United States Coast Guard, U.S. Government
End of Watch: Thursday, August 11, 1927
Age: 26
Tour of Duty: 1 year
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 Victor Lamby, Coast Guardsman Sidney Sanderlin, 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. Guardsman Lamby succumbed to his wounds four days later.
The incident occurred after their Coast Guard Cutter CGC 249 stopped the suspect's 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 with him on his boat was sentenced to one year after he turned in state evidence.
Coast Guardsman Lamby had served with the United States Coast Guard Office of Law Enforcement for one year. He was survived by his wife.