#OTD on May 3, 1909 Ranger Levi Davis killed Severo Lopez in Rio Grande City. Lopez and several friends had been enjoying a festive dinner when Davis and 2 other Rangers ended the festivities with gunfire. Ranger authorities had augmented the Ranger presence in the Valley after the murder of Judge Stanley Welch in 1906. […]
#OTD in May 1970 the US Commission on Civil Rights issued Clearinghouse Publication #90 entitled Stranger in One’s Land. This government report analyzed the findings of the 1968 San Antonio USCCR hearings and called the Texas Rangers “symbols of oppression.” The USCCR had called a series of hearings in San Antonio to gather data on
Content warning: This post contains graphic descriptions of a lynching. Please also know that images of George Hughes’ body are available on Google and use caution if you research this incident further. On this day in 1930, Texas Ranger Frank Hamer failed to prevent the lynching of George Hughes in Sherman, Texas, or the subsequent
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On May 12th 1858, the Texas Rangers, lead by John S. “Old Rip” Ford attacked the village of the Comanche chief Iron Jacket, a well known medicine man, killing at least 75 and taking 8 prisoners. This attack was firmly understood as continuous with the “Indian Wars” more broadly and the governor, Hardin Runnels, was
On May 15, 2004, Kirby Warnock released his film “Border Bandits,” which juxtaposed the myth of the Rangers with the murder of Antonio Longoria and Jesus Bazán in 1915, bringing knowledge about Ranger crimes passed down in families out to the wider public. Kirby Warnock learned of the double murder of Bazan and Longoria by
On this day in 1917, four men arrested Thomas Hickey, editor of the socialist, anti-war newspaper The Rebel, claiming without evidence that he was part of an armed anti-conscription conspiracy. The group’s leader, Montgomery, identified himself as a Ranger. Other newspapers confirm that this was John Montgomery, a Special Ranger active from June 1916 to
On May 20, 1974, the US Supreme Court decided against the Texas Rangers in Allee v Medrano, upholding a lower court’s ruling that the Rangers injured strikers constitutional rights during the 1966-1967 Starr County melon strikes. In the 1960s Tejano farmworkers in Starr County, Texas, worked in terrible conditions for wages as low as $0.50/hour.
On this day in 1916, José Morin and Victoriano Ponce disappeared while in the custody of Ranger Captain J.J. Sanders. The men were suspected of attacks against U.S. citizens, but neither had been tried for the crimes or even formally accused of anything. Newspapers later reported that the men were shot while trying to escape
Disappearances of José Morin and Victoriano Ponce Read More »
#OTD on May 26, 1967, Texas Rangers under the command of A.Y. Allee attacked civil and labor rights activist Francisco “Pancho” Medrano in Edinburg, Texas. Medrano was a well respected and well liked labor and civil rights leader in Texas. Medrano, an official with the United Auto Workers, had been sent by UAW leadership to
#OTD in 1800 Texas Ranger Lt. Thomas I. Smith was born in Virginia. Along with Ranger Captain Samuel Highsmith, Smith attacked and killed a number of peaceful Caddo and Wichita people in spring 1848, including children and young adults. By 1848 US land surveyors and settlers were entering the Brazos River area in increasing numbers,
