To most Americans, Frank Hamer is known only as the "villain" of the
1967 film Bonnie and Clyde. Now, in The New York Times bestselling
Texas Ranger, historian John Boessenecker sets out to restore Hamer's
good name and prove that he was, in fact, a classic American hero.
From the horseback days of the Old West through the gangster days of the
1930s, Hamer stood on the frontlines of some of the most important and
exciting periods in American history. He participated in the Bandit War
of 1915, survived the climactic gunfight in the last blood feud of the
Old West, battled the Mexican Revolution's spillover across the border,
protected African Americans from lynch mobs and the Ku Klux Klan, and
ran down gangsters, bootleggers, and Communists. When at last his career
came to an end, it was only when he ran up against another legendary
Texan: Lyndon B. Johnson.
Written by one of the most acclaimed historians of the Old West, Texas
Ranger is the first biography to tell the full story of this
near-mythic lawman.
Frank Hamer, last of the old breed of Texas Rangers, has not fared
well in history or popular culture. John Boessenecker now restores this
incredible Ranger to his proper place alongside such fabled lawmen as
Wyatt Earp and Eliot Ness. Here is a grand adventure story, told with
grace and authority by a master historian of American law enforcement.
Frank Hamer can rest easy as readers will finally learn the truth behind
his amazing career, spanning the end of the Wild West through the bloody
days of the gangsters.--Paul Andrew Hutton, author of The Apache
Wars
