A fascinating and detailed (maybe occasionally too detailed) account of the extraordinary life of Texas Ranger Frank Hamer. As the cover points out he is best known as the man who killed Bonnie & Clyde, but he was so much more.

To its credit this book is not an exercise in hero-worship or revisionism. The author clearly shows that Hamer was a man of contradictions; one one hand he was a conservative white supremacist with a quick temper and a “shoot first, ask questions later” approach to dealing with known criminals; yet he was also fiercely protective of African-Americans, fought the Klan, exposed corrupt politicians, and had a strong sense of justice and that the law applied equally to all irrespective of skin color or social position.

Hamer started life as a late nineteenth century cowboy and ended up helping bring one of the foremost law enforcement agencies through many controversies and growing pains into the first half of the twentieth century.

As the conclusion points out Hamer had a hard time reconciling his violent life with modern society and the questions he struggled with about the roles of law and justice still resonate today. ( )