In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Reviewed by:
  • The Texas Rangers in Transition: From Gunfighters to Criminal Investigators, 1921–1935 by Charles H. Harris III, Louis R. Sadler
  • Chuck Parsons
The Texas Rangers in Transition: From Gunfighters to Criminal Investigators, 1921–1935. By Charles H. Harris III and Louis R. Sadler. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2019. Pp. 640. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index.)

The authors remind us in the informative prologue to The Texas Rangers in Transition that from 1921 to 1935, Texas “was a very violent place, figuratively awash in booze and oil” (3). In spite of the promise that all men were created equal, Jim Crow segregation declared white men superior to both Mexican Americans and African Americans. This brief period also witnessed the transition of the Texas Rangers from “hard-ridin’ straight-shootin’ gunfighters to criminal investigators, mirroring Texas’s transition from an essentially rural to a rapidly urbanizing state” (3).

In many instances a plea of self-defense resulted in a white murderer walking free. Ballot box fraud was not uncommon. Along with Prohibition came bootlegging, cross-border liquor smuggling, and men who used automobiles to escape from their crimes, all of which changed law enforcement. Rangers had to enforce Prohibition laws and fight distillers, illegal gambling, and the forces that wanted either to reduce the Rangers to ineffectiveness or eliminate them entirely.

The authors employ a topical approach to treat these years, discussing how Rangers acted under governors Pat M. Neff, Miriam A. Ferguson, Dan Moody, Ross Sterling, and James Allred. Texas Rangers who gained national fame are also prominently mentioned, including Frank Hamer, W. L. Wright, M. T. Gonzaullas, Roy W. Aldrich, W. W. Sterling, and Tom Hickman, whose key actions are organized by political term. Each governor [End Page 261] had difficult problems to deal with as did each Texas Ranger captain. Because much of the literature on Texas Rangers focuses on the nineteenth century, what the authors present here, having occurred in the twentieth century, will be new to many readers. For example, few are familiar with Pat Neff’s “crusade for law and order to combat the post-World War I crime wave in the state” (27). Neff had one big advantage over his immediate predecessors, however, improved relations with Mexico. In spite of that advantage, however, Governor Neff endured the significant rise of the Ku Klux Klan. Frequently the authors provide accounts of notorious cases that were eclipsed by even more notorious cases. At the same time, Rangers also dealt with what today would be considered mundane actions.

This is the seventh book by Harris and Sadler, both professors emeritus of history at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces. Among their previous works are The Plan de San Diego (University of Nebraska Press, 2013), The Texas Rangers and the Mexican Revolution (University of New Mexico Press, 2007), and Texas Ranger Biographies (University of New Mexico Press, 2009). Each is the result of high-quality research and writing. In all their writings the authors have stressed that, although a Texas Ranger mystique exists, it is a myth. Frank Hamer, for example, was racist, and some Rangers murdered Mexican Americans. The authors have demonstrated again the top quality research and writing skills that characterized their previous works. Texas Rangers in Transition will become a must-have book for all those interested in Texas Rangers as well as in early twentieth-century law enforcement.

Chuck Parsons
Luling, Texas
...

pdf

Share