Phil Ryan (sheriff)

Phil Ryan (sheriff)

Phillip R. "Phil" Ryan (born on August 10, 1945) is a former Texas Ranger and the three term Sheriff of Wise County, Texas. He entered law enforcement in 1966 at age 21, initially serving as a police officer in Pasadena, Texas. He later joined the Texas Department of Public Safety as a highway patrolman assigned to Houston and Cleveland, Texas. In 1976, he was promoted to highway patrol sergeant, which took him to Humble, Texas. He applied for and was accepted to service in the Texas Ranger Division and served as a Ranger in Decatur, Texas, which also covered Jack, Montague, and Clay counties.

As a Texas Ranger, Ryan worked many cases that made him well known not only throughout the state, but throughout the nation. He is most notable for his arrest of serial killer Henry Lee Lucas, but also was the Texas Ranger assigned to the Ricky Lee and Sharon Green case, two of the most notorious serial killers in Wise County, Texas history.