Suspect in Delavan bank robbery executed in Ohio
LUCASVILLE, Ohio — A man accused of starting a 1994 crime spree with the robbery of a Delavan bank was executed Wednesday in Ohio for fatally shooting an adult bookstore security guard.
Frederick Treesh received a single powerful dose of pentobarbital and was pronounced dead at 10:37 a.m.
Treesh was linked to the Aug. 12, 1994, robbery of Anchorbank, 500 E. Walworth Ave., in downtown Delavan.
A man wearing thick, black-rimmed glasses and a dark blue windbreaker entered the bank and spoke with two bank employees about opening an account, police said at the time. After asking where the bathroom was, he left the bank, perhaps to use the bathroom downstairs or to prepare for the robbery outside.
“He came back in 10 minutes later, went up to a teller and said, ‘I have a grenade and I’ll use it. Give me all your money,’” a police detective told The Gazette in 1994, according to Gazette archives.
The man, who spoke to the teller in a whisper, then showed the teller a metal object attached to his belt. Police suspected the object may have been a large pager.
Four days later, a man robbed a Mid-Central Federal Savings Bank in Staples, Minn., using the same method.
Authorities later connected Treesh to that robbery, as well.
Prosecutors say Treesh, 48, and Benjamin Brooks robbed banks and businesses, committed sexual assaults, stole cars, committed carjackings and shot someone to death in a Michigan robbery during a series of crimes that also took them to Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Treesh was sentenced to die for killing Henry Dupree in Eastlake east of Cleveland on Aug. 27, 1994. He and Brooks were suspects in the shooting death three days earlier of Ghassan Danno, a Livonia, Mich., video store co-owner.
Prosecutors contend Treesh intentionally murdered Dupree and tried to kill others, including police officers in pursuit. Treesh and Brooks were arrested Aug. 28, 1994.
Treesh, of Waterloo, Ind., was the 50th inmate put to death by Ohio since the state resumed executions in 1999.
Treesh was never prosecuted for the crimes in the other states, according to the Ohio Attorney General’s office.
Brooks, 45, of New Haven, Ind., pleaded guilty to avoid the death sentence and is serving 40 years to life in prison.
