Sheriff Matthews

## J. Matthews

**J. Matthews** was the sheriff of Gallows Creek's Sheriff's Office.

## History

Sheriff Matthews was the chief of police in the small town of Gallows Creek, commandeering two officers, Deputy Sara Martinez and Officer Gunderson, as well as 911 operator/dispatcher Leslie Harper.

Matthews has held the head position of Gallows Creek's sheriff office since at least mid-1968. According to the official police record, at 4 a.m. on September 3 of the same year, Matthews was called by Sandra Sharpe, who had found a dead body in the reservoir while jogging. After arriving, he quickly recognized the deceased as George Barrow and informed the coroner's office to take him in. Afterwards George's parents were contacted and said that they had last seen their son at 7 p.m. the previous day.

In reality, the original police record had been destroyed by Clive Elforth on the orders of Theodore C. Gallows and replaced with a revised one. That night, Sandra had really stumbled upon the body by the river on the opposite side of town and the body had been shipped to the coroner, Dr. Virginia Sullivan, without prior notice by Clive. Since the document was handwritten by Sheriff Matthews, it can be assumed that he was either bribed or coerced into altering the report.

It is implied that Sheriff Matthews already was or became close to the Gallows family, since an ad for the 1987 town elections has Teddy Gallows Jr. voice his opposition to incumbent mayor Linda Cartwright's plans to force Matthews into early retirement.

In 1970, Sheriff Matthews was quoted as vowing to bring the perpetrators of a series of car thefts in town to justice. This only succeeded on July 19th, 1977, after a member of the group behind the thefts became an informant in exchange for complete clemency.

In the later hours of September 2, 1987, while Gunderson was on vacation in Cancún, Mexico, Sheriff Matthews was murdered by the Whistling Man. Evidently, Matthews attempted to defend himself with his service pistol, emptying the entire magazine, to no avail. Deputy Martinez was knocked out and locked in a holding cell and the phone lines cut, the scene only being discovered by Leslie after midnight on September 3. It is Sheriff Matthews' death that leads to Leslie calling KFAM 189.16 - The Scream for Forrest Nash, who is the only other person with the equipment to handle 911 calls, while she prepares to drive to the closest town for help and medical attention for Martinez. Forrest ends up pointing Leslie to Matthews' corpse for keys to Martinez's jail cell. While searching him, Leslie accidentally moves the body, and mortified by the grisly sight, asks Matthews not to stare at her like that, indicating the killer had mutilated his face.

During the Whistling Man's interview, Forrest brings up how like most of the other victims, Sheriff Matthews was specifically targeted for his role in the coverup. Marie's reaction and the fact that the sheriff's office was on the east end of Gallows Creek, with the next Whistling Man attack occuring in the far west, indicate that it was Marie rather than Henry who killed Matthews.

## Trivia

* Sheriff Matthews, the unnamed prologue protagonist, and Jimmy are the only victims of the Whistling Man's rampage in Gallows Creek whose deaths can't be prevented, with Sheriff Matthews' death being the only one not heard by the player.
* Forrest once calls Sheriff Matthews "Sheriff Andrews", consistent with his habit of forgetting people's names.
	+ Coincidentally, the horror film *Even Lambs Have Teeth* has a character named Sheriff Andrews.
* If the Whistling Man's method of killing Jimmy during Carrie's segment is anything to go by, Sheriff Matthews likely had his face cut off, hence Leslie's refusal to describe his wounds and disgust at seeing him.
* Since Teddy Gallows Jr.'s ad mentions that Linda Cartwright was trying to force Sheriff Matthews into early retirement, it can be assumed that he was no older than his early 60's at the time of his death.

## References

1. ↑ Matthews' initial is known from the police report detailing the recovery of George Barrow's body in the basement storage