United States Coast Guard, U.S. Government
End of Watch: Sunday, August 7, 1927
Age: 30
Tour of Duty: Not available
Badge Number: Not available
Cause of Death: Gunfire
Date of Incident: August 7, 1927
Weapon Used: Gun; Unknown type
Suspect Info: Executed in 1929
Coast Guardsman Sidney Sanderlin, Coast Guardsman Victor Lamby, and Operative Robert Webster, of the United States Secret Service, were shot and killed by a suspect they had just arrested for rum running near the Bimini Islands in the Bahamas.
The incident occurred after their Coast Guard Cutter CGC 249 stopped the suspects boat. The killer, a 43-year-old gulf stream pirate, was called the "King of the Rum Runners" during the prohibition era. He was sentenced to death and hung at the Coast Guard Station in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, on August 17, 1929. This was the only execution ever carried out by the U.S. Coast Guard, the only execution ever carried out in a seaplane hangar, and the last legal hanging in Florida. A man on the boat with him was sentenced to one year after he turned states evidence.
Guardsmen Sanderlin had previously served with the United States Army. He was survived by one daughter.