I note that the Chief Deputy US Marshal for the Southern District of Texas, i.e. the most senior career USMS federal law enforcement officer in Houston*,
Richard 'Rich' Hunter, retires in January 2019. In my campaign, at the end of December 2018, he has already handed in his papers and is probably not expecting to do any major work for the couple of days left until he officially retires.
Hell, since it's a weekend, he probably just expects to drop by Monday to say goodbye to everyone, and has already done all the administrative stuff necessary to transfer any cases he's overseeing to other deputies.
By contrast, however, his successor is probably not yet at work, not expected to be until after New Year's.
So I'm still struggling to determine who will be the most senior US Marshal figure connected to the investigation. After all, not only will the Marshal-led GCVOFTF be important in serving warrants connected to the investigation of the main special task force, but anyone detained by federal agents (or local/state LEOs deputized by being part of a federal task force) becomes the responsibility of the US Marshals. Including Raul Sandoval and 'Gwen Delvano'.
Does anyone know who the US Marshal for the Southern District of Texas was in December 2018 through the next few months of 2019 in the real world? That is, who was the predecessor for
T. Michael O'Connor?
Edit: From 2014-2019, the US Marshal for the Southern District of Texas was
Gary Blankinship, former Harris County Sheriff's deputy and thirty-year veteran Houston PD officer, long-time president of the Houston PD union and former Vice President for the National Association of Police Organizations. This means Blankinship is in office in my campaign.
And does anyone have any idea about real people serving as Supervisory Deputy US Marshals in the Houston division of the US Marshals?
If I invent one, how many people of that rank would there be in the Southern District of Texas?
Depending on who is the most senior figure from the US Marshals connected with the case, the PCs might be able to have a great deal of influence of what happens to their prisoners, given that they have explained the supernatural situation to DUSM Natalie Garza and, shockingly, she seems to accept the existence of supernatural threats in stride and is both willing and able to help them work within the federal bureaucracy to handle these threats. Especially when she doesn't even have to lie, just accurately report unspecified criminal connections that pose a threat to the safety of the prisoners and not mention that these are magic-using cultists and their controlled monsters.
I'm assuming that even with the heart attack of Garza's boss in the GCVOFTF, she still has bosses. But who are they and can they be manipulated or worked with?
The ideal situation would be if Garza was allowed to hand-pick a team of Deputy US Marshals and deputized members of local and state law enforcement to handle the safety of the prisoners, moving them to an undisclosed location. That would allow the picking of people who already know about the supernatural and with whom Kessler or his people have preexisting relationships. But that rather depends on how many people there are in the local hierarchy above DUSM Garza and what her relationship with them is.
*I'm excluding the actual US Marshal for the Southern District of Texas, because that is a political appointment and may or may not be a career federal LEO. US Marshal Gary Blankinship was in office 2014-2019, before the current appointment (in our world) of T. Michael O'Connor, a Texan rancher and former county sheriff from a prominent local family in Victoria County.