"We don't like any snakes in the weeds at this table."
—Sheriff Purdy

Brendan plays "Sheriff Purdy," a highly literate lawman... although he has apparently never read any books having to do with the law. He presides over the town, keeps track of the shootings and hangings (although, he says, "I don't keep count"), and even the duals... one of which our hero Strindler will take part in. Purdy has steely eyes, a silver tongue, and golden teeth... only we mean literally, golden teeth, which he uses to spout poetry, quote Dickinson, and demean Mexicans in the poorer part of his town.

Murphy says of the role: "The first couple of days I left the set dressed in my street clothes, a number of my fellow cast and crew mates didn't recognize me. Quin Davis did a phenomenal job with makeup and special effects makeup on Alex Cox's "Dead Souls". He helped transform actors into characters. @paularogerscostumes did much the same with wardrobe. Such an eye she has. Thank you both for the work you do and thanks for helping create Sheriff Purdy. You gave me confidence to do my job. I can't wait for everyone to see this movie!"¹

Lawmen like Sheriff Purdy were elected to office by residents of their county, which made it a public relations job as much as a punitive one; They also had to campaign for elections and collect taxes, the primary funding source for the local governments. The Sheriffs often rode out to the ranches to collect the tax directly, and were paid a portion of those taxes as their primary income. It was a very lucrative job in some counties, even if they were honest... and much more so if they were dishonest. Of those who did make a salary, it was often very low, and their duties often included tasks that many felt were beneath them, such as shoveling horse manure out of the streets.

When sheriffs weren't being taxmen or shit-shovelers, they watched over the inmates in the town jail, and many lawmen received no pay other than a percentage of any money that those they arrested might be fined, or the collection of bounties on the heads of wanted men. This often led them to have second jobs or sometimes, to use their badges in establishing protection rackets or other crimes. In the Old West, the line between lawman and outlaw was fluid. Some men behind the badge started out as devoted public servants committed to keeping law and order, but made questionable choices that landed them on the wrong side of the law. But sheriffs were rarely gunfighters. Their work would consist of weeks of boring tasks (giving Purdy a lot of reading time), punctuated by moments of high drama and sometimes deadly confrontation. For this and many other reasons, nobody lasted in the job for very long. At right, Navajo County's first elected sheriff (in 1895), Francis Joseph Wattron, ran the drugstore during the day and the gaming tables into the early morning hours. In 1899, Frank sent out an invitation to a hanging: "Latest improved methods in the art of scientific strangulation will be employed and everything possible will be done to make the proceedings cheerful and the execution a success." The townspeople (and President William McKinley) were not amused and responded by not electing Frank for a second term as sheriff. After his wife and children left and moved to California, frank he told his pals, "I've got a one-way ticket punched straight through to hell with no stops." Frank's friends found him unconscious on his drugstore cot, an empty bottle of laudanum beside him. He died shortly after, on August 2nd, 1905.

Ryan on-set at sundown with Co-Executive Producer David Nedrow and Jennifer Stancel.

NOTES ON THIS PAGE

¹—https://www.instagram.com/p/DO9PD1iEg-N/; See also: https://www.instagram.com/p/DPPCM5niXVH/?img_index=1.