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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

2. Tracking Down Bonnie and Clyde

Frank Hamer was already a law enforcement legend when the authorities turned to him in 1934 to hunt down and end the depredations of Bonnie and Clyde. In the early 1930s, Bonnie Elizabeth Parker and her boyfriend Clyde Chestnut Barrow had kicked off a violent crime spree that generated intense media coverage and embarrassed law enforcement across numerous states. Hamer, who had retired in 1932, was talked into going after the Barrow Gang, and was given a special commission and a free hand. He studied the gang’s pattern of movements, and realized that they usually operated in a wide circle through the lower Midwest with anchor points in Dallas, Joplin, Missouri, and northern Louisiana.

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.