Federal Bureau of Narcotics Agent Mansel Ross Burrell was killed by drug traffickers on December 19, 1967, in Gary, Indiana, while working undercover on a heroin investigation. He was 23 years of age at the time of his death. Agent Burrell was the youngest federal narcotics agent ever to die in the line of duty.

Agent Burrell joined the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Federal Bureau of Narcotics, in September 1966 and was assigned to the Chicago, Illinois, office. Prior to this, he attended Black Hawk College in Moline, Illinois; Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri; and graduated from Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois, in 1966 with a bachelor's degree in math. He was survived by his parents, Willard and Mary Eugenia Ross; one brother, Edsel Willard; and one sister, Ethel Bogguess.