Threads in bash?

I want to test my sshd locally, with the following lines:

#/bin/bash
Connection=$(telnet localhost 22|grep OpenSSH)
ps ax|grep telnet|kill -9 $(awk '{ print $1 }')

But ofcourse only the first line gets executed and it never gets to the second line. So my question, is it possible to use threads in bash? Or is there another solution for this?

Cuz you didn't background the job sshd will wait 'til login timout before returning.
In any case I think it would be better to separate the action from the output (configurability, timeout, unknown input), using a little "expect" script could help, or if this is a permanent test, have a look at "Monit". Btw, for the ps thingie you can use "kill -9 $(pgrep telnet)" provided you can only see your users PID's or select by UID if you're running more telnet sessions, and don't forget you can also use $? (or ${#Connection}) for actions based on the output of telnet if the var doesn't hold stuff...