Ma Barker

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Kate "Ma" Barker (October 8, 1873 – January 16, 1935) was an American criminal from the "public enemy era", when the exploits of gangs of criminals in the Midwest gripped the American people and press. Others included Bonnie and Clyde and John Dillinger.

Contents 1 Early life 1.1 Date of birth 1.2 Family life 2 Controversy 3 Summary of Barker sons/gang activities 4 Popular culture 5 See also 6 Notes 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Early life

[edit] Date of birth

Ma Barker is believed to have been born on October 8, 1873 in Ash Grove, Missouri, near Springfield, and named Arizona Clark. Her parents believed in traditional values and hard work. On Sep. 12,1892, she married George Elias Barker in Aurora, Lawrence Co., MO.

George Barker was the informant on Arizona Barker's amended death certificate. He gave her date of birth as October 8, 1877. The 1877 is incorrect, but October 8 is probably correct. The 1880 Census of Boone Township, Greene County, Missouri, lists Arizona Clark as the stepdaughter of Reuben Reynolds, who had married Arizona's mother, Emeline (Parker) Clark on July 8, 1879 in Greene County, Missouri. Arizona is listed as being 6 years old. This places her birth between June 1, 1873 and June 1, 1874, and agrees with a birthdate of October 8, 1873. The best record of Arizona's year of birth is her marriage record. She married George Elias Barker on September 12, 1892 in Aurora, Lawrence County, Missouri. She gave her age as 18. This places her birth between September 12, 1873 and September 12, 1874, and again agrees with a birthdate of October 8, 1873. In 1910 George and Arrie Barker appeared on the census of Finley, Christian County, Missouri. Arrie was listed as age 36, and therefore born between April 15, 1873 and April 15, 1874. This also agrees with a birthdate of October 8, 1873. The 1920 census of Lincoln, Stone County, Missouri, gives Arrie's age as 45 - when she should have been 46. Her age at the time of her first marriage is given as 17, when it was actually 18.

In 1930 Arrie appeared on the census of Tulsa, Tulsa County, Oklahoma, as the wife of Arthur W. Dunlop. Her age was given as 53, when she was actually 56. The 1920 and 1930 censuses are probably in error, but there is the possibility that Arrie was shaving a few years off her age as time went by. Based upon the above five records and the fact that the first three are in agreement, the date of her birth appears to be Oct 8. 1873.

[edit] Family life

George and Arizona had four boys named Herman, Lloyd, Arthur, and Fred. George and Arrie were undoubtedly poor parents and the boys became juvenile delinquents early on. Arrie did everything she could to protect her boys and to keep them out of jail. Some accounts claim that George Barker was a worthless drunk, but it appears from the 1910-30 censuses and the Tulsa City Directories from 1916-28 that he was regularly employed. From 1916-19 he worked for the Crystal Springs Water Co. In the 1920's he was variously employed as a farmer, watchman, station engineer and clerk. George is last listed with Arrie in the 1928 Tulsa City Directory. Herman had committed suicide on 19 Sep. 1927. In 1928 Lloyd was in Leavenworth, Arthur was in the Oklahoma State Prison and Fred was in the Kansas State Prison. Whether George was thrown out by Arrie, as some claim, or whether he left on his own accord when life with her and the family became intolerable, is not known, but it is clear that he did not desert his family when the boys were young. The boys were either dead or in jail before he left Arrie. Miriam Allen deFord in her 1970 biography entitled "The Real Ma Barker," wrote "This was the period when George Barker gave up completely and quietly removed himself from the scene."

[edit] Controversy

Though her children were undoubtedly criminals and their Barker-Karpis Gang committed a spree of robberies, kidnappings and other crimes between 1931 and 1935, the popular image of her as the gang's leader and its criminal mastermind would appear to be fictitious.

The actual degree of Barker's own criminality is in doubt. However, she did likely know of the gang's activities and helped them before and after they committed their crimes, and this would make her an accomplice. There is no evidence that she was ever an active participant in any of the crimes themselves or involved in planning them. Her role was in taking care of gang members, who often sent her to the movies while they committed crimes. Alvin Karpis, the gang's second most notorious member, later said that:^[1]

“

The most ridiculous story in the annals of crime is that Ma Barker was the mastermind behind the Karpis-Barker gang ... She wasn't a leader of criminals or even a criminal herself. There is not one police photograph of her or set of fingerprints taken while she was alive ... she knew we were criminals but her participation in our careers was limited to one function: when we traveled together, we moved as a mother and her sons. What could look more innocent?

”

This view of Ma Barker is corroborated by notorious bank robber Harvey Bailey, who knew the Barkers well. He observed in his autobiography that Ma Barker "couldn't plan breakfast" let alone a criminal enterprise.

Many, including Karpis, have suggested that the myth was encouraged by J. Edgar Hoover^[2] and his fledgling Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to justify his agency's killing of an old lady.^[3] FBI Agents discovered the hideout of Ma Barker and her son, Fred, after Arthur "Doc" Barker was arrested in Chicago on January 8, 1935, and a map found in his possession indicated that the other gang members were in Ocala, Florida. Agents surrounded the house on the morning of January 16, 1935. Ordered to surrender, the two Barkers decided to fight it out and were killed in the subsequent gun battle. According to the FBI, a Tommy gun was found lying in the hands of Ma Barker (it is a common belief that this was a fabrication by the FBI in order to justify her violent death).^[4] Their bodies were abandoned until October 1, 1935, when they were buried in Welch, Oklahoma, by some family relatives, next to the body of Herman Barker.

[edit] Summary of Barker sons/gang activities

1900 - 1920

• 1910—Herman Barker arrested for highway robbery in Webb City, Missouri.
• March 5, 1915—Herman Barker arrested for highway robbery in Joplin, Missouri. {Herman and Lloyd Barker reportedly involved with the Central Park Gang of Tulsa, Oklahoma.}
• July 4, 1918—Arthur "Doc" Barker involved in US automobile theft in Tulsa, Oklahoma; arrested {#841} {escaped}.

1920 - 1930

• February 19, 1920 - Arthur Barker arrested in Joplin, Missouri (#1740); returned to Tulsa, Oklahoma.
• 1921—Lloyd "Red" Barker arrested for vagrancy in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
• January 15, 1921—Arthur Barker aka "Claude Dade" involved in attempted bank robbery in Muskogee, Oklahoma; arrested {#822}.
• January 30, 1921—Arthur Barker aka "Bob Barker" received at the Oklahoma State Prison (#11059); released June 11, 1921.
• August 16, 1921—Arthur Barker and Volney Davis involved in killing of night watchman James J. Sherrill in Tulsa, Oklahoma. (According to other sources, Thomas J. (James?) Sherrill was a night watchman at St. John's Hospital in Tulsa.)
• January 8, 1922—Central Park Gang involved in attempted burglary in Okmulgee, Oklahoma; shootout results in one burglar dead while police Captain Homer R. Spaulding dies of his wounds on January 19, 1922. One gang member is sentenced to life in prison while another had his sentence overturned.
• January 16, 1922—Lloyd Barker received at Leavenworth Prison {#17243} after arrest for robbing mail at Baxter Springs, Kansas and sentenced to 25 years; released 1938.
• February 10, 1922—Arthur "Doc" Barker received {#11906} at Oklahoma State Prison for the murder of Sherrill.
• 1926—Fred Barker robbed bank in Winfield, Kansas; arrested.
• March 12, 1927—Fred Barker admitted to Kansas State Prison.
• August 29, 1927—Herman Barker commits suicide in Wichita, Kansas after being stopped at police roadblock. {Wichita Policeman J.E. Marshall had been killed on August 9, 1927 by the Kimes-Terrill gang that Herman was associated with}.

1930 - 1940

• March 30, 1931—Fred Barker released from Kansas State Prison after serving time for burglary; met Alvin Karpis in prison.
• June 10, 1931—Fred Barker and Alvin Karpis {alias George Heller} arrested by Tulsa, Oklahoma Police investigating burglary. Karpis sentenced to 4 years but paroled after restitution made; Fred Barker also avoided jail sentence.
• November 8, 1931—Fred Barker killed Pocahontas, Arkansas police chief Manley Jackson.
• December 19, 1931—Fred Barker and Alvin Karpis robbed a store in West Plains, Missouri and involved in the killing of Howell County, Missouri sheriff C. Roy Kelly.
• January 18, 1932—Lloyd Barker received at Leavenworth Prison.
• April 26, 1932—Body of A.W. Dunlap found at Lake Franstead, Minnesota; killed by Fred Barker and Alvin Karpis.
• June 17, 1932—Fred Barker, Karpis and five accomplices robbed Fort Scott, Kansas Bank.
• July 7, 1932—Three members of Barker-Karpis gang arrested by FBI.
• July 26, 1932—Fred Barker, Karpis (with an augmented gang) robbed Cloud County bank at Concordia, Kansas.
• August 13, 1932—Attorney J. Earl Smith of Tulsa, Oklahoma found killed at Indian Hills Country Club north of Tulsa; he had been retained to defend one of the Barker-Karpis gang over the Fort Scott bank robbery, but the man was convicted.
• September 10, 1932—Arthur "Doc" Barker released from prison.
• December 16, 1932—Fred and Arthur Barker, Alvin Karpis and gang robbed Third Northwestern National Bank in Minneapolis, killing policemen Ira Leon Evans and Leo Gorski and one civilian. {One gang member Lawrence DeVol in this shooting was also involved in four other police kilings-two in lowa and one in Kirksville, MO in 1930 and in Enid, OK in 1936.}
• April 4, 1933—Fred and Arthur Barker, Alvin Karpis and gang robbed Fairbury, Nebraska bank.
• June 1933—William Hamm of the Hamm's Brewery family kidnapped by Barker-Karpis gang; Hamm released June 19, 1933 after ransom paid. It is believed by some that the gang turned over half of the Hamm ransom money to the Chicago Mob under Frank Nitti after Nitti discovered that they were hiding Hamm in suburban Chicago and demanded half the ransom as "rent".
• August 30, 1933—Barker-Karpis Gang robs a payroll at Stockyards National Bank of South St Paul, Minnesota in which one policeman Leo Pavlak is coldly executed and one invalided for life.
• September 22, 1933—Two bank messengers held up by five men identified as Barker-Karpis gang; Chicago policeman Miles A Cunningham is killed by gang while investigating a nearby traffic accident. {Barker-Karpis gang associate Vernon Miller was allegedly involved in the killing, and reportedly also involved in the Kansas City Massacre in which four lawmen were killed}.
• January 17, 1934—Gang kidnaps Edward George Bremer; Bremer released on February 7, 1934 after ransom paid.
• January 19, 1934—Gang wounds M.C. McCord of Northwest Airways Company, thinking he was a policeman.
• March 10, 1934—Barker gang member Fred Goetz (also known as "Shotgun George" Ziegler, a participant in the Bremer kidnapping) killed by fellow gangsters in Cicero, Illinois.
• July 1934—Underworld doctor Joseph Moran last seen alive.
• January 6, 1935—Barker gang member William B. Harrison killed by fellow gangsters at Ontarioville, Illinois.
• January 8, 1935—Arthur "Doc" Barker arrested in Chicago; Barker gang member Russell Gibson killed and his colleague Byron Bolton captured at another address.
• January 16, 1935—Fred and Ma Barker killed by FBI at Lake Weir, Florida. Ma Barker was discovered by the FBI tracking her letters sent to her other son. She was writing to him to tell him about a large gator that everyone had called "Gator Joe", which led to the name of the on-shore restaurant known as "Gator Joe's."
• September 26, 1935—The supposed body of underworld doctor Joseph Moran found in Lake Erie; believed killed by Fred Barker and Alvin Karpis. (However, Karpis himself said that Moran had been buried.)
• November 7, 1935—Karpis and five accomplices robbed a Erie Railroad mail train at Garrittsville, Ohio.
• May 1, 1936—Karpis and accomplice Fred Hunter arrested in New Orleans, Louisiana.
• January 13, 1939—Arthur Barker killed trying to escape from Alcatraz Prison.

(Of Barker-Karpis gang/associates: 18 arrested; 3 killed by lawmen; 2 killed by gangsters)

1940 -

• World War II -- Lloyd Barker is US Army cook, ironically at POW camp Fort Custer, Michigan; receives US Army Good Conduct Medal and Honorable Discharge.
• March 18, 1949—Lloyd Barker killed by his wife; he is manager of Denargo Market in Denver Colorado; she is sent to Colorado State Insane Asylum.

[edit] Popular culture

• Lurene Tuttle portrayed Ma Barker in the low-budget feature film Ma Barker's Killer Brood (1960).

• Barker's story was also adapted in the low budget film Bloody Mama (1970).

• In 1977, German disco band Boney M. released a hit single titled Ma Baker. The song's title and lyrics clearly reference Ma Barker.

• Another retelling of the legend occurred in the 1996 movie Public Enemies starring Theresa Russell.

• "Ma Barker and Her Boys", an episode of The Untouchables, pits Federal Agent Eliot Ness against the Barker clan, and depicts Ness as leading the assault on Ma Barker and her sons at their Florida hide-out. In real life Ness was not a member of the FBI at the time of the shoot-out, and had nothing to do with the Barker/Karpis case.

[edit] See also

• List of Depression-era outlaws

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Hornberger, Francine (2002) Mistresses of mayhem: the book of women criminals Alpha, Indianapolis, IN, ISBN 0028642600 ;
• Hamilton, Sue, and Hamilton, John (1989) Public Enemy Number One: The Barkers Abdo and Daughters, Bloomington, MN, ISBN 0939179652 ;
• Winter, Robert (2000) Mean Men: The Sons of Ma Barker Routledge, Danbury, Connecticut, ISBN 1582440905 ;
• deFord, Miriam Allen (1970) The Real Ma Barker: Mastermind of a Whole Family of Killers Ace, New York;
• Perkins; Jack; Drummond, John; and Cara, Mark (1996) Ma Barker crime family values (television documentary on VHS tape) A & E Home Video, New York, ISBN 0767010604 ;
• Federal Bureau of Investigation. Barker-Karpis Gang (summary). Washington: GPO, 1937. <http://foia.fbi.gov/filelink.html?file=/barksumm/barksum1.pdf>

[edit] External links

• Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture - Barker Gang