Since the Days of the Old West, Marshals Are Still Riding High

CINCINNATI —  At first, there were President George Washington and the 13 original federal marshals. Then came Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson and others in the legend of hard-riding, straight-shooting marshals in the old West.

Now, there are 93 U.S. marshals and 1,600 deputy marshals across the 50 states. Armed with state-of-the-art technology, they represent the modern-day order of the U.S. Marshals Service, an arm of the Justice Department and one of the nation’s original law enforcement agencies.

Screening applicants for jobs as marshals has changed substantially since the gun-slinging days on the Western frontier, said William R. Breitfelder, chief deputy marshal for the Southern District of Ohio.

“Wyatt Earp was a scoundrel, to begin with. He wasn’t pure as the driven snow,” Breitfelder said. “Back then, they were looking for gunfighters. They weren’t looking at their background so much . . . so they could go in and clean out Dodge City.”

It was 1789 when Washington, following passage of the Judiciary Act, appointed one marshal for each of the 13 states. They were empowered to be officers and investigators for the newly created federal courts.

Along with customs and postal inspectors, they were the only original federal authorities equipped with investigative powers. It was decades before the FBI, Secret Service and other federal investigative agencies were created.

The Marshals Service, which marked its 195th anniversary last fall, is charged primarily with protecting federal judges and court personnel, guarding witnesses, serving court papers, executing arrest warrants and transporting prisoners.

The service also has a team trained to quell riots and enforce order. That unit is dispatched only by order of the U.S. attorney general.

The marshals’ duties still are risky, especially when guarding court personnel or witnesses who have been threatened, but not quite like frontier days.