Sheriff Beaudry

Sheriff Franklin Tobias Beaudry (b. 1923) is the sheriff of Raccoon County and the head of law enforcement of Sheldon, North Carolina.

Early life
Frank T. Beaudry was born in Sheldon, North Carolina on Valentine's Day, 1923 as an orphan. According to him, he was left on the doorstep of the Beaudry's, an African-American family, with nothing but a blue blanket, an empty locket with his name on it, and a birth certificate without his birth-parents signatures. The family then took him in and raised him as their own.

His adoptive father was a deputy in the Raccoon County Sheriff's Department, one of the first African-American police officers in that part of the country, hence where he got his fascination with law enforcement. As a child, he used to play cops and robbers with his friends and dreamed that he too would follow in his father's footsteps.

When Frank was 5 years old, he accidentally set fire to the outhouse whilst playing with matches. Luckily the damage was only minor and Frank only got a tanning from his mother.

He enrolled in Raccoon County Elementary School as a child, but due to the jim crow laws at the time, his parents never revealed themselves to the schoolmaster, fearing they may kick young Beaudry out. Luckily, Frank was a model student.

In 1930, Frank's father took him along on his patrol of the town. They then came across some of Rico Giordano's men harassing a shop owner for protection money. Frank's father drew out his shotgun and commanded them to surrender, only to be shot in the chest. These were his last words to Frank before he died. "Remember son, Justice".

In May 1941, after his High School graduation, he enrolled at the Raccoon County Police Academy and became a deputy.

Military Career
In 1942, he enlisted in the U.S. Army and was first stationed at Fort Gordon. After Christmas of 1942, he was transferred to Camp Maxey in Texas and joined the 793rd Military Police Battalion. During his time at Fort Maxey, he took up boxing and won some championships and later reached the rank of Corporal.

In February 1944, the 793rd was deployed and stationed at Scotland. It was during his time in the U.K. that he helped the Home Guard with their patrols and also caught a German Spy, thus promoting him to Sergeant 1st Class. In August of 1944, the 793rd were deployed to France to protect truck convoys on the Red Ball Express route. He later saw combat at the Battle of Remagen. During the final day of the battle, Beaudry took a bullet to the gut and was sent to a hospital in England. By the time he recovered, the war in Europe was coming to a close and was medically discharged in late April of 1945.

During his service, Beaudry received the Purple Heart, the Silver Star, the Distinguised Service Medal, the Soldier's Medal, and the Victory Medal.

His War against Rico Giordano
After his return from the Army, Beaudry went back to the R.C.S.D. to once again be a deputy for his old friend Sean Mulligan. Only to find he was murdered under "mysterious circumstances". Feeling suspicious over the death of his old friend and seeing the crooked nature of Joe Ross, the acting Sheriff, and his running opponent in the election, Cameron Earle, Beaudry decided to Run for the Sheriff position instead.

Rico Giordano, the local Sicilian Mob Boss, saw Beaudry as a wrench that could be thrown into his works, so hired several hitmen to remove Beaudry from the picture, only for those hitmen to ether met their fates or ending up captured and forced to turn rat to prevent a long prison sentence.

Giordano, seeing he was running out of options, decided to team up with his rival, Kingsley Nash, the head of the Dixie Mob, in order to get rid of Beaudry, even as far as trumping up some charges against Beaudry's behavior. But Luckily for Beaudry, those charges were soon dropped due to the lack of evidence. One by one, Beaudry took out all of Giordano and Nash's operations. Even Earle, seeing that it was only a matter of time, decided to drop out of the race and Joe Ross decided to turn rat against Giordano.

On August 3rd, 1945, Beaudry cornered both Nash and Giordano in the Railroad hotel near the K&A depot with not only the other deputies, but also the FBI, the county constabulary, and the State Police with him to apprehend the mob bosses. After a large gunfight (with Nash losing his life), Giorando finally surrendered and was arrested. Giordano was sentenced to life in prison without parole and Beaudry got elected Sheriff. Soon after, Beaudry married his sweetheart, Peggy Sue Ryan.

Beaudry would hold on to his position as Sheriff of Raccoon County until his retirement in 1997.

Fight against the Constabulary and the Mob
During the late 1940s to mid-1960s, Beaudry had been trying to get a case against Chief Constable Cameron Earle, who according to some sources, had been running illegal gambling and moonshining operations as well as police corruption, bribery, and racism. There had also been rumors that Earle had some ties with the mob, who were helping Earle with his election campaign.

In the late 1950s, Sheriff Beaudry began working with the local equal rights activists to help remove the jim crow laws and to help bring Earle to justice.

The Murder of Peggy Sue Beaudry
During 1965, Beaudry was running for re-election. Cameron Earle, who was also a candidate for the job, got help from some of his friends from the Dixie Mob (now run by Kingsley Nash's son, Hogarth "Boss Hoss" Nash).

On July 18th, 1965, a few weeks before the election, a hitman hired by the mob came up with a plot to murder Beaudry. He knew that Beaudry's favorite place to have lunch was Della's Deli, a small diner in Sheldon. That day, Beaudry was taking his wife out to lunch. At 12:05 pm, Beaudry and his wife Peggy arrived at the diner to have lunch. They parked their 1961 Chevrolet Impala sedan outside and went inside. Whilst they were in, the hitman place a bomb under the car and had it rigged that when the key was turned, it would explode.

Meanwhile, inside, a waiter asked the couple if they can move their car since it was a few inches too close to the sidewalk. Peggy offered to move it since she had already ordered whilst Beaudry was still looking at the menu. When the hitman watched Peggy climb into the car and not Beaudry, he rushed towards her in an attempt to prevent a mistake, but it was too late. Peggy turned the key and BOOM! The car exploded with her in it. Beaudry, hearing the explosion, ran outside to find his car completely destroyed and his wife dead.

When the hitman saw Beaudry running towards the car, he pulled out a small .38 snub-nosed revolver to try and finish the job. But it did little good, as the bullets wounded his left arm. Beaudry then pulled out his old Army revolver and put a .45 slug into the hitman's kneecap. Beaudry pulled his wife out of the burning wreckage, but only for her to die in his arms. According to eyewitnesses, this was the first time they've seen Beaudry cry in public.

The hitman was later arrested and after an interrogation by Chief Deputy Robinson (as the Sheriff was in too much of a mental state), he confessed to the bombing and agreed to testify against his employers.

The Arrest of Boss Hoss
Thanks to the cooperation of the hitman, Boss Hoss Nash was found guilty of all charges against him and was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole at the Possum Hollow Penitentiary.

As for Cameron Earle, he lost the election in 1965, just as Constabularies all over North Carolina were being abolished. Since there was no evidence of him being involved in the murder of Peggy Sue Beaudry, he managed to avoid incarceration. But his racial views and prejudices were proven, thus blacklisting him from every law enforcement agency on the continent and was forced to leave the county.

"Listen to me Earle, when you put on that badge, you swore an oath as I did and that oath is to serve and protect, not to harass, shakedown, and bully. Just because you're a cop, doesn't mean you have the right to treat people like garbage. As a law enforcement professional, you obliged to treat people, regardless of race, religion, gender, political and personal beliefs, equally and without prejudice. As a man of justice, you're supposed to be more ethically upstanding than the average man, not less. Now get the h*** out of this county, and never come back!"

- Sheriff Frank T. Beaudry's final words to Cameron Earle before he left Sheldon for good.

Personality
Beaudry is seen as a tough, stone-faced, by the book lawman with a big attitude. But he does have a soft tender inside. He's incorruptible and doesn't take any sass from the mayor. As evidenced one time back in 1967, the mayor's hippie son tried to bribe him (with Cannabis') and he literally dragged him back to town in order to lock him up. When the mayor tried to make the charge go away, Beaudry reminded him that it was his duty as a father to discipline his son and it's the mayor's responsibility to keep the town decent and organized.

Trivia

 * Sheriff Beaudry is based on Andy Taylor, Enos Strade, and Buford Pusser. Like Buford Pusser, who was the Sheriff of Adamsville, Tennessee, Buford declared war on the mob during his term as Sheriff from 1964 until 1972.
 * He one time tried attempted to arrest Charles Manson in 1969 but ended up getting a scar on the right side of his chest when Manson tried to stab him. He tried to chase him down, but "the sneaky mongrel got over the county line before I could stuff n' mount him!".
 * His favorite sidearm is a Colt Model 1917 revolver chambered in .45 ACP.
 * According to him, this weapon was his father, Amos', service revolver from World War 1.
 * He owns an apartment building whom let rents out to needy families and to mostly house parolees in order to keep an eye on them.

Gallery
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