Special Agents Edwin R. Woodriffe and Anthony Palmisano were shot and killed on January 8, 1969, by escaped federal prisoner Billie Austin Bryant. The Agents had just entered a Southeast Washington, D.C., apartment building, where Bryant was hiding, when the escaped prisoner shot both SAs Woodriffe and Palmisano in the hallway. Bryant had escaped from nearby Lorton Prison in August, 1968. He had been serving a sentence of 15 to 63 years for robbery and assault. Bryant was apprehended, tried, and found guilty of the two murders. He received a life sentence for each murder.
SA Woodriffe was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1941. After earning his degree from Fordham University in New York, and working in the U.S. Treasury Department, he accepted an appointment as a Special Agent with the FBI. In February of 1968, SA Woodriffe transferred to the field office in Washington, D.C.
SA Palmisano was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1942. He began working for the FBI as a clerk in the Newark field office, during which he also earned his degree from Seton Hall College. SA Palmisano entered on duty as a Special Agent in 1967 and, in 1968, transferred to the field office in Washington, D.C.
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