Travis County Sheriff's Department

"Shit, I just killed the whole fuckin' sheriff's department."

- Charlie Hewitt

The Travis County Sheriff's Department is a fictional law-enforcement agency featured in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre film franchise. They are associated with the continuity of the remake series and first appeared in the 2003 version of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. They also appeared in the 2006 prequel film, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning.

History
The Travis County Sheriff's Department is the law-enforcement servicing Travis County in the U.S. state of Texas. By the late 1960s, Travis County had become practically a ghost town due to a prolonged drought that adversely affected the beef industry, which was the county's primary source of income in those days. By July of 1969, the only member of the Travis County Sheriff's Department left around was Sheriff Winston Hoyt, and even he had plans on moving to Michigan.

Sheriff Hoyt responded to an incident at the Lee Bros. Meat Processing Plant where he found that the mentally disturbed Thomas Hewitt had just murdered the slaughterhouse supervisor. He went to the Hewitt residence and spoke to Charlie Hewitt about his "'tarded nephew", and asked him to accompany him in finding him to finesse the situation. Charlie agreed and the two rode out in Hoyt's squad car.

During the drive, the two engaged in cordial conversation. Hoyt began speaking at length about a story a friend had told him about how one could "bring a horse to organism [sic] just by using your finger". He then brought up the fact to Hewitt that he was moving to Michigan in a week. He then went on about Charlie did a poor job in raising "that retard", to which Hewitt solemnly replied, "He ain't retarded. He's misunderstood."

They eventually spotted Tommy walking down the side of the road with a chainsaw in his hand. Hoyt stopped the vehicle and approached him, commanding him to put the weapon down. When Tommy refused to comply, Hoyt leveled his service revolver at him. Charlie Hewitt grabbed a riot shotgun from the squad car and walked up to them. He said, "I think we got a problem, sheriff", and then blew Hoyt's head apart. Leaning down to inspect his work, he then commented, "Shit, I just killed the whole fuckin' sheriff's department!" He then dipped his finger in blood that had spattered on Hoyt's badge and tasted it. He took the dead man's watch and uniform and went home. Charlie Hewitt decided that he was literally the new sheriff in town. He assumed the alias of Hoyt and told the rest of his family to refer to him by that name from now on.

Charlie Hewitt continued to operate as the unofficial sheriff of Travis County for the next four years. He kept his activities primarily confined to the town of Fuller, which the rest of the county had seemed to have forgotten about. By this point in time however, there were more members of the sheriff's department working in Travis County.

On August 19th, 1973, members of the Travis County Sheriff's Department, in conjunction with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, responded to a situation taking place at the Hewitt residence. Sheriff Adams and several other officers on site, discovered evidence of a gruesome massacre, and found the remains of four young victims, as well as older human remains from previous victims.

Adams had a cameraman present to record his inspection of the Hewitt residence, which initially appeared to be empty. He brought the crew down a staircase, which led into a furnace room and work shop in the cellar of the house. While narrating to the camera, he came upon the blocked entrance way leading to an underground tunnel. The maniacal serial killer known as Thomas Hewitt burst through the blockage and attacked Sheriff Adams, presumably killing him.