Special Agent Garland E. Fields

Garland E. Fields

Special Agent Garland Fields was shot and killed during an investigation at the Lighthouse Cafe on U.S. Highway 1, one mile south of Swainsboro, Georgia, while making a routine check on a stranger attempting to sell a rifle at a cafe.

Agent Fields was having dinner with his wife and two daughters when he witnessed a man attempting to sell a rifle. After asking the subject why he wanted to sell the gun, the man, 21, ran to a car outside where his brother, 26, and two females, both 20, were waiting. As the subject got in the car, he shot Agent Fields and sped away. Agent Fields returned fire, shooting five times toward them. Agent Fields died on the way to a hospital.

The four suspects were apprehended after they committed carjackings, hold-ups, and gun battles throughout Tennessee and Georgia. The gunman's brother had been shot and seriously wounded. The two male suspects had escaped from a Tennessee jail and chain gang in February 1948. Both were convicted of murder and sentenced to life. The females were sentenced to two years each. After a short stay in prison, the brother was transferred to the state insane asylum. The gunman escaped jail in 1951 and then escaped a Georgia road gang in 1958, kidnapping citizens for their vehicles and shooting at law enforcement officers before being apprehended. On October 5, 1965, he was stabbed to death by a fellow inmate.

Agent Fields had served with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation for only three weeks. He was survived by his wife and two daughters.