Highwaymen, the movie

[mcmurry]

I am reading the Epic Life of Frank Hamer book by John Boessenecker, and it says that in the 1920s one of the adjutant generals at the time (head honcho of the Rangers) had complaints from many citizens in cities that the Rangers were too scary in their cowboy outfits including sixguns and Winchesters in town. So he made a policy that Rangers in town would not wear boots, spurs, holsters or large hats. Frank started wearing suits and narrow brimmed hats and stuck Old Lucky in his pants behind his coat.

The book is very good history of Hamer from childhood onward and seems well researched and balanced, no hype or taking reports at face value, but comparing to past actions and choices, previous reports and many interviews with other Rangers and friends and family. I'm only up to about 1926 so don't know what it says yet about the B&C investigation.

Keep reading! Very good book. It does say that at first, Hamer did not wont to kill Bonnie if possible,,because she was spreading the rumor that she was pregnant. It also mentions the fact that Hamer's wife sued the maker of the big screen movie "Bonnie & Clyde" because of how it portrayed Hamer, claiming that his pursuit of B&C were because they made a fool out of him, when actually that incident never happened. The book also states that Hamer hated Thompson's, believing that a spray and pray gun wrecked accuracy. But he often used the presence of several Thompson's help crowd control when the Rangers had to guard court houses during trials for murder when the citizens were riled up and wanted a lynching.

 

[NWPilgrim]

Watched it tonight, good flick. Lots of cool guns. It was interesting tactically; not sure how accurate it was- probably pretty accurate- that the gang conducted their murders from ambush, and pretty skillfully. No talking, just come out shooting. I wonder if Hamer and the crew actually did come out guns ready to offer them a chance to surrender or just bushwhack them?

In the book I read it said Lee Simmons advised them to shoot first and take no risks. Even so, Hamer had told his team to wait for his signal because he was struggling with whether to give them a chance to surrender or not and wanted to judge the situation himself. But the youngest deputy got nervous as the car pulled up and let off a shot that started the show.

 

[tark]

Alot of people talking about the detail the armorers paid to the gun selection and no one is saying anything about the scene with the dead officer trying to get shells out of his pocket, look closely they are paper hulled shells... Now that is freaking detail specific of the era.

Post #81

 

[The Evangelist Cowboy]

Post #81

Well look at that.