5. Ma Barker Doomed Herself and Her Kids
Ma Barker would have been bad enough if she had chosen a life of violent crime just for herself. However, she raised her kids to be like her, and in so doing, doomed them. Sons Arthur, Fred, Herman, and Lloyd Barker were raised to become violent thugs since childhood, and they grew up to be car thieves, armed robbers, kidnappers, and murderers.
Things ended badly for Ma Barker’s son Herman, who killed himself in the 1920s to avoid capture after a bungled bank robbery. As to Ma Barker herself, she and another son, Fred, followed Herman into great beyond on January 16th, 1935, after they got into and lost a shootout with FBI agents in Florida.