Frank was finally back in the saddle for many of his patrols along the Rio Grand.
Howdy folks and greetings from the Great Plains of North Texas!
We're in a series about the best Texas Ranger to ever wear the badge, the great Frank Hamer, who was brought out of retirement to take down Bonnie and Clyde.
Recap
In the last post of this series the Mexican gunfighter who I call Ralphie had escaped capture in Utah for the murder of 7 people, 5 of them of which were lawmen.
Frank was following the case and assumed that Ralphie had headed back to his home in Mexico. That was in the year 1913.
Today's story
Eight years later it just so happened that right after Frank had taken over as Captain for the Rangers in Company C in Del Rio, Texas, he got word that the long-lost cop killer was working as a smuggler now and would be crossing the Rio Grand at night.
Ralphie had been in Mexico continuing his sleezy, murderous ways. He'd gotten into drugs and smuggling:
After checking out the informant it appeared that the man was verified to be trustworthy so Frank and several of his men agreed to meet the informant that night on the American side of the Rio Grand.
When they arrived the informant took them to the Mexican side of the border and showed them a path with an irrigation ditch running parallel to it.
The informant was also the guide to take Ralphie's group across the river and he told them to hide in the irrigation ditch and then just pop up when the smugglers crossed in front of them.
Then the informant left them to go and meet up with Ralphie and his band.
This don't feel right
After the informant left Frank didn't feel right. The more time went by the more he didn't feel right.
This reminds me of what his wife Gladys said about him...she said that the Lord was always tapping him on his shoulders in dangerous situations.
That was probably the prompting of the Spirit because he told his men that he thought this was a setup and they needed to move.
I don't know the distance between the irrigation ditches but it seems like they must have been about 10 yards apart and he moved his men to the third ditch away from the one they were instructed to hide in.
They all laid down with their rifles on the mound of dirt beside the ditch. Except Frank, there was a wooden gate next to the ditch and he was leaning up against that.
It shore nough was a trap
It was almost complete darkness. After a short while a group of men approached and snuck up on that first irrigation ditch.
Frank shouted out to them in Spanish to halt and that they were officers of the law. The smugglers immediately began shooting.
Ralphie shot at Frank and a bullet creased his cheek, drawing blood. Frank opened up with his Remingtion semi-automatic rifle as fast as he could pull the trigger.
Another scumbag bites the dirt
Ralphie was history. One of the first shots tore into his heart and he was killed instantly. The rest of Frank's men commenced firing with a withering barrage of bullets.
They heard men running away but Frank's team held their spot and waited for 20 minutes before moving.
When they made their way to where Ralphie's body was they found 11 other bodies! None of Frank's men were hurt. Frank took a watch from Ralphie as a souvenir, it had one of Frank's bullets lodged in it:
Frank never filled out an official report about this important gun battle because it took place on Mexican soil but one of his Rangers who was there that night made sure everyone knew they'd taken down one of the most prolific cop-killers in history.
I think it's fitting that the vengeance taken on the scumbag Raphael Lopez was carried out by the deadliest lawman and manhunter in the country. As dangerous as Ralphie was, he was no match for Frank Hamer.
Frank's story will continue on upcoming posts.
Thanks for reading folks, God bless you all!
-jonboy
Texas
PS- Hold on a second! What about the lying, treacherous, dirtbag informant?
The Texas Rangers didn't take kindly to being set up. In an interview by a reporter with the Houston Post in 1945 by the name of Ed Kilman(what a name!) he asked Frank whatever happened to the informant?
"Oh him...Frank says...well, he had an accident the next day, fell off his horse I believe."
"Broke his neck I presume?" asked Kilman.
Frank didn't take the bait, he just said, "Yeah...it killed him." lol.
(no online source. This conversation is printed in the book The Epic Life of Frank Hamer by John Boessenecker).