On the morning of February 6, 1986, Rankin County Deputy Sheriff Travis O. Biddle, 56, was transporting three inmates from the county jail in Brandon, Mississippi, to the state penitentiary at Parchman when the trip turned deadly on Mississippi Highway 8 near Minter City in Leflore County. Two of the prisoners, Marvin Edward Hoover and Stephen Allen Sutherland, had a razor blade concealed in a Bible and used it to cut through leather restraints. Hoover reached over the front seat and began choking Deputy Biddle with a handcuff chain while Sutherland grabbed Biddle’s service revolver and shot him. The inmates dragged Biddle’s body from the patrol car, left it in a ditch, and fled in the vehicle.

Hoover, Sutherland and the third inmate, Marty Hitt, were captured a few hours later. Hoover and Sutherland were charged with and convicted of capital murder and were sentenced to life without parole. The killing led the Mississippi legislature to require protective screens in vehicles used to transport prisoners to the state penitentiary. Deputy Biddle was survived by his wife.

If anyone knew Deputy Biddle or has information about that transport, please share what is known.