Sheriff Ed Jackson Character Analysis in Where the Crawdads Sing

Ed Jackson is the sheriff in Barkley Cove. When Benji Mason and Steve Long find Chase Andrews’s dead body near the fire tower, they visit Ed and tell him the news before taking him to the scene of the crime. Once he arrives, Ed notices that there are no footprints surrounding Chase’s body. In fact, the only footprints in the entire area are his own and Benji and Steve’s. This leads him to believe that Chase was murdered, so he begins investigating the case. Throughout the novel, he collects information from the townspeople, working with Deputy Joe Purdue to piece together what, exactly, happened on the night that Chase fell from the fire tower. In doing so, he comes to suspect that Kya—whom he and other townspeople call the “Marsh Girl”—might have had something to do with the case. Accordingly, he and Joe try to bring Kya in for questioning, but she evades them whenever they come to her shack. Before long, though, they decide to arrest her because they hear from a local fisherman named Rodney Horn that she once yelled that she was going to kill Chase after a certain dispute that Rodney saw take place in Cypress Cove. Later, Kya’s lawyer, Tom Milton, frames Ed as incompetent, suggesting that he jumped to conclusions about Kya simply because she lives an alternative lifestyle. This, in turn, persuades the jury to find Kya not guilty of Chase’s murder.

Sheriff Ed Jackson Character Timeline in Where the Crawdads Sing

The timeline below shows where the character Sheriff Ed Jackson appears in Where the Crawdads Sing. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

Survival, Necessity, and Violence Theme Icon

Prejudice, Intolerance, and Acceptance Theme Icon

...investigate, finding Chase Andrews’s dead body. Making their way back to town, they tell Sheriff Ed Jackson what they found, and he asks them to show him. With the two boys... (full context)

Looking around, Ed notices that there are no footprints in the mud other than the ones Benji and... (full context)

After searching the area around the fire tower for clues, Sheriff Ed Jackson asks Dr. Vern Murphy to go tell Chase’s parents that their son has died.... (full context)

Once Chase’s body has been collected and Steve and Benji have been sent home, Ed and Joe climb the fire tower. At the top, there are a series of hatches... (full context)

Independence vs. Human Connection Theme Icon

Two hours later, Ed and Joe are still at the fire tower. They talk about who would want to... (full context)

Ed and Joe receive the first lab report, which reveals that Chase died between midnight and... (full context)

Ed and Joe return to the fire tower and conduct another thorough search of the surrounding... (full context)

Ed and Joe receive more lab results, which indicate that Chase died from his fall and... (full context)

...go out to the marsh on his own quite frequently. Explaining what he’s heard to Ed, Joe says that Chase started taking secretively his boat to the marsh about four years... (full context)

Patti Love pays a visit to the police department, telling Ed and Joe that she and her husband had dinner with Chase the night before he... (full context)

Ed and Joe ask Patti Love for more information about Chase’s connection to Kya, but she’s... (full context)

Ed and Joe go to the Dog-Gone Beer Hall to listen to what the townspeople are... (full context)

Ed and Joe are unable to track down Kya, but they learn from Jumpin’ that she... (full context)

...find anything important, but then Joe finds a red hat hanging on a coatrack. When Ed holds the hat up next to the plastic baggy full of the red fibers found... (full context)

Ed and Joe send the hat from Kya’s cabin to the lab. When the results come... (full context)

Shortly before Christmas, Kya goes to Jumpin’s earlier than usual because she knows that Ed and Joe might be looking for her, since they’ve been poking around her shack recently.... (full context)

...jail is attached to the courthouse and is where Kya has been staying ever since Ed and Joe arrested her at Jumpin’s. Since then, she has languished in the half-darkness of... (full context)

...of red fibers on his coat. These fibers, Eric demonstrates, match the red hat that Ed and Joe found in Kya’s home. Once he establishes this, he cedes the floor to... (full context)

In the courtroom, Eric questions Ed, who recounts finding Chase’s body and explains why he thinks the young man’s death wasn’t... (full context)

...fall through the hatches and die because they’re left open so frequently. When Tom asks Ed who wrote this letter, the sheriff is forced to admit that it was him. (full context)

...asks why he thinks this, and Jumpin’ explains that Chase’s shell necklace was missing when Sheriff Jackson found him. This mention of the necklace makes Kya’s mouth parched, but she says nothing. (full context)

...He also notes that he felt surer of this possibility when he initially spoke to Ed, who helped “jog” his memory. Now, though, it seems too hard to say one way... (full context)

Tom calls Ed as his next witness. Before he begins to question him, though, he notices Kya begin... (full context)

Back in the courtroom, Tom talks to Ed about the prosecution’s main argument, ultimately suggesting that the time frame they have presented is... (full context)

Finally, Kya spies Tate from afar, but just as she’s about to approach, she sees Sheriff Jackson and two other men pull up to his boat and shout something at him. After... (full context)

...people continue to talk about what happened to Chase, most Barkley Cove citizens decide that Sheriff Jackson was wrong to arrest Kya, and they regret the way they treated her. (full context)