The LAST thing I needed was another
Texas Ranger book. At last count I had around thirty and stacks of
related publications... Then John Boessenecker, hereafter referred to
as “The Boss,” recently published his long awaited epic on Ranger Frank
Hamer, boldly titled TEXAS RANGER. If you thought you knew about Frank Hamer, you don't. I sure
thought I did. I have written a lot about my favorite Texas hero...
he has been the subject of two of my bronze sculptures, and even a
couple of my videos, but anybody can read books and summarize with
colorful jargon.
I am a history buff, Boessenecker is a historian. It
is the difference between my seeing the historic moon walk LIVE on
television, and Neil Armstrong.
I can do decent book reviews when I
choose to... but I cannot even fake objectivity about this. I have
too much personal involvement with the story. All I can do is offer
by deepest thanks to John, who has written a beautiful, worthy book
about a magnificent lawman. After a good cry, yes, even real Texas
men cry, I raced to write this while the lump was still in my throat.
There IS Justice, but sometimes it takes a long time.
This time it took too long. It irks me
a little that it took a danged Californian to do that which some
faithful son of Texas should have done decades ago... But maybe that
is OK, since it helps me to see Californians a little differently. In
truth, Frank Hamer and his story belongs to all of us.
If you have read any of the Boss's
other fine historical books, you know that he is a dogged, objective
researcher. A real history detective. He cuts it straight. This time he reached out of his traditional focus, across the Rio Grande, as he tells,
and it made me nervous all this time waiting and worrying, the true
story, warts and all. Frankly I did not trust anybody from
California to give the legendary, controversial ranger a decent
break. Few others ever have.
But the Boss was fair and thorough, and
what's more, debunked a lot of Hamer myths that we Texans have
treasured for generations. We need to thank him for that. What we
have here is a new, restored, impeccably factual Texas Ranger, and
the good news is Frank Hamer stands as tall as ever. And Bonnie and
Clyde, Ma and Pa Ferguson, Lyndon Johnson, and a cast of rowdy
thousands... not so much. This was the book Ranger Frank Hamer,
“...the greatest American lawman of the twentieth century,”
deserved.
And now, thanks to the Boss, a man from
California, Hamer's amazing story of courage, dutifulness and sacrifice will be
told to all the world.
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