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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

11. An Auspicious Beginning

A horse thief about to be hanged in the Old West. Everand

Frank Hamer performed his first notable crime-busting feat when he was still a private citizen. In 1905, he was employed at a ranch when two horses were stolen. He picked up the trail, and followed it for several days on his own until he closed in on the culprits. Hamer used natural terrain features as cover, made his way through a gully until he got in front them, then waited until they showed up and took them by surprise with a leveled Winchester. He took the thieves prisoner, delivered them to the local sheriff, and returned the stolen horses to his employer.

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.