Sheriff Hope Hampton

The county Sheriff is "a big, a tremendous man with no fat and little hard pale eyes in a cold bland almost pleasant face" (42-43). He is "a countryman, a farmer and the son of farmers" (105). As sheriff he lives in a rented house in Jefferson; in between the three non-consecutive terms he has served in office, he returns to "the farm and house where he had been born" (105). He knows how to curry favor with the people who elect him to office, but also shows great courage and moral character in making sure justice is done in the case of Vinson Gowrie's murder.