European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 15, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Los rangers Hove changed their image from cowboys on horseback to men in suits but Are still often controversial. York time photo Texas rangers still under fire Symik Cochran associated press in the Early morning hours of Jan. 13. The East Texas Hamlet of Saltillo reverberated with shots shouts screams find  Texas rangers had come to  a running Battle across three counties a kidnapping Case was being wrapped up in darkness and gunfire. Officers rushed the crippled getaway car. Wounded two of the kidnappers and rescued 13-year-old Amy Mcniel unharmed. They May be the most fantastic organization in the world said the girl s lather Don Mcniel. The Texas rangers stand As a blur of fact and fiction folded by 162 years of bravery and occasional brutality and the Fertile imagination of Hollywood. You know them Well big men on big horses wearing big hats and big boots and big guns usually twin six shooters. John Wayne in gabardine and circled Silver Star. The Lone Ranger with his trusty sidekick Tonto. Hardly. The rangers of the 80s Are something else. All 94 of them. As elitist As Ever the rangers have evolved into what Texas department of Public safety director Jim Adams Calls a Premier felony investigative group highly trained highly experienced highly motivated and highly  it is says Adams a group that does what has to be  Ranger deeds however Are often controversial even today. The Dallas times Herald recently questioned the performance of a homicide task Force headed by the rangers suggesting that it had been hoodwinked by Henry Lee Lucas confessions to 200-plus murders. The evidence strongly suggests that the authorities particularly the gubernatorial homicide task Force headed by Texas rangers had information that would have exonerated Lucas from Many of the murders but ignored or failed to pursue leads that would have proven the deceit of his confessions the newspaper said. In some cases in declining to accept documents such As prison records As accurate authorities actually amended information to conform to Lucas confessions the times Herald added. Adams rejected the charges saying the task Force was supposed to coordinate not investigate. Williamson county sheriff Jim Boutwell works daily with rangers stationed in Georgetown where Lucas is in All and insists there is no liner group. They Are very proud of the Ranger heritage and they strive mightily to live up to that reputation he said. Romantic historian say the Story of is Texas rangers is essentially the Story of Texas and they Bend the truth Only a bit. Begun informally in 1823, the rangers were created by Stephen f. Austin the father of Texas who brought the first settlers in the Early 1820s. The rangers name came from their Mission the Small band of recruits ranged the Texas Frontier on horseback in defense of the colonists. They Rode in and out of the history books As activists in Texas War with Mexico its Era of Independence its statehood its secession from the Union and the eventual reunification. Through barbed wire and prohibition and Oil Boom and drug bust. Rangers battled Indian warriors. Mexican bandits and american desperado not to mention a Lew foreign spies and assorted boo town rowdies and refugees. The Ranger Creed was uttered Long ago by Ranger capt. . Mcnelly no Man in the wrong can stand up against a Man in the right who keeps on a comin Mcnelly once Ted 30 rangers into Mexico in search of the Kingpin of bandidos Gen. Juan Flores. He found Flores with 300 men and a Herd of stolen Texas cattle. He sent or . Help but was ordered to withdraw. I shall remain in Mexico with my rangers and Cross Back at my discretion he replied coolly. Give my compliments to the Secretary of War and Tell him and his . Soldiers to go to  Ranger John b. Armstrong working alone captured the gunfighter John Wesley Hardin and Lour of his men on a train in Florida in 1877. In 1930, capt. Frank Hamer confronted a mob intent on Lynching a Black prisoner held in the Sherman e for assaulting a White woman. Come on up in you eel Lucky Hamer hollered from atop the courthouse Steps. But if you try it there la be a lot of funerals in Sherman  no one fell Lucky. It was Hamer who later came out of retirement to arrange the fatal ambush of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow in 1934. The historian and author Walter Prescott Webb tells the classic Story of a town terrorized by a mob. That sent Lor the rangers. Where Are your men wondered the mayor when a single Ranger stepped from the noon train. "1 am he Only  he replied. What cried the mayor. We need a company of  you be Only got one mob Haven t you the Ranger replied. Page 16 the stars and stripes tuesday october 15, 1985