townsfolk beseeched Emmett to run for county sheriff, which he
did, winning easily. And so Tom’s father became the law.
Tom (standing to the left) and his brothers, including Doc (on
the donkey) and Dudley (far right) Credit 41As sheriff, Emmett was in charge of the county jail, in Austin,
and he moved with his children into a house adjoining the
building. The jail resembled a fortress, with barred windows and
cold stone passageways and tiered cells. In Emmett’s first year, the
jail held nearly three hundred prisoners, including four murderers,
sixty-five thieves, two arsonists, twenty-four burglars, two forgers,
five rapists, and twenty-four inmates classified as lunatics. Tom
later recalled, “I was raised practically right in the jail. I could look
down from my bedroom window and see the jail corridor and the
doors to some of the cells.”