in a ditch near the dirt pit. Her body wasn't found for days.

The stolen Buick broke down after the two men went to a motel in Tulsa. They abandoned the car there.

Hanson also was convicted of the dirt pit owner's murder and sentenced for that crime to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The accomplice, Miller, was given life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murders after death sentences were thrown out on appeal. He is now 62.

The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted 3-2 on May 7 to deny Hanson clemency. The vote meant Gov. Kevin Stitt could not consider commuting his sentence.

At his clemency hearing, he told the board members he was not an evil person.

"I haven't lived my life inclined to do wrong," he said. "I was caught in a situation I couldn't control. Things were happening so fast, and at the spur of the moment, due to my lack of decisiveness and fear, I responded incorrectly, and two people lost their lives.

"I can't change the past, and I would if I could."

His attorneys and death penalty opponents said he was autistic and easily manipulated. His attorneys also contended there was overwhelming evidence that the accomplice was the one who actually shot Bowles.

Hanson did not testify at his 2001 trial in Tulsa County District Court. He also did not testify at a 2006 resentencing trial.

More: 'A remarkable development': States expanding their execution methods to firing squad, more

His attorneys tried to stop his execution, complaining in lawsuits about his transfer to Oklahoma and his clemency hearing. They also made a last-minute claim of newly discovered evidence about a key prosecution witness.

An Oklahoma County judge granted Hanson a temporary stay on Monday, June 9, so his lawsuit over his clemency hearing could be considered. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals ruled Wednesday, June 11, the judge did not have that authority.

The execution went forward after the Oklahoma Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court denied Hanson's last requests for emergency stays.

"I feel like now we can finally be at peace with this," said Jacob Thurman, the dirt pit owner's son, after witnessing the execution. "I feel like we have some closure and our families can pick up the pieces now and move forward."

The son, who lives in Tulsa, said it took an army of people to make the execution happen. He specifically thanked U.S Attorney General Pam Bondi, who ordered the Federal Bureau of Prisons to transfer Hanson "so that Oklahoma can carry out this just sentence."

Bowles' niece, Sara Parker Mooney, called for reforms after witnessing the execution.

"Capital punishment is not an effective form of justice when it takes 26 years," said Mooney, who lives in Texas. "Respectfully, if the state is going to continue to execute individuals a better process is needed. This existing process is broken.

"There must be limitations on taxpayer-funded frivolous litigation as exemplified in the past two weeks. It's ridiculous, it's expensive and it only revictimizes the survivors."

She said she is relieved that the execution is over with. "But nobody wins," she said.

Hanson did not request anything specific for his last meal, said Steven Harpe, the executive director of the Corrections Department.

Hanson did eat the regular meal of a chicken pot pie, two fruit cups, two rolls and some carrots, the official said. Hanson declined a sedative.

Witnessing the execution were reporters for The Oklahoman, The Associated Press, the Tulsa World, a Tulsa television station and the online news site NonDoc.

The execution came as corrections officials are still dealing with damage from a tornado that struck Saturday, June 7. The entrance for executions at the penitentiary had boards up where the storm destroyed windows.

The roof of the warden's mansion is sagging where a massive tree fell into it. The mansion was already under renovation.

The storm downed trees across McAlester and knocked a wall off one brick building. The street in front of the building was still closed Thursday.

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