Last 'monster' from Delhi Twp. bank killings dead

The last man convicted in the notorious 1969 murders of four innocent women in a Delhi Township bank robbery is dead.

Delhi police announced Tuesday that Raymond Kassow died in prison Sunday.

"With Kassow's passing, all three monsters are now deceased," police Col. Jim Howarth said in a press release.

On Sept. 24, 1969, Kassow, Watterson Johnson and John Leigh entered the Cabinet Supreme Savings & Loan on Delhi Road and shot four women to death while robbing the bank.

"Good riddance. He was a piece of crap," Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters said. "He executed innocent women. It was the most sickening thing I saw in my entire career."

Deters fought in court against Kassow receiving parole.

The men, having vowed not to leave any witnesses, herded bank teller Lillian Dewald and three customers – Helen Huebner and sisters Luella and Henrietta Stitzel – into the vault and shot them until they ran out of bullets.

The killers were each convicted of four counts of murder and sentenced to death. However, the 1972 abolition of capital punishment meant their sentences were commuted to life in prison.

Leigh died behind bars in 2000, and Johnson passed away in prison last year. Kassow was most recently up for parole in 2014.

After his parole was denied, Howarth wrote to the community.

"I appreciate everyone that sent correspondence to the parole board," he wrote. "On behalf of the families, Delhi community and the police department, I say thank you!"

The relatives and children of the victims are still alive and remember when their lives were changed, but a chapter has closed on an event Holwarth said "changed Delhi forever."

"He's going to have to answer to God for it now," Deters said.