Frank Hamer
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Frank Augustus Hamer (March 17, 1884 – July 10, 1955) was a Texas Ranger, perhaps most well known for his involvement with the tracking down and killing of the outlaws Bonnie and Clyde. He was born in Fairview, Texas.
Hamer was personally fearless as a lawman, tracking down even the most ferocious of outlaws. But in recent years some have questioned the methods he used in tracking down and killing Bonnie and Clyde, and others have accused him of being a tool for politicians and unionbreaker for big oil companies. His supporters say Hamer was simply a man doing what needed to be done, while his critics suggest he was little more than a mercenary available for dirty jobs.
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[edit] Early years
Hamer (pronounced Hay-mer) grew up on a ranch in San Saba County, Texas, though some accounts have his family moving to Oxford, Texas in 1894. In his youth, Hamer worked in his father's blacksmith shop, and as an older teenager worked as a wrangler on a local ranch. He began his career in law enforcement in 1905 when he captured a horse thief. The local sheriff was so impressed that he recommended that Hamer join the Rangers.
[edit] Law enforcement career
Hamer was a Ranger off and on throughout his life, resigning often to take other jobs; he first joined in 1906 and began patrolling the border with Mexico. In 1908 he resigned from the Rangers the first time to become the City Marshal of Navasota, Texas. He served as marshal until 1911 when he started working as an officer for Harris County, Texas.
In his posthumous "autobiography" (marketed 13 years after his death as such, allegedly from his notes and personal recollections to his family and associates, rushed out after the movie Bonnie and Clyde, obviously Hamer himself, long dead, did not participate) I'm Frank Hamer, Hamer was quoted as saying local politics tended to irritate him, and he had little patience for interference from citizens in law enforcement. This attitude tended to cause problems for him with local political establishments, and as a result he drifted from job to job. Hamer rejoined the Rangers in 1915 and again was tasked with patrolling the South Texas border around Brownsville.
Because of the constant unrest in Mexico, the Rangers dealt most seriously with arms smugglers, but also more ordinary bootleggers and bandits who plagued the border. In 1921 Hamer transferred to Austin, Texas where he served as a senior captain.
In the 1920s Hamer became known for bringing order to oil boom towns such as Mexia, Texas and Borger, Texas. Records from that time indicate that there were complaints about some of Hamer's methods, but the same sources said the area was so lawless extreme measures may have been needed. In his alleged autobiography, Hamer was candidly quoted discussing the restrictions upstanding citizens would seek to put on a lawman, not understanding that they were in effect, he argued, asking him to fight with one hand tied behind his back. Hamer did end monetary corruption in 1928 by putting a halt to the Texas Bankers' Association's "reward ring." Hamer charged that some people were framing others and killing deadbeats and two bit outlaws to collect the association's $5,000 reward for dead bank robbers, whether they were guilty or not. Once Hamer's accusations were made public, the association changed its policy to reward only legally-killed bank robbers.
Hamer retired from the Rangers in 1932, after having served just over 18 years, although his "retirement" was actually a resignation due to political disagreements. .[1]
Since that time Hamer has been ensconced in the Ranger Hall of Fame. The commander of the Texas Rangers allowed him to retain a special Ranger Commission even after his "retirement" as an active Senior Ranger Captain. Thus Hamer was still eligible for duty while drawing a retirement pension. This was sufficiently unusual that, according to Shelton, the state kept a copy of his commission on file, perhaps realizing that someday his skills would be needed again, or as his critics maintained, a tribute to his political prowess. .[1] The special commission is listed in the state archives in Austin [1].
[edit] Ambush of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow
In the early 1930's, Bonnie and Clyde's crime spree had attracted a media circus that embarrassed the state of Texas, since much of their crime occurred within its borders. But perhaps the last straw came in January 1934, when Bonnie, Clyde, Floyd Hamilton (brother of Raymond Hamilton), and Jimmy Mullens raided Eastham prison farm, freeing Raymond Hamilton, Joe Palmer, Henry Methvin, and Hilton Bybee. Joe Palmer killed one guard and, apparently, wounded another. This was the retaliation against the Prison system that John Neal Phillips says was the driving force behind everything Clyde did: to pay back the Department of Corrections for abuse he had received there. The Texas Department of Corrections received national negative publicity over the jailbreak, which delighted Clyde, who thought he finally had his revenge, but in the end, the system won out over Bonnie and Clyde.
As Major Clawson, the wounded guard lay dying, the head of the Texas Department of Corrections reportedly promised him every person involved in the breakout would be hunted down and killed. He kept his word, except for Henry Methvin, whose life was exchanged in return for betraying Bonnie and Clyde. Lee Simmons of the Department of Corrections then contacted Frank Hamer, and convinced him to accept a commission to hunt down the Barrow Gang as a special investigator for the prison system. Hamer accepted the assignment immediately. [2]
Soon after, the killing of two Texas highway patrol officers on Easter Sunday, 1934, inflamed public sentiment against the couple, who had previously been both admired and reviled. Although at the time, there were questions about who had done the killings, Methvin's later confession, and Treherne's investigation, and Ted Hinton's revelations, (see the Bonnie and Clyde article), revealed that Methvin had been the primary shooter, and Bonnie had actually approached the dying officers to try to help them, but they were already dead or dying. Ted Hinton's son flatly states that Bonnie was asleep in the back seat, when Methvin started the gunbattle, and took no part in it. [3] In fact, after accepting a pardon in exchange for testimony, Methvin admitted responsibility for both killings. [2] Nonethless, the particularly senseless nature of the murders shocked and outraged the public, which to this point had tended to idolize Bonnie and Clyde. Popular perception turned even further when another policeman was killed five days later near Commerce, Oklahoma.
In his biography Hamer was quoted as saying he was hired to stop Bonnie and Clyde through any means necessary and he set to the task, heading up the group searching for them. A smart and meticulous investigator, Hamer examined the pattern of Clyde's movements, discovering that he essentially made a wide circle through three to five states, skirting the borders where he could, to take advantage of "state line" dictums — i.e., that officers from one state could not pursue suspects across the border of another state.
On May 23, 1934, after three months of chasing, Hamer and a group of other law enforcement officers ambushed and killed Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow near Gibsland, Louisiana. Hamer reportedly gave the order to fire without warning. While Clyde was likely killed instantly, eyewitness accounts report that Bonnie suffered a great deal before dying — according to Hinton's book Ambush, a first hand account of the ambush and her death, Bonnie uttered one long scream of agony through a hail of more than 130 bullets.
Controversy remains over the ambush of Bonnie and Clyde and is discussed in that article.
[edit] Later years as a strike breaker
During the 1930s Hamer worked for various oil companies and shippers as a strike breaker , helping to prevent strikes and breaking up union protests during strikes. The businessmen called him a hero for maintaining order, as well as ensuring access to scab labor. The unions in turn considered him a hired thug. He was called again to Ranger duty in 1948 by Governor Coke Stevenson to help check election returns in Jim Wells and Duval Counties during that year's U.S. Senate race. Yet despite Hamer's efforts (and many considered him an enforcer for Stevenson, see "Texas Bandits: A Study of the 1948 Democratic Primary"), Stevenson lost to Lyndon Johnson. Due to the rampant fraud in the 1948 election - in what may be the most crooked election in US History - the media sarcastically named LBJ "Landslide Lyndon" for his victory by just several hundred, highly suspect votes. [4] After Johnson's controversial win, Hamer was less than welcome in Austin and he retired for good the following year.
[edit] Retirement and death
Frank Hamer retired in 1949 and lived in Austin until his death in 1955. He is buried in Austin's Memoral Park in Austin[5]
[edit] References
- Took no chances, Hinton and Alcorn tell Newspapermen Wednesday Night's Extra, Dallas Dispatch. Accessed Jan 17, 2006.
- Treherne, John (2000). The Strange History of Bonnie & Clyde. Cooper Square Press. ISBN 0-8154-1106-5.
- DeFord, Miriam Allen (1968). The Real Bonnie and Clyde. Sphere Books.
- Hinton, Ted; Grove, Larry (1979). The Real Story of Bonnie and Clyde. Shoal Creek Publishers, Inc. ISBN 0-88319-041-9.
- Shelton, Gene (1997). The Life and Times of Frank Hamer. Berkeley Books. ISBN 0-425-15973-6.
- Matteson, Jason, "Texas Bandits: A Study of the 1948 Democratic Primary"
- Cartledge, Rick "The Guns of Frank Hamer
[edit] Bibliography
- Cartledge, Rick "The Guns of Frank Hamer,"
- DeFord, Miriam Allen (1968). The Real Bonnie and Clyde. Sphere Books.
- Hinton, Ted; Grove, Larry (1979). The Real Story of Bonnie and Clyde. Shoal Creek Publishers, Inc. ISBN 0-88319-041-9.
- Matteson, Jason, 'Texas Bandits: A Study of the 1948 Democratic Primary"
- Milner, E.R. The Lives and Times of Bonnie and Clyde"
- Phillips, John Neal, Running with Bonnie & Clyde: The Ten Fast Years of Ralph Fults.
- Shelton, Gene (1997). The Life and Times of Frank Hamer. Berkeley Books. ISBN 0-425-15973-6.
- Steele, Phillip, and Scoma Barrow, Marie, The Family Story of Bonnie and Clyde
- Topeka Capital-Jopurnal
- ↑ Took no chances, Hinton and Alcorn tell Newspapermen Wednesday Night's Extra, Dallas Dispatch.*Treherne, John (2000). The Strange History of Bonnie & Clyde. Cooper Square Press. ISBN 0-8154-1106-5.
- Treherne, John (2000). The Strange History of Bonnie & Clyde. Cooper Square Press. ISBN 0-8154-1106-5.
[edit] See also
- Bonnie and Clyde
- Geringer, Joseph BONNIE & CLYDE: ROMEO AND JULIET IN A GETAWAY CAR downloaded from the Crime Library Online at http://www.crimelibrary.com/americana/bonnie/main.htm
- [6] Texas Ranger Hall of Fame. Includes burial place, birthplace, etc.
