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.
In the last post Frank had gotten to a town in South Texas called Navasota where he was the newly hired town Marshal.
The town was run by a racist group called The White Man's Union who had a deal with previous marshals that their members could not be arrested.
Well, that turned them into a bunch of arrogant bullies with no fear of the law and certainly no respect for it.
Naturally Frank was getting on their nerves because he wasn't playing by their rules.
Today's story
Shortly after he arrested one of the White Man's Union members he heard that one of the town toughs, some big jackass of a bully, had been crowing about town that Frank was a coward because he wore an extra pistol in his gun belt.
Well, it wasn't long before Frank saw him in the street, at which point Frank walks over to the sidewalk, drops his guns and gun belt down and goes out to confront the loud mouth.
An old fashioned beat down
Witnesses said Frank "Cuffed him from one side of the street to the other." It was a proper, old fashioned beat down with his fists. Today it would be called Police Brutality. There's a couple things about this incident to keep in mind.
First of all, Frank operated by the Cowboy Code of the West. Part of that code was if someone insulted you, he was going to have to pay a price or else you weren't a man. The other point is that Frank was very smart and strategic.
He knew that he HAD to intimidate the tough guys and the ruffians or he'd never gain any respect in town and thus would have no chance of cleaning the place up. The only way to intimidate a bully or tough guy is to take him down.
The Formula
For law enforcement was to have 2 full time officers for every 1,000 citizens. For a town like Navasota with 3,200 people, that meant they should have 4 officers, ideally a Marshal and 4 deputies. But for some reason they didn't have the budget for that.
So Frank knew he had no choice but to be brutally aggressive. His friends said he had really big, developed forearms, presumably from working in his father's blacksmith shop. At 6 ft 2 he had long arms too.
Slap them silly
They said one of his favorite moves to take someone down was to use an open hand and bring a crashing blow to the side of their head.
One of his Ranger friends, Bill Sterling said, "When he boxed a man alongside the head, it reminded me of a grizzly bear cuffing a steer. Hamer's open palm always took the fight out of the hardiest ruffian."
Slapfest!
Lol...this reminds me of that movie called They Call Me Trinity. Anyone seen that one? Man, it's a classic. It's a spoof on the Spaghetti Westerns that Clint Eastwood made in the 60's. It stars Terence Hill.
Anyway this big Mexican bandit comes to steal and harrass a group of Mormons while Terence Hill and his brother, played by Bud Spencer, are there.
The Mexican likes to entertain himself by slapping men upside the head. Until he tries it with Bud. Here's the scene:
The whole movie is ridiculous fun but I imagine the effect of Frank slapping someone upside the head is similar!
Frank's story continues on the next post.
Thanks for reading folks, God bless you all!
-jonboy
Texas
PS- Here's a couple of gravity-defying sculptures for your enjoymnent:
I think these are cool so I'll be showing some more.
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Howdy esteemapp! Thanks so much for the great platform and upvote!
Cool sculptures! That gravity defying one makes you look twice.
It sounds like Frank was just what that town needed!
I agree about those crazy sculptures, I'm looking for more of those.
And that town sure does need Frank, most of them just don't know it!
Cuffed him upside the head! The Hamer! It's The Hamer!
lol! and it was his favorite technique so he used it alot. lol.
Lol! and it was his
Favorite technique so he
Used it alot. lol.
- janton
I'm a bot. I detect haiku.
Oh my gosh! I remember Terence Hill and Bud Spencer!!! They were sooooo popular when I was a kid, lol I loved their movies!!! Our whole family was dying laughing and now Ia m laughing too, lol.
I agree Frank had to do be rough with those jerks! It was unfortunate that he was there by himself! Nevertheless, if anyone could handle that, it was him. He definitely knew how to deal with such a situation. God bless him.
Very cool sculptures by the way. It blows my mind how they made it balanced like that.
Howdy again Miss Lena! oh that is so cool that you are a fan of those crazy Westerns! lol..they were so entertaining and hilarious.They made alot more that I haven't seen yet, I just looked them up, looks like they kept making Westerns.
Yeah, Frank was the only guy who could handle the situation he found himself in.
I have to look them up too. And yes, Frank was the MAN!!!
I was shocked that there were so many Terence Hill Westerns and also Bud Spencer westerns, I'll have to see if Netflix has them.
Oh yeah, I have to check too!
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Howdy steem-plus! Thanks so much for the upvote!
Hahaha, that is a funny scene. So janton, do you think that your like-minded older friends saw the movies in the 60's? ---I did, lol.
I know Terence Hill, but who is the actor who did the bear slapping? I have seen him movies long ago.
Howdy today angiemitchell! yeah I think most of my readers have seen those silly old Westerns, YOU even saw them in Australia! That pretty interesting.
I don't know who you mean when you ask about the actor that did the bear slapping. Another Texas Ranger said that he was reminded of a Grizzly slapping a cow when he saw Frank slap a ruffian upside the head.
There probably was an actor who did that too but I don't know who that would be.
Well, he was one big bear of a dude who could bear slap, lol.
Fearless Frankie. Law of one. I am surprised the bullies didn't try to ambush him and take him down. I guess they are just bullies and rowdy citizens, and not outlaws.
I think that's correct sir Vincent. Besides, most of the people knew who he was because he had spent quite a bit of time there as a Texas Ranger helping the Sheriff. So they knew if they caused too much trouble a group of Rangers would come back into town to help out and it would be even worse for them.
Mornin’ Cowboy! Frank certainly knew people and how to handle himself. He was a godsend to that town.
I think he stopped their racist actions cold, he really did.
Those are cowbow rocks, they have inner mustaches!
lol! A new term that I just learned, "inner mustaches!" lol.
Nice to read another Janton story. Sounds like Frank is going to be a fun character for you to learn.
Question. If the rule was 2 officers per 1,000 citizens and there’s 3,200 citizens, shouldn’t there be 6 police officers, not four? I’m just sayin I don’t know if I’d trust that unit to do my taxes.
lol. you are so right sir dandays, I messed that up! The question is, why didn't anyone else point out my mistake? Most people tell me they barely skim posts anymore, that's why I'm trying to limit mine to about 500 words when I used to limit them to 800-1,000.
But anyway, thank you and I'll talk about that point in a coming post and correct that.
One cool and calm officer is enough Sir @janton.
Frankie boy is certainly going about things the right way to target the main bullies.
Blessings!
Yeah it's amazing and I don't think he had any fears at all, he was just going to do what he had to do.
This is a superb read. I have learnt the very cop that brought down Bonnie and Clyde. Thank you sir @jantan. How have you been thus far?
Howdy sir princewill! Thanks for the kind words. Oh, you asked about how to make a "source" link in another comment. It is very easy. you just type it like this:
[source] (anyurl.com) except don't leave a space between source and the (anyurl.com).
Also, when you want to refer to another post, like I usually list the link to the previous post, you just type it like this: [in the last post] (https://steemit.com/history/@janton/frank-s-unlikely-but-remarkable-friendship-with-a-young-black-kid) but again you don't leave a space between the bracketed text and the (url) so it looks like this: in the last post
Hope this helps. I'm doing great, how is it going there with you?
It is sir @janton. Thank you for taking out the time lend a helping hand. I am most grateful. Hope your day has been great thus far? Say me hi to everyone
I don't know what the time difference from Nigeria is sir princewill but it is afternoon now and things are going very well but it's still hot and I'm anxious for the cooler weather to get here. What is the weather like there? Do you have the 4 seasons?
Hi sir @janton. For the most part Nigeria is 5+ hours ahead of most US States. We operate a three season year namely: Hammathan season (classically from September through January). Its more like winter. Its Characterized by very dry or crisp air, lower temperatures (16 - 12 degree Celsius for a tropical region!), drying out of green vegetations. Hence, its a very combustible season. Spring or rainy season. Where I live,records show that it rains for over 290 days of the year. This season starts from January (in my region) to sometimes around December 25th. Thus annulling most of the Hammathan season and its way lesser the remain part of the country. The last but not the least is a very transient season called dry season (not to be mistaken with Hammathan season) which for coastal regions starts around February to late March but its longer for the rest of the country. Thermodynamically, the rainy season has similar parameters like those of summer in temperate climates like yours. Thanks for asking
Howdy sir princewill! That is very interesting, is 12 degrees about the coldest that it gets in Hammathan season?
I want to ask a few questions but I'm not doing so for I envisage that they are kind of sensitive. Do enjoy the rest of the day
What kind of questions? are you on discord?
No. But I use Telegram
Ok, I'm not on telegram but I assume that sooner or later you will get on discord if you stay with Steemit.
Hi sir @janton. Its been a long while. I will be using less if this platform until I get another device. Here is my WhatsApp contact +2348151037916. Please say me hi to everyone.
hahahaha! Video is funny!
haha! Howdy owasco! Did you ever seen any of those silly Westerns that those guys made? I thought they were hilarious.
Are you posting in weku yet? you can contact smithlabs over there if you feel like it, he's my closest ally here and the one who keeps telling me to come join him. lol. He said to give him a holler.
He's a freedom fighter like mepatriot. He's also incredibly brilliant and can help on technical problems, any type of repair issue, he's an herbalist so on many health issues and on and on, just amazing.
Trinity..... Wow... That is one I need to go back and watch again. Been a long time.
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Well, it appears that under-staffing is nothing new. I wonder what kind of industry the town hada, that they couldn't afford an adequate police force. I'm guessing "slapping" wasn't the main sourse of revenue... lol
lol..I'm not sure sir fotosdenada, now they are a big cattle raising area. Their problem was that all the money was held by the racists who didn't want law and order.