WEBVTT 1 00:00:06.000 --> 00:00:15.080 Texas Monthly. I want to tell you the story of 2 00:00:15.119 --> 00:00:18.879 a cover up, one that lasted almost sixty years, and 3 00:00:19.239 --> 00:00:20.839 the guy who exposed it and. 4 00:00:21.039 --> 00:00:24.160 Actually kind of happenstance. I was looking for something else, 5 00:00:24.199 --> 00:00:26.199 and that's frequently the way it is when you're doing 6 00:00:26.280 --> 00:00:30.000 archival work. You stumble upon something that you weren't expecting. 7 00:00:30.600 --> 00:00:34.479 That's James Sandos in nineteen seventy five. He was back 8 00:00:34.520 --> 00:00:37.600 from Vietnam and he was a graduate student at UC Berkeley. 9 00:00:38.320 --> 00:00:42.119 He was researching cross border raids by Mexican revolutionaries in 10 00:00:42.159 --> 00:00:45.479 the nineteen tens, and at the National Archives he'd seen 11 00:00:45.479 --> 00:00:48.200 a report on the Texas Rangers role on the border. 12 00:00:48.960 --> 00:00:51.759 It was a transcript of hearings at the Texas Capitol, 13 00:00:52.280 --> 00:00:56.399 split into three folios, but the third folio was missing. 14 00:00:56.439 --> 00:00:58.759 And the one that was missing seemed to have all 15 00:00:58.799 --> 00:01:03.600 the information about out ranger activity. Why isn't it there? 16 00:01:04.480 --> 00:01:07.599 James thought that the complete report might still be in Austin, 17 00:01:08.319 --> 00:01:10.599 so he went to take a look in the middle 18 00:01:10.599 --> 00:01:13.319 of what was still a sleepy college town. The Texas 19 00:01:13.359 --> 00:01:16.799 State Archives and Library is a grand, imposing building right 20 00:01:16.799 --> 00:01:17.680 next to the Capitol. 21 00:01:17.879 --> 00:01:20.400 Well, I thought, boy, this is on a par with 22 00:01:21.079 --> 00:01:23.719 the archival storage facilities in Washington, d C. 23 00:01:24.239 --> 00:01:25.159 I thought, you know who. 24 00:01:25.760 --> 00:01:28.000 These people take their history seriously. 25 00:01:27.879 --> 00:01:31.200 And they did and do Inside he flipped through the 26 00:01:31.239 --> 00:01:34.920 card catalog and found the report, all three. 27 00:01:34.840 --> 00:01:38.079 Volumes, and I was told, well, you know, the Canalists 28 00:01:38.120 --> 00:01:41.239 investigation is closed and it won't be open for fifty years. 29 00:01:41.799 --> 00:01:45.640 And I said, excuse me, this is nineteen seventy five. 30 00:01:46.040 --> 00:01:50.200 The investigation was in nineteen nineteen. I think, even in history, 31 00:01:50.200 --> 00:01:53.480 you've got to do the math. And she went downstairs 32 00:01:53.560 --> 00:01:55.439 and talked to some people, and she came back an 33 00:01:55.480 --> 00:01:57.000 hour later and said, well, I guess you're going to 34 00:01:57.040 --> 00:01:57.719 get to look at it. 35 00:01:58.640 --> 00:02:01.560 James wondered, that was so delicate that it had to 36 00:02:01.560 --> 00:02:03.280 be locked away for half a century. 37 00:02:03.599 --> 00:02:06.439 It was on a cart, and it was she had 38 00:02:06.480 --> 00:02:07.840 somebody helping her pull the cart. 39 00:02:08.120 --> 00:02:11.280 It was more than sixteen hundred pages from nineteen nineteen. 40 00:02:12.039 --> 00:02:13.000 James began to read. 41 00:02:14.039 --> 00:02:17.360 I was just I was stunned. I was stunned at 42 00:02:17.400 --> 00:02:18.039 what I found. 43 00:02:18.599 --> 00:02:21.919 In the third volume, he found testimony about dozens of 44 00:02:21.919 --> 00:02:27.120 instances of ranger attacks, crimes and murders, testimony from survivors 45 00:02:27.120 --> 00:02:27.759 of Porbanir. 46 00:02:28.360 --> 00:02:32.240 You know, it was just boom, boom boom. I thought, 47 00:02:32.280 --> 00:02:37.080 this is this is incredible and first of all, second thought, 48 00:02:37.080 --> 00:02:39.479 it is no wonder if they wanted to keep this 49 00:02:39.639 --> 00:02:42.800 seal for as long as they could. According to James, 50 00:02:43.199 --> 00:02:46.759 by sealing that document for fifty years, there was a 51 00:02:47.039 --> 00:02:51.960 very vivid hope there would be no further inquiry. Whatever 52 00:02:52.000 --> 00:02:56.400 the official story was, that would be the official story. 53 00:02:58.039 --> 00:03:01.080 In this episode, we're going to find out how that happened, 54 00:03:01.840 --> 00:03:05.000 how that official story took hold, and how this other 55 00:03:05.120 --> 00:03:07.560 version of events, even though the state locked up the 56 00:03:07.599 --> 00:03:13.360 records survived anyway. From Texas Monthly, This is White Hats, 57 00:03:13.800 --> 00:03:17.000 a story of the legendary Texas Rangers and a struggle 58 00:03:17.080 --> 00:03:20.960 for the soul of Texas. I'm your host, Jack Arera. 59 00:03:22.520 --> 00:03:35.759 This is episode four the Cold Case. Back in nineteen eighteen, 60 00:03:36.000 --> 00:03:39.840 as Lore Sandre continued to rage in South Texas, one 61 00:03:39.879 --> 00:03:43.840 Texas lawmaker began to hear disturbing reports. His name was 62 00:03:43.919 --> 00:03:48.919 Jose Tomascanales. He's the man behind the Canalis investigation, those 63 00:03:48.919 --> 00:03:52.280 shocking documents James Sandos found in nineteen seventy five. 64 00:03:53.039 --> 00:03:56.120 Yeah, so he is. At the time, he's the sole 65 00:03:56.240 --> 00:03:58.639 Mexican American elected state. 66 00:03:58.639 --> 00:04:01.879 Representative is Monica Muno's Martinez. 67 00:04:02.159 --> 00:04:07.800 He's from Brownsville and start receiving complaints about violence by 68 00:04:07.840 --> 00:04:08.759 Texas rangers. 69 00:04:09.199 --> 00:04:12.319 Monica is a professor at the University of Texas in Austin. 70 00:04:12.800 --> 00:04:16.120 So I'm a historian of US history of race relations 71 00:04:16.199 --> 00:04:20.079 in the US. My primary research is focused on Texas 72 00:04:20.639 --> 00:04:23.680 and the history of racial violence in Texas. 73 00:04:24.079 --> 00:04:27.439 Monica has spent more than a decade researching the Porvenian massacre, 74 00:04:27.759 --> 00:04:30.199 and she explains that in the year after it happened, 75 00:04:30.399 --> 00:04:33.720 Canalis began working for justice for the survivors and other 76 00:04:33.800 --> 00:04:37.120 victims of ranger of violence. He heard stories of prisoners 77 00:04:37.199 --> 00:04:39.839 who'd been taken by the rangers from local shriffs and 78 00:04:39.879 --> 00:04:42.879 shot in the brush, of people who've been pistol whipped 79 00:04:43.000 --> 00:04:47.319 and tortured, and of a small village of Borvnir where 80 00:04:47.399 --> 00:04:50.839 rangers had killed fifteen men. Canal has tried to raise 81 00:04:50.879 --> 00:04:52.879 the alarm in Austin. He very much. 82 00:04:52.720 --> 00:04:56.959 Believed in the system and his ability as a politician 83 00:04:58.079 --> 00:05:01.480 to go through the proper channels, you know, writing to 84 00:05:02.079 --> 00:05:06.160 Jugend General, writing to the governor, to try to get 85 00:05:06.319 --> 00:05:11.560 help in curtailing these acts of violence by Texas rangers. 86 00:05:12.399 --> 00:05:15.480 Canalis was a gentleman. He was born in eighteen seventy 87 00:05:15.519 --> 00:05:19.240 seven on his family's ranch, a large estate outside of Kingsville. 88 00:05:19.560 --> 00:05:22.360 The Canalis family had roots in Texas deeper than the 89 00:05:22.360 --> 00:05:25.519 state itself. They were at the Hanos, whose claims the 90 00:05:25.600 --> 00:05:27.839 land went all the way back to the Spanish crown. 91 00:05:28.839 --> 00:05:31.720 He studied law at the University of Michigan and entered 92 00:05:31.759 --> 00:05:34.480 the Texas State House as a Democrat in nineteen oh five. 93 00:05:34.920 --> 00:05:38.160 He represented the area around Brownsville, the lush border town 94 00:05:38.319 --> 00:05:40.680 where the Rio Grande empties into the Gulf of Mexico, 95 00:05:41.680 --> 00:05:45.360 the Idara family in Laredo. The newspaper publishers you heard 96 00:05:45.360 --> 00:05:48.600 about in the last episode, they actually wrote about Canatis 97 00:05:48.959 --> 00:05:52.079 and the discrimination he faced in the capitol, in a 98 00:05:52.120 --> 00:05:55.199 story that describes how Mexican people were denied service at 99 00:05:55.240 --> 00:05:57.920 shops or denied the right to vote. They write that 100 00:05:58.360 --> 00:06:02.680 even Canals's fellow Lawmads had called him el Mechicano seboso, 101 00:06:03.319 --> 00:06:07.240 the greaser Mexican. But he was also insulated, in part 102 00:06:07.600 --> 00:06:11.319 by his own enormous wealth. In Austin, he went by Joe. 103 00:06:11.600 --> 00:06:15.759 He's from a wealthy Dahano family. His wife is white right. 104 00:06:15.839 --> 00:06:17.879 So in this era, when you see all of these 105 00:06:17.959 --> 00:06:22.040 Jim Crow Wancrow laws being passed, all of segregation being 106 00:06:22.120 --> 00:06:24.920 built into the institutions, he flies in the face of 107 00:06:24.959 --> 00:06:25.279 all of that. 108 00:06:26.040 --> 00:06:29.839 For months, Canalis asked the governor to reign in the rangers, 109 00:06:30.360 --> 00:06:33.439 but the governor put him off with false promises, and 110 00:06:33.519 --> 00:06:37.480 officials in Austin worked to undercut him, and his word 111 00:06:37.560 --> 00:06:41.360 spread that Canalis was investigating the Rangers. It earned him enemies. 112 00:06:42.240 --> 00:06:45.720 In December, almost a year after the Bordevinir massacre, a 113 00:06:45.800 --> 00:06:48.759 ranger approached canals in the border town of San Benito. 114 00:06:49.439 --> 00:06:51.759 He was over six feet tall and around two hundred 115 00:06:51.800 --> 00:06:55.360 and thirty pounds, and he had a violent reputation. His 116 00:06:55.480 --> 00:07:00.040 name was Frank Kamer, and he had a message for Canals. 117 00:07:00.000 --> 00:07:02.000 And essentially, you know, threatens him like if you go 118 00:07:02.079 --> 00:07:05.160 through with this, you know you're gonna regret it. 119 00:07:06.040 --> 00:07:09.800 But Hamer's threats motivated him. The lawmaker gave up appealing 120 00:07:09.800 --> 00:07:12.560 to the governor and took matters into his own hands. 121 00:07:13.079 --> 00:07:16.720 Less than a month after Hamer confronted him, Gannellis introduced 122 00:07:16.759 --> 00:07:18.279 a daring piece of legislation. 123 00:07:18.800 --> 00:07:20.600 So he is in the company of others who are saying, 124 00:07:20.720 --> 00:07:23.360 we've got to stop, we have to stop this filence 125 00:07:23.399 --> 00:07:28.399 by the Texas Rangers. He gains enough support to pass 126 00:07:28.759 --> 00:07:31.160 h B five, which is a bill that calls for 127 00:07:31.199 --> 00:07:33.800 a hearing an investigation to the Texas Rangers. It's also 128 00:07:33.920 --> 00:07:36.639 calling for the same kinds of reforms that you hear 129 00:07:36.639 --> 00:07:39.800 about people advocating today that text Range should be under bond, 130 00:07:40.240 --> 00:07:43.839 that you should increase their wages so that you have, 131 00:07:44.240 --> 00:07:47.040 you know, a more competitive pool of people applying for 132 00:07:47.120 --> 00:07:50.439 these positions, but also that you reduce the force and 133 00:07:50.519 --> 00:07:53.480 you eliminate, you know, having these people who who have 134 00:07:53.560 --> 00:07:57.079 these bloody records from being on the force. 135 00:07:58.000 --> 00:08:01.240 But lawmakers were outraged by even at of criticism against 136 00:08:01.240 --> 00:08:04.879 the Rangers. They accused Canalis of lying and demanded that 137 00:08:04.920 --> 00:08:05.759 he produce evidence. 138 00:08:06.040 --> 00:08:08.160 And so what you get is two and a half 139 00:08:08.199 --> 00:08:12.480 weeks of over eighty witnesses coming in either to support 140 00:08:12.639 --> 00:08:17.360 the Texas Rangers and endorse their practices or violent practices, 141 00:08:17.759 --> 00:08:20.360 or to bring evidence of harms that they have caused, 142 00:08:20.639 --> 00:08:24.800 murders that they've committed, participating in torture of prisoners. 143 00:08:25.800 --> 00:08:28.319 In a room at the state Capitol, a handful of 144 00:08:28.360 --> 00:08:32.639 wall makers listen and question witnesses. Canalis actually isn't on 145 00:08:32.759 --> 00:08:35.840 the panel, but he's allowed to join in and ask questions. 146 00:08:36.519 --> 00:08:39.399 He and other witnesses sit in the room with the 147 00:08:39.480 --> 00:08:43.480 same men they're accusing. Canali has worried about assassination attempts 148 00:08:43.919 --> 00:08:47.600 and outside the capital. Frank camer had stocked Canalis around Austin, 149 00:08:48.159 --> 00:08:52.639 reminding him that he was watching. But Canalis succeeds in 150 00:08:52.679 --> 00:08:56.399 getting accounts of the Rangers brutality committed to the official record. 151 00:08:57.240 --> 00:09:01.159 Witnesses came from all backgrounds. In Anglo woman complains about 152 00:09:01.240 --> 00:09:04.919 Rangers quote reign of terror in South Texas. An Anglo 153 00:09:05.039 --> 00:09:08.320 judge describes how Ranger captain, who seemed to be drunk, 154 00:09:08.559 --> 00:09:12.080 approached him in the courthouse and pistol whipped him. That 155 00:09:12.240 --> 00:09:16.480 Ranger captain was named John J. Sanders. Sanders took the 156 00:09:16.559 --> 00:09:20.120 stand and admitted that he attacked the judge. He said 157 00:09:20.120 --> 00:09:23.399 he felt justified because the judge had published writing that 158 00:09:23.480 --> 00:09:28.200 condemned the Rangers attacks on Mexicans. Ganalis introduced more charges 159 00:09:28.240 --> 00:09:31.639 of his own, that Rangers tortured a Mexican American man 160 00:09:31.679 --> 00:09:35.440 in Duval County, that they murdered others in Cameron County, 161 00:09:35.600 --> 00:09:39.519 and Rio Grande City. The eleventh charge he brought is 162 00:09:39.559 --> 00:09:42.600 one you've already heard. Gannalis read it to the record. 163 00:09:42.960 --> 00:09:47.120 He said, I charge that on January twenty eighth, nineteen eighteen, 164 00:09:47.639 --> 00:09:50.480 fifteen Mexicans, after they'd been arrested in disarmed by the 165 00:09:50.519 --> 00:09:54.039 state rangers at Al Borvener Presidio County, were murdered by 166 00:09:54.080 --> 00:09:58.679 said rangers without any justification or excuse. By this time, 167 00:09:59.080 --> 00:10:01.279 more than a year had been passed since the massacre, 168 00:10:01.759 --> 00:10:05.840 and throughout the rangers of Company B had proclaimed their innocence. 169 00:10:06.440 --> 00:10:09.440 An outpass on newspaper had reported on the massacre but 170 00:10:09.600 --> 00:10:13.639 claimed that the massacred villagers were raiders and squatters, but 171 00:10:14.200 --> 00:10:17.320 the real story still got out. The survivors fled into 172 00:10:17.399 --> 00:10:21.840 Mexico and told officials there what had happened. Mexican officials 173 00:10:21.879 --> 00:10:26.480 complained to Washington, and eventually, under pressure from both federal governments, 174 00:10:27.039 --> 00:10:30.759 Texas Governor William Hobby dismissed five of the rangers and 175 00:10:30.840 --> 00:10:34.559 pushed Captain J. M. Fox for his resignation. But to 176 00:10:34.600 --> 00:10:39.039 the survivors of Borviner this was still not justice. Canalis's 177 00:10:39.080 --> 00:10:43.399 hearings in Austin gave them another chance. Lawmakers read a 178 00:10:43.399 --> 00:10:46.600 long collection of their testimonies. There was sixty six year 179 00:10:46.600 --> 00:10:50.159 old one Mendez who recalled quote the dead bodies were 180 00:10:50.240 --> 00:10:52.919 left lying in the same place where they were. The 181 00:10:52.960 --> 00:10:55.679 bodies had been shot straight through and in their heads, 182 00:10:56.399 --> 00:10:59.679 and Babla Menez explained that the men killed were peaceable 183 00:10:59.679 --> 00:11:06.159 citizen and dedicated completely to their work. For years, Rangers 184 00:11:06.159 --> 00:11:09.240 had been killing people of Mexican descent with near impunity, 185 00:11:09.679 --> 00:11:12.679 as the English language press cheered them on for stopping 186 00:11:12.879 --> 00:11:16.639 the bandits. Now, thanks to the state houses, only the 187 00:11:16.679 --> 00:11:20.039 Hano member survivors were getting to tell their side of 188 00:11:20.039 --> 00:11:24.600 the story in the capitol in the public record. But 189 00:11:24.720 --> 00:11:28.799 the Rangers fought back. The Rangers had a legal team 190 00:11:28.799 --> 00:11:32.519 of the hearings, and this was their strategy. Instead of 191 00:11:32.559 --> 00:11:35.879 letting the hearings proceed as an investigation of the Rangers, 192 00:11:36.519 --> 00:11:39.200 they would use them as an opportunity to take down 193 00:11:39.240 --> 00:11:42.000 the Rangers' most powerful critic, Ganals. 194 00:11:42.679 --> 00:11:44.840 You know, the lawyers for the Texas Rangers say, we 195 00:11:44.879 --> 00:11:47.320 need to question this guy's motives to see why he 196 00:11:47.879 --> 00:11:51.320 is bringing these charges, and so they smear him. They 197 00:11:51.320 --> 00:11:54.320 make these accusations that you know, because he has Mexican 198 00:11:54.360 --> 00:11:58.879 blood in his veins, that he is unconsciously loyal to 199 00:11:58.960 --> 00:12:00.639 Mexico and not to the United States. 200 00:12:01.039 --> 00:12:04.840 One of the Rangers lawyers asked Canalis multiple times if 201 00:12:04.840 --> 00:12:09.120 he was, quote by blood, a Mexican. Canalis replied, I 202 00:12:09.159 --> 00:12:12.600 am not a Mexican. I'm an American citizen. But the 203 00:12:12.679 --> 00:12:17.320 Rangers attorney declared, quote, blood is thicker than water. The 204 00:12:17.399 --> 00:12:22.360 lawyers also questioned Canalis's mental state. They suggested he'd imagine 205 00:12:22.360 --> 00:12:25.840 that Hamer had threatened him in Austin. They said, now, 206 00:12:26.159 --> 00:12:28.720 isn't it a fact, mister Canalis, that you have become 207 00:12:28.759 --> 00:12:32.600 obsessed in a way with suspicion and hallucination regarding the 208 00:12:32.639 --> 00:12:33.799 seriousness of this matter. 209 00:12:34.240 --> 00:12:36.720 They publicly go out of their way to try to 210 00:12:36.799 --> 00:12:40.279 humiliate him, to call him to question, and it's a 211 00:12:40.320 --> 00:12:43.039 hard transcript to read the sort of disdain that they 212 00:12:43.080 --> 00:12:44.200 showed for him. 213 00:12:44.399 --> 00:12:48.080 Ganellis isn't the only person the Rangers lawyer's attack. They 214 00:12:48.159 --> 00:12:52.080 throw doubt on essentially everyone who challenges the Rangers. After 215 00:12:52.159 --> 00:12:56.279 Canalis introduced the charge of the Porvenir massacre, the lawmakers 216 00:12:56.279 --> 00:12:59.519 read the account of Fox, the captain of Company B. Rangers, 217 00:13:00.159 --> 00:13:03.440 described the massacre as a shootout with bandits. 218 00:13:03.320 --> 00:13:06.320 And Fox continues to contest it, you know, and what 219 00:13:06.399 --> 00:13:08.759 he's also contesting is not you know in the end 220 00:13:08.919 --> 00:13:11.919 that the massacre happened, but like what's wrong with it? 221 00:13:12.519 --> 00:13:16.320 And that idea what's wrong with it permeated the entire 222 00:13:16.360 --> 00:13:20.759 Canalist investigation. Captain John Sanders, who had pistol, whipped that 223 00:13:20.879 --> 00:13:24.519 judge explained that residents on the border were terrified because 224 00:13:24.519 --> 00:13:26.879 they'd heard that Mexican mobs were coming to rob the 225 00:13:26.919 --> 00:13:30.799 banks and burn the towns. A US congressman from West 226 00:13:30.799 --> 00:13:34.840 Texas and Claude Benton Hudsmith, offered his own philosophy for 227 00:13:34.960 --> 00:13:38.600 survival along the border. He told lawmakers that to quote, 228 00:13:38.919 --> 00:13:41.759 put down this lawlessness. You have got to kill those 229 00:13:41.799 --> 00:13:46.159 Mexicans when you find them, or they will kill you. Today, 230 00:13:46.440 --> 00:13:49.159 the counties of the west of Borvenier is called Hudsmith 231 00:13:49.200 --> 00:13:54.039 County after that congressman. Through all of this, Canalis keeps 232 00:13:54.039 --> 00:13:57.399 his school. He tells the lawmakers that even with the 233 00:13:57.440 --> 00:14:01.279 harm they've caused, he still believes in the rain. He 234 00:14:01.360 --> 00:14:04.480 says that knowing the range of forces, I do, I 235 00:14:04.600 --> 00:14:06.519 know that we need the rangers. 236 00:14:07.120 --> 00:14:07.320 Yeah. 237 00:14:07.360 --> 00:14:10.559 He's a complicated figure and he One of the ways 238 00:14:10.559 --> 00:14:13.720 that he actually tries to defend himself when he's being 239 00:14:13.759 --> 00:14:16.399 interrogated is actually by saying, like, you know, I fund 240 00:14:16.879 --> 00:14:20.399 Texas Rangers and I support them so, and he refers 241 00:14:20.440 --> 00:14:23.559 to the era of Texas Rangers from the late nineteenth 242 00:14:23.559 --> 00:14:26.080 century is like the good old days, right, That's like 243 00:14:26.080 --> 00:14:29.600 when Texas Rangers they are committing murders and massacres of Mexicans, 244 00:14:29.799 --> 00:14:33.440 but they're also committing acts of brutality against indigenous people. 245 00:14:33.879 --> 00:14:37.480 Ganalis isn't just being diplomatic. He had close friends who 246 00:14:37.519 --> 00:14:41.120 are rangers, and he says he feels caught between the 247 00:14:41.159 --> 00:14:44.080 devil and the deep blue sea, between those who want 248 00:14:44.120 --> 00:14:46.320 to abolish the Rangers and those who want to put 249 00:14:46.360 --> 00:14:49.840 them on a pedestal. All he wants, he says, is 250 00:14:49.879 --> 00:14:53.080 to purge the Rangers of what he calls their bad element. 251 00:14:54.120 --> 00:14:58.000 Ganellis says, I'm not here to protect any Mexican bandits, 252 00:14:58.360 --> 00:15:02.039 but if a man is murdered, another man shouldn't be murdered. 253 00:15:03.320 --> 00:15:07.240 After twelve days of testimony, the hearings come to a close. 254 00:15:07.720 --> 00:15:11.360 And they release a report. Their findings are that there 255 00:15:11.360 --> 00:15:14.840 were absolutely some civil rights abuses by Texas Rangers, that 256 00:15:14.879 --> 00:15:18.559 they absolutely committed some horrific acts of violence, but that 257 00:15:18.639 --> 00:15:21.840 on the whole that Texas Rangers did the best that 258 00:15:21.840 --> 00:15:26.120 they could in violent circumstances. And so the Committee buys 259 00:15:26.200 --> 00:15:31.399 into the version that the lawyers for the Texas Rangers 260 00:15:31.879 --> 00:15:36.320 submitted that South Texas is a violent place, that Mexicans 261 00:15:36.360 --> 00:15:41.879 are inherently violent people, and that to control those populations 262 00:15:41.919 --> 00:15:42.960 you have to use force. 263 00:15:44.320 --> 00:15:47.440 In nineteen twenty five, Captain J. M. Fox was welcomed 264 00:15:47.480 --> 00:15:51.080 back into the Ranger force. Other Rangers who'd been dismissed 265 00:15:51.120 --> 00:15:54.519 for the role in the Bordavnir massacre were also reinstated. 266 00:15:54.759 --> 00:15:57.519 And so what you don't see is any prosecution. So 267 00:15:57.639 --> 00:15:59.720 in the case is when there's clear evidence of Texas 268 00:15:59.759 --> 00:16:02.720 Range participating in murders, the Committee doesn't call for those 269 00:16:02.759 --> 00:16:04.360 text of Strangers to be prosecuted. 270 00:16:04.960 --> 00:16:07.759 For survivors like Juan Flores, who you heard about in 271 00:16:07.799 --> 00:16:10.559 the last episode, it must have been a heartbreaking moment. 272 00:16:11.279 --> 00:16:14.960 Over a year after the massacre, after round's a painful testimony, 273 00:16:15.200 --> 00:16:17.360 he and his family had nothing to show for it, 274 00:16:18.200 --> 00:16:19.080 no justice. 275 00:16:19.559 --> 00:16:24.240 Juan Bodina Floris is somebody whose life I've spent a 276 00:16:24.240 --> 00:16:27.480 lot of time thinking about I mean, so here's this 277 00:16:27.720 --> 00:16:33.799 child who's just experienced this massacre. You know, then he's 278 00:16:33.960 --> 00:16:37.480 tasked with going to get the teacher, going to get 279 00:16:37.519 --> 00:16:44.320 Warren for help. And then Juan has to participate in 280 00:16:44.360 --> 00:16:48.559 this act of identifying the remains of his father. And 281 00:16:48.600 --> 00:16:53.399 so the kinds of injustices that people feel are multiple. 282 00:16:53.440 --> 00:16:55.559 It's not just the injustice about the massacre itself, but 283 00:16:55.600 --> 00:16:58.360 it's the injustice of the failure to fully acknowledge and 284 00:16:58.399 --> 00:17:02.879 reckon with the harm cause and so instead you have 285 00:17:03.120 --> 00:17:06.640 the racist tropes of Mexicans continue. And the other thing 286 00:17:06.680 --> 00:17:10.079 that happens is that these investigations, these volumes are not 287 00:17:10.079 --> 00:17:10.680 made public. 288 00:17:12.039 --> 00:17:15.640 After the hearings, Canalis began working for change outside of 289 00:17:15.680 --> 00:17:19.960 the Capitol. In nineteen twenty nine, he joined other Tahano progressives, 290 00:17:20.359 --> 00:17:24.960 including Jovite Dad's brother Edgardo dar in founding LULAC, the 291 00:17:25.039 --> 00:17:29.359 League of United Latin American Citizens. Today, it's the oldest 292 00:17:29.440 --> 00:17:33.119 and largest Latino civil rights organization in the country, and 293 00:17:33.200 --> 00:17:36.680 Canalis did win some meaningful reforms at the Capitol after 294 00:17:36.720 --> 00:17:40.480 the hearings. The ranger force was reduced, pay was increased, 295 00:17:40.759 --> 00:17:43.480 and the state created new requirements to become a Ranger, 296 00:17:44.119 --> 00:17:48.359 and Monica says that after the Canalis investigation, the Rangers 297 00:17:48.359 --> 00:17:49.680 made an effort to move on. 298 00:17:50.240 --> 00:17:52.759 And so the sort of convenient version of this history, 299 00:17:53.880 --> 00:17:56.599 the whitewashed version of this history, is that there's this 300 00:17:56.680 --> 00:18:01.119 hearing in nineteen nineteen. You know, if Texas Rangers are 301 00:18:01.200 --> 00:18:05.759 let go, and the Texas Ranger force moves on and 302 00:18:05.799 --> 00:18:09.680 it professionalizes, and so Hamer becomes a symbol of this 303 00:18:09.799 --> 00:18:11.319 kind of progression. 304 00:18:11.880 --> 00:18:16.359 Frank Hamer, the same guy who threatened JT. Kanalis. He 305 00:18:16.480 --> 00:18:25.599 becomes one of the most celebrated Rangers in Texas history. 306 00:18:25.640 --> 00:18:28.680 If you know any Texas Rangers by name, you've probably 307 00:18:28.720 --> 00:18:31.920 heard of Frank Hamer. They're still making movies about. 308 00:18:31.720 --> 00:18:34.880 Him's a time we put a pair of man killers 309 00:18:34.920 --> 00:18:36.480 on the trail and let them do their job. 310 00:18:37.480 --> 00:18:40.119 This is nineteen thirty four, Lee, and you want to 311 00:18:40.160 --> 00:18:41.880 put cowboys on Buddy and Claude. 312 00:18:42.440 --> 00:18:43.279 Is that what you're. 313 00:18:43.079 --> 00:18:46.680 Selling, Frank Hamer, That's what I'm selling. 314 00:18:47.359 --> 00:18:51.000 That's from the movie The Highwaymen from twenty nineteen. Kevin 315 00:18:51.039 --> 00:18:55.519 Costner played Hamer that movie. And Hamer's legend isn't about 316 00:18:55.559 --> 00:18:58.519 the nineteen tens. When Hamer fought in the Bandit Wars 317 00:18:58.559 --> 00:19:02.000 and threatened Canalis. Hamer had a long, storied career. 318 00:19:02.599 --> 00:19:06.920 He, in my opinion, was the greatest American lawman of 319 00:19:07.039 --> 00:19:11.240 the twentieth century. Nobody had a career that came close 320 00:19:11.359 --> 00:19:12.640 to Frank Hamer's. 321 00:19:13.400 --> 00:19:16.920 That's John Bosnecker. He wrote a best selling biography of 322 00:19:16.960 --> 00:19:20.960 Hamer in twenty sixteen. Francis Augustus Hamer was born in 323 00:19:21.000 --> 00:19:24.440 eighteen eighty four in Fairview, Texas, just north of Dallas. 324 00:19:25.119 --> 00:19:28.000 As a boy, he read stories about the rangers' battles 325 00:19:28.079 --> 00:19:31.359 against the Comanche and Kiowa, and in nineteen oh six 326 00:19:31.680 --> 00:19:34.480 he joined a ranger company in South Texas, patrolling the 327 00:19:34.519 --> 00:19:35.279 Mexican border. 328 00:19:36.000 --> 00:19:38.880 He had no intention of ever going into law enforcement, 329 00:19:39.400 --> 00:19:43.720 but he was an expert horseman, an expert cowboy in 330 00:19:43.799 --> 00:19:49.799 West Texas, crack shot, and incredibly intelligent. He only had 331 00:19:49.799 --> 00:19:53.400 a sixth grade education, but he was naturally intelligent. 332 00:19:55.400 --> 00:19:58.319 Hamer served along the border under Captain J. M. Fox 333 00:19:58.559 --> 00:20:01.759 in the conflict Rangers called the Bandit War, and Hamer 334 00:20:01.799 --> 00:20:05.799 saw some of its most brutal action. The rebels, Saidisnistas, 335 00:20:06.119 --> 00:20:11.200 derailed a train, attacked ranches, and killed indiscriminately. Hamer saw 336 00:20:11.240 --> 00:20:14.839 the terror they had inflicted on South Texans. It was 337 00:20:14.920 --> 00:20:18.960 Texas Governor James Ferguson who dispatched Fox along with Ranger 338 00:20:19.039 --> 00:20:22.759 Captain Harry Ransom to deal with the insurgency in South Texas. 339 00:20:23.559 --> 00:20:27.680 Both men already had bloody reputations. Ferguson told them to 340 00:20:27.680 --> 00:20:30.599 do whatever it took to stop the violence, and he 341 00:20:30.640 --> 00:20:33.759 said he'd pardon them if they'd broke any laws. From 342 00:20:33.759 --> 00:20:36.880 his letters, we know how Hamer felt about these two men. 343 00:20:37.440 --> 00:20:43.079 I think that Hamer was disgusted with both Captain Fox 344 00:20:44.000 --> 00:20:52.000 and with Captain Ransom. Hamer had multiple encounters with both 345 00:20:52.039 --> 00:20:56.359 of them and strongly disliked them and believed they'd brought 346 00:20:56.599 --> 00:20:59.240 terrible discredit to the Ranger Service. 347 00:20:59.720 --> 00:21:03.319 Even know Hamer served under Fox, John says, it's important 348 00:21:03.319 --> 00:21:05.480 to understand that Hamer wasn't at Porvenia. 349 00:21:06.279 --> 00:21:13.319 Hamer certainly had controversial aspects to his career and certainly 350 00:21:13.480 --> 00:21:17.359 made some terrible errors of judgment during his career, but 351 00:21:18.000 --> 00:21:22.599 none of them were taking part in these evaporations. 352 00:21:23.640 --> 00:21:26.519 Hamer saw the aftermath of the largest battle of the 353 00:21:26.519 --> 00:21:30.799 Bandit Wars in nineteen fifteen, about fifteen surgeons attacked a 354 00:21:30.880 --> 00:21:34.119 railroad stop at the King Ranch, the biggest richest ranch 355 00:21:34.160 --> 00:21:38.119 in Texas. The battle was called the Noreas Raid. For hours, 356 00:21:38.519 --> 00:21:41.960 Fox and the Rangers exchanged gunfire with the rebels. The 357 00:21:42.000 --> 00:21:45.799 fighting had already ended when Hamer arrived with Fox, he 358 00:21:45.880 --> 00:21:48.839 searched the area looking for any rebels who had escaped. 359 00:21:49.599 --> 00:21:52.440 Using his Winchester rifle, he pulled open the door to 360 00:21:52.480 --> 00:21:56.359 a shack. The site that greeted him was horrific. On 361 00:21:56.440 --> 00:21:59.039 the floor was the body of a Mexican woman. The 362 00:21:59.079 --> 00:22:01.480 back of her head had been shot off by the rebels. 363 00:22:02.119 --> 00:22:04.839 A group of Mexican railroad workers huddled next to her, 364 00:22:05.160 --> 00:22:09.240 surrounded by her blood. In South Texas, Hamer and the 365 00:22:09.319 --> 00:22:12.119 Rangers felt like they were fighting a war rather than 366 00:22:12.160 --> 00:22:13.119 acting as police. 367 00:22:13.680 --> 00:22:16.680 If you look at it as a military expedition carried 368 00:22:16.680 --> 00:22:22.920 out on the Mexican Texas border. You know the Special Forces. 369 00:22:22.960 --> 00:22:27.519 When they ambush a patrol of ISIS fighters, they open fire. 370 00:22:27.599 --> 00:22:29.200 They don't order them to surrender. 371 00:22:30.039 --> 00:22:33.079 Like many Rangers, Hamer believed that the only way to 372 00:22:33.079 --> 00:22:35.599 stop the rebels was with the shock in All campaign 373 00:22:36.200 --> 00:22:38.880 and after the Notius Raid, he tried to send them 374 00:22:38.880 --> 00:22:39.920 a message. 375 00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:43.519 And in the morning, Hamer and Captain Fox and some 376 00:22:43.640 --> 00:22:48.799 other men posed for photographs where they had lariats looped 377 00:22:48.839 --> 00:22:52.720 around the bodies of several of these dead rebels or bandits, 378 00:22:52.720 --> 00:22:55.519 depending upon how you look at it. And these were 379 00:22:55.680 --> 00:23:00.759 widely sold throughout the border region, even in north in Mexico, 380 00:23:00.839 --> 00:23:05.480 and they just enraged the Latino population because it was 381 00:23:05.559 --> 00:23:12.200 a picture of the very complaint against the rangers misabusing Tejanos. 382 00:23:12.960 --> 00:23:15.759 This was a time when postcards of black men being 383 00:23:15.839 --> 00:23:19.680 lynched were sold in stores across the South, and understandably, 384 00:23:20.160 --> 00:23:23.400 many people in Mexico and South Texas interpreted the photo 385 00:23:23.720 --> 00:23:26.440 as an image of Texas rangers lynching Mexicans. 386 00:23:26.640 --> 00:23:29.279 It was one of the biggest blunders of his career 387 00:23:29.480 --> 00:23:32.519 was to pose for that photo. And during the later 388 00:23:32.680 --> 00:23:37.680 Canalis hearings, one of the US Cavalry officers testified that 389 00:23:37.720 --> 00:23:42.920 those photos did a tremendous amount of damage because it 390 00:23:43.400 --> 00:23:47.920 incited feelings against Texans by people in northern Mexico. 391 00:23:49.119 --> 00:23:52.240 After the Canella's hearings, as dozens of rangers were fired 392 00:23:52.480 --> 00:23:55.599 and the force was professionalized, Hamer was one of the 393 00:23:55.680 --> 00:23:59.319 rangers who managed to keep his job. But now the 394 00:23:59.400 --> 00:24:03.359 rangers were changing, and he had to change too. John says, 395 00:24:04.000 --> 00:24:06.839 you can see this new chapter begin in of all places, 396 00:24:07.400 --> 00:24:09.119 a meeting of the Ku Klux Klan. 397 00:24:10.839 --> 00:24:14.720 And his friends come and invite him to a meeting 398 00:24:14.759 --> 00:24:17.839 of the clan, and they tell him it's to support 399 00:24:18.400 --> 00:24:21.240 law enforcement, and Hamer says, I'm all for anything that 400 00:24:21.279 --> 00:24:25.039 supports law enforcement. So he goes to the meeting, and 401 00:24:25.880 --> 00:24:29.920