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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.

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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.

A dilapidated Ford Model T pickup slowed to a stop in front of the Barker home in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in mid-May 1931, and Alvin Karpis climbed out of the bed of the vehicle. Alvin was a tall, self-confident man, well dressed but not flashy. He carried a small duffle-style suitcase containing all the belongings he had in the world. He studied the weathered house in front of him, taking notice of its state of disrepair. The homes on either side were not in perfect condition; it was a low-income neighborhood, and everyone seemed to be struggling, but the Barkers’ house was in a sorry state in comparison. A man and woman inside the Barker home were arguing. The exact nature of the disagreement was not clear, but the sound of doors slamming and glass breaking made it apparent that the fight had escalated into a war.

Alvin removed a cigarette from his suit jacket pocket and lit it while contemplating what to do next. Ma Barker exited the front door carrying a hammer and nails. She didn’t pay much attention to Alvin. Her lower lip was bleeding, but she didn’t pay much attention to that either. She was focused on fixing a portion of the screen that had been torn from the corner of the door. “Are you Mrs. Barker?” Alvin asked, walking toward Ma and taking a drag off his cigarette. “I am,” Ma said turning around to face Alvin. “I want to get ahold of Freddie,” he told her. Ma looked Alvin over suspiciously. “Who are you?”

“I’m the guy who called with Freddie in Lansing,” Alvin told her.

“Oh, yes, he told me about you,” Ma replied. “He told me you’d be getting out soon. He came to visit me when he got out. He’s a good boy.” Ma let her guard down, and Alvin stepped onto the porch. He told her he was a thief and that he’d been sent to the Kansas State Penitentiary in Lansing for attempting to rob a pool hall. It was just one of many crimes Alvin told Ma that he’d committed.

To learn more about the life and violent death of Ma Barker

and her sons read

Ma Barker: America’s Most Wanted Mother

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Ma Barker: America’s Most Wanted Mother

When the suggestion to kidnap Edward Bremer was presented to Ma, she ordered her crew to meet and discuss the proposal. In the summer of 1933, the Barker-Karpis Gang had kidnapped William Hamm, Jr., the president of Hamm’s Brewing Company. The caper was successful, yielding the gang $100,000 in cash for the return of the millionaire. News of the kidnapping was reported throughout the country. “Money or death was the ultimatum laid down by the culprits that absconded with Hamm’s Brewing Company executive,” the June 17, 1933, edition of the Albert Lea Evening Tribune read.

William had been captive near the same location in Bensenville, Illinois, where Edward Bremer was secured away. The police had withdrawn from the case at the request of the family. They were frightened of what might happen to William if law enforcement interfered. The ransom note from the abductors warned the Hamms that William would be shot and killed if the police were allowed any involvement. A note sent to William’s father instructed him to deliver the ransom money in “$5, $10, and $20 bills.” Payment of the ransom for the release of William, the kidnappers directed, was to be made using one of the company’s beer trucks. Not only did the Barker-Karpis Gang get the full amount they were asking in ransom, but when the authorities did begin investigating the kidnapping, a rival gang was arrested for the crime.

“J. Edgar Hoover himself announced from Washington that his men had put together a solid case against the Touhy gang,” Alvin Karpis wrote in his memoirs. “The scientific evidence left no doubt at all,” Hoover said, “that the Touhys were behind the kidnapping of William Hamm.”

The ease with which the Barker-Karpis Gang was able to get away with taking William and collecting the ransom was an argument for kidnapping Edward Bremer. In late December 1933, Ma’s boys convened at William Weaver’s apartment in St. Paul to talk through the details of the abduction. Who would trail Edward to learn about his habits, routine, friends, and work associates, who would write the ransom notes, who would deliver those notes to what contact, and when the job would be done were all determined. With the exception of Arthur, whom Ma suggested might have been a little too rough with the victim, everyone performed his duties as planned.

To learn more about the life and violent death of Ma Barker

and her sons 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.

Ma Barker removed a tattered handkerchief from the navy–blue pocketbook cradled in her lap and dabbed away a fake tear. The guards on duty at the Oklahoma prison were disinterested in her supposed grief. Their job was to make sure the inmates at the facility moved efficiently from the visitor’s area back to their cells. Ma watched a pale-faced, stupefied guard escort her son Arthur out of the room. It was mid-February 1920, and mother and son had concluded a short visit. A thick, long glass separated the convicts from the civilized world. Here, communication was done using plain, black phones minus a dial wheel, wired from one side of the glass to the other. Arthur and Ma each had their own receiver to talk through, as did several other families and friends visiting their loved ones through the glass partition.

The iron-barred doors clanged shut as the last prisoner was ushered out of the room. Ma sat stock-still until she heard the guard lock the door behind the inmates. As she turned to get up from her assigned seat, a heavyset guard approached her, and with flinty eyes, looked her up and down. She looked more frumpy than menacing. The coat she wore was big and bulky, frayed in spots, and a few buttons were missing. The tan, bell-shaped hat on her head had seen better days, and her hair underneath it was pinned back in a haphazard fashion. “My boys would be all right if the law would leave them alone,” she told the guard. He had no response and simply led her to the exit of the room, and she shuffled along as little old ladies do.

Two short siren blasts issued from the main building of the jail as Ma exited the complex. She glanced back at the other visitors following her and at the stone walls topped with snaky concertina wire overhead. Once every guest had left the jail, the heavy steel doors were closed behind them.

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

Ma Barker: America’s Most Wanted Mother

Enter 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.

Kate Barker marched her fifteen-year-old son, Herman, through the remains of a cornfield outside Webb City, Missouri. Using the collar of her boy’s shirt as a lead, she steered him past bent and weathered stalks of corn. It was a hot, humid, September afternoon, all white light and glare. Herman chanced a look back at his mother, hoping the scowl on her face had softened. Kate wore a gray sweater embellished with rhinestone buttons and a blue- and- white plaid rayon dress with a sashed belt and bow collar. Her hair was nicely coiffed with spit curls on each temple in the style of the times. Although she had been born and raised in the rural Ozark Mountains and married a miner from a nearby town, she was no house Frau. She carried her plump, five-foot four-inch frame with a confidence generally relegated to those with a wealthy, sophisticated background.

Herman was dressed in jeans and an old shirt two sizes too big for him. He was barefoot and occasionally grimaced when his toe connected with a jagged rock on the ground. His mother was furious with him and disinterested in how uncomfortable their fast-paced walk made him. Herman had been caught with a few wallets he’d stolen from the deacons of the local Presbyterian church. The preacher had graciously contacted Kate about the matter after he had informed the police. Mother and son now had an appointment with the Jasper County judge, and Kate was determined not to be late. Herman stumbled a time or two, but his mother jerked the boy to his feet and urged him on.

To learn more about the life and violent death of Ma Barker and her sons 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.

It was a raw, gusty day in mid-January 1934 when bank president Edward G. Bremer dropped off his nine-year-old daughter, Betty, at Summit School in St. Paul, Minnesota. Parents and children dressed in heavy overcoats and wearing woolen hats hurried across the street and passed in front of Edward’s black Lincoln sedan on their way to the building. A light snow began to fall as he pulled away from the elementary school and headed toward his office. Edward was the president of the Commercial State Bank and traveled the same route to work every day. Each morning he waved goodbye to his little girl at 8:25 and proceeded to his job. He traveled along Lexington Avenue for a half hour, stopping at all the traffic signs along the way.

The car Edward drove was comfortable and warm, and cheerful music spilled from the radio as he contemplated the paperwork waiting for him on his desk. He cast a glance in his rearview mirror every so often but noticed nothing out of the ordinary. It wasn’t until Edward stopped at a stop sign and Alvin Karpis, a tall, slim man in a blue shirt streaked with mud, hurried to the driver’s side window holding a gun, that he considered anything was wrong. Edward was stunned and didn’t move as the armed man flung the driver’s side door open and shoved the weapon into his side. “Move over or I’ll kill you,” Alvin barked at him.

Before Edward had a chance to comply, the passenger’s side door of his car was jerked open, and Arthur “Doc” Barker leaned inside the vehicle. Arthur struck Edward on the head several times with the butt end of a .45 caliber automatic revolver. Blood from the gash sprayed the dashboard. Edward slumped in his seat, unconscious, and Alvin pushed him onto the floor. Arthur jumped inside the car and closed the passenger’s side door.

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

Ma Barker: America’s Most Wanted Mother.

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Twenty-one-year-old Anna Webber rubbed her eyes and leaned against the rough wall of the sod schoolhouse where she taught. The view from the window of the small building framed the tall grass and wheat fields around Blue Hill, Kansas, perfectly. A slight breeze in the middle distance brushed across the tops of cottonwood trees lining the banks of the Solomon River, richly adding to the peaceful scene.

Anna squinted into the sunlight filtering into the tiny classroom and stretched her arms over her head. The one-room schoolhouse was empty of students, and the young teacher was sitting on the floor grading papers. The room was only big enough for a half a dozen pupils but served more than sixteen children on most days.

Inside the roughly constructed building, made from strips cut from the prairie earth found in abundance around the small settlement, the furnishings consisted of a chair for the teacher and several boards balanced on rocks for the students to sit on. There was no blackboard and no writing desks. The primitive conditions made Anna’s job more difficult than she had anticipated and robbed her of the joy she initially felt when she entered the profession.

The town in Mitchell County, Kansas, where Anna held her first teaching assignment in 1881, was a growing community of farmers and railroad workers. Five years before her arrival, the area had been ravaged by hordes of grasshoppers. The insects destroyed crops and drove settlers away for a time. The ever-advancing railroad brought many back to the fertile ground to raise corn, wheat, and rye.  Anna’s family was among the people who returned to the region to start life anew.

To learn more about Anna Webber and other women who educated the people on the frontier read

Frontier Teachers:  Stories of Heroic Women of the Old West

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Winners will be announced April 30.

Rosa May sat beside the bed of a dying miner and wiped the sweat off his feverish brow.  She looked around his rustic, one-room cabin, past the sparse furnishings, and fixed her eyes on a tattered photograph of an elderly man and woman.  “Those are my folks,” the man weakly told her.  “They’re in Marshall County, Illinois.  Where are your folks?”

The question stunned Rosa.  No one ever asked about such things.  No one ever asked her much at all.  Conversation wasn’t what men were looking for when they did business with her.  Rosa glanced out the window at a couple of respectable, well-dressed women.  They watched her through the clouded glass, pointed, and whispered.  She knew what they were saying without hearing it.

Rosa was just one of a handful of “sporting women” living in Bodie, California, in 1900 and she knew what people thought of her.  It used to bother her years ago, but not now.  It was an occupational hazard she’d learned to live with.

“Don’t you have people anywhere?” the miner asked.  Rosa dabbed the man’s head with a cloth and smiled.  “I don’t know anymore,” she answered.  “If I did have, they’d be back in Pennsylvania.”

Rosa’s parents were Irish – hard, strict people.  Rosa had dreamed of the day she would be out of their puritanical household.  She had left home in 1871, at the age of sixteen and soon found there weren’t many opportunities for a poor, petite, uneducated girl with brown eyes and dark, curly hair.  She ended up in New York, hungry, homeless, and eager to take any job offered.  The job offered was prostitution and five years later she came west with other women of her trade, hoping to make a fortune off the gold and silver miners.

Prostitution was the single largest occupation for women in the West.  Rosa hoped to secure a position at a posh brothel with crystal chandeliers, velvet curtains, and flowing champagne.  The madams who ran such places were good to their girls.  They paid them a regular salary, taught them about makeup, manners, and how to dress, and they only had to entertain a few men a night.  If a high-class brothel wasn’t available, Rosa could take a job in a second-class house and work for a percentage of the profits, turning as many tricks as she could each night.  If all failed, she could be a street walker or rent a “crib” at a boardinghouse.  Cribs, tiny, windowless chambers, had oilcloths draped across the foot of the bed for customers in too big of a hurry to take off their boots.

To learn the rest of Rosa May’s story and to read more about the bad girls of the Old West read

Wicked Women:  Notorious, Mischievous, and Wayward Ladies from the Old West.

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Winners will be announced April 30.

Sacagawea was the young Shoshone Indian woman who served as Lewis and Clark’s translator on their 1803 expedition to explore the uncharted western regions of America.  She made the entire journey to the Pacific, and the return trip, with a newborn baby on her back; many believe without her aid, the journey, commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson, would have ended in failure.  Some accounts say she died in 1812 at age twenty-five of putrid fever, while others believe she died in 1884 on an Indian Reservation in Wyoming.  The child she carried in a papoose was Jean-Baptiste Charbonneau, nicknamed Pompy, meaning first-born, who eventually attended St. Louis Academy with tuition paid by Clark.  Pompy later met Prince Wilhelm of Germany while on a natural history expedition and traveled back to Europe with him, where Pompy learned to speak four different languages.  But by the time he was twenty-four Pompy was back in North America, living as a mountain man.  When the Gold Rush of 1849 started, he got caught up in the fever and died from too much time wading through cold rivers panning for gold.  His cause of death was bronchitis at age sixty-one, and his portrait is the only one of a child on any U. S. coin.

To learn more about Sacagawea and other amazing women who settled the west read Tales Behind the Tombstones.  Available everywhere books are sold.

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It’s a Pick-A-Book Giveaway.

This month enter to win any book from the catalog of books I’ve pinned.

Winners will be announced April 30.

In 1929 Jeanne Eagel was nominated for a best actress Oscar for The Letter after she died earlier in the year at age thirty-nine from alcohol and heroin complications.  Eagels had started as a Ziegfeld Follies girl, but her talent and beauty soon moved her from the chorus line to center stage.  Tabloids of the time followed her progress and her secret marriage to a Yale football star, and they especially liked her temper, her no-shows, and her quitting plays whenever she felt like it.  At one point she was banned from appearing on stage by Actors Equity, which had forced her to move to Hollywood to make the “talkie” The Letter, one of the first films that showed the true dramatic possibilities of audio in cinema.  In the fall of 1929, she checked into a private drying-out hospital in New York City a week before the stock market crashed; unfortunately, she left via the morgue.

To learn more about pioneer actresses like Jeanne Eagels read

Entertaining Women:  Actresses, Dancers, and Singers in the Old West.

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