Journal Notes

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Ma Barker: America’s Most Wanted Mother.

In a time when notorious Depression-era criminals were terrorizing the country, the Barker-Karpis Gang stole more money than mobsters John Dillinger, Vern Miller, and Bonnie and Clyde combined. Five of the most wanted thieves, murderers, and kidnappers by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the 1930s were from the same family. Authorities believed the woman behind the band of violent hoodlums that ravaged the Midwest was their mother, Kate “Ma” Barker.

The heat generated by the kidnapping of bank president Edward Bremer—which resulted in $200,000 in ransom being paid after the wealthy man was released on January 7, 1934—chased the Barkers, or what was left of them, into hiding. Those who stayed in the Chicago area adopted easy disguises. Alvin Karpis and Fred Barker felt it necessary to take more drastic measures as they were too well-known to the FBI. In mid-March 1934, Karpis—nicknamed “Old Creepy” because of his expressionless eyes—and Fred Barker went to the secluded office of Doctor Joseph Moran to have their fingerprints altered and faces changed.

Doctor Moran had a respectable practice until he started drinking heavily, became an abortionist, and was eventually sent to Joliet prison. When paroled, Moran was hired as a physician for the Chicago Chauffeurs’ Teamsters’ and Helpers Union and set up practice in a hotel, where he led a double life, treating gangsters as well as ordinary patients.

The night he operated on Alvin and Fred he was a physical ruin. His fumbling fingers did little more than butcher his two patients, who were injected with morphine and sent off to recuperate.

Ma Barker gave them medical attention. Though Alvin was stoical, Fred often screamed from the pain and had to be restrained forcefully. In addition to nursing duties, Ma was completing arrangements with gangster Adelard Cunin, a survivor of the North Side mob in Chicago, to launder the $100,000 the Barker-Karpis Gang received as a ransom for kidnapping W. J. Hamm Jr., the president of Hamm’s Brewery in St. Paul, Minnesota. Adelard had agreed to handle the ransom money from the Bremer kidnapping job as well.

The Chicago branch of the Federal Bureau of Investigation was made the busiest field office in FBI history by the depredations of numerous well-known gangs, the perpetrators of the Kansas City massacre, and the normal flow of investigations. Melvin Purvis, the Special Agent in Charge, was the nominal chief. However, that spring of 1934 the office on the nineteenth floor of the Bangers Building was also the headquarters of a Special Squad which the Director of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, supervised personally.

Hoover’s dogged concentration on Midwest crime prompted Ma Barker to advise her sons and their outlaw companions to leave the city. She decided it was too dangerous for any member of the Barker-Karpis Gang, disguised or not, to remain in Chicago. Most of the gang scattered. By January 1935, FBI agents had disposed of Pretty Boy Floyd and John Dillinger’s gangs. Ma’s son Arthur had also been seized by authorities.

To learn more about Ma Barker and he Barker Gang read

Ma Barker: America’s Most Wanted Mother.

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Ma Barker: America’s Most Wanted Mother.

In a time when notorious Depression-era criminals were terrorizing the country, the Barker-Karpis Gang stole more money than mobsters John Dillinger, Vern Miller, and Bonnie and Clyde combined. Five of the most wanted thieves, murderers, and kidnappers by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the 1930s were from the same family. Authorities believed the woman behind the band of violent hoodlums that ravaged the Midwest was their mother, Kate “Ma” Barker.

On January 14, 1939, immediately following an autopsy of the slain convicted kidnapper Arthur Barker, a staff member at the San Francisco Coroner’s Office made a death mask of the dead man’s face.

A memorandum written by a representative of the San Francisco division of the FBI noted that a plaster mold of Arthur’s face had to be made as close to his death as possible. “Well before bloating and the elements distort the character of expression,” the memo read. The process of making the mold was included in the note dated April 20, 1939. “Apply grease to the face and especially any facial hair, including eyebrows. Once the plaster dries layer plaster bandages mixed with water on the face. The first layer captures the details, even wrinkles, while the other layers reinforce the first. Then carefully remove the hardened mold, or negative, from the face. Finally, pour a substance like wax or a metal such as bronze into the negative to make a positive, three-dimensional death mask.”

The memo, outlining the dos and don’ts of making a death mask, was addressed to J. Edgar Hoover’s office. “This is a good death mask,” the note read. “I am arranging for a negative mold of the same to be made at once so that several copies can be made and used in the Director’s office or wherever else it may be considered desired to exhibit.”

The mask made of Arthur’s face was not the first FBI Director Hoover requested to be made. He had one poured of gangster John Dillinger in July 1934. Four masks of Dillinger’s face were made, and Hoover proudly had one on display in his office. The mask captured every detail of Dillinger’s face: the bullet wound, the scrapes from where he had hit the pavement, the bloating and the swelling from the heat and pooling blood, and even the tell-tale signs of underground plastic surgery. Arthur’s mask was just as telling. His original death mask was placed for safe keeping in the glass exhibit case on displaying moulage (the process of making molds) in the front exhibit room of the San Francisco coroner’s laboratory.

　To learn more about Ma Barker and he Barker Gang read

Ma Barker: America’s Most Wanted Mother.

Enter now to win a copy of

Ma Barker: America’s Most Wanted Mother.

In a time when notorious Depression-era criminals were terrorizing the country, the Barker-Karpis Gang stole more money than mobsters John Dillinger, Vern Miller, and Bonnie and Clyde combined. Five of the most wanted thieves, murderers, and kidnappers by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the 1930s were from the same family. Authorities believed the woman behind the band of violent hoodlums that ravaged the Midwest was their mother, Kate “Ma” Barker.

16 Jan 1935, Florida, USA — Original caption: 1/16/35-Oklawaha, Florida: Ma Barker and her son, gangster Fred Barker, in morgue of Iklawaha, Florida, after they were shot. Photograph. — Image by © Corbis

The bodies of Ma Barker and her son Fred were taken to the Pyle Mortuary in Ocala, Florida, after they were killed in the shoot–out with federal agents. On January 16, 1935, mother and son were laid on stainless steel slabs, their frames covered with sheets from their necks down. Marion County officials and federal agents posed for photographs with the dead gangsters, and reporters negotiated with morgue employees for a chance to see the well-known criminals lying in state.

The deceased outlaws were the town’s top attraction for eight months. Their iced-down bodies, riddled with bullet holes, were still and bloated, waiting for somebody to come bury them. The FBI encouraged the Barkers’ extended stay in Florida, hoping that gang members still at large might drop by to make sure the two gangsters were indeed Ma and Fred Barker. No gang members showed, but tourists came from all over the country to view the bodies.

George Barker, Ma’s estranged husband, was notified of the death of his wife and son on January 17, 1935. The January 18, 1935, edition of the Springfield Daily News noted that George, now sixty-seven, wasn’t interested in hearing about the pair. “I don’t care when and how Fred and Kate are buried,” he told reporters. “I don’t care to have them brought back here. I wouldn’t care to attend the funeral. I’d like to be left out of all this. They chose their path some years ago and I followed mine. I haven’t seen any of them in years.”

George was a solitary man who had worked at a gas station and as a caretaker of a campground in Joplin, Missouri, since he and Ma had gone their separate ways in 1928. An article in the October 14, 1935, edition of the Pulaski Southwest Times reported that George rarely, if ever, spoke to his estranged wife and children. He was visited often by law enforcement agents who speculated that members of the Barker-Karpis Gang might use his home and business as a place to hide from the law. George’s friends and neighbors said he was honest and upright and that his only solace came in knowing that at least one member of the family remained respectable.

“After the Barker boys began to get in ‘big time’ crime they tried to lure their father away from Joplin,” the Pulaski Southwest Times article read. “They told him he would not have to worry anymore about money the rest of his life. George, however, chose to remain in Joplin barely earning enough to live on.”

The government strongly encouraged George to assume the legal responsibility for taking care of burying his family. It wasn’t until George learned that Ma and Fred would be given a pauper’s funeral and laid to rest in Florida that he decided he wanted to bring them home. The problem was he didn’t have money for his estranged wife and son to be transported to Oklahoma to be buried next to Herman. It would take George several months to gather enough funds to get the job done.

In the meantime, George learned that he and another gentleman named Frank Dixon were named co–administrators of Fred’s estate. The money discovered at the Florida home where Fred and Ma were killed had been confiscated by the FBI. The serial numbers on the bills did not match those on the ransom money from the Bremer kidnapping, but the bureau had a reasonable expectation that the cash had been acquired from some illegal activity. The government would not release the funds to Fred’s estate and refused to give George a receipt for it.

　To learn more about Ma Barker and he Barker Gang read

Ma Barker: America’s Most Wanted Mother.

Enter now to win a copy of

Ma Barker: America’s Most Wanted Mother.

In a time when notorious Depression-era criminals were terrorizing the country, the Barker-Karpis Gang stole more money than mobsters John Dillinger, Vern Miller, and Bonnie and Clyde combined. Five of the most wanted thieves, murderers, and kidnappers by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the 1930s were from the same family. Authorities believed the woman behind the band of violent hoodlums that ravaged the Midwest was their mother, Kate “Ma” Barker.

Fifteen federal agents stood in rapt silence outside the home of Mrs. Blackburn and her son in Lake Weir, Florida. Mrs. Blackburn was really Ma Barker. At 5:32 in the morning on January 16, 1935, an investigator had knocked on the front door of the house and shouted, “We are Department of Justice men. Come on out!” He heard naked feet patter along an inside hallway and doors on the second floor of the home opening and closing. The FBI believed Ma and Fred were inside the house but were not certain if anyone else was with them.

The agent who had dared approach the two-story residence walked backwards to a spot behind one of the many oak trees on the property. He exchanged a glance with the other agents under cover around him. Their lips were grim, their hands loose upon their machine guns. No one said a word for several long moments. Finally, Ma responded to law enforcement’s demand that she and her son, Fred come out.

“Who are you?” she asked.

“Federal officers,” the lead agent replied.

More time passed; then Ma called out, “All right, go ahead.”

The special agents interpreted the remark to mean that Ma and Fred were going to surrender, but they were wrong. Fred suddenly appeared in the front doorway, bare-headed, in a white shirt and gray trousers, and with a spitting machine gun. As Fred’s bullets crashed toward the agent, Ma’s high shrill voice came like a cry of doom: “Let ‘em have it!” Fred’s machine gun fire was answered by tear gas bombs, rifle fire, and machine-gun fire from weapons in the hands of FBI agents.

Across the way from the white house, Mrs. A. F. Westberry was awakened by the roar of gunfire. It seemed to come from all sides of her house; it was close up, and it seemed to shake the building. In abject terror, she jerked herself to a sitting position as bullets crashed through her closed bedroom door and buried themselves in the head of her bed. She later told newspaper reporters:

“I got out of bed…opened the door a crack, and more bullets came through the window and hit the face of the door above my head. I looked out the window and saw the yard was full of men. From Mr. Bradford’s house across the road there was a lot of shooting. I could see streaks of fire from the guns. I could see the blazes from the men’s guns on the outside. There was a lot of rapid fire like machine guns. My daughter was in bed. I broke open the back window of our room and told her we had to get out. About that time some more bullets came smacking through the dining room window and hit the wall.

To learn more about Ma Barker and he Barker Gang read

Ma Barker: America’s Most Wanted Mother.

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The Barker boys…

All they were or hoped to be they owed to their mother.

Kate Barker wanted the nice things of life: the lovely home, the fine clothes, and lots of money in the bank. She ended up with a police slug in her heart and $10,200 in her wallet.

According to FBI records Kate Barker was an overbearing mother who somehow lost her bearings on the path of motherly love. In attempting to guide, she misguided. In trying to spread affection, she nurtured hate. The rational sense of motherly duty was warped by her desire to get the most and fastest for her boys.

The boys got this:
Son Herman was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in 1927 after a shootout with a Kansas traffic officer.
Son Fred was riddled with eleven gunshot wounds in a police fight and died alongside his mother in 1935.
Son Arthur (called Doc) was killed in 1939 during an attempted breakout of Alcatraz.
Son Lloyd was slain by his wife in 1949 when she claimed he had threatened her and the children.

That was the legacy of Ma Barker, a woman who saw crime as a means to an end but who never counted on things ending like they did.

To learn more about Ma Barker and he Barker Gang read

Ma Barker: America’s Most Wanted Mother.

It’s the scariest giveaway ever.

Enter now to win a copy of the new book

Ma Barker: America’s Most Wanted Mother.

Everything Ma Barker’s fugitive sons grew up to be they

owed to their mother.

Kate Barker wanted the nice things of life: the lovely home, the fine clothes, and lots of money in the bank. She ended up with a police slug in her heart and $10,200 in her wallet.

According to the FBI records Kate Barker was an overbearing mother who somehow lost her way on the path of motherly love. In attempting to guide, she misguided. In trying to spread affection, she nurtured hate. In her attempts to fulfill a warped sense of motherly duty, she literally loved her sons to death. Ma Barker was a woman who saw crime as a means to an end, but who never counted on things ending like they did.

To learn more about Ma Barker and her boys read

Ma Barker: America’s Most Wanted Mother.

Latasha Sandoval is the winner of the Ma Barker giveaway! She’ll receive a copy of the new book Ma Barker: America’s Most Wanted Mother,

a gift basket filled with goodies that would make Ma Barker proud,

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Another Ma Barker giveaway will be take place in October. Stay tuned.

Only one day left to enter to win a copy of the new book

Ma Barker: America’s Most Wanted Mother

along with a Ma Barker gift package which includes a two night stay at one of

Ma’s favorite hideout cities, Reno, Nevada.

In a time when notorious Depression-era criminals were terrorizing the country, the Barker-Karpis Gang stole more money than mobsters John Dillinger, Vern Miller, and Bonnie and Clyde combined. Five of the most wanted thieves, murderers, and kidnappers by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the 1930s were from the same family. Authorities believed the woman behind the band of violent hoodlums that ravaged the Midwest was their mother, Kate “Ma” Barker.

Cold wind and spitting rain assaulted patrons outside the Rialto Theatre in downtown Chicago in late April 1934. Inside, smartly uniformed ushers escorted excited moviegoers to their seats. They hurried along the plush, carpeted aisles, chattering about the film they were about to see and the violent weather that had threatened to keep them away. The ticket-holders paid little attention to anyone outside the friends or family with them. Ma, Fred, and Alvin were pleased by the moviegoers’ preoccupation. Although the three weren’t trying to hide their identities, they did not want people to take undue notice of them. They sat quietly in their seats, waiting for the movie to begin. A hush fell over the audience when the lights were dimmed and the projector came on. Fred sunk down in his seat, and Alvin draped his arm affectionately around Ma’s shoulders.

A Universal International Newsreel flashed on the giant screen in front of the group. The footage included a press conference of German foreign minister Konstantin von Neurath denouncing France for “destroying at a single blow the result of lengthy negotiations for disarmament,” a report about the death of American sportswriter and editor Joe Vila, and an announcement about the American government’s war against dangerous and criminally prolific gangsters.

A shot of a federal agent reviewing a stack of files appeared on the screen. The names on the tops of the file folders read Charles A. Floyd alias “Pretty Boy,” Homer Van Meter, Vernon C. Miller, and John Hamilton. The agent reached inside a couple of the folders and removed photographs of some of the men. A clip of heavily armed federal investigators racing to their vehicles to chase after thugs followed the criminals’ pictures. “G Men fight to protect citizens from dangerous lawbreakers,” a banner across the bottom of the screen read. “These men are public enemies,” the next banner announced. More pictures were shown—John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, Fred Barker, and Alvin Karpis. “Remember, one of these men may be sitting beside you.”

To learn more about Ma Barker and the Barker-Karpis Gang read

Ma Barker: America’s Most Wanted Mother.

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Ma Barker: America’s Most Wanted Mother.

In a time when notorious Depression-era criminals were terrorizing the country, the Barker-Karpis Gang stole more money than mobsters John Dillinger, Vern Miller, and Bonnie and Clyde combined. Five of the most wanted thieves, murderers, and kidnappers by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the 1930s were from the same family. Authorities believed the woman behind the band of violent hoodlums that ravaged the Midwest was their mother, Kate “Ma” Barker.

Fred Barker sat in a dark corner at Tallman’s Grill in Kansas City, Missouri, enjoying the music of a jazz troupe. He was situated behind a lavishly decorated table loaded with steaks, oysters, and frogs’ legs. He was waiting for his date, Paula Harmon, also known as Polly Walker. She attracted more than casual attention when she finally arrived. The amply built, full-fleshed woman with reddish-blonde hair wore a stylish gown suited for an evening out. A silver fox-fur cape was draped over her shoulders, and on her left hand was a ring studded with eight diamonds. She was twenty-nine years old and had a reputation for treating men with flirtatious condescension, as if they were children.

In spite of objections from friends and family, Fred enjoyed Paula’s company. She possessed an average face, hazel eyes, and a scarred nose, which gave the impression that she had been struck by a heavy instrument. She greeted Fred with a kiss, and he helped her into her chair. The two always had a great deal to talk about; they had a lot in common. Fred liked to shower her with gifts as well, and Paula liked to accept them.

“Girls liked Freddie and he didn’t mind spending money on them,” Alvin Karpis wrote in his memoirs. “But he wasn’t always lucky in the type of broad who hooked him. Paula Harmon turned out to be a rotten choice, though you couldn’t tell that to Freddie when he got stuck on her. Paula was a drunk too.”

Fred wasn’t the first gangster to overlook Paula’s drinking. She was the widow of bank robber Charles Harmon. Charles died from a gunshot wound in the neck he received fleeing the scene of a bank robbery in Menomonie, Wisconsin. Paula, a native of Georgia, earned her living operating a house of ill –repute in Chicago. Patrons referred to her as “Fat Witted” because she had a sharp tongue when provoked.

Paula and Fred met at Herbert Farmer’s homestead near Joplin, Missouri, shortly after her husband died. The Farmers were good friends who helped her through the loss and protected her from questions the police might have wanted to ask her. Fred thought Paula was charming, and she liked the attention he gave her.

After helping rob the bank in Fairbury, Nebraska, Fred made it clear to his associates that he wanted to spend time with a woman, away from the business. Verne Miller’s paramour suggested he reacquaint himself with Paula. Fred and Paula met again in mid-April 1933 in St. Paul and then traveled to Kansas City for a brief vacation. The pair used the alias of Mr. and Mrs. J. Stanley Smith. Mrs. Smith was a housewife, and Mr. Smith posed as a salesman for the Federated Metal Company of St. Louis.

To learn more about Ma Barker and the Barker-Karpis Gang read

Ma Barker: America’s Most Wanted Mother.

One week left to enter to win a copy of the new book

Ma Barker: America’s Most Wanted Mother.

In a time when notorious Depression-era criminals were terrorizing the country, the Barker-Karpis Gang stole more money than mobsters John Dillinger, Vern Miller, and Bonnie and Clyde combined. Five of the most wanted thieves, murderers, and kidnappers by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the 1930s were from the same family. Authorities believed the woman behind the band of violent hoodlums that ravaged the Midwest was their mother, Kate “Ma” Barker.

Alvin Karpis, Harvey Bailey, and Bernard “Big Phil” Courtney walked quickly out of the Citizens National Bank in Wahpeton, North Dakota, on September 30, 1932. Each was wearing long over coats, and if not for the Thompson machine guns or .45 caliber revolvers they carried in their hands, they could have passed as bank examiners to the casual observer. An alarm screamed behind them, and Fred Barker and Lawrence Devol charged out the double doors of the bank, each having a female hostage in front of him. Fred pulled a Tommy gun from under his coat and opened fire on law enforcement agents collecting on the sidewalk across the street from the bank. The police didn’t dare exchange bullets with the bank robbers for fear of hitting one of the captives.

The bandits kept careful eyes on the reinforcement of officers that quickly arrived. Alvin shot at the incoming officers, forcing them to take cover behind parked cars and street lights. The hostages screamed and tried unsuccessfully to break free. Thomas Holden, driver for the Barker-Karpis Gang, revved the engine on the 1932 Hudson, passenger sedan and drove it evenly and quickly out of the nearby alley.

The gangsters loaded into the vehicle as it paused momentarily. They shot more rounds at the officers to keep them pinned to the ground. The police cowered under the gang’s gunfire. Both Fred and Lawrence pulled the hostages onto the running boards of the car. The women were panicked but complied. The vehicle roared away from the bank as the women cried out for help.

In a few short moments, law enforcement was chasing after the gangsters in their police vehicles. The police were careful when they returned fire because the women were still being used as human shields. The pursuit was slowed when one of the bank robbers broke open the rear window and threw two five– gallon milk jars full of roofing nails onto the road. The police swerved their vehicles to miss the objects. Some didn’t make it. They hit the nails, and their tires blew. A flurry of fast gunfire from the fugitives dissuaded the officials from traveling too close to the getaway car.

To learn more about Ma Barker and the Barker-Karpis Gang read

Ma Barker: America’s Most Wanted Mother.