Tracking the Texas Rangers: The Twentieth Century

11. The Modern Texas Rangers: A Law-Enforcement Dilemma In The Rio Grande Valley

175 ★ 11 ★ The Modern Texas Rangers: A Law-Enforcement Dilemma in the Rio Grande Valley Ben H. Procter T he Texas Rangers, announced State Senator Joe Bernal of Bexar County, are “the Mexican Americans’ Ku Klux Klan. All they need is a white hood with ‘Rinches’ written across it.”1 “They were formed in the old days of the Texas Republic to keep the Mexicans in line,” asserted Robert Analavage, an assistant editor of The Southern Patriot. “They merged with the Confederate Army . . . to fight to preserve slavery, and in the Twentieth Century they have been used repeatedly as strikebreakers.”2 “Abolish the Rangers,” demanded the delegates at the Tenth Annual Texas AFL-CIO Convention at Fort Worth.3 “One Riot, No Rangers—One Strike, Many Rangers,” read a picket sign protesting a speaking engagement of Governor John­ConnallyatLaredo.3 Mexican-Americans“todayareundersiegeatRio Grande City by the Connally pistoleros (gunmen) and the [Homer] Garrison gunslingers who subject them,” charged Albert Peña, a San Antonio county commissioner, “to harassment, fear, intimidation, a little head cracking and jailing on nebulous charges.”5 And so the barrage of abusive statements and damaging allegations continued ad infinitum throughout the “long, hot summer” of 1967 as Texas Rangers, world famous as fearless peace officers, were sharply reprimanded by 176 ★ Tracking the Texas Rangers: The Twentieth Century labor leaders, state and national politicos, liberal Democratic organizations , church groups, and even university professors.6 Not since 1934, just prior to their reorganization as a modern investigating and law enforcement body, had the Rangers received such unfavorable publicity—and to a man they did not like it. Yet on several previous occasions the Rangers had weathered severe criticism and profited from the ordeal. Each time political involvement had been their Achilles’ heel and almost their undoing. In World War I, for example, Governors Oscar B. Colquitt and James E. “Pa” Ferguson had enlarged the force to 1,000 men ostensibly to deal with troubles along the Rio Grande. But actually the Rangers were used at times as currency to pay political debts, as a cheap method of elevating aspiring Texans to state peerage, as a kind of exclusive club for political hacks and cronies of the governor. While the force included some outstanding lawmen like Captains Frank Hamer, Will Wright, and Tom Hickman, sometimes a Ranger commission became a license to rob or kill. On January 31, 1919, State Representative J. T. Canales of Brownsville initiated a legislative inquiry regarding Ranger activities on the border. To fellow committee members he presented eighteen charges including drunkenness, disorderly conduct, and brutal physical assault , torture, and murder of numerous prisoners. Two months later, as a direct result of these hearings, the legislature reorganized the Rangers by limiting the force to five companies and seventy-five men. Because committee witnesses had charged that from 1914 to 1918 the Rangers had killed possibly 5,000 people (almost exclusively of Mexican descent), the act provided that any citizen could file a complaint against an offending officer and an investigation would ensue.7 In 1932 the force again became embroiled in politics, openly backing Governor Ross Sterling for re-election against Miriam A. “Ma” Ferguson. When “Ma” and “Pa” moved to Austin in January, 1933, the Rangers went the way of all political appointees who had crossed their boss and lost. Three days after taking office, Governor Ferguson discharged the entire force of forty-four men—those who The Modern Texas Rangers ★ 177 had not already resigned—and once again the Texas Rangers were a source of patronage, corruption, and ridicule.8 The effect upon state law enforcement was, of course, catastrophic. During the next two years crime and violence became widespread, bank holdups and murder commonplace. Few states had a more vicious assortment of gangsters or provided a safer sanctuary for the criminal element. For instance, residents in the Dallas-Fort Worth area alone included George “Machine Gun” Kelly, Raymond Hamilton, and the “maddog killers” Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker. And who besides “Ma” Ferguson was responsible for this breakdown in the public defense? To most Texans the answer was obvious. As one newspaper sarcastically remarked, “A Ranger commission and a nickel can get . . . a cup of coffee anywhere in Texas.” 9 In January, 1935, however, Governor James V. Allred soon obviated the causes of such derision. Having campaigned the previous year to “overhaul” the state law enforcement machinery, he pushed...