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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

10. Joining the Texas Rangers

A vintage Texas Rangers badge. Pinterest

The thrill of his first manhunt was a rush that Hamer wanted more of. So a few months later, he once again set out on his own and tracked down and captured another horse thief. The sheriff was impressed. “This is the second time you’ve done my work. You did a mighty fine job of catching this man, Frank. How’d you like to be a Texas Ranger?” Hamer was interested, and the sheriff arranged to get him accepted into the most famous – and controversial – law enforcement organization of the American West. From then until his retirement in 1949, Hamer was a Texas Ranger off and on – he resigned on various occasions to take other jobs, then rejoined the force.

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.