Officer Robert Lee Jester

Robert Lee Jester

Officer Jester was shot and killed by two bank robbers in a shootout in downtown Miami. Officer Jester and another officer recognized two men wanted for bank robbery in Reading, Pennsylvania as they entered the Seminole Hotel on East Flagler Street. When the officers ordered the men to stop they turned and opened fire fatally wounding Officer Jester. Jester's partner returned fire killing one suspect and wounding the other. That suspect escaped but was apprehended one hour later.

The other suspect, 17-years-old, was convicted of murder and sentenced to life. In 1938 he was given the nick-name Houdini, after he escaped three times that year. Each time he was captured within a few weeks in Colorado, Tennessee, and Pennsylvania. In 1952 he was added to the FBI's 10 most wanted list after he escaped from a prison work farm. He was apprehended a year later in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania. He was released from prison in 1958.

Officer Jester had been with the agency for 10 years.