Family, Friends & Fellow Officers Remember...

I was 13 when this happened and remember laying in bed crying and praying after watching the news. Everyone was talking about it at school. Still makes me emotional to this day. So horrible and sad. You are not forgotten Officer Hester.

RH
Anon

February 29, 2024

Its hard to imagine its been 40 years.
You don't forget that week and all that happened.

But I am grateful that we had your birthday and Christmas together and we had planned out your funeral, even though we didn't know that a few weeks later, I would be making those arrangements.

I will see you again in Heaven.

GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN.

Anita Hester

January 23, 2023

Bobby, it's been 40 years ago today. You are still remembered and missed. RIP

Carlos Holcomb
Son of Capt O. B. Holcomb

January 14, 2023

All I can say is d@#n. I was reading about the incident on lester street and came across this story . I'm from harrisburg,penna.

Avid reader
Regular reader

October 7, 2022

Bobby, Just thinking of you today. I think about you, Ronnie Oliver and my dad almost every day. Miss off of you.

Carlos Holcomb
Son of Capt O. B. Holcomb

September 23, 2022

My father served on the Tennessee Highway Patrol for 27 years and our family lived with the fears that accompany that relationship. I remember vividly the Shannon Street "incident", it wasn't called a massacre until the cult members were killed. The absolute rage I felt regarding the failure of the police to storm the house is indescribable. The screams for help from Officer Hester bother me to this day. Many of the officers at the scene cried and begged to be allowed to enter the house but were held off the Chief of Police. I remember my father saying he would have preferred being killed by one of his fellow officers than be tortured to death. The men in the house deserved the death they met only it should have been sooner. Officer Hester deserved more than he received and the ugly memory should always haunt the history and reputation of Memphis, Tennessee. Officer Hester you have not been forgotten.

Sherry Phillips, private citizen
Memphis Citizen

May 28, 2022

They should have gone in. You deserved that.

Rest In Peace…

JLR

February 28, 2022

I have been a Memphis Police officers for 16yrs and a Police service technician for 1 year. When I first started as a PST. We would ride by that house on Shannon st. I can’t not imagine what you went through that day. I had just turn 4 three days prior to the incident and I remember seeing it on TV, but too young to understand. Your name will never be forgotten

Mpd
Memphis police

January 26, 2021

I have been a Memphis Police officers for 16yrs and a Police service technician for 1 year. When I first started as a PST. We would ride by that house on Shannon st. I can’t not imagine what you went through that day. I had just turn 4 three days prior to the incident and I remember seeing it on TV, but too young to understand. Your name will never be forgotten

MPD officer
Memphis police

January 26, 2021

I was only 23 when you died but like most of Memphis my friends and I stayed up all night, glued to the TV, praying all through the night for you. How you must have wondered when you were screaming out for help why no one came to save you - but tragically, you died never knowing how hard they were trying to rescue you, or how people all over Memphis were praying for you. How tragic that politics prevented your life from being saved. I went to your funeral and cried, even though I never knew you personally. I still weep bitter tears when I think of what you, your family and your fellow officers went through. RIP Officer Hester. You will never be forgotten.

Neva

October 12, 2020

I worked at the health clinic down the street from this house. Several of us walked down the street to see what was happening and as we approached the area we could hear the officers screams. I could not bear the sound and I left but prayed for this man all night as I watched it unfold on tv. I’m glad they killed everyone of those crazy men. No one deserves what they did to that man.....no one.

Daughter of a MPD officer

January 14, 2020

I remember this and the synopsis does not relate how brutal the perps were to this Law Enforcement officer! It has haunted the MPD and the several officers involved to this day.

Charles Campbell
United States Department of Justice

January 13, 2020

I know you are in the glory of God. You are not forgotten!

Deputy Sheriff
Shelby Co. Sheriff’s Office

January 13, 2020

Still thinking of you Bobby.

CARLOS HOLCOMB
Son of Capt. O. B. Holcomb

March 12, 2019

I still wear the memorial bracelet with your name and date of the incident. What happened on Jan 1983 is still and will always be with me. My heart still goes out to your family, the MPD family and my father, which is now up in heaven with you.

Carlos Holcomb
Son of retired Capt O. B. Holcomb

December 19, 2018

While I was already aware of The Shannon Street Massacre I learned much more about it from my father-in-law that was an MPD officer on the scene that horrible night. I am so overly saddened by what you had to endure and ultimately lose your life in such a way. You nor the sacrifice you made will ever be forgotten.

Molly Dill
Family member of retired MPD officer

October 18, 2018

After 30 years with MPD, my father rarely spoke of his job to my brothers nor myself. The terrible tragedies, homicides, deaths of the innocent,elderly, & children due to ignorance involving shootings, robberies, etc. However, as a freshman in high school, I will NEVER forget his words to my mother during the horrific Shannon Street incident. "They keyed his radio up for everyone to hear his screaming as they tortured Hester." Vengeance is God's...may they continuously BURN and rot in hell for what they did to Officer Hester. Would love for the media to play that to the citizens that protest officers of all races! Maybe then people would realize why ALL officers need to protect themselves at all times as well. It's sure as hell NOT a racial issue! History does repeat itself! God bless to all law enforcement & military!

CAPTAIN JOE DAN WELCH
Proud daughter of MPD JD WELCH (Retired Captain/expired 2000)

October 5, 2018

We miss you, Bobby Hester, and still think of you often. My last memory of you was when you came home for a few days to Hawk Pride Mountain and fished across the street from our house. I was a freshman in high school. Gone too soon! You will never be forgotten!

Dana Wallace
Bobby's cousin

June 12, 2018

Don,I know your last name was Hester but thats what I called you.I went to Catholic High school. I remember the days after school we played rough old football. Then came the call of duty. I spent 19 months Vietnam too.I came home seemed everyone was different.I did not get to see you again. When the story broke, I already knew. Every year I go to the VN Memorial over on 51 to see my friends on the wall. I grieve for you also.I often wonder WHY? I don"t know, but it happens. Why that happened to someone like you, just cant never understand but its always the heroes in life that get called up. When something gets me down I think about you.I have to look up cause no other place can hold the sweet heavens. I was thinking when we were young you always had kind words to say, when I was down . I think about you WHY because you have always gave me the strength to carry on Semper-Fi brother. Your friend.................

L/CPL anonymous
USMC dav

May 5, 2018

Rest in peace hero.

Lt. Jim Russo

January 13, 2018

Rest in peace hero.

Lt. Jim Russo

January 13, 2018

Such an unbelievably horrible incident. Rest easy Officer Hester

Lt PJ Dyring
Corning PD

January 12, 2018

Bobby, it will mark the 35th anniversary of your ultimate sacrifice. You are geatly missed. I wear a braslet honoring your memory and think about you every day and the horrible event that took place. There are only two people I think about every day since passing; you and Capt O. B. my father.

CARLOS HOLCOMB
Son of Capt. O. B. Holcomb

January 11, 2018

I went to Overton High School and Bobby was a member of the Class of 1967. He was kind of quiet and had a good sense of humor. I listened and watched on TV what took place on that horrible night. Our men in blue are so brave and thousands have given the ultimate sacrifice. Brave officers tried to save Bobby that night. Finally, but too late, other brave men risked their life and made sure these murderers ñever murdered anyone ever again. I salute all the men in women in blue. RIP Bobby.

High School Classmate
Friend

May 20, 2016

I was a young 2.5 year officer when this happened, in a city next to Memphis. Most of us had scanners and listened to the whole event take place. You just felt deep in your heart what those officers were going through, we even begged our supervisor to let us go and help. No one lost any sleep when the TACT team did their job. I had just lost my stepfather in a robbery in '81 (Lt. Ronald Oliver) and couldn't believe we lost another. Rest in peace brothers of the thin blue line.

Capt. Gerald "Vic" Finger (retired)
Bartlett Police Department

January 13, 2016