The Barker – Karpis Gang
The Barker Gang, led by Fred Barker and his friend Alvin Karpis, is subject of the myth that it was actually the brainchild of Kate “Ma” Barker, mother of Fred, and his brother, fellow gang member Arthur, known as Doc. The Barker gang specialized in bank robbery and kidnaping, at one time had over two dozen members, and was capable of operations in several states simultaneously, due to its size and ability to evade law enforcement. Ma Barker became a media star, alternatively presented as a cold blooded killer and a patsy for her deranged sons. Their career featured the stuff of movies, with prison escapes, help from corrupt law enforcement, dramatic shootouts, liaisons with underworld doctors, and the kidnaping of wealthy individuals.
Barker and Karpis met in prison in Kansas, after their release in 1931 they formed the beginnings of the gang and were soon robbing banks in Missouri, where they killed a local sheriff in December. Doc joined the gang in 1932 upon his release from prison in Oklahoma, where he had been serving a sentence for murder, and with the other two and rotating colleagues they continued to rob banks in and around Missouri until 1933. During the Depression bank robbery typically yielded small amounts and the risk involved, coupled with the need to divide the loot among many hands, led the gang to consider alternative sources of income. They decided on kidnaping.
In mid-June 1933 the Barker gang snatched William Hamm, owner of Hamm’s Brewery. In a classic kidnaping they demanded a ransom of $100,000 and released their victim upon receipt. Encouraged by this lucrative venture they next kidnaped Edward Bremer, the president of Commercial State Bank in St. Paul, Minnesota and the heir to the Schmidt brewery fortune. This kidnaping netted them the ransom of $200,000, national renown for its daring execution (Bremer was seized in broad daylight on a busy St. Paul street), and the full attention and focus of the FBI.
The ransom money’s serial numbers had been recorded by the FBI and the gang was aware of the need to replace it but the increased focus on them after the kidnaping made many of their underworld contacts avoid them. The violent nature of the gang was also well known among the underworld, several fences, doctors, safe house owners, and others had vanished after doing business with the Barker gang. The gang split up to elude pursuit and to attempt to launder the ransom money. Doc Barker was arrested in Chicago in 1935 along with another gang member, Byron Bolton, who shared what he knew about the other members in exchange for mercy.
Fred and Kate Barker were surrounded in a house in Lake Weir, Florida about a week later, and both were killed in a shootout with local police and federal agents which lasted over four hours. J. Edgar Hoover described Ma Barker as a “…vicious, dangerous, and resourceful criminal…” but there is a dissenting group which claims that she was not involved in the criminal activities of the gang, supported by statements from Hamm and Bremer. Alvin Karpis, who was arrested and imprisoned in 1936, referred to Ma Barker as just an Ozark housewife, and another associate claimed that she “…couldn’t plan breakfast.” Ma Barker was certainly aware of the gang’s activities, including its multiple murders, so she was at the very least an accomplice.