Frankie Recovers And Becomes A Cowboy In Pecos County

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

We're in a series about one of the top Texas Rangers to ever wear the badge, the great Frank Hamer, who was brought out of retirement to take down Bonnie and Clyde.

In the last post Frankie was recovering at home and being nursed back to health by his mom.

Today's story

The family thought if McSween tried to kill Frankie once, he might try it again so they sent him and Harrison out West. For some reason McSween was never arrested for the shooting.

I think it was because there was no local Sheriff there at the time. I'm surprised they didn't go over to McSween's and kill him for trying to murder a 16 year old boy. But they didn't.

Frankie's dad knew a big rancher in Pecos County so it was arranged to have Frankie and Harrison go to work for him out there as soon as Frankie healed up enough. So that's what happened.

This is the Pecos River:

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And here's the location of Pecos County:

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But what's interesting is who the big rancher was. His name was Green Berry Ketchum. Has anyone ever heard of someone being named Green before? With a middle name of Berry? lol.

Well, anyway...if the name Ketchum sounds familiar it's because Green's brother was the notorious Wild West outlaw Black Jack Ketchum!

Here's Black Jack. He looks more like a banker:

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So in order to keep Frankie safe he was staying with the brother of one of the most infamous robbers in the West. Not only that but his other brothers were also criminals.

I just thought that was interesting and you know that Frankie heard alot of stories about the Ketchum's and their robbery jobs.

Side note

Black Jack Ketchum was well known for holding up trains, banks, stage coaches and killing people. He was finally caught and hanged in 1901 but that made him even more famous because of the botched hanging job.

Yeah, the officials where he was hanged, Clayton, New Mexico, had never hung anyone before. They tested the scaffold and hung a 200 pound bag of sand the night before but they made two mistakes.

First off they left the bag attached to the rope all night and that made the rope super stiff, like wire. Then they had the length of the drop set at 7 feet...too long for someone of Black Jack's size.

Here they are putting the noose on Black Jack:

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So when the hanging took place the rigid rope and the long length caused it to sever Black Jack's head clean off.

They said his head stayed in the black hood which was over his head and his body landed on his feet and stood there for awhile before collapsing.

Hey, they wanted to set an example for train robbers in the territory so in that way they succeeded. This became the most infamous hanging in the West.

By the way, Black Jack's last words were.."I’ll be in hell before you start breakfast, boys! Let her rip!"

Frankie's unorthodox education continues

Frankie's time in Pecos County was a tremendous learning experience. First of all, he heard all kinds of stories from Ketchum family members about how robbers pulled off their heists, how they thought and planned things.

This was inside knowledge that few people would ever hear.

Secondly, the ranch was huge...45,000 acres.. and he learned all about the vast territory of Pecos County riding those cattle herds. This would become priceless knowledge later in his career.