{"id":551,"date":"2018-12-31T12:46:36","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T12:46:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=551"},"modified":"2018-12-31T12:46:36","modified_gmt":"2018-12-31T12:46:36","slug":"glenn-dromgooles-texas-reads-column-appears-weekly-at-lonestarliterary-com-24","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=551","title":{"rendered":"Glenn Dromgoole’s Texas Reads column appears weekly at LoneStarLiterary.com"},"content":{"rendered":"
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<\/span><\/span>Texas Reads<\/span>>> archive<\/span><\/a><\/span>Glenn Dromgoole<\/span><\/h1>\n

6.5.16\u00a0\u00a0 Frank Hamer profiled in action-packed biography<\/h1>\n

In the first paragraph<\/span> of his thoroughly researched, well-written and action-packed biography of legendary Texas Ranger Frank Hamer, author John Boessenecker<\/span> boldly states: \u201cHe was the greatest American lawman of the twentieth century.\u201d<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/span>That\u2019s quite a claim. Whether or not that\u2019s true, Boessenecker, who lives in San Francisco, presents 460 pages of stories to back it up in Texas Ranger: The Epic Life of Frank Hamer, the Man Who Killed Bonnie and Clyde<\/span><\/a><\/span> (Thomas Dunne Books, St. Martin\u2019s Press, $29.99 hardcover).<\/p>\n

The author doesn\u2019t overglamorize Hamer (1884-1955), pointing out his shortcomings as well as his many successes in this fast-paced account of Hamer\u2019s five decades in law enforcement. Best known as a Texas Ranger, Hamer actually spent about as much of his career in other peace officer capacities.<\/p>\n

In fact, he was not a Ranger but a hired special investigator when he famously tracked down and killed the murderous outlaws Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker in 1934. Boessenecker separates popular myth, perpetrated by the movie Bonnie and Clyde, from the facts of the case. Hamer\u2019s widow sued the studio for defamation for the way it portrayed Hamer in the film and collected a $20,000 settlement, the author reports.<\/p>\n

The Bonnie and Clyde case gets three chapters (out of twenty-three) and sixty-six pages in the book as Boessenecker devotes much more attention to Hamer\u2019s earlier years in law enforcement dealing with border violence, saving blacks from East Texas lynch mobs, battling the Ku Klux Klan, and struggling with political corruption.<\/p>\n

\u201cTexas bred tough men,\u201d writes Boessenecker, \u201cand none came any tougher than Frank Hamer. He was to the Lone Star State what Wyatt Earp was to Arizona and what Wild Bill Hickok was to Kansas.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis iron courage was forged in the flames of fifty-two gunfights with desperadoes. In an era when crooked police were a dime a dozen, he could not be bought at any price.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boessenecker supports his conclusions with forty pages of bibliographical notes in which he takes issue with some earlier books and accounts, especially with regard to the killing of Bonnie and Clyde.<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/span><\/span>Slow cooker:<\/span> Texas food writer and recipe developer Marye Audet<\/span> has put together the Mexican Slow Cooker Cookbook: Easy, Flavorful Mexican Dishes That Cook Themselves<\/span><\/a><\/span> (Rockridge Press, $13.99 paperback).<\/p>\n

\u201cJust because you love eating Mexican food,\u201d she writes, \u201cdoesn\u2019t mean you want to spend hours in the kitchen preparing and cooking ingredients. This slow cooker cookbook brings easy slow cooker meals to your table with the flavors of Mexico \u2013 and minimal effort on your part.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chapters include dips and appetizers, soups, vegetarian dishes, seafood and poultry, meat dishes, sides and desserts. The focus is on the recipes themselves, with very few pictures, but the 90 or so recipes are easy to follow and don\u2019t really need illustrating. And, of course, that makes it a more affordable book.<\/p>\n

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Glenn Dromgoole\u2019s<\/span> latest book is More Civility, Please. <\/span>Contact him at g.dromgoole@suddenlink.net.<\/p>\n

>> <\/span>Read his past Texas Reads columns in Lone Star Literary Life here.<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/h1>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Texas Reads>> archiveGlenn Dromgoole 6.5.16\u00a0\u00a0 Frank Hamer profiled in action-packed biography In the first paragraph of his thoroughly researched, well-written and action-packed biography of legendary Texas Ranger Frank Hamer, author John Boessenecker boldly states: \u201cHe was the greatest American lawman of the twentieth century.\u201d That\u2019s quite a claim. Whether or not that\u2019s true, Boessenecker, who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}