The Real Story Behind Netflix’s ‘The Highwaymen’
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To Track Bonnie Parker And Clyde Barrow, Frank Hamer Tried To Get Inside Their Heads
Frank Hamer began pursuing Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow in early 1934. By then, the pair had racked up multiple charges and escaped police ambushes more than once. Hamer's first step was to get inside Barrow's mind to understand his behavior. As Hamer explained, "An officer must know the habits of the outlaw, how he thinks and how he will act in different situations. When I began to understand Clyde Barrow's mind, I felt that I was making progress."
Hamer researched Barrow's travels through the South, contacting FBI agents and local law enforcement to learn more. He tracked each of the members of the Barrow group until the father of Henry Methvin agreed to help stop the spree.
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- Library of Congress
- Wikimedia Commons
- Public Domain
Bonnie Parker And Clyde Barrow Were On The Run For Two Years
Frank Hamer and Maney Gault weren't the first to hunt Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. By 1934, when the Texas Rangers started tracking them, the pair had been at large for two years. They crossed the Midwest and South without being captured.
In early 1934, Barrow and Parker orchestrated an escape at Eastham Prison, freeing five convicts and taking the life of a guard. Barrow had a personal vendetta against Eastham Prison. He was sentenced to 14 years there in 1930 and quickly became desperate to escape. He asked another prisoner to take an axe to his toes, hoping it might lead to a transfer. Barrow lost two toes and eventually earned early parole.
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Frank Hamer Wanted To Work Alone, But He Brought Along Help Anyway
By 1934, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow had taken down several lawmen. When Frank Hamer joined the hunt, he preferred working solo. But the case was too big for Hamer alone, and he was desperate for help. As a result, he brought on multiple law enforcement agents to help, including Maney Gault.
Gault had once worked in a furniture manufacturing plant. He'd also lived next door to Hamer in the 1920s. The pair investigated underground moonshiners together, and Gault joined the Texas Rangers in 1929.
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Frank Hamer And The Texas Rangers Didn't Have Clean Reputations
Frank Hamer didn't have a hero's record - and neither did the Texas Rangers. In 1919, the Texas Legislature investigated the Rangers. The lawmen were accused of harming prisoners, orchestrating slayings, and taking the lives of unarmed people. A committee found the Rangers guilty of misconduct.
Around the same time, Hamer was accused of using unnecessary interrogation tactics and crossing professional boundaries. In 1915, Hamer posed with four deceased men, treating them like trophies. The photograph was circulated as a postcard.
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The Hunt Started With A Car Theft
Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow's spree started with a relatively minor offense: car theft. The FBI started tracking the pair in 1932 after discovering a Ford automobile they'd taken. Clues in the car, including a prescription bottle, led agents to Barrow.
The first warrant against Parker and Barrow, issued on May 20, 1933, accused them of driving the automobile across state lines. The series of robberies and slayings that made the duo famous actually started after they were under investigation for the theft.
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Frank Hamer Complained About How Much He Was Paid To Catch Bonnie And Clyde
Frank Hamer wasn't eager to join the manhunt for Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. In part, the former Texas Ranger complained about his pay. The state offered him $180 a month, which was half what he'd made prior to his retirement. Lee Simmons also promised Hamer could keep whatever he wanted from the pair's possessions.
The promise of bounty money helped sweeten the deal: around $26,000 in bounties had been placed on Parker and Barrow's heads. After the ambush that finished the couple, however, most of the people who placed bounties refused to pay. Hamer and Gault's group ended up receiving $200 for ending the spree.
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Frank Hamer And Maney Gault Bonded Over Bluegrass
Frank Hamer and Maney Gault were friends and neighbors long before they took down Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. The pair lived next door to each other in Austin, TX, in the 1920s. Even before Gault joined the Texas Rangers, at Hamer's suggestion, the two played cards and dominoes together. They also enjoyed playing bluegrass music. Gault played the guitar and Hamer the fiddle.
When Hamer joined the hunt, he reached out to Gault for help. The two became Texas Highway Patrol officers while tracking Barrow and Parker. After the successful ambush, Gault became a sergeant in Austin.
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When Texas Elected A Female Governor, Frank Hamer Quit
Frank Hamer retired from the Texas Rangers before Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow began their spree. Speaking to The New York Times, Hamer explained, "When they elected a woman governor, I quit." And when Texas Governor Miriam "Ma" Ferguson asked Hamer to track down the criminals in 1934, Hamer initially refused.
Ferguson was a force in Texas politics. A former Texas first lady, Ferguson watched her husband get impeached in 1917. In 1924, Ferguson decided to run herself and won. From 1924 to 1935, she served two terms as governor of Texas.
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Frank Hamer Compared Everyone To Animals
Frank Hamer had a theory that outlaws were like animals. "The criminal is a coyote, always taking a look over his shoulder," he said. Political schemers were "crawfish about three days from water." When they tried to hide, they looked like "a sandhill crane walking up a river-bed."
Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were "cold-blooded rattlesnake[s] with a chill," according to Hamer. The Texas Ranger even applied the animal analogy to himself, dubbing himself an antelope, "the most curious of all animals."
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Bonnie Parker And Clyde Barrow Were Nearly Caught Multiple Times
Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were nearly captured several times in the months before Frank Hamer joined the manhunt. On April 13, 1933, police cornered the couple in their Joplin, MO, apartment. Barrow and Parker took a police officer's life before escaping. When police entered the apartment, they found the iconic photos of the pair posing with paraphernalia.
In July 1933, police again cornered the couple at the Red Crown Tavern in Missouri. Another shootout ensued, followed by a third a week later at Dexfield Park, where both Parker and Barrow were hit. The group had to swim across a river to escape.
In November 1933, Texas sheriffs set a trap for Parker and Barrow, blocking off a highway and firing at the pair. They escaped by taking an attorney and his car.
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Frank Hamer Wanted To Take Bonnie Parker And Clyde Barrow Alive
Frank Hamer spent months setting up the ambush to capture Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. His team targeted the house of Barrow's associate, Henry Methvin, knowing Barrow and Parker were in the area. Hamer planned the ambush on Highway 154, asking Methvin's father to pull his truck over on the side of the road and feign changing a tire. Hamer, having studied the pair, believed they would stop to see if the elder Methvin needed help.
At 9:15 am on May 23, 1934, Barrow drove into the ambush in a Ford V-8. Hamer wanted to capture the pair alive, but one of the deputies opened fire, leading to a massive shootout. In the end, the lawmen fired over 150 times at the car.
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Law Enforcement Took No Chances With The Pair
After tracking Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, six lawmen set up an ambush in Louisiana. For an interview in the Dallas Dispatch, two of the men described the moment the pair appeared: "There must have been a signal given, but who it came from is another thing. We just all acted together... We all yelled ‘Halt!’ at once. They didn't halt."
Instead, Barrow reportedly grabbed for the piece in his lap and "all hell broke loose... It was just a roar, a continuous roar, and it kept up for several minutes..."
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Hamer Felt No Guilt About How Things Ended
During the final ambush, the police fired 167 times into Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow's car. The pair perished almost instantly. Even after the event, though, Maney Gault worried the pair might be pretending. He covered Hamer, reportedly yelling, “Careful, Cap, they might be possum’n!”
Frank Hamer felt no guilt over the incident. He explained:
I would have gotten sick, but when I thought about [Bonnie's offenses], I didn’t. I hated to [hurt] a woman - but I remembered the way in which Bonnie had taken part in the [slaying] of nine peace officers. I remembered how she kicked [a] highway patrolman at Grapevine and fired into his body as he lay on the ground.
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Frank Hamer Kept Bonnie Parker And Clyde Barrow's Paraphernalia
Inside Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow's car, Frank Hamer and Maney Gault found a cache of illicit tools. Hamer later described it as "an arsenal on wheels" - the pair was also packing 5,000 rounds of ammunition.
After the ambush, Hamer kept the paraphernalia and a box of fishing gear from the car.
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The Manhunt Made Frank Hamer And Maney Gault Famous
After catching Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, Frank Hamer and Maney Gault became famous. The front page of Austin's newspaper declared "Hamer-Gault Hero Day Is Set." On May 28, 1934, the city threw a party for the Texas Rangers. But the pair resisted fame, with Hamer declining to attend his own day. The two remained tight-lipped about their experience, with Hamer even turning down a $10,000 offer for a biographical book and offers for movies.
Hamer and Gault remained close until Gault's passing in 1947. Hamer declared Gault "a 23-karat fellow. He was as loyal a man as there ever could be. Never a better man or truer friend than Maney Gault."
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There's A Lot More To Read And See If You're Interested In 'The Highwaymen'
The following resources are available if you're interested in learning more about Frank Hamer and Maney Gault's manhunt or the history of Bonnie and Clyde.
More on Ranker:
Books:
- Jeff Guin's Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde
- John Boessenecker's Texas Ranger: The Epic Life of Frank Hamer, the Man Who Killed Bonnie and Clyde
- Gene Shelton's Manhunter: A Novel Based on the Life and Times of Frank Hamer, Texas Ranger
- John H. Jenkins and H. Gordon Frost's I'm Frank Hamer: The Life of a Texas Peace Officer
- Blanche Caldwell Barrow's My Life with Bonnie and Clyde
Film and Television: