Frank Hamer Biography
Frank Hamer was born in Wilson County, Texas, United States on 17 March 1884. Was a Texas Ranger, known in popular culture for his leadership of a 1934 posse to track down and kill the criminal duo, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow.
Hamer acquired legendary status in the Southwest as the archetypal Texas Ranger. He is an inductee to the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and died on 10 July 1955, Austin, Texas, United States.
Children: Frank Hamer Jr., Billy Hamer.
10 Quick Facts About Frank Hamer
- Name: Frank Hamer
- Age: 71 years at the time of death (1955)
- Birthday: March 17
- Zodiac Sign: Pisces
- Height: 6 feet 3 inches
- Nationality: American
- Occupation: Law Enforcer
- Marital Status: Was Married
- Salary: Under Review
- Net worth: Under Review
Frank Hame Age And Height
He was born in March 17, 1984 and died on July 10, 1955. he was 71 years. Fully grown, Frank Hamer stood 6-feet, 3-inches tall and weighed more than 200 pounds.
March 17, 1884
Wilson County, Texas
Died July 10, 1955 (aged 71)
Austin, Texas Frank Hamer stood 6-feet, 3-inches tall and weighed more than 200 pounds.
Frank Hamer Partner
Hamer was more of a solitary wolf but during the killing of Clyde and Bonnie, Hamer brought in former fellow Ranger Maney Gault who had resigned from the Ranger force when “Ma” Ferguson was elected and was now working for the Texas Highway Patrol and the Likes of Sheriff Jordan and his deputy Prentiss Oakley and they patterned.
Frank Hamer career
Franks Early Life as a Ranger
Frank started his law enforcement in the year 1905 after arresting ahorse thief .the sheriff was the one who advised him to became a ranger and he did so the next year. Hamer joined the Rangers and was assigned to patrol the South Texas border around Brownsville in 1915. Though Hamer’s service as a prohibition agent was briefly Stationed primarily in El Paso, the scene of countless gunfights during the Prohibition era, Hamer notable incident in March 1921, was involved in a gun battle with smugglers that resulted in the death of Prohibition Agent Ernest W. Walker.
Frank Hamer career as a law enforcer
Hamer was an off-and-on Ranger throughout his adult life, often resigning to take on other jobs. On April 21, 1906, he joined Company C of Captain John H. Rogers in Alpine, Texas, and began patrolling the Mexican border. He resigned from the Rangers in 1908 to become the City Marshal of Navasota, Texas, a lawless, violence-wracked boom town; “shootings on the main street were so frequent that in two years”
After the incident of 1921 Hamer was transferred to Austin in 1921 where he served as senior ranger captain. Hamer threatens Jose Tomas Canales in1918 because he was leading the investigations that involved rangers abusing residents of the Rio Grande Valley. The threat to the governor was reported by Canales, but Hamer was not disciplined. He stalked Canales in the capital and Future President Lyndon B. Johnson’s father, Samuel Ealy Johnson Jr., was among those who escorted Canales to the early 1919 hearing.
Starting in 1922, Hamer led the Texas struggle against the Ku Klux Klan as Texas Rangers ‘ senior captain who was still growing in Texas. Throughout his career, he was a hero saving 15 people from lynch mobs. In 1930 he protected a black rape suspect from a 6,000-strong mob with a handful of rangers in Sherman, Texas. Hamer personally shot and wounded two of the mob’s leaders, forcing the lynchers to flee the court. However, the mob set fire to the court, and the prisoner died in the inferno.
Hamer stopped a hire ring murder in 1928, and he was made nationally famous by his extraordinary means of doing this. The Texas Bankers ‘ Association had begun offering $5,000 rewards for “dead bank robbers— not one cent for live ones.
Hamer determined that men would set up deadbeats and two-bit outlaws to be killed by complicit police officers; the officers would collect the rewards and pay the finder’s fees to the men. But the police refused him support and the Bankers ‘ Association’s position was that “any man who could be induced to participate in a bank robbery should be killed.
He wrote a detailed racket exposé, which he called “the bankers ‘ assassination machine,” and took his article to the press room of the State Capitol and handed out copies. His racket disclosure resulted in public outrage, investigation, and charges.
However, the bankers did not change the terms of the reward, and more bounty killings occurred in 1930. Hamer retired in 1932 after nearly 27 years with the Rangers. He left for a week before taking over the governor’s office for a second term, Miriam “Ma” Ferguson. After being impeached and forced to resign as governor, she was first elected after her husband “Pa” Ferguson, and at least 40 Rangers resigned instead of serving under her.
A year later, Hamer gave his reason for retiring: “I leave when they elected a woman governor.”Texas Rangers commander allowed him to retain an active senior ranger commission. The special commission is listed in the state archives of Austin.
Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow Escape
Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, known in 1933 as The Posse as “Bonnie and Clyde.” Hinton, Oakley, Gault; sitting, L to R: Alcorn, Jordan, and Frank Hamer.
In the early 1930s, the crime spree of Bonnie and Clyde generated vast media coverage in half a dozen states that embarrassed law enforcement and government officials. Barrow, Parker, and partner Jimmy Mullens raided the Eastham prison farm on January 16, 1934, freeing Raymond Hamilton, Henry Methvin, Hilton Bybee (replaced by Clyde’s friend Ralph Fults) and Joe Palmer.
Hamilton’s brother, Floyd, wrote that Henry Methvin was not part of the original “invited” group, but fled with them during the general confusion. Barrow wanted to free Fults and Aubrey Skelley in particular, but he considered the raid to be a successful retaliation against the prison system.
Historian John Neal Phillips says that “reimbursing” the Corrections Department for abuse that Barrow had received while in prison motivated many of his actions and undermined his spread of crime. The Texas Department of Corrections received national negative publicity over the jailbreak that delighted Barrow, who thought he finally had his revenge.
The escapers shot two guards during the breakout, fatally guarding Major Crowson. Shortly after Simmons assured him that he would send his killer Joe Palmer to the electric chair, he died at the hospital on January 27. Then Simmons turned his attention to restoring the Texas prison system’s reputation.
Hamer leads the hunt (Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow)
Hamer was persuaded by Simmons to hunt the Barrow Gang down. Hamer was commissioned as a Texas Highway Patrol officer, then seconded as a special investigator charged with apprehending Barrow and his colleagues to the prison system.
Hamer balked at $180 a month’s compensation, less than half of his current pay, but Simmons reiterated that his fair share of the reward money would be collected by Hamer.
He also added to the deal by allowing Hamer to take whatever he wanted from the possessions of the Barrow Gang when he caught them. Simmons said he wouldn’t presume to tell Hamer how to do his job, but he suggested Hamer’s putting them on the spot, knowing you’re right— and shooting everyone in sight.
The suspects used the borderline because they knew the officers wouldn’t follow them across the state line. Barrow, Parker, and Henry Methvin robbed banks in Lancaster, Texas, Poteau, Oklahoma in the next few months.
shootings cause panic and outrage to the public
Hamer tracked the gang’s killings as well as the bank robberies. Two Texas Highway Patrol officers were killed at Grapevine, Texas, on Easter Sunday, April 1, 1934, inflaming public sentiment against Barrow and Parker.
An eyewitness account gained widespread coverage in the newspaper, stating that a drunken Bonnie had emptied her gun into the prone body of Patrolman Murphy at Grapevine, laughing as she fired at his “head bounced like a rubber ball” on the road.
Popular opinion turned against the criminals, even more, five days later when Barrow and Methvin killed Constable Calvin Campbell near Commerce, Oklahoma, a 60-year-old single father. They kidnapped Commerce Chief of Police Percy Boyd and drove him across the border into Kansas, where they released him
He posted their names at the top of the murder warrants issued against Barrow, Parker, and John Doe(Methvin) later that week. Hamer knew that Barrow did not intend to be taken alive, and the Barrow Gang’s history made it practical to assume that Bonnie would not leave him voluntarily.
the shooting and death of Parker and Clyde
Henry Methvin’s family contacted Bienville Parish Sheriff Henderson Jordan in mid-March about their son, his legal problems, and Barrow’s involvement. Hamer was by nature a lone wolf, but ultimately he formed an inter-jurisdictional pose and created a plan for the gang to be ambushed.
The first to join the pose was Sheriff Jordan and his deputy Prentiss Oakley, an outstanding marksman. The lawyers confronted Bonnie and Clyde on a rural road near Gibsland, Louisiana at 9:15 a.m. On May 23, 1934, they were tracked after 102 days.
Barrow stopped his car at the ambush spot and the 150-round fusillade of the posse was so thunderous that people for miles around thought that a logging crew had used dynamite to fell a huge tree. Accounts differ only slightly with regard to the last moment before gunfire erupted: Sheriff Jordan said he was calling for Barrow to stop the shooting, Deputy Alcorn said Captain Hamer was calling.
However, all six agreed that Deputy Oakley stood and fired the opening shot of his Remington Model 8 and that his bullet hit the left temple of Barrow and instantly killed the outlaw. The posse fired other 100-plus rounds, of which any number would have been fatal to Parker and also to Barrow Hamer, using a customized.35 Remington Model 8 semiautomatic rifle with a 15-round magazine he had ordered from the Sporting Goods store in Austin, Texas, Petmeckey.
He was shipped with serial number 10045; the ambush used at least two Model 8s. The rifle was modified to accept 20-round “police only” magazine that was obtained in St. Joseph, Missouri through the Peace Officers Equipment Company. State, local, and other sources had pledged money to the Barrow Reward Fund, bringing the total pre-ambush to some $26,000, but most reneged on their promises.
Every member of the pose received a meager $200.23. They were permitted to take some of the gang’s goods and properties; Hamer took most of the guns
Frank Hamer Autograph
For Franks, autograph click here
Frank Hamer Death, Grave And Death Count
In 1953, Frank Hamer suffered a stroke, he lived two more years but never regained his health. He was buried near his son Billy in Memorial Park Cemetery in Austin. He was wounded 17 times during his life and left for dead four times. He is credited with having killed between 53and 70 people. especially Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow.
Frank Hamer Netflix
The Highwaymen, directed by John Lee Hancock and written by John Fusco, is a 2019 American crime film. The film follows two former Texas Rangers, Frank Hamer and Maney Gault (played by Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson), who attempted to track down and apprehend notorious criminals Bonnie and Clyde in the 1930s. Also, stars are Kathy Bates, John Carroll Lynch, Kim Dickens, Thomas Mann, William Sadler.
The film had been in development for many years, with Casey Silver as early as 2005 looking into the project. Originally pitched as a possible project by Fusco, Paul Newman, and Robert Redford, the film started development at Universal Pictures but never came to fruition. Netflix was reported to have picked up the rights to the movie in February 2018 and started Costner and Harrelson. Filming took place later that month and in March, shooting around Louisiana and at several historic sites, including the road where they killed Bonnie and Clyde.
Frank Hamer Remington Model 8
Hamer used a customized 35 Remington Model 8 semiautomatic rifle with a 15-round magazine that he’d ordered from Petmeckey’s Sporting Goods store in Austin, Texas.
He was shipped serial number 10045; at least two Model 8s were used in the ambush. The rifle was modified to accept a “police only” 20-round magazine obtained through the Peace Officers Equipment Company in St. Joseph, Missouri.
The Remington Model 8 is a semi-automatic rifle designed by John Browning and produced by Remington Arms, introduced as the Remington Autoloading Rifle in 1905, though the name was changed to the Remington Model 8 in 1911.
Frank Hamer Highwaymen
It’s a film showing Frank Hamer’s life and his fight to capture and kill Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. In February 2018, Netflix was reported to have picked up the film rights.
Frank Hamer Jr Obituary
Francis Augustes “Frank” Hamer, Jr
Birth: 11 Aug 1918 California, USA
Death: 19 Sep 2006 (aged 88) San Marcos, Hays County, Texas, USA
Burial: Memorial Park Cemetery in Austin
Family Members
Parents
Frank Hamer 1884-1955
Ida Gladys Johnson Hamer 1890-1976
Spouse
Dorothy Elinor Bissell Hamer 1920-1996
Siblings
Billy Beckham Hamer 1921-1945
Half Siblings
Helen Trix Sims 1907-1966
Beverly S Sims Benson 1909-2011
Frank Hamer Old Lucky
Captain Hamer still hung on the same handgun throughout his long career, however, Old Lucky is a Colt Single Action with a 4 3/4-inch barrel in the caliber of.45 Colt. It’s blue, with scroll engraving almost full-coverage (probably what Colt called “C” coverage).
Hamer stocked his favorite sixgun with a set of carved pearl grips throughout most of his career. However, he changed these to a set of a hard rubber factory in later years.
Frank Hamer Net Worth
Frank net worth and salary is under review but you will be updated as soon as new information on it is released.
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