Howdy folks and greetings from the Great Plains of North Texas!
We're in a series about one of the best Texas Rangers 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 we talked about Frank getting promoted and assigned to Austin to head up the regional Prohibition operation and about other important aspects of society in 1921 like fashion and Booze Cruises. lol.
Below is a bunch of partiers in a secret Speakeasy. For the first time women joined men while drinking and that's why the places got wild.
Before Prohibition, men and women drank separately but it was mostly men who drank. Women started drinking like fish during Prohibition. And smoking!
Today's story
Frank excelled at his job in Austin, even though it was a thankless one in many respects. Most notably the fact that Prohibition was a really bad idea that was failing miserably and turned 70% of the citizens into criminals.
Shoot, it's estimated that 80% of Congress drank alcohol! (That's probably a conservative estimate. lol)
But hey, Frank was hired to do a job and it was the law so he did it. The flow of alcohol was overwhelming but his organization sure put a dent in the supply chain.
Here's a Sheriff in Orange County, California having men dumping illegal alcohol down a storm drain. They look thrilled don't they? Probably thinking: "What a waste!"
For instance, in one raid on a farm in central Texas they seized 8 whiskey stills, untold gallons of whiskey, hundreds of gallons of corn mash, large amounts of sugar and corn meal.
Corn whiskey was a bootlegger's favorite because it was super easy to make.
All you needed was corn, a boiler, a gas stove, and a coil of tubing. It was cheap too and the profits were staggering... which made for a loosing proposition as far as getting it stopped.
A very strange thing happened in Texas politics
Nobody thought this was even possible but in 1921 Texas elected a governor who didn't hunt, fish, play cards, smoke or drink! lol... Dang, he probably didn't even shoot guns!
He was very big on law enforcement though and wanted a strong Ranger force. Frank didn't have any political pull so he didn't try to talk to the new Governor.
Oh! I forgot this part. One of the reasons Frank had zero support from any politicians is that he went after government officials and politicians just like he did anyone off the street.
He couldn't be tempted or bribed
Didn't matter how wealthy or connected they were or what office they held. It drove the establishment nuts.
No amount of bribes offered him had any effect. And if they got too mouthy with him he'd use that big bear paw technique and slap them upside the head and off their feet!
But he did have friends with political clout and one of them was his old friend and Ranger Captain, John Rogers.
Captain Rogers(who wasn't a Ranger captain anymore) wrote a powerful letter to the Governor asking him to appoint Frank to a Captain's position in the Texas Rangers.
You can guess what happened next
Yep, the governor appointed Frank to a captaincy with the Rangers. He immediately resigned from the Prohibition office because his first love had always been the Rangers and he couldn't wait to get back to the Rio Grand.
Frank's story continues on the next post.
Thanks for reading folks, God bless you all!
-jonboy
Texas
Here's how I think of Frank...the whole world was embracing the modernization of society with cars and all that, and he just wanted to get back on his horse!
I also love this photo because the town is advertising it's big mosquito festival! lol..who celebrates mosquitos? God don't make no mistakes but I think He came close in making those nasty blood-suckers!
