Frank's First Take Down As A Ranger

Howdy folks and greetings from the Great Plains of North Texas!

We're in a series about one of the top Texas Ranger lawmen 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 Frank had reported to the Texas Ranger camp and was being trained by Captain Rogers.

The training they had back then wasn't like going to the police academy or boot camp, this was more like on the job training with separate firearms instructions if needed.

There was no official school for training set up, you just showed up and went to work, learning as you go.

Today's story

The men were also taught about the legal requirements they had to fulfill: what was needed to make an arrest stick, the different reports and paperwork to file, etc.

In other words, with the infrastructure of towns being built and law enforcement in place there were many laws they had to follow.

Just a few years before it was more like open warfare against Apache, Comanche or Kiowa war parties or Mexican bandits and if you saw them, you just tried to kill them before they killed you!

It made no difference to Frank

Because he loved it all. It didn't matter to him what kind of "Rangerin" it was, he loved it all. He was a Ranger's Ranger. Boring stake outs, going to court, filling out paperwork, all fun to Frank!

First few months were like that...small time arrests, searching for people who were no longer around, week long stakeouts etc, nothing big.

But then an incident happened in Del Rio, Texas in which Frank "earned his spurs" and the respect of the force.

I wrote about that incident which took 6 posts to tell and that starts here in case you're interested in reading that series.

Most of you have read it but for those who haven't I'll give you a nut-shell version because it was very significant to Frank's young career.

The Del Rio incident

There was a serial murderer who had killed 2 local ranchers, he was holed up at the brothel in Del Rio so the Sheriff, 7 deputies and Captain Rogers with 3 of his men went to the brothel to arrest him, his name was Putnam.

The Sheriff got the girls out and they said Putnam was in there but he wasn't going to surrender. So the Sheriff ordered him to come out and waited 30 minutes.

No Putnam. Captain Rogers and his 3 men, including Frank, were covering the rear of the building.

Suicide by cop basically

Well, after 30 minutes, with a crowd growing more agitated because they wanted to go get Putnam themselves, the Sheriff decided to have his men open fire.

Which they did. Meanwhile in back of the house Frank saw a curtain move and then the barrel of a six shooter stick out so he shot his rifle at the six gun.

Turns out that Putnam was crouched down so his face was the same height as his gun and he was shot in the face and died instantly.

Can't be too careful I reckon

The men outside heard a "thud" after Frank fired his shot. They heard nothing else but just to be sure the Sheriff ordered his men to light the place up. Which they did.

They shot so many holes through the walls that the place was destroyed, looked like swiss cheese. Furniture, fixtures, decor, even the stove ...all shot to pieces.

Putnam was found dead with the single shot to the head,(evidently he'd been hiding behind a heavy piece of furniture) and Frank was credited with the kill.

Here's a photo taken by the town photographer after the shooting. Frank is standing on the left side with his trusty Winchester Model '94 Saddle Ring Carbine, Captain Rogers is seated and holding a German Luger pistol which Putnam had on him: