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Monday, May 6, 2019
Page #13
Texas History Minute (continued from last week...) By the 1930s, Texas Ranger Frank Hamer had spent most of his Dr. Ken Bridges life in law enforcement. He had put down riots, been in gunfights, hunted rustlers on horseback in the scrub brush of West Texas, and raced after hardened criminals in dramatic car chases. He had become a respected law officer across the state, even inspiring his brothers to join the Rangers as well.
pattern would emerge. “An officer must know the habits of the outlaw,” he said in a later interview explaining how he sought evidence.
He followed their carnage, from a bank robbery in Lancaster to a string of robberies in Iowa. Barrow would travel hundreds of miles in a day. Hamer found witnesses who discussed what they saw at crime scenes in Oklahoma and Arkansas and those who met them away from the crime scenes. He tracked them to Indiana and all the way back to a camp site outside Wichita Falls. Overall, they ran between Dallas, Northwest Hamer retired, along with dozens of Louisiana, and Joplin, Missouri. other Rangers in late 1932, just as Miriam A. “Ma” Ferguson prepared After two highway patrolmen to become governor. Hamer did not were shot and killed outside trust the Fergusons, especially after Grapevine on Easter Sunday 1934, public outrage intensified. the tangle of events that led to the impeachment of her husband, Gov. James Ferguson in 1917. With the In the last month of the pursuit, Ben Maney Gault, a veteran Ranger force itself coming under increasing scrutiny for some of its Texas Ranger and longtime own tactics, Hamer feared it would associate and friend of Hamer, rode with him as they pursued the become a political tool for the Fergusons. Hamer had a reputation outlaws. They learned that Barrow had a hideout near the for loyalty and honesty, boasting home of one of his gang members that he had never betrayed a near Gibsland, Louisiana. By late confidence – even one from a May, they had located them and, criminal -- and stepped aside. with four local deputies, prepared By early 1934, the crime spree of Clyde Barrow, his mistress Bonnie to arrest them. They flagged down their car on a lonely stretch Parker, and his brother Buck had of highway on May 23 and riveted the nation’s attention. ordered them to stop. Instead, Barrow, who had grown up in Barrow and Parker pulled their Texas, had been in trouble from a young age. He was imprisoned at guns. The officers fired in response, killing them both. age 16 for car theft in Dallas in 1926. He had met Bonnie Parker, a young, married waitress in Dallas a Hamer and the other officers at month before he was imprisoned in the scene were hailed as heroes Waco for robbery. Parker managed for ending the Barrow crime spree. In the process, Hamer to help Barrow escape by helped transform the Ranger smuggling a small pistol for him. He was arrested again a short time tactics and reputation from old later in Ohio for robbery. After his frontier-style direct confrontations to one of careful tracking and release in 1932, the Barrow Gang meticulous, modern went on a rampage of theft and investigations. murder. Parker was briefly captured after a robbery in Kaufman but was later released. In Hamer spent several more years working as security for different the meantime, they held up gas individuals and corporations. In stations, mom-and-pop grocery 1948, he worked for Gov. Coke stores, and small banks already struggling against the pressures of Stevenson in the bitterly contested primary election with the Great Depression. By the end Congressman Lyndon Johnson as of 1933, they had already killed both sides accused each other of three people. ballot fraud. Hamer attempted to In January 1934, the gang attacked secure ballots and voting records as the contest focused on South an East Texas prison farm to free Texas. one of their accomplices, killing two guards in the process. Law He retired for good in 1949 as he enforcement officials were desperate to capture them and were turned 65. However, he was searching from Texas to Missouri. weakened by years of injuries and Hamer still held a commission with the loss of his son in combat in the Rangers in honor of his service World War II. He suffered a stroke in 1953 and died in Austin with them. Lee Simmons, prison superintendent, respected Hamer’s in 1955. tracking and appointed him as a special officer for the state highway The Bonnie and Clyde legend grew in the decades after their patrol with the single purpose of capturing the Barrow Gang. Hamer deaths, portrayed on television and in movies several times. One also included other officers in his of the most famous depictions efforts. was the 1967 film Bonnie and Hamer picked up the trail, realizing Clyde, starring Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty and filmed in that to capture them, he had to North Texas. Veteran actor understand how Barrow thought Denver Pyle portrayed Hamer, but and reacted. Hamer knew that a
in 1968, Hamer’s widow sued the published as I’m Frank Hamer: The producers of the film for the Life of a Texas Peace Officer in depiction of Hamer, showing him 1968. He was later inducted into as not only as having been captured the Texas Rangers Hall of Fame by Bonnie and Clyde but also as and Museum in Waco. clownishly incompetent and cruel. The case was settled out of court in Dr. Bridges is a Texas native, writer, and history professor. He 1971 with the terms sealed. A can be reached at biography of Hamer, compiled from drkenbridges@gmail.com. his own words and letters, was
