Gregg County — Tom Welch, a former Gregg County sheriff who left office in 1979 for a prison cell, died Monday. He was 83.

Welch was found dead at his home in rural Gregg County by a person who worked for him, said Gregg County Sheriff Maxey Cerliano.

Circumstances of the death were unknown late Monday, but foul play was not suspected. Cerliano said the former sheriff, a rancher, had been in ill health.

Welch was elected sheriff in 1972 and re-elected in 1976. But he never finished his second term, resigning after being convicted on a multitude of charges that led investigators to dub him a “one-man crime wave.”

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