Sheriff Bewley had the unenviable job of being the sheriff of Salvation, Texas, the kind of backwater town that just kind of slides off the map. Hopelessness and poverty are rampant in the kind of town that, if you’re not out by the time you’re 25, you’ll never get out.
It was the perfect place for Odin Quincannon‘s meat packing plant to set up shop. It provided much-needed jobs and something of an economic boost. With that, however, came lawlessness. Quincannon’s men would regularly come into town and harass the locals. It was Bewley’s job to make sure that they escaped any kind of police trouble and didn’t take up the time of the judges that Quincannon had in his pocket.
So, with his deputy Cindy Daggett, Bewley did as little work as possible in Salvation. While he was comfortable with the money he got from Quincannon, he still knew he was being used and that he was betraying his badge.
When Jesse Custer came in to town and showed a knack for dealing with trouble, Bewley offered to deputize him. Custer went one better and offered to take up the job as Sheriff.
Bewley knew a good chance when he saw one and gave the job to Custer. He packed his things and left town, but Quincannon’s reach was far and his forgiveness short. Bewley was shot dead by a man in a police uniform some ways outside the Salvation town limits.