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Frank Hamer, Legendary Texas Lawman Who Bagged Bonnie and Clyde

Khalid Elhassan December 27, 2024 12 min

Hamer - Frank Hamer — Frank Hamer. Free Range America

8. A Lawman Not to be Messed With

Frank Hamer, left, along with other Texas Rangers in 1907. University of Oklahoma

After a few shootouts in which he killed some miscreants, Frank Hamer established his reputation as a law enforcement officer that bad guys did not want to mess with. After order was restored in Navasota, he moved on to a few more law enforcement stints, including Houston, before he rejoined the Texas Rangers in 1915. He was sent to patrol the border near Brownsville, and arrived at the height of one of the Rangers’ most controversial stretches. It was La Matanza (“The Slaughter”) – a time of intense anti-Mexican violence that lasted from 1910 to 1920.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.