A Killer Bullets Couldn't Stop

While fighting for the citizens they swore to protect, two horseback-era Texas Rangers were cut down by a deadly killer.

- MIKE COX

Maybe in the flag-waving fervor following America’s April 2, 1917, entry in the Great War, 56-year-old Ben Pennington saw joining the Texas Rangers as a patriotic act. Too old for the military, Pennington perhaps thought he could help guard the border from Mexican bandits or German spies and saboteurs. If he could not take on the Huns himself, he could take part in rounding up slackers (draft dodgers) or jailing anyone speaking disloyally of America.

For whatever reason, on October 4, 1917, Pennington enlisted as a ranger under Captain James Monroe Fox in Brewster County. Though new to the Texas Rangers, Pennington had toted a pistol for two decades, a dozen years as marshal of the Central Texas town of Holland, followed by eight years as a Bell County constable. Heavyset with light hair and brown eyes, he stood 5 feet 10 inches.

An easygoing cowboy from San Angelo with light brown hair and blue eyes, 34-yearold Bob Hunt was as tall as Pennington if shorter in overall law enforcement experience. He had first signed on as a ranger in El Paso-based Co. B on June 8, 1915. The following spring, on April 11, 1916, he resigned for reasons not noted on his records. But on August 20, 1918, the affable bachelor rejoined the Texas Rangers as a private under Co. L Capt. W. W. Davis.