He graduated from Southern High School in Louisville and earned his bachelor's degree from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

Upon promotion to major, he was reassigned as the Logistics Officer for Regimental Landing Team 2, 4th Marine Amphibious Brigade.

[9] He was driving alone on the coastal highway between Tyre and Naqoura in southern Lebanon, returning from a meeting with a local leader of the Amal movement, when a car blocked the road in front of him and forcing him to stop,[10] after which he was pulled from his vehicle by armed men suspected of being affiliated with Hezbollah.

[17] On July 31, 1989, the group announced that it had executed Higgins by hanging, and publicly released a videotape of the murder along with a statement calling the graphic footage "an opening gift" for Israel and the United States.

[21] The footage showed images of Higgins' body hanging by the neck as he slowly suffocated to death,[18] and were televised around the world.

Among other things, Higgins is seen in the video wearing a coat and winter clothes, which do not match the summer weather in July in Lebanon.

His remains were recovered on December 23, 1991, by Major Jens Nielsen of the Royal Danish Army, who was attached to the United Nations Observation Group in Beirut.

[17] Once recovered, Colonel Higgins' body was flown to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, where it was conclusively identified[24] and then he was interred at Quantico National Cemetery, Triangle, Virginia, on December 30, 1991.

[30] Hezbollah responded one month later by attacking the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina, killing 29 people.

In 1999, Higgins' widow filed a civil suit against Iran as the main sponsor of Hezbollah and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard in the United States Federal district court.

The court ruled in her favor and issued a default judgement ordering the defendants, including the Islamic Republic Iran, to pay over $55 million in compensatory damages.

[31] Higgins' military decorations and awards include the following: In April 2003, he was posthumously granted a Prisoner of War Medal.

[33] On March 18, 1992, President George Bush awarded Colonel Higgins the Presidential Citizens Medal (posthumous).