Who Did The Texas Rangers Used To Be?

Preserving Law and Order

In the 1890's, Rangers preserved law and order in Big Bend mining towns, tracked down train robbers and even were chosen on to prevent an illegal prize fight from taking place on Texas soil. The promoters of the storied Fitzsimmons-Maher bout finally had to settle for staging the boxing match on an island in the Rio Grande.

In 1894-95, the Rangers scouted 173,381 miles; made 676 arrests; returned 2,856 head of stolen livestock to the owners, assisted civil regime 162 times and guarded jails on 13 occasions.

Unidentified Texas Rangers on Patrol

In 1900, the Frontier Battalion faded forth with the borderland; only by July of 1901, the Legislature passed a new police concerning the Ranger service. The force, to exist organized by the governor, was created "for the purpose of protecting the frontier against marauding or thieving parties, and for the suppression of lawlessness and crime throughout the country." Ranger captains picked their own men, who had to replenish their own horses and could wearing apparel as they choose. They did not even have a standard bluecoat.

1 Anarchism, 1 Ranger

The police authorized for Ranger companies of a maximum of xx men each. The career of Company B. Capt. West. J. McDonald, and a book written nigh him, added much to the Ranger fable, including 2 of its most famous sayings.

Capt. Bill McDonald

The ofttimes cited "One Riot, One Ranger" appears to be based on several statements attributed to Capt. McDonald past Albert Bigelow Paine in his book, Captain Bill McDonald: Texas Ranger. When sent to Dallas to forestall a scheduled prizefight, McDonald was greeted at the train station by the city's broken-hearted mayor, who asked: "Where are the others?" To which McDonald supposedly replied, "Hell! ain't I enough? There'south only 1 prize-fight!"

Since the days of the Mexican State of war, Rangers had had occasional work to practice along the long, meandering Rio Grande, but the emphasis on the river increased in 1910 with the outbreak of revolution in Mexico. More often than not easy to ford, the Rio Grande had never been much more than a symbolic boundary. Some of the violence associated with the political upheaval in Mexico crossed the river into Texas.

And on the title page of Paine'due south 1909 volume on McDonald are 19 words labeled every bit Capt. McDonald'southward creed: "No man in the wrong tin can stand upward against a beau that's in the right and keeps on a-comin'." Those words have evolved into the Ranger creed.

Bandit Raids

Panic spread in 1915 when government in McAllen, Texas, arrest Basilio Ramos, Jr. Ramos was carrying a copy of the Programme of San Diego, a revolutionary manifesto supposedly written and signed at the Due south Texas boondocks of San Diego. It chosen for the formation of a "Liberating Regular army of Races and Peoples," of Mexican Americans, African Americans, and Japanese, to "free" the states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, and Colorado from United states of america. Versions of the plan call for the murder of all white citizens over xvi years of historic period. The goal was an independent commonwealth, which might after seek annexation to Mexico.

Raids from both side the the border rapidly escalated into guerilla warfare. Francisco (Pancho) Villa'due south raid on Columbus, New Mexico, in March 1916, causes more than panic and the United States responds past sending a large armed services force under Gen. John J. Pershing in pursuit of Villa.

Texas responded, equally it had then many times in its history, by raising Ranger companies. At the time the Texas Ranger Force was very small, and incapable of maintaining police and order along the border. The Texas Legislature by authorizing mass inductions and the "overnight" creation of new Ranger companies.

Hispanic, besides equally Anglo, Texans served in these units. The Ranger force grew to its largest level, but the lack of training and controls were evident. Some of the new companies upheld the police force while others functioned as vigilante groups incensed by raids from Mexico.

These Rangers were were given orders and wide powers to keep the hostilities in Mexico from washing across the river into Texas. Gov. O.B. Colquitt wrote Ranger Capt. John R. Hughes: " I instruct yous and your men to go on them (Mexican raiders) off of Texas territory if possible, and if they invade the State let them understand they practice and so at the chance of their lives."

The vigilante nature, and poor command structure on the new Ranger units led to incidents unacceptable to "regular" Rangers. Serious crimes were committed that led to the 1919 Canales Investigation. After i retaliatory Ranger raid into Mexico, an entire company was dismissed. In i battle in 1917, as many as xx Mexicans may have been killed by Rangers who crossed into Mexico.

The 35th legislature also created a "Loyalty Ranger Force" under the "Hobby Loyalty Human activity" to serve equally a secret service for the Country. Loyalty Rangers were to brief the Adjutant General on Mexican revolutionary activities outside of San Antonio and in the edge counties in Mexico and Texas.

In response to Pershing'south US troops on Mexican soil, President Carranza demanded the withdrawal of U.s.a. forces, which was summarily rejected. Every bit a effect, Mexican raiding intensified and an assault against Laredo was considered with a combined force of "San Diego raiders" and regular Mexican Army soldiers. A country of war was narrowly averted when U.s. and Mexican officials agreed to a peaceful settlement.

The delicate peace was threatened once more in 1917 when a Globe War I telegram sent to Mexico by the German Secretary of State Zimmerman became public ". . . nosotros propose an alliance on the following basis with Mexico: That we shall brand state of war together and together brand peace. We shall give full general financial support, and it is understood that Mexico is to reconquer the lost territory in New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona. The details are left to y'all for settlement...." Nothing materialized, merely information technology served to farther alert the public.

Mexican raids into Texas in 1915-16 caused an estimated 21 American deaths; an estimated 300 Mexicans or Tejanos may accept been killed in S Texas by the actions of Rangers, vigilantes and citizens. Some sources place the death toll as high every bit 300 and iii,000.

In January of 1919 Representative José T. Canales of Brownsville demanded a legislative investigation of the carry of the various Ranger forces during the period 1915-1917 and the reorganization of the forcefulness. The Texas Legislature investigated nineteen charges made against the Texas Ranger forces in the aftermath of the Plan of San Diego and the War.

The investigation resulted in the reduction of the Ranger force to four companies of 17 men each. A tightening of qualifications for the Texas Ranger service led to its initial professionalization.

Bootleggers and Spies

In 1918, the national prohibition police was passed. It gave the Rangers, along with federal officers, another problem to cope with on the border. Many a burro train of homemade liquor from Mexico was intercepted, and shoot-outs betwixt Rangers and smugglers were not exceptional.

Ranger and Destroyed Stills on Prohibition Raids

During the first World State of war, the already large regular Ranger strength was supplemented with another 400 Special Rangers appointed past the governor. Later the war, on the heels of a Legislative enquiry into the Rangers' operation on the edge, the Legislature in 1919 reduced the size of the strength to four companies of 15 men, a sergeant and a captain. Additionally, the lawmakers authorized a headquarters company of six men in Austin under a senior Ranger helm.

Texas was in a state of transition, and and so were the Rangers. Rangers still rode the river on horseback, just they also used cars. The automobile was taking over as the main mode of transportation in Texas and the residuum of the state. And horseless carriages needed oil, non oats. The increased national need for petroleum fueled a new police enforcement trouble for the Rangers.

In addition to their traditional duties, along with assisting in tick eradication efforts, handling labor difficulties and the enforcement of prohibition, the Rangers had to deal with lawlessness that came with the oil blast in Texas. 1 of the offset places that happened was in a community that years before had been named in their laurels.

The Oil Boom in Texas

The small-scale Eastland County boondocks of Ranger, so named because it had been settled near the site of an old borderland Ranger camp, boomed with the discovery of oil in the expanse. Past 1920, Ranger had a population 16,000, and a substantial number of those residents were not particularly interested in abiding by the law. Texas Rangers who were sent to Ranger, Texas raided gaming halls, smashed drinking establishments, and corralled a broad assortment of miscreants and felons. When Rangers filled the jails, prisoners sometimes had to exist handcuffed to telephone poles.

The same story would be repeated throughout the '20s and '30s. Only the names of the towns changed. From Borger to Mexia, Rangers preserved what peace and dignity they could in the wild oil field boomtowns.

With the advent of the automobile the Rangers had greater mobility, but then did the outlaws. Robbers could hit a pocket-sized boondocks banking concern and quickly make their getaway. Rangers were given railroad passes, just had to provide their own cars.

Ranger in the Oil Fields

Frank Hamer

Captain Frank Hamer on Horseback

Helm Frank Hamer on Horseback

Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum
One of the all-time known Rangers who made the transition from equus caballus to car was Frank H. Hamer. He first joined the Rangers in 1906. Hamer left the strength occasionally to take other police force enforcement jobs, merely by 1921, he was captain of Ranger Co. C, stationed in Del Rio. At the get-go of 1922, he was transferred to Austin, where he would spend the next decade as a Ranger captain.

One of the major problems facing the Rangers during Hamer'south tenure as Senior Ranger Captain was bank robbery. The state of affairs got so bad, the Texas Bankers Association offered a standing $v,000 reward for bank robbers. There was one catch--the coin would be paid for expressionless robbers only.

As the Low took hold in Texas, unscrupulous types began setting up phony holdups, hiring men to rob a banking concern and and so killing them in the human action so the reward money could be collected. This was a situation the Rangers could not solve with force. Instead, Hamer went to the printing, exposing what was happening. Hamer'southward move paid off--the banking association's reward policy was inverse.

As Senior Ranger Captain, Hamer reported to the state'due south adjutant general, a man appointed past the governor. A governor besides could appoint Rangers, or influence a selection. Equally governors changed, Ranger leadership usually changed. Though history shows many good men wore the Ranger badge in the 1920s and 1930s, the system was rife with politics and ripe for abuse.

When Gov. Miriam "Ma" Ferguson took part in 1933, Aide General W.Westward. Sterling resigned his office. Twoscore Rangers, including Capt. Hamer, left with him.

Abaft Bonnie and Clyde

Merely Hamer was not abroad from police force enforcement for long. In February 1934, Lee Simmons, superintendent of the Texas prison organization, asked Hamer if he would runway down the notorious criminal couple Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker. Hamer agreed and was given a commission every bit a Texas highway patrolman.

Since 1927, when a force had been created to patrol the expanding Texas roadways, the state in consequence had two law agencies. The immature Highway Patrol operated every bit part of the Highway Department.

Hamer trailed Bonnie and Clyde for 102 days. Finally, Hamer and other officers, including former Ranger Manny Gault, caught upward with the dangerous duo in Bienville Parish, Louisiana. The officers had hoped to accept the outlaws alive, merely when the pair reached for their weapons, Hamer and the others opened burn down. The career of Bonnie and Clyde was over.

For a time, information technology looked like the Texas Rangers were not going to terminal much longer than Bonnie and Clyde. Under Gov. Ferguson, Ranger commissions were like shooting fish in a barrel to come by, and not all those handed a silver star were men whose grapheme was worthy of the honor. Additionally, Ferguson appointed some 2,300 Special Rangers. A few of those were even ex-convicts.

The Texas Department of Public Rubber

The problem did non go unrecognized. The Texas Senate, on Sept. 25, 1934, formed a commission to investigate crime and police force enforcement in the country. The committee produced a study in early 1935 that was singularly critical of Texas police force enforcement. However, the document besides proposed a solution: the creation of a state law enforcement agency to be known every bit the Department of Public Safe.

Texas Highway Patrol Training Class, 1949

A neb was introduced that would create such an agency, which would operate under a three-member Public Safety Commission. The Texas Rangers would be transferred from the Aide General'southward Department and Highway Patrol would be moved from the Highway Department to class a single land police force. Some modifications in the law were fabricated past a joint House-Senate conference committee, only on Aug. 10, 1935, it became effective.

Nether the new DPS, the Ranger force would consist of 36 men. Though smaller than it had been in years, the Texas Rangers would finally have the benefits of a land-of-the-art crime laboratory, improved communications, and, most importantly, political stability. With the creation of the DPS, the Rangers would accept professionalism to match their tradition.

Tom Hickman, a veteran Ranger, was named senior captain of the Rangers. The force was organized into five companies, each headed past a captain.

Inside a year of their incorporation into the DPS, the Texas Rangers got national publicity with the opening of the Texas Centennial Exposition in 1936 at the State Fairgrounds in Dallas. The headquarters for Co. B was prepare up in a peculiarly-congenital log building on the fairgrounds. Texas Rangers were seen in news reel footage in movie houses around the nation.

Modernization

Depression-era DPS appropriations were lean, but as the decade of the 1930s concluded, the Texas Rangers were on their way toward modernization. Fingerprint and modus operandi files were available for Ranger employ at the Department's Military camp Mabry headquarters in Austin, and Ranger vehicles were equipped with police radio receivers, though 2-way radio would non be available to Rangers until the 1940s. Former Ranger Manuel T. (Lone Wolf) Gonzaullas headed the Department's Agency of Intelligence, which gave Rangers the benefit of chemic, ballistic and microscopic testing in their criminal investigations. In their early years as part of the DPS, Rangers were paid automobile mileage and furnished a Colt .45 and a lever-action Winchester .30 caliber rifle by the land. Rangers still had to provide their ain car, horse, and saddle, though the DPS issued equus caballus trailers.

Rangers and Early Radio Equipment

Rangers and DPS Horse Trailer

Rangers and DPS Equus caballus Trailer

For the get-go fourth dimension, Rangers had the benefits of in-service training. They also had to write weekly activeness reports. The Texas Rangers were part of another agency but their duties essentially were the same as they had been for years. Rangers were called upon to enforce the land's laws, with particular accent on felony crimes, gambling and narcotics. Rangers also were used in riot suppression and in locating fugitives.

Globe War Ii

During World War 2, Rangers provided vigilant internal security in Texas. Ranger duties varied from showing air raid alarm grooming films to tracking down escaped High german POWs later on in the war. When U.S. Army Rangers landed in France, the German press thought those commandos were Texas Rangers. This apparently caused considerable anxiety amidst the German people. The Reich's minister of propaganda eventually had to analyze matters.

By 1945, the authorized force of the Texas Rangers had been increased to 45 men. Two years later, the forcefulness was increased again, to 51 men. Texas was growing in the post-war economy and then was the parent agency of the Rangers. In 1949, the Legislature authorized construction of a new headquarters building in Due north Austin. The aforementioned yr, the DPS bought its kickoff airplane. A Ranger became the Section'southward first airplane pilot-investigator.

In their first year nether the DPS, the Rangers took role in an estimated 255 cases; 2 decades later, in 1955, the Rangers were involved in 16,701 cases.

Keeping the Peace

The 1950s through the '70s were a turbulent time involving prison riots, Civil Rights and labor movements and desegregation.

Afterwards questionable utilize of Texas Rangers in some incidents, changes were made further defining their mission and restricting Land and local authorities from using the Texas Rangers to aid or resist political agendas.

In 1955, inmates in the Rusk State Hospital for the Criminally Insane rioted and took hostages. The National Guard was brought in and Ranger Capt. R. A. "Bob" Crowder, to prevent violence, and the leader of the mob negotiated and the inmates surrendered.

Texas Rangers at DPS Headquarters, 1938

In 1956 Governor Governor Allan Shivers, chose to passively resist federal desegregation of ii schools in Texas post-obit a commune court lodge to implement the Supreme Courtroom decision Brown v. Board of Education.He dispatched a Texas Ranger to Mansfield and two to Texarkana with instructions to keep the peace, but not assistance African American students in registering for schoolhouse. The federal government chose non to intervene and registration was unsuccessful.

In 1957 Texas Rangers and Troopers were sent to arbitrate in a violent steel mill strike in East Texas. Assaults, ambushes, murder, exchanges of gunfire, and a bombing were common between spousal relationship and non-union elements.

In 1966 the Texas Rangers were sent to Starr Canton in South Texas. Texas farmers and ranchers, the local Sheriff and Justice of the Peace chosen for their assistance to interfere with a United Farm Worker organizing try and strikes. Intimidation and illegal incarceration was common. Court actions found violations of civil rights and appeals went to the Supreme Court.

In 1974 the Texas Rangers and FBI were sent to arbitrate in an eleven twenty-four hour period prison riot in Huntsville. Hostages were taken, two were killed, but the rest were saved.

Following these events, State and local governments were restricted from requesting or using Texas Rangers every bit strikebreakers, in civil protests or demonstrations and in prison house riots. Their mission has increasingly investigative, special response aand oversight, Border security, and crisis response.

Today'due south Rangers

Decades afterward, the Texas Rangers are withal investigating cattle thefts and major felony crimes. However, early on Texas Rangers could not imagine the level of technical expertise and avant-garde grooming by today's rangers.

The Ranger force is comprised of approximately 170 commissioned Rangers distributed in vii companies ("A" through "F" and a headquarters detachment in Austin). "Field Rangers" are supervised past a Master, Assistant Chief, company majors and lieutenants.

Special functions are at present carried out by highly trained Rangers and Texas DPS personnel and include:

Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT),a highly trained team headquartered in Austin, whose primary mission is responding statewide to critical incidents of a loftier risk nature; such as hostage situations, barricaded subjects, active shooter incidents and high risk warrant service.

The Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit (EOD) i embedded with the SWAT team. This unit will provide a primary response to crisis situations involving explosive devices, improvised explosive devices, vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices, as well as communicated threats involving explosive devices.

The Ranger Reconnaissance Team, a highly trained tactical squad whose primary responsibility is to carry out specific missions, normally along the Texas-Mexico border region or wherever needed. The team is designed to conduct both overt and extended covert operations in remote areas where conventional police force enforcement cannot operate. The teams focus is to gather intelligence, conduct interdiction, and disruption of criminal action usually associated with drug cartels.

Special Response Teams (SRT), specialized teams which operate on an "every bit needed" basis and are located inside each of the DPS Regions. SRT is comprised of a cross department of officers from Texas Highway Patrol, Criminal Investigations Division and the Texas Rangers. SRT members are trained to behave high chance warrant service and provide initial response to disquisitional incidents involving barricaded subjects, hostage situations, and active shooter incidents within their respective DPS regions.

Crisis Negotiation Teams (CNT) are specialized teams who are trained to facilitate the professional person resolution of critical incidents involving emotionally disturbed individuals, hostage situations, and/or barricaded subjects. CNT members are comprised of a cross section of officers from Texas Highway Patrol, Criminal Investigations Division and the Texas Rangers, who respond to incidents within their respective regions. CNT members deploy as a team and are tasked with the evaluation and resolution of the disquisitional incident, collection of necessary intelligence, and relaying incident information to the Special Operations Commander.

Border Security Operations Heart (BSOC) - Joint Operations and Intelligence Centers (JOIC). The Edge Security Operations Eye (BSOC) is headquartered in Austin and serves as the focal betoken for the six Articulation Operations and Intelligence Centers (JOICs) located along the Texas/Mexico border. Responsibilities include analyzing intelligence and collecting border security information, while collaborating with state, local, and federal constabulary enforcement partners to conduct intelligence-directed border enforcement operations and ensure information exchange betwixt agencies. BSOC is tasked with the timely broadcasting of intelligence through a variety of mediums to law enforcement and governmental partners, including the in-depth weekly Border Operations Sector Cess of the Texas/Mexico border. BSOC operates the State of Texas' technology initiatives to gainsay criminal and border exploitation while supporting tactical initiatives, such as the Special Operations Group.

Public Integrity Unit Public Corruption is high on the department's list of investigative priorities, as the breach of trust undermines the confidence in public officials. The Rangers were selected to ensure unbiased and non-political in its application,.

Interdiction for the Protection of Children Programis a nationally recognized program trains troopers and other law enforcement officers how to recognize suspicious behavior in children and adults leading to the identification and recovery of abducted and missing children.

Becoming a Ranger

Texas Rangers are selected from the ranks of the Department of Public Safe. No recruiting has always been necessary. Information technology is not unusual for more than 100 officers to apply for only a single opening. To become a Ranger, a DPS officer must have at least eight years of commissioned law enforcement experience (including ii years with the DPS) and must have at to the lowest degree 60 hours of college or equivalencies, Ranger appointments are made upwards on the basis of a competitive exam and oral interviews. Rangers are required to attend at least 40 hours of in-service training every two years, only for almost Rangers, the training far exceeds that. Some Rangers receive additional training in areas such as forensic hypnosis, which has played an of import role in numerous criminal cases.

Standard Equipment

In improver to their extensive training and experience, modernistic Rangers have the benefit of state-of-the-fine art weaponry and other equipment. Each Ranger is equipped with a variety of firearms, protective gear, and tools and equipment for gathering bear witness at a criminal offence scene. High-powered sniper rifles, night vision scopes, tear gas guns and gas masks are available for each Ranger visitor. Other specialized equipment similar black lights and electronic surveillance equipment are at the disposal of the Rangers too.

Today's Rangers travel by motorcar, airplane or helicopter and occasionally by horse. Rangers practice not take uniforms only wearing apparel equally they demand to. A Ranger in Dallas might clothing a suit and tie while a Ranger assigned to a rural area would likely cull Western wear. During normal everyday activity, Rangers vesture western boots and have their badges pinned to their shirts.

As Walter Prescott Webb wrote in his 1935 history of the Texas Rangers,

"The Rangers had to be superior to survive. Their enemies were pretty proficient...(the Rangers) had to exist better..."