![Hero of Horsepower - Los Angeles lawman William Hammel tamed one of the West's wildest towns with hard work and horseless carriages.](https://cdn.magzter.com/1442267826/1717525484/articles/lWmYBlKzF1720076777256/Hammel-Martin-Aguirre-LA-County-History-police-history-William-Hammel-cars-patrol-history-West-Wild-West-road-vehicles-first-patrol-cars-Los-Angeles-Billy-Hammel.jpg)
Los Angeles, California.
Not everyone's picture of a wild-and-woolly Western town-even though Wyatt Earp, who spent his last years there, claimed Tombstone in its heyday "wasn't half as bad as Los Angeles." Policing the City of Angels, and the 4,000-square-mile county of coastline, desert and mountains encompassing it, took a special breed of lawmen. Men like Billy Hammel.
Native Angeleno William Augustus Hammel was born March 13, 1865. The son of a doctor and educated at Santa Clara University, young Billy-likely to his parents' chagrin-took a brief stab at cowboying in Arizona. He soon returned to California and might have settled in the grocery business but for his brother-in-law, L.A. County Sheriff George Gard.
In mid-April 1885 Melcado Garcia, a notorious "horse-thief and desperado," had traded gunfire with a deputy sheriff near the San Gabriel Mission. Gard swore in Hammel as a special deputy and sent him and boyhood friend Martin Aguirre, a county constable, on Garcia's trail.
They followed it northwest through the Arroyo Seco and, finding Garcia "wounded in bed" the deputy's bullet in his chest-30 miles away at San Fernando, captured him without further gunplay. Thus in true Old West fashion, Hammel embarked on a career spanning four decades, taking L.A. law enforcement from its horseback days to the mechanized 20th century.
When William Hammel was born in 1865, Los Angeles County had under 15,000 residents. When Sheriff Hammel died in 1932, the county had grown to over two million. Image courtesy Library of Congress.
A Badge Well Worn
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة July - August 2024 من True West.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة July - August 2024 من True West.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
![Where Did the Loot Go? - This is one of those find the money stories. And it's one that has attracted treasure hunters for more than 150 years.](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/11398/1722035/JFYkwruoA1720078318806/crp_WHERE-DID-THE-LOOT-GO.jpg)
Where Did the Loot Go? - This is one of those find the money stories. And it's one that has attracted treasure hunters for more than 150 years.
Whatever happened to the $97,000 from the Reno Gang's last heist? Up to a dozen members of the Reno Gang stopped a Jeffersonville, Madison and Indianapolis train at a watering station in southern Indiana. The outlaws had prior intelligence about its main load: express car safes held about $97,000 in government bonds and notes. In the process of the job, one of the crew was killed and two others hurt. The gang made a clean getaway with the loot.
![Hero of Horsepower - Los Angeles lawman William Hammel tamed one of the West's wildest towns with hard work and horseless carriages.](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/11398/1722035/lWmYBlKzF1720076777256/crp_Hammel-Martin-Aguirre-LA-County-History-police-history-William-Hammel-cars-patrol-history-West-Wild-West-road-vehicles-first-patrol-cars-Los-Angeles-Billy-Hammel.jpg)
Hero of Horsepower - Los Angeles lawman William Hammel tamed one of the West's wildest towns with hard work and horseless carriages.
Los Angeles lawman William Hammel tamed one of the West's wildest towns with hard work and horseless carriages.
![From the Basin to the Plains](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/11398/1722035/5dfn8eJi11720079052924/FROM-THE-BASIN-TO-THE-PLAINS.jpg)
From the Basin to the Plains
Discover Wyoming on a road trip to Cody, Casper and Cheyenne.
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COLLECTING AMERICAN OUTLAWS
Wilbur Zink has preserved the Younger Gang's history in more ways than one.
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Spencer's West
After the Civil War, savvy frontiersmen chose the Spencer repeating carbine.
![Firearms With a Storied Past](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/11398/1722035/WTZwGkPPG1720078507684/FIREARMS-WITH-A-STORIED-PAST.jpg)
Firearms With a Storied Past
Rock Island gavels off high profits from historic firearms.
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She Means Business!
An energetic and ambitious woman has come to Lincoln, New Mexico, to restore the town's legendary Ellis Store.
![Ride that Train!](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/11398/1722035/fSwXIHk2j1720077702685/RIDE-THAT-TRAIN.jpg)
Ride that Train!
HERITAGE RAILROADS KEEP THE OLD WEST ALIVE ACROSS THE UNITED STATES.
![Saddle Up with a Western](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/11398/1722035/CuHNSIebs1720077108988/SADDLE-UP-WITH-A-WESTERN.jpg)
Saddle Up with a Western
Old West fiction and nonfiction are the perfect genres to fill your summer reading list.
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RENEGADES OF THE RAILS
RAILROADS WERE OPEN SEASON FOR OKLAHOMA AND INDIAN TERRITORY OUTLAW GANGS.