The Ma Barker Story

Born Arizona Clark in Ash Grove Missouri, in 1873, known as “Arrie” but most knew her as “Kate” growing up, but better known as Ma Barker sometimes Arizona Barker, as well as Kate, one of her alias names. She is the mother of four sons, all criminals who ran the Barker Gang. The gang left a swath of crime and violence

These events occurred during an era where the exploits of gangs and criminals gripped mid-west America the American people and the press. Ma Barker traveled with her sons through most of their criminal careers.

After her death during a shoot-out with the FBI, she became known as a ruthless matriarch who controlled and organized her son’s crimes, which included robberies, kidnappings and murder. J. Edgar Hoover, the Director of the Bureau of Investigation at the time, described her as “the most vicious, dangerous and resourceful criminal brain of the last decade.” In film and literature she has been presented as a monstrous mother. This is her legend and reputation.

Those who knew her insist this was not true and claim it was a fabrication of Hoover to excuse the FBI for killing her.

The Back Story

Arrie Clark married George Barker in 1892 and had four sons between 1893 through 1901, Herman, Lloyd, Arthur and Fred. George, her husband worked a series of low skilled job and has been described as “shiftless” in an FBI document and says the Barker’s paid no attention to their son’s education. As a result, they were “more or less” illiterate.

In the 1920’s gangdom grew at an insidious rate that by the 1930’s it had grown into a nationwide problem spawning new and more malevolent crimes.

Their criminal activity started as early as 1910 when Herman, her eldest was 17. Herman and his brothers were involved in multiple crimes over the years with increasing seriousness and violence. Kate went into a rage when her son was arrested and was heard saying, “my poor, innocent boy” incensed at the indignity he had suffered. So much so, that they left Webb City Missouri for Tulsa, Oklahoma.

In Tulsa they were barely making ends meet. Ma Barker, tired of barely getting by on what her husband earned, wanted the finer things in life. She saw her boys as a means to that end recognizing while her son was in prison; he had made good money as a criminal. She encouraged petty theft and bad behavior, training them and planning ahead for them to support her in the future.

They operated largely in the southwestern states ravaging law-abiding society, plundering its wealth and leaving a trail of death and destruction in their wake.

The boys were inducted into the Central Park gang and Herman died in 1927 after a robbery left one policemen dead, shot by Herman at point blank range in the mouth. He then killed himself to avoid prosecution.

The remaining brothers soon found themselves in prison leaving Kate on her own. It is believed George Barker left during this time as well, the reasons are unclear. Some say the criminal life became intolerable; others say after his son’s death and imprisonment of his other sons, he “gave up completely and removed himself from the scene.” Still others say he and Kate argued about their son’s criminal lives, – Kate could see nothing wrong in her boys while George could do so no longer.

Alone, with her sons in jail and no husband, Ma lived in miserable poverty in a “dirt-floor shack” from 1928 thru 1931. Rumors say she became “loose” with other men and by 1930 was living with a jobless man named Arthur W. Dunlop. Things further improved after Fred was released from jail in 1931.

The Gang

Fred joined forces with a former inmate, Alvin Karpis to form the Barker-Karpis gang. After a series of robberies and the murder of a sheriff in Missouri, the gang fled the territory, Ma and her lover with them. Ma used various false names during this period and, to the gang, became known as Kate.

In 1932 Arthur was released from prison and joined Fred and Karpis along with other criminal associates in the gang. They moved to Chicago, but decided to leave not wanting to work for Al Capone. St. Paul, Minnesota had the reputation as being a haven for wanted criminals and this is where the most infamous crimes were committed. They operated under the protection of the city’s corrupt police chief, Thomas “Big Tom” Brown and from him transitioned from robbers to kidnappers.

The gang, believing Ma’s lover to be loose lipped when drunk had given up their identity murdered him and managed to escape St. Paul’s to Wisconsin. Fred moved his mom frequently to hotels and hideouts ,to keep her from learning of all their crimes. They also didn’t want her interfering in their relationships with women. Ma was known to be very harsh with other women in the gang and they were wise to steer clear of her.

By 1933 back in St. Paul, the gang pulled off two kidnappings of wealthy local businessmen. The first kidnapping of William Hamm earned them a ransom of $100,000 (with inflation, today it would have the same buying power of more than $1.8 million dollars). They later kidnapped Edward Bremer and netted $200,000 ransom (today’s buying power of more than $3.7 million dollars).

The FBI first connected the gang to the Bremer kidnapping using new technology, the method of latent fingerprinting. The gang headed back to Chicago no longer having access to information from “Big Tom” and moved around frequently as they laundered the money from the last kidnapping.

The Bradford – Ma Barker house was discovered after Arthur “Doc” Barker was arrested in January 1935. They found a map indicating Ma, Fred and the rest of the gang were at a hideout in Ocklawaha, Florida. They found the location with the help of Gator Joe, a famous alligator living in Lake Weir from 1930 – 1952. He was referenced in a letter as “Old Joe” where the FBI learned was near the Barker hideout. Gator Joe lived 1/8^th mile away from the Barker house, where Ma and Fred died in a four hour shoot out, on record as the longest gun battle in FBI history.