Manuel Trazazas Gonzaullas was born on July 4, 1891 in Cádiz, Spain to parents who were naturalized American citizens. He married in 1920, and enlisted in the Texas Rangers that same year. He was in charge of controlling gambling, bank robbery, bootlegging, narcotic trafficking, prostitution, riots, and general lawlessness from the Red River to the Rio Grande and from El Paso, Texas to the Sabine during the 1920s and 1930s. He was made captain of the Company B Texas Rangers in 1940. In 1946, while hunting the Phantom, he swore to stay in Texarkana until the killer was apprehended, but left three months after the last murder.