George Hanna Sr., at 92; campaigned for death penalty after son slain

George L Hanna Sr. fought for the death penalty in the Bay State for many years. His son, Mark, is in background (ap/file 1985)

His namesake son killed in the line of duty, George L. Hanna Sr. was angered when a defendant was led away in 1985 after being convicted of first-degree murder. He liked the verdict, but disagreed with the sentence: a life term without parole.

"I'm not happy with the severity of the penalty," he told the Globe at court that April day, two years after George L. Hanna Jr. was shot during a routine traffic stop outside a liquor store in Auburn. "My son has seven bullets in him and is lying in a grave."

With a sharp tongue and tireless energy, Mr. Hanna spent the rest of his life pushing to have the death penalty reinstated in Massachusetts, upbraiding politicians and clergy alike along the way.

Enamored of running long before regular exercise was trendy, Mr. Hanna had worked out at the YMCA until little more than a year ago. His health failed rapidly in the past few weeks and he died Friday in hospice care at Metrowest Medical Center in Natick, his hometown for all his 92 years.

"When he was a police officer, he used to go jogging before anyone began jogging," said his son Mark of Natick. "One night a lady called the police department to say a man was running by her house - it was him. He was in the forefront of exercising."

Mr. Hanna's daughter Molly Glidden of Natick said that "up until he was 91, he drove himself every day to the YMCA."

"The endurance this man had was unbelievable with the losses of his life," she said. "We've always known heavy losses in our family. My dad always compared ourselves to the Kennedys - to the bad luck of the Kennedys."

The Hanna family's most public tragedy was the slaying of George L. Hanna Jr. on Feb. 26, 1983. A state trooper, he had stopped a car outside a liquor store. Three men were plotting a robbery and thought Hanna might find the guns in their car. All three men in the car were convicted in the slaying of Hanna, who was the first Massachusetts trooper killed in the line of duty in 32 years.

His father had graduated in 1933 from Natick High School and also graduated from the State Police Academy before spending a quarter century with the Natick Police Department and the state Department of Correction.

Mr. Hanna married Margaret Flaherty in the 1940s and several years later founded Hanna Hearing Aid Service in Natick, where he worked until retiring in 1987.

That was the year his wife died of complications from heart bypass surgery, though their daughter said the family has always considered she died of a broken heart after the slaying of her firstborn.

Mr. Hanna also outlived two of the couple's daughters. About 15 years ago, he married Bessie Smart, who died in 2001.

With a passion fueled by loss and anger, Mr. Hanna collected signatures for a referendum to ban prison furloughs for those convicted of first-degree murder, a practice by the state Department of Correction that burst into national prominence during the 1988 presidential campaign of Michael S. Dukakis, who was the Massachusetts governor and Democratic nominee. He had supported furloughs, which the prison system used to alleviate overcrowding.

Republican campaign ads focused on William R. Horton Jr., who escaped while on furlough in Massachusetts and terrorized a family in Maryland. Before a referendum vote could be held, Dukakis reversed his support and signed a bill in April 1988 that banned such furloughs.

That change in course didn't turn Mr. Hanna into a fan of Dukakis, who had created the George L. Hanna award for honor and bravery in memory of the slain trooper. In 1985, Mr. Hanna boycotted the ceremony when Dukakis presented the award and denounced the governor on the State House steps. Months earlier, the Supreme Judicial Court had ruled against the death penalty and Dukakis said he would veto any bill that attempted to reinstate capital punishment.

Three years later, Mr. Hanna attended the State House ceremony for the award, but would not meet with Dukakis.

"I don't hate him as a man. I hate what he stands for: a pablum-puking liberal," Mr. Hanna told the Globe, referring to the cereal for infants.

Mr. Hanna was just as forceful when commenting on the Roman Catholic Church's opposition to capital punishment.

"I was born and brought up a Catholic, but when the cardinal, bishops, and priests go out into the world preaching compassion for cold-blooded killers who premeditate and kill with brutal atrocity, that is where decent human beings part company," he wrote in an April 1999 letter to the editor published in the Globe.

He concluded the letter by writing: "Leave the criminal justice laws to the people to decide; they overwhelmingly now want equal punishment for the crime committed, not revenge, just to make sure that killers will never kill again. The church should keep out of the criminal justice system."

Said his daughter Molly: "Every year, up until two years ago, he walked those State House stairs to watch all those heroes receive my brother's award. His thoughts were, 'When we go home tonight, we won't see it on the news.' He thought people were forgetting. But he said it's not just the medals that need attention, it's these heroes who go out and take these bullets to protect the public."

In addition to his son and daughter, Mr. Hanna leaves another daughter, Susan Dickey of Loganville, Ga.; another son, John of Natick; a brother, Leonard of Natick; 11 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.

A funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. today in John Everett and Sons Funeral Home in Natick.