Eric Bowling

Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction — Columbus, OH

Veteran → Veteran → Felonious

End of Watch February 2, 1984

Age 62

Tour of Duty 8 yrs

The Vigil Panel 128 ›

Gender Male

Incident Service The Sacrifice Military Department 25

Incident

Supervisor Eric Bowling was beaten to death with a ten-gauge bar of sheet metal at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility. Immediately after the crime, the inmate admitted the murder to a corrections officer. The inmate who beat him was a former death row inmate who was released from death row in the early 1970s when Ohio's death penalty was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. He was tried and convicted of aggravated murder and again sentenced to death for the murder of Supervisor Bowling. He died in January 2005 while still incarcerated. Supervisor Bowling was a United States Navy World War II veteran.

Survivors

He was survived by his wife.

In Our Keeping

Permanent identifier: BO-US-OH-AD4735CF
Stewardship: Maintained by NeuraWeb Global Inc.
Added to badge.nw: August 2, 2026
Last updated: August 2, 2026

Honored here by 1 tribute.

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Also honored at salute.nw — U.S. Navy, salute.nw. One record, 3 gates. Eric is one person.

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Tributes

I served 1985 to 1993. You served too, before the badge - different uniform, same idea. You go where you are sent and you do not get to pick the call.
Supervisor Bowling gave the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction 8 years.
Thank you for your service to the Columbus community, and for your service before it. Gone but never to be forgotten.
Rest easy, brother.

— S. Vincent Anthony, U.S. Army 1985-1993

Agency

Department Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction

Type Corrections

Location Columbus, OH

Platform Identity odrc.franklin.oh.us.gov.nw

Service Record

End of Watch February 2, 1984

Tour of Duty 8 yrs

Age 62

Gender Male

Incident Details

Cause Felonious

Weapon Blunt object

Military Service

Eric Bowling served in the U.S. Navy (1940â1946) before joining law enforcement.

View full service record on salute.nw →

Supervisor Eric Bowling is one of 1 officers killed feloniously — deliberately targeted and murdered in the line of duty across the full record of this memorial — 0% of all 97,772 officers honored here.

In OH, 572 of 991 officers were killed feloniously — deliberately targeted and murdered in the line of duty — 57.7% of this state's fallen. That is 57.7 percentage points above the national rate of 0%.

At Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, 18 of 26 officers on record were killed feloniously — deliberately targeted and murdered in the line of duty — 69.2% of this agency's fallen.

Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction

of 26 officers

69.2% Felonious

OH — Statewide

572

of 991 officers

57.7% Felonious

Nationwide

of 97,772 officers

0% Felonious