sherif vs marshall Essentially the same, in the Hollywood West.
Explanation: Originally, in Anglo-Saxon England, a "sheriff" was a "shire-reeve", a "reeve" being "An Old English official of high rank having a local jurisdiction under the king; the chief magistrate of a town or district." (OED) I.e., this officer was "the representative of the royal authority in a shire, who presided in the shire-moot, and was responsible for the administration of the royal demesne and the execution of the law." In present-day reality, in the U.S., things differ somewhat from state to state. In Indiana (the Midwest), each county in the state has a sheriff, who is the main law enforcement officer opperating throughout the *whole county* (as opposed to just within the limits of a city). Sheriffs can have a large number of deputies under them, if the population of the county warrants it --a whole "county police force". Very small towns may have "town marshals", if they are not large enough to have a real police force. So, chez moi, a "marshall" is a very minor sort of policeman. But, there are, as has been mentioned, "federal marshalls", officers of the federal (U.S.) government, who can exercise quite extensive powers. However, in the *movies*, you have a special and somewhat imaginary (or, at least not necessarily historically accurate) situation. "Classic" Westerns take place in, well, the [far] West --an area of the country which was still in the process of being formed, politically and administratively. In "territories" which were not yet formed into *states*, the federal government exercised supreme control, and the law enforcement aspect of this was in the hands of "marshalls". As far as I know (and movies are really my only source of information), these marshalls exercised their power throughout the Territory, within and outside of towns. Towns could have their own law enforcement guy, who would have been a sheriff. But, it's all mixed up --some towns had a "town marshall", while a "town sheriff" could operate within the whole of a county. I don't think that there is any hard and fast rule which can be used: some movie scripts call for one, some for the other, and historical accuracy is not much of a consideration. I hope this is sufficiently confusing for you. An accurate reflection of the confusing situation, in Hollywood movies.
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 1 hr 29 mins (2003-11-18 18:13:03 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
Sorry about that dense first paragraph --the line breaks don\'t seem to be active unless they are doubled up.
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