“They took a child killer Christmas shopping. He walked out. 53 years later, he’s still free” Lester Eubanks raped and murdered 14-year-old Mary Ellen Deener in Mansfield, Ohio, on November 14, 1965. A jury convicted him. Ohio sentenced him to die. Then the courts and the system did what they so often do. In 1972 his death sentence was commuted to life. By December 7, 1973, he was an “honor inmate.” Guards drove him and other prisoners to the Great Southern Shopping Center in Columbus — civilian clothes, no handcuffs — and let them roam a crowded mall for Christmas shopping. Eubanks did not come back. He was not “on death row” that morning. He had already been taken off it. That is the point. A man who should have been in a cell for killing a child was trusted in a mall full of families. Associates are believed to have picked him up. Investigators say he went through Detroit and on to California, living for years as “Victor Young.” U.S. Marshals still have him on the 15 Most Wanted list. Reward: up to $50,000. Age-progressed photos. New DNA from the 1965 crime clothes. He has never been recaptured. He would be 82. Mary Ellen never got another Christmas. The man who took hers got a shopping trip. #LesterEubanks #MaryEllenDeener #JusticeDenied #DeathPenalty #Ohio #USMarshals #MostWanted #NeverForget #SoftOnCrime #TrueCrime