April 2, 2025 • 23 mins
The second episode profiles the most famous and influential Texas Rangers, examining their methods, personalities, and lasting impact. It tells the stories of early Ranger captains like Jack Hays, who revolutionized frontier combat tactics, and Leander McNelly, whose controversial border campaigns established the Rangers' reputation for relentless pursuit. The narrative continues with Bill McDonald, the embodiment of the "One Riot, One Ranger" ethos; Frank Hamer, who tracked down Bonnie and Clyde; Manuel "Lone Wolf" Gonzaullas, who modernized Ranger techniques; and Tom Hickman, who demonstrated that psychological pressure could be more effective than violence. Through these biographical sketches, the episode identifies the common qualities that united these diverse personalities—their remarkable persistence, adaptability, and unwavering determination in the face of daunting challenges.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
There's an old, withered gravestone in Coleman County, Texas that
most tourists would drive right past. Plain limestone, nothing fancy.
The inscription reads simply Bass Outlaw, Texas Ranger ayr at
the Ranutra aimbat nangumudel ayr at the Yenutra to Nutu naningu.
(00:20):
What that modest marker doesn't tell you is that Bass,
yes that was his real name, was one of the
deadliest and most troubled rangers who ever wore the badge.
Or that he died in a bloody shootout after killing
another lawman while drunk, or that his final words as
he lay bleeding out on an Elpaso street were bury
(00:42):
me face down, so the world can kiss my ass.
Base Outlaw embodied both the remarkable skill and the sometimes
dark contradictions of the men who made ranger history. He
could track criminals across impossible terrain, face down gunmen without blinking,
(01:02):
and bring in outlaws who terrorized entire communities. He was
also a man who, when drinking, became a deadly menace
to friend and foe alike. I'm Jack Maddox and you're
listening to true tales of the Texas Rangers. Today, we're
meeting the legends, the rangers whose exploits defined the force
and whose names have echoed through Texas history for generations.
(01:26):
Some were heroes by any standard, Others were more complicated figures.
All of them shaped the legend of one of America's
most storied law enforcement agencies. Let me take you back
to the eighteen forties, when a slender, soft spoken man
named John Coffey Hayes was redefining what it meant to
(01:47):
be a Texas Ranger. Born in Tennessee, Hayes arrived in
San Antonio in eighteen thirty seven, shortly after Texas won
its independence from Mexico. By eighteen forty, at just twenty
three years old, he'd been appointed a Ranger captain. Don't
let the young age fool you. Hayes possessed a rare
(02:08):
combination of qualities that made him perhaps the most influential
ranger leader in history. Tactical brilliance, physical courage bordering on
the supernatural, and the ability to earn the absolute loyalty
of the hardened men who served under him. I've walked
the ground where Hayes fought one of his most famous battles.
(02:31):
The eighteen forty four fight at Walker Creek that I
mentioned in our last episode. Standing there, you get a
visceral sense of what these men faced. Open country with
minimal cover, summer heat that feels like it's trying to
peel your skin off, and somewhere out there a force
of battle hardened Comanche warriors who knew the terrain intimately
(02:55):
and had been successfully raiding settlements for generations. What Hayes
did that day, ordering fourteen men to charge directly into
a force of eighty Comanche instead of taking a defensive position,
seems like madness until you understand the psychology behind it.
(03:15):
The Comanche expected settlers and soldiers to form defensive circles
when attacked. By charging. Instead, Hayes seized the initiative and
threw his opponents off balance. It was the kind of
audacious gamble that requires absolute confidence in yourself and your men.
The victory at Walker Creek cemented Hayes' reputation, but it
(03:37):
was just one of his accomplishments. During the Mexican American War,
he led his rangers on deep scouting missions that provided
crucial intelligence for American forces At the Battle of Monterey,
when the U S Armies advance stalled, Hayes and his
rangers found a path through supposedly impassable terrain that allowed
(03:59):
American Force horses to flank the Mexican defenders. After the war,
Hayes headed to California during the Gold Rush, where he
became the first sheriff of San Francisco County and later
a successful business man. Unlike many frontier figures who died
violently or faded into poverty, Hayes lived to age sixty nine,
(04:20):
wealthy and respected. But it was those years in Texas
that secured his place in ranger lore. What made Hayes special.
According to the men who rode with him, it was
his unflappable calm in the face of danger. Ranger James
Dunn once wrote, I was with Hayes in every Indian
(04:41):
fight he was ever in after I joined his company,
and I never saw him dismount in the presence of
an enemy. He would sit calmly on his horse, direct
the fight, and at the proper time lead the charge.
That preternatural composure became a ranger hallmark, the ability to
remain calm and think clearly when bullets were flying or
(05:03):
lives were at Stake. Hayes didn't just fight, he taught
a generation of Rangers how to fight smart. While Hayes
was defining the Ranger's approach to combat, another legendary captain
was establishing their reputation for relentless pursuit of justice. Leander H.
Mc nelly. Mc nelly doesn't look like much in the
(05:24):
few photographs that survive, a slight man with a solemn expression,
often described as sickly. He'd fought for the Confederacy during
the Civil War, contracting tuberculosis while in service. By the
time he became a Ranger captain in eighteen seventy four,
doctors had given him just a few years to live.
(05:45):
Maybe it was that borrowed time that made mc nelly
so fearless or so ruthless, depending on your perspective. Governor
Richard Coke assigned him to clean up the Nuis's Strip,
a lawless region between the Nuise's River and the Rio
Grande where Mexican bandits and Texas cattle thieves operated with impunity.
(06:07):
The first thing McNelly did was recruit a company that was,
shall we say, unconventional. Instead of looking for a traditional lawmen,
he enlisted forty hard men, many of whom had their
own troubled histories with the law. One ranger later admitted,
some of us were worse than the men we chased.
(06:27):
McNelly didn't care about their pasts. He cared about results.
In June eighteen seventy five, after Mexican raiders stole hundreds
of cattle from Texas ranches and drove them across the
Rio Grande, McNelly and his rangers tracked them to a
ranch near Camargo, Mexico. What happened next remains controversial nearly
(06:49):
one hundred fifty years later. Despite having no legal authority
in Mexico and against direct orders from US military officials,
McNelly and his men crossed the Rio Goas, effectively invading
a sovereign nation. They attacked the ranch, killed several Mexican nationals,
and recovered some of the stolen cattle. When confronted by
(07:12):
Mexican military forces, who outnumbered them significantly, McNelly reportedly sent
this message to their commander, give us the cattle and
we will leave. Refuse and we will fight you. It
was an international incident in the making. Only hasty diplomacy
and mcnelly's eventual withdrawal prevented a larger conflict, but for
(07:36):
Texas ranchers, the message was clear. The Rangers would pursue
criminals anywhere, regardless of borders or legal niceties. I've sat
with descendants of ranching families from that region who still
speak of McNelly as a savior who restored order to
a chaotic borderland. I've also spoken with historians and Mexican
(07:58):
American families who view his actions as excessive and emblematic
of a dark period in Ranger history when the rights
of Mexican citizens were too often disregarded. Both perspectives contained truth.
McNelly operated in a complex border region where formal legal
structures were weak and violence was common on both sides.
(08:22):
His methods were often extra legal and by modern standards, unacceptable.
He also brought a measure of security to communities that
had seen little of it. What's undeniable is mcnelly's impact
on Ranger tradition. He embodied a kind of frontier justice
that prioritized results over process, the idea that catching the
(08:44):
bad guys sometimes required working in the gray areas of
the law for better or worse. That pragmatic approach would
influence ranger operations for decades to come. McNelly died in
eighteen seventy seven, finally succumbing to tuberculosis. He was just
thirty three, but he'd packed several lifetimes of adventure into
(09:07):
those years. His funeral was attended by prominent citizens and
politicians who praised his service to Texas. The Mexican nationals,
who'd experienced the business end of his harsh methods were
unsurprisingly not represented. The late nineteenth century saw the Rangers
gradually transition from frontier fighters to more traditional law enforcement.
(09:30):
But old habits die hard, and one ranger who embodied
both the old ways and the new was Bill McDonald.
McDonald looked like someone's kindly grandfather, balding with a white
mustache and glasses. Don't be fooled. Behind that mild appearance
was one of the most formidable lawman Texas ever produced.
(09:52):
Appointed captain in eighteen ninety one, McDonald patrolled the still
wild regions of West Texas, where cattle theft to remain
common and violent feuds occasionally erupted into small scale wars.
His approach combined the direct action of earlier rangers with
more sophisticated investigative techniques. It was McDonald who reportedly uttered
(10:16):
the famous line about one riot, one ranger when sent
to deal with civil unrest in Dallas. Whether he actually
said it is debatable, but the story captured something essential
about his character. Absolute confidence, backed by a willingness to
use decisive force when necessary. That confidence was on full
(10:38):
display during the Brownsville Raid of nineteen o six. After
a shooting incident involving black soldiers from the twenty fifth
Infantry Regiment stationed at Fort brown, Angry white civilians threatened
to lynch not just suspects, but potentially any black soldier
they could find. McDonald, armed with nothing but his pistol
(10:58):
and his authority, positioned himself between the mob and the fort.
If anybody in this crowd takes a shot at those soldiers,
he reportedly said, I'll drop him in his tracks. The mob,
knowing MacDonald's reputation, dispersed without violence. That's an important point
about the best rangers. While they could be ruthless toward
(11:19):
those they identified as outlaws, they could also stand against
vigilante justice and mob violence, even when it meant defying
popular sentiment. Justice under law, however, imperfectly applied was their
guiding principle. As we moved into the early twentieth century,
(11:40):
the Rangers faced new challenges that required new skills. The
days of Comanche battles were gone, the frontier had largely vanished.
Modern crimes required modern methods. Enter the Rangers of the
automobile age. None more legendary than Frank Hamer. Hamer joined
(12:00):
the Rangers in nineteen o six and served off and
on until nineteen forty nine. Standing six feet three inches
with a powerful build, he looked exactly like what he was.
One of the most dangerous lawmen in America. During his career,
he reportedly survived some fifty gunfights. When not exchanging fire
(12:22):
with criminals, he investigated everything from murders to political corruption.
Most Americans today, if they know Hamer at all, know
him as the man who led the ambush that killed
Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow in nineteen thirty four. That operation,
controversial but effective, came when Hamer was temporarily out of
(12:45):
the Rangers working directly for the Texas prison system, but
it reflected the methodical patient approach he'd developed during his
Ranger years. What made Hamer exceptional wasn't going unfighting prowess,
though he had that in abundance. It was his investigative skill.
(13:06):
He could read sign like the Rangers of old, tracking
suspects across rough country. He also understood modern criminal behavior,
automobile patterns, and the importance of intelligence networks. The Bonnie
and Clyde case illustrated this perfectly. Rather than chasing the
notorious couple across multiple states in a headline grabbing but
(13:30):
futile pursuit, Hamer quietly studied their patterns, developed informants, and
predicted where they would appear next. When the moment came
on a rural Louisiana road, Hamer and his team were waiting.
The resulting ambush was brutal. The law men fired over
one hundred and thirty rounds into the criminal's car, but
(13:51):
undeniably effective. I've seen the actual vehicle Bonnie and Clyde
were killed in. It's on display at a casino in Nevada,
of all places, sitting there under museum lights, riddled with
bullet holes. It's a sobering reminder of how ranger methods,
for all their evolution, retained that fundamental quality from the
(14:12):
frontier days, decisive force applied at the decisive moment. Hamer
represents an important transitional figure in ranger history. He learned
the old ways tracking frontier, survival, man de man combat
from rangers who'd fought Comanche. He adapted those skills to
(14:33):
the challenges of a modernizing Texas, dealing with Prohibition era gangsters,
oil boom, crime waves, and increasingly sophisticated criminal networks. While
Homer might be the most famous Ranger of the early
twentieth century, another man did as much to modernize the force.
(14:54):
Manuel T. Lone Wolf Gonzalez. Born to Spanish immigrant parents
in eighteen ninety one, Gonzalez joined the Rangers in nineteen
twenty and quickly established himself as a formidable enforcer during
the volatile Prohibition era. But his greatest contribution was bringing
scientific investigation methods to the Rangers. Gonzalez studied finger printing, ballistics,
(15:19):
and other forensic techniques at a time when many lawmen
still relied primarily on intimidation and informants. He established crime laboratories,
trained rangers in evidence collection, and insisted on building cases
that would stand up in court rather than simply gunning
down suspects. This wasn't just professional evolution. It was personal
(15:43):
for Gonzalez. Early in his career, he'd seen how sloppy
police work and corruption could let guilty men walk free.
He dedicated himself to ensuring that when the Rangers made
a case, it was solid enough to secure a conviction.
That's not to say Gonzolas was soft. When sent to
(16:03):
clean up the crime ridden oil boom towns that sprouted
across Texas in the nineteen twenties and thirties, he employed
methods that would raise eyebrows to day. In places like
Borger and Kilgore, where corrupt local officials were often on
the pay roll of gambling syndicates and bootleggers, Gonzalez conducted
(16:25):
raids that one observer described as just short of martial law.
I once interviewed an elderly woman in Kilgore who remembered
Gonzalez from her childhood. When the Rangers came to town,
she told me, Mamma would make us stay indoors said
there was liable to be shooting. She paused, then added
(16:46):
with a faint smile, But Daddy said it was the
first time in years he could walk down Main Street
without worrying about getting robbed. That was the Gonzola's approach,
Intensive sometimes heavy handed enforcement that cleaned up lawless situations,
followed by methodical case building against the criminal organizations responsible.
(17:09):
It wasn't gentle, but in the context of boomtowns, where
murder rates had reached staggering levels, it was effective. Gonzolas
served until nineteen fifty one, helping guide the Ranger's transition
into a modern investigative agency. After retirement, he served as
(17:29):
a technical consultant on radio, television and film productions about
the Rangers, helping shape the popular image of the force
for a new generation. While Hamer and Gonzoolas were modernizing
Ranger methods, another remarkable lawman was setting a different kind
of precedent. Tom Hickman, a Ranger captain from nineteen nineteen
(17:52):
to nineteen thirty five, became known for his exceptional record
of solving cases without violence. A form ex's cowboy who
started his law enforcement career as a county sheriff, Hickman
brought a deliberate, low key approach to Ranger work. Unlike
the stereotypical hard charging ranger, he preferred careful investigation and
(18:13):
psychological pressure to gunplay. During his sixteen years as captain,
he made over five thousand arrests, but only killed one man,
an armed murderer who gave him no choice. What made
Hickman's record particularly remarkable was that he operated during one
of the most violent periods in Texas history. The upheavals
(18:37):
of Prohibition, the oil boom, and the early Depression created
crime waves that many lawmen met with equal violence. Hickman
demonstrated that intelligent, methodical police work could be more effective
than shooting first and asking questions later. This isn't to
suggest Hickman was soft, far from it. He could be
(18:59):
as intimate, mandating as any ranger when the situation required,
but he understood something important about law enforcement. The goal
wasn't to create notches on your gun, but to enforce
the law with the minimum necessary force. I think it's
worth pausing here to note the diversity of approaches these
legendary rangers represented. Hayes was a tactical innovator who changed
(19:23):
how mounted combat worked on the frontier. McNelly was a
ruthless pursuer who would cross any border to catch his quarry.
McDonald was the embodiment of personal courage standing against overwhelming odds.
Hamer was the patient hunter who combined old tracking skills
with modern investigation. Gonzaoulas was the modernizer who brought forensic
(19:48):
science to a frontier institution. And Hickman was the quiet
professional who showed that brains could accomplish what bullets sometimes couldn't.
What united them wasn't a single method or personality type,
but a shared quality that's harder to define, a kind
of implacable determination, a refusal to give up no matter
(20:11):
the odds or obstacles. Each expressed this quality differently, but
all possessed it in abundance. As we moved toward the
middle of the twentieth century, the rangers continued to produce
remarkable individuals, though their exploits tended to involve more detective
work than dramatic shootouts. Rangers like Jim Goad, who infiltrated
(20:33):
the Ku Klux Klan in the nineteen twenties, Bob Crowder,
who broke up a massive cattle theft ring in the
nineteen forties, and Waking Jackson, whose memoir One Ranger provides
one of the best insider accounts of modern ranger work.
The evolution of the Rangers into a modern investigative agency
(20:54):
didn't happen overnight, and it wasn't without controversy. The force
faced significant critics in the nineteen sixties and seventies for
its handling of civil rights and labor disputes, particularly its
actions during farm worker strikes in the Rio Grande Valley.
But the best Rangers adapted and evolved. The force that
(21:16):
had once consisted entirely of Anglo men gradually became more diverse,
eventually accepting Hispanic, black and female rangers. Investigation techniques became
more sophisticated, oversight and accountability increased. Through it all, certain
qualities remained consistent. The independence that allowed Rangers to pursue
(21:40):
cases wherever they led, the persistence that kept them on
a trail long after others would have abandoned it, and
the quiet confidence that made the silver Star badge an
emblem respected and sometimes feared throughout Texas. I want to
end this episode with a story about Jabrid Books, a
(22:00):
Ranger captain in the early nineteen hundreds. Brooks had pursued
a fugitive for months across the vast expanses of South
Texas when he finally cornered the man in a small
town saloon. The fugitive laughed at him. Took you long
enough to find me, the man said. Brooks replied, I'd
have found you if it took twenty years. That's what
(22:21):
Rangers do. That, in essence, is what connects the Rangers
across generations, from Hayes to McNelly to Hamer to the
men and women who wear the badge today. Not infallibility,
not superhuman abilities, just the simple, profound commitment to persist
when others would quit, to follow a trail to its end,
(22:43):
no matter how long or difficult the journey. I'm Jack Maddox,
and in the next episode of True Tales of the
Texas Rangers, we'll explore the Ranger's complex role in border conflicts,
their most controversial periods, and how they evolved into the
modern force they are to day. Until then, remember what
(23:06):
Captain Brooks understood. Persistence isn't just a tactic. It's the
foundation of justice in a world where the bad guys
are counting on good people to give up. This has
been a quiet Please production. Head over to Quiet Please
dot a I to hear what matters
There's an old, withered gravestone in Coleman County, Texas that
most tourists would drive right past. Plain limestone, nothing fancy.
The inscription reads simply Bass Outlaw, Texas Ranger ayr at
the Ranutra aimbat nangumudel ayr at the Yenutra to Nutu naningu.
(00:20):
What that modest marker doesn't tell you is that Bass,
yes that was his real name, was one of the
deadliest and most troubled rangers who ever wore the badge.
Or that he died in a bloody shootout after killing
another lawman while drunk, or that his final words as
he lay bleeding out on an Elpaso street were bury
(00:42):
me face down, so the world can kiss my ass.
Base Outlaw embodied both the remarkable skill and the sometimes
dark contradictions of the men who made ranger history. He
could track criminals across impossible terrain, face down gunmen without blinking,
(01:02):
and bring in outlaws who terrorized entire communities. He was
also a man who, when drinking, became a deadly menace
to friend and foe alike. I'm Jack Maddox and you're
listening to true tales of the Texas Rangers. Today, we're
meeting the legends, the rangers whose exploits defined the force
and whose names have echoed through Texas history for generations.
(01:26):
Some were heroes by any standard, Others were more complicated figures.
All of them shaped the legend of one of America's
most storied law enforcement agencies. Let me take you back
to the eighteen forties, when a slender, soft spoken man
named John Coffey Hayes was redefining what it meant to
(01:47):
be a Texas Ranger. Born in Tennessee, Hayes arrived in
San Antonio in eighteen thirty seven, shortly after Texas won
its independence from Mexico. By eighteen forty, at just twenty
three years old, he'd been appointed a Ranger captain. Don't
let the young age fool you. Hayes possessed a rare
(02:08):
combination of qualities that made him perhaps the most influential
ranger leader in history. Tactical brilliance, physical courage bordering on
the supernatural, and the ability to earn the absolute loyalty
of the hardened men who served under him. I've walked
the ground where Hayes fought one of his most famous battles.
(02:31):
The eighteen forty four fight at Walker Creek that I
mentioned in our last episode. Standing there, you get a
visceral sense of what these men faced. Open country with
minimal cover, summer heat that feels like it's trying to
peel your skin off, and somewhere out there a force
of battle hardened Comanche warriors who knew the terrain intimately
(02:55):
and had been successfully raiding settlements for generations. What Hayes
did that day, ordering fourteen men to charge directly into
a force of eighty Comanche instead of taking a defensive position,
seems like madness until you understand the psychology behind it.
(03:15):
The Comanche expected settlers and soldiers to form defensive circles
when attacked. By charging. Instead, Hayes seized the initiative and
threw his opponents off balance. It was the kind of
audacious gamble that requires absolute confidence in yourself and your men.
The victory at Walker Creek cemented Hayes' reputation, but it
(03:37):
was just one of his accomplishments. During the Mexican American War,
he led his rangers on deep scouting missions that provided
crucial intelligence for American forces At the Battle of Monterey,
when the U S Armies advance stalled, Hayes and his
rangers found a path through supposedly impassable terrain that allowed
(03:59):
American Force horses to flank the Mexican defenders. After the war,
Hayes headed to California during the Gold Rush, where he
became the first sheriff of San Francisco County and later
a successful business man. Unlike many frontier figures who died
violently or faded into poverty, Hayes lived to age sixty nine,
(04:20):
wealthy and respected. But it was those years in Texas
that secured his place in ranger lore. What made Hayes special.
According to the men who rode with him, it was
his unflappable calm in the face of danger. Ranger James
Dunn once wrote, I was with Hayes in every Indian
(04:41):
fight he was ever in after I joined his company,
and I never saw him dismount in the presence of
an enemy. He would sit calmly on his horse, direct
the fight, and at the proper time lead the charge.
That preternatural composure became a ranger hallmark, the ability to
remain calm and think clearly when bullets were flying or
(05:03):
lives were at Stake. Hayes didn't just fight, he taught
a generation of Rangers how to fight smart. While Hayes
was defining the Ranger's approach to combat, another legendary captain
was establishing their reputation for relentless pursuit of justice. Leander H.
Mc nelly. Mc nelly doesn't look like much in the
(05:24):
few photographs that survive, a slight man with a solemn expression,
often described as sickly. He'd fought for the Confederacy during
the Civil War, contracting tuberculosis while in service. By the
time he became a Ranger captain in eighteen seventy four,
doctors had given him just a few years to live.
(05:45):
Maybe it was that borrowed time that made mc nelly
so fearless or so ruthless, depending on your perspective. Governor
Richard Coke assigned him to clean up the Nuis's Strip,
a lawless region between the Nuise's River and the Rio
Grande where Mexican bandits and Texas cattle thieves operated with impunity.
(06:07):
The first thing McNelly did was recruit a company that was,
shall we say, unconventional. Instead of looking for a traditional lawmen,
he enlisted forty hard men, many of whom had their
own troubled histories with the law. One ranger later admitted,
some of us were worse than the men we chased.
(06:27):
McNelly didn't care about their pasts. He cared about results.
In June eighteen seventy five, after Mexican raiders stole hundreds
of cattle from Texas ranches and drove them across the
Rio Grande, McNelly and his rangers tracked them to a
ranch near Camargo, Mexico. What happened next remains controversial nearly
(06:49):
one hundred fifty years later. Despite having no legal authority
in Mexico and against direct orders from US military officials,
McNelly and his men crossed the Rio Goas, effectively invading
a sovereign nation. They attacked the ranch, killed several Mexican nationals,
and recovered some of the stolen cattle. When confronted by
(07:12):
Mexican military forces, who outnumbered them significantly, McNelly reportedly sent
this message to their commander, give us the cattle and
we will leave. Refuse and we will fight you. It
was an international incident in the making. Only hasty diplomacy
and mcnelly's eventual withdrawal prevented a larger conflict, but for
(07:36):
Texas ranchers, the message was clear. The Rangers would pursue
criminals anywhere, regardless of borders or legal niceties. I've sat
with descendants of ranching families from that region who still
speak of McNelly as a savior who restored order to
a chaotic borderland. I've also spoken with historians and Mexican
(07:58):
American families who view his actions as excessive and emblematic
of a dark period in Ranger history when the rights
of Mexican citizens were too often disregarded. Both perspectives contained truth.
McNelly operated in a complex border region where formal legal
structures were weak and violence was common on both sides.
(08:22):
His methods were often extra legal and by modern standards, unacceptable.
He also brought a measure of security to communities that
had seen little of it. What's undeniable is mcnelly's impact
on Ranger tradition. He embodied a kind of frontier justice
that prioritized results over process, the idea that catching the
(08:44):
bad guys sometimes required working in the gray areas of
the law for better or worse. That pragmatic approach would
influence ranger operations for decades to come. McNelly died in
eighteen seventy seven, finally succumbing to tuberculosis. He was just
thirty three, but he'd packed several lifetimes of adventure into
(09:07):
those years. His funeral was attended by prominent citizens and
politicians who praised his service to Texas. The Mexican nationals,
who'd experienced the business end of his harsh methods were
unsurprisingly not represented. The late nineteenth century saw the Rangers
gradually transition from frontier fighters to more traditional law enforcement.
(09:30):
But old habits die hard, and one ranger who embodied
both the old ways and the new was Bill McDonald.
McDonald looked like someone's kindly grandfather, balding with a white
mustache and glasses. Don't be fooled. Behind that mild appearance
was one of the most formidable lawman Texas ever produced.
(09:52):
Appointed captain in eighteen ninety one, McDonald patrolled the still
wild regions of West Texas, where cattle theft to remain
common and violent feuds occasionally erupted into small scale wars.
His approach combined the direct action of earlier rangers with
more sophisticated investigative techniques. It was McDonald who reportedly uttered
(10:16):
the famous line about one riot, one ranger when sent
to deal with civil unrest in Dallas. Whether he actually
said it is debatable, but the story captured something essential
about his character. Absolute confidence, backed by a willingness to
use decisive force when necessary. That confidence was on full
(10:38):
display during the Brownsville Raid of nineteen o six. After
a shooting incident involving black soldiers from the twenty fifth
Infantry Regiment stationed at Fort brown, Angry white civilians threatened
to lynch not just suspects, but potentially any black soldier
they could find. McDonald, armed with nothing but his pistol
(10:58):
and his authority, positioned himself between the mob and the fort.
If anybody in this crowd takes a shot at those soldiers,
he reportedly said, I'll drop him in his tracks. The mob,
knowing MacDonald's reputation, dispersed without violence. That's an important point
about the best rangers. While they could be ruthless toward
(11:19):
those they identified as outlaws, they could also stand against
vigilante justice and mob violence, even when it meant defying
popular sentiment. Justice under law, however, imperfectly applied was their
guiding principle. As we moved into the early twentieth century,
(11:40):
the Rangers faced new challenges that required new skills. The
days of Comanche battles were gone, the frontier had largely vanished.
Modern crimes required modern methods. Enter the Rangers of the
automobile age. None more legendary than Frank Hamer. Hamer joined
(12:00):
the Rangers in nineteen o six and served off and
on until nineteen forty nine. Standing six feet three inches
with a powerful build, he looked exactly like what he was.
One of the most dangerous lawmen in America. During his career,
he reportedly survived some fifty gunfights. When not exchanging fire
(12:22):
with criminals, he investigated everything from murders to political corruption.
Most Americans today, if they know Hamer at all, know
him as the man who led the ambush that killed
Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow in nineteen thirty four. That operation,
controversial but effective, came when Hamer was temporarily out of
(12:45):
the Rangers working directly for the Texas prison system, but
it reflected the methodical patient approach he'd developed during his
Ranger years. What made Hamer exceptional wasn't going unfighting prowess,
though he had that in abundance. It was his investigative skill.
(13:06):
He could read sign like the Rangers of old, tracking
suspects across rough country. He also understood modern criminal behavior,
automobile patterns, and the importance of intelligence networks. The Bonnie
and Clyde case illustrated this perfectly. Rather than chasing the
notorious couple across multiple states in a headline grabbing but
(13:30):
futile pursuit, Hamer quietly studied their patterns, developed informants, and
predicted where they would appear next. When the moment came
on a rural Louisiana road, Hamer and his team were waiting.
The resulting ambush was brutal. The law men fired over
one hundred and thirty rounds into the criminal's car, but
(13:51):
undeniably effective. I've seen the actual vehicle Bonnie and Clyde
were killed in. It's on display at a casino in Nevada,
of all places, sitting there under museum lights, riddled with
bullet holes. It's a sobering reminder of how ranger methods,
for all their evolution, retained that fundamental quality from the
(14:12):
frontier days, decisive force applied at the decisive moment. Hamer
represents an important transitional figure in ranger history. He learned
the old ways tracking frontier, survival, man de man combat
from rangers who'd fought Comanche. He adapted those skills to
(14:33):
the challenges of a modernizing Texas, dealing with Prohibition era gangsters,
oil boom, crime waves, and increasingly sophisticated criminal networks. While
Homer might be the most famous Ranger of the early
twentieth century, another man did as much to modernize the force.
(14:54):
Manuel T. Lone Wolf Gonzalez. Born to Spanish immigrant parents
in eighteen ninety one, Gonzalez joined the Rangers in nineteen
twenty and quickly established himself as a formidable enforcer during
the volatile Prohibition era. But his greatest contribution was bringing
scientific investigation methods to the Rangers. Gonzalez studied finger printing, ballistics,
(15:19):
and other forensic techniques at a time when many lawmen
still relied primarily on intimidation and informants. He established crime laboratories,
trained rangers in evidence collection, and insisted on building cases
that would stand up in court rather than simply gunning
down suspects. This wasn't just professional evolution. It was personal
(15:43):
for Gonzalez. Early in his career, he'd seen how sloppy
police work and corruption could let guilty men walk free.
He dedicated himself to ensuring that when the Rangers made
a case, it was solid enough to secure a conviction.
That's not to say Gonzolas was soft. When sent to
(16:03):
clean up the crime ridden oil boom towns that sprouted
across Texas in the nineteen twenties and thirties, he employed
methods that would raise eyebrows to day. In places like
Borger and Kilgore, where corrupt local officials were often on
the pay roll of gambling syndicates and bootleggers, Gonzalez conducted
(16:25):
raids that one observer described as just short of martial law.
I once interviewed an elderly woman in Kilgore who remembered
Gonzalez from her childhood. When the Rangers came to town,
she told me, Mamma would make us stay indoors said
there was liable to be shooting. She paused, then added
(16:46):
with a faint smile, But Daddy said it was the
first time in years he could walk down Main Street
without worrying about getting robbed. That was the Gonzola's approach,
Intensive sometimes heavy handed enforcement that cleaned up lawless situations,
followed by methodical case building against the criminal organizations responsible.
(17:09):
It wasn't gentle, but in the context of boomtowns, where
murder rates had reached staggering levels, it was effective. Gonzolas
served until nineteen fifty one, helping guide the Ranger's transition
into a modern investigative agency. After retirement, he served as
(17:29):
a technical consultant on radio, television and film productions about
the Rangers, helping shape the popular image of the force
for a new generation. While Hamer and Gonzoolas were modernizing
Ranger methods, another remarkable lawman was setting a different kind
of precedent. Tom Hickman, a Ranger captain from nineteen nineteen
(17:52):
to nineteen thirty five, became known for his exceptional record
of solving cases without violence. A form ex's cowboy who
started his law enforcement career as a county sheriff, Hickman
brought a deliberate, low key approach to Ranger work. Unlike
the stereotypical hard charging ranger, he preferred careful investigation and
(18:13):
psychological pressure to gunplay. During his sixteen years as captain,
he made over five thousand arrests, but only killed one man,
an armed murderer who gave him no choice. What made
Hickman's record particularly remarkable was that he operated during one
of the most violent periods in Texas history. The upheavals
(18:37):
of Prohibition, the oil boom, and the early Depression created
crime waves that many lawmen met with equal violence. Hickman
demonstrated that intelligent, methodical police work could be more effective
than shooting first and asking questions later. This isn't to
suggest Hickman was soft, far from it. He could be
(18:59):
as intimate, mandating as any ranger when the situation required,
but he understood something important about law enforcement. The goal
wasn't to create notches on your gun, but to enforce
the law with the minimum necessary force. I think it's
worth pausing here to note the diversity of approaches these
legendary rangers represented. Hayes was a tactical innovator who changed
(19:23):
how mounted combat worked on the frontier. McNelly was a
ruthless pursuer who would cross any border to catch his quarry.
McDonald was the embodiment of personal courage standing against overwhelming odds.
Hamer was the patient hunter who combined old tracking skills
with modern investigation. Gonzaoulas was the modernizer who brought forensic
(19:48):
science to a frontier institution. And Hickman was the quiet
professional who showed that brains could accomplish what bullets sometimes couldn't.
What united them wasn't a single method or personality type,
but a shared quality that's harder to define, a kind
of implacable determination, a refusal to give up no matter
(20:11):
the odds or obstacles. Each expressed this quality differently, but
all possessed it in abundance. As we moved toward the
middle of the twentieth century, the rangers continued to produce
remarkable individuals, though their exploits tended to involve more detective
work than dramatic shootouts. Rangers like Jim Goad, who infiltrated
(20:33):
the Ku Klux Klan in the nineteen twenties, Bob Crowder,
who broke up a massive cattle theft ring in the
nineteen forties, and Waking Jackson, whose memoir One Ranger provides
one of the best insider accounts of modern ranger work.
The evolution of the Rangers into a modern investigative agency
(20:54):
didn't happen overnight, and it wasn't without controversy. The force
faced significant critics in the nineteen sixties and seventies for
its handling of civil rights and labor disputes, particularly its
actions during farm worker strikes in the Rio Grande Valley.
But the best Rangers adapted and evolved. The force that
(21:16):
had once consisted entirely of Anglo men gradually became more diverse,
eventually accepting Hispanic, black and female rangers. Investigation techniques became
more sophisticated, oversight and accountability increased. Through it all, certain
qualities remained consistent. The independence that allowed Rangers to pursue
(21:40):
cases wherever they led, the persistence that kept them on
a trail long after others would have abandoned it, and
the quiet confidence that made the silver Star badge an
emblem respected and sometimes feared throughout Texas. I want to
end this episode with a story about Jabrid Books, a
(22:00):
Ranger captain in the early nineteen hundreds. Brooks had pursued
a fugitive for months across the vast expanses of South
Texas when he finally cornered the man in a small
town saloon. The fugitive laughed at him. Took you long
enough to find me, the man said. Brooks replied, I'd
have found you if it took twenty years. That's what
(22:21):
Rangers do. That, in essence, is what connects the Rangers
across generations, from Hayes to McNelly to Hamer to the
men and women who wear the badge today. Not infallibility,
not superhuman abilities, just the simple, profound commitment to persist
when others would quit, to follow a trail to its end,
(22:43):
no matter how long or difficult the journey. I'm Jack Maddox,
and in the next episode of True Tales of the
Texas Rangers, we'll explore the Ranger's complex role in border conflicts,
their most controversial periods, and how they evolved into the
modern force they are to day. Until then, remember what
(23:06):
Captain Brooks understood. Persistence isn't just a tactic. It's the
foundation of justice in a world where the bad guys
are counting on good people to give up. This has
been a quiet Please production. Head over to Quiet Please
dot a I to hear what matters
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