richard allen "smoot" schmid, born near garland, texas, in 1897, soon becomes the image of a long, tallan. how did smoot get the name "smoot"? >> in high school, he was 6'4" and wore a 14-size shoe. i don't know what smoot has to do with that. >> smoot studies law in college but never goes on to practice. instead, he opens a bike shop in dallas. >> he had some motorcycles, also, and he apparently was a daredevil on those. >> a regular evel knievel. >> that's right! >> maybe it's smoot's flamboyant antics that catch the eye of a dallas widow, named cookie wollebak. >> that was cookie, and we called smoot "pa." >> 1931. cookie has two boys, 5-year-old david and 3-year-old bob, debbie and diana's dad. smoot raises the boys as his own. then, out of the blue, smoot decides to run for dallas county sheriff. well, how do you go from that to being the lawman in town? >> there was some upheaval in the sheriff's department, and he was asked if he would like to run for sheriff. and he said, "okay." >> turns out voters in 1933 are charmed by big smoot. he takes office just as depression-era gangste