Henry Burton “Bud” Carlson was a 68-year-old White/Caucasian male and a Deputy U.S. Marshal whose death was ultimately attributed to gunshot wounds suffered during a prisoner escape in northern Wisconsin. Although August 13, 1985 is associated with Carlson’s case, online records show that this was the date he was shot, not the date he died. The U.S. Marshals Service lists Carlson’s death as June 20, 1991, and identifies him with the District of Minnesota.
Period newspaper coverage also described Carlson as being from Duluth, Minnesota, while Amnicon, Wisconsin, was the location of the attack. Carlson was a World War II U.S. Navy veteran, had previously served with the St. Louis Park Police Department in Minnesota, and had accumulated approximately 35 years in law enforcement by the time he was wounded.
On August 13, 1985, Carlson and fellow Deputy U.S. Marshal Wayne Ruud were transporting two prisoners, identified in contemporary reports as Michael Whitehead and John Luttrell, between federal prisons. The prisoners were suspected bank robbers who were being moved from a federal institution in Michigan to one in Minnesota. At approximately 12:30 p.m., the marshals were traveling along U.S. Highway 2 through the town of Amnicon, roughly 14 miles south of Superior. They were using a passenger vehicle rather than a specially compartmentalized prisoner-transport van. There was no protective cage or screen separating the prisoners from the marshals, and contemporary reporting stated that the prisoners were handcuffed with their hands in front but were not restrained with leg irons.
During the trip, one of the prisoners managed to get free of his handcuffs. He threw a jacket over the head of the deputy sitting in the front passenger seat and climbed forward into the front of the vehicle. In the violent struggle that followed, one of the marshals was disarmed. The seized handgun was then passed to the other prisoner, who opened fire. Both marshals were shot, and one of the prisoners was also struck by gunfire during the confrontation. Contemporary accounts reported that Carlson suffered a single bullet wound and was hospitalized in critical condition, while Ruud suffered three gunshot wounds and was initially described as being in grave condition.
After gaining control of the situation, the prisoners abandoned the wounded marshals along the roadway and attempted to escape. Michael Whitehead, who had been wounded during the struggle, fled in the marshals’ vehicle. His escape was short-lived. Douglas County authorities located and apprehended him not long afterward, with contemporary newspaper coverage showing deputies carrying the wounded Whitehead from a wooded area following his capture.
John Luttrell continued fleeing and set off a much longer manhunt. Authorities said he stole or commandeered a series of vehicles as he moved away from the Superior area. The Officer Down Memorial Page account states that he took a citizen hostage and stole the person’s van. His flight carried him hundreds of miles into Illinois. Later that same day, shortly after 10 p.m., Luttrell was captured in the Rockford, Illinois, area. Contemporary reporting said he did not resist arrest. Police recovered a revolver from the van he had been driving, although investigators quoted at the time could not immediately confirm whether it was one of the marshals’ weapons.
Both Whitehead and Luttrell were ultimately convicted of attempted murder in connection with the attack on the deputy marshals. Those convictions occurred while Carlson was still alive. Carlson survived the immediate shooting and lived for nearly six more years, but the wounds he suffered during the Amnicon escape eventually proved fatal. He died on June 20, 1991, and his death is officially honored as a line-of-duty death resulting from gunfire. The sources available for the case identify the prisoners’ convictions as attempted murder and do not establish that either Whitehead or Luttrell was later convicted of a separate murder charge following Carlson’s eventual death.
