Billy Ernest Rowles
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Billy Ernest Rowles (July 10, 1945) was the sheriff in Jasper County Texas on June 7, 1998 when a black man by the name of James Byrd, Jr. was brutally murdered by three white bigots who chained him to a pickup truck and dragged him approximately three miles along Huff Creek Road, a winding rural asphalt road in Jasper, Texas. Rowles is credited with keeping the community together during the investigation and trial of these three men in spite of the small town being invaded by the national media, the Ku Klux Klan and the New Black Panthers, personally contacting about fifteen black ministers in Jasper to ask for their help in keeping the peace. Kimberly Rusley, a journalist for KBTV in Beaumont, reported in November 2020 that the former sheriff is still haunted by this episode in his life and to this day refuses to drive down Huff Creek Road. Rowles was portrayed by actor Jon Voight in Showtime’s 2003 movie entitled Jasper, Texas.
Rowles retired as sheriff of Jasper County in 2005 after his wife, Jamie Laura Rowles (nee Graham), said she would not vote for him if he ran for reelection. However, only a few years later, he was chosen to finish a Deweyville, Texas constable’s unexpired term before serving as the city of Newton’s interim police chief, eventually becoming sheriff of Newton County and finally retiring in 2021 after more than 50 years of experience in law enforcement. On his last report he wrote, “Mixed emotions about what I am now going to say. This is my last sheriff’s report as I am retiring January 1, 2021. Every Monday morning for the last four years I have set down and scratched this thing out. Hope it’s not been too boring, but it’s time to turn the reins over to someone else. It’s been a hoot! I’m borrowing words of George Strait. ‘The last goodbyes are the hardest ones to say. This is where the cowboy rides away.’”
Rowles, born in Buna, Texas on July 10, 1945, started his law enforcement career with the Texas Department of Public Safety in 1968 after an honorable discharge from the U.S. Marine Corps.
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