Ma Barker
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kate 'Ma' Barker (October 8, 1873 - January 16, 1935).
Ma Barker (born Arizona Donnie Clark) was a legendary American criminal from the "public enemy era", when the exploits of gangs of criminals in the Midwest gripped the American people and press. Her notoriety has since subsided, trailing behind Bonnie and Clyde and John Dillinger.
Contents |
[edit] Early life
Ma Barker was born in Ash Grove, Missouri, near Springfield. Her parents were conservative Christians who believed in hard work and traditional values, traits which she embraced. In 1884, she married George Barker. They had four boys, named: Herman, Lloyd, Arthur, and Fred. George Barker departed after the birth of their last son, Fred. There is indication that George Barker was considered a “worthless drunk” and was tossed out by Ma Barker [1]. Trying to raise the boys on her own, with little income, the boys had inadequate supervision and became juvenile delinquents. Ma Barker often kept them out of the Criminal justice system by pleading with the arresting officers, or throwing tantrums at the police station.
[edit] Controversy
Though her children were undoubtedly criminals and their Barker-Karpis Gang committed a spree of robberies, kidnappings and other crimes between 1931 and 1935, it appears that the popular image of her as the gang's leader and its criminal mastermind is a myth.
The actual degree of Barker's own criminality is in doubt. However, she did likely know of the gang's activities and helped them before and after they committed their crimes and, of course, as C. Lotower notes in his popular criminal law treatise of NCCU Law fame, this would make her an accomplice. There is no evidence that she was ever an active participant in any of the crimes themselves or involved in planning them. Her role was in taking care of gang members, who often sent her to the movies while they committed crimes.
Alvin Karpis, the gang's second most notorious member (historically a much more important figure), later said that[2]:
| “ | The most ridiculous story in the annals of crime is that Ma Barker was the mastermind behind the Karpis-Barker gang ... She wasn't a leader of criminals or even a criminal herself. There is not one police photograph of her or set of fingerprints taken while she was alive ... she knew we were criminals but her participation in our careers was limited to one function: when we traveled together, we moved as a mother and her sons. What could look more innocent? | ” |
Many, including Karpis, have suggested that the myth was encouraged by J. Edgar Hoover[3] and his fledgling FBI to justify his agency's killing of an old lady.[4] She was shot dead when the FBI raided the cottage she was renting with her son Fred at Lake Weir in the Ocklawaha region of Florida on January 16, 1935. It was Fred, who was also killed in the raid, that had been the Bureau's main target.
[edit] Summary of Barker sons/gang activities
- 1910-Herman Barker arrested for Highway Robbery Web City Missouri {alleged}
- March 5, 1915-Herman Barker arrested for Highway Robbery Joplin Missouri
- July 4,1918-Arthur "Doc" Barker involved in car theft-Tulsa Oklahoma
- Feb 19, 1920-Arthur Barker escapes from Prision-Joplin Mo
- 1921 Lloyd "Red" Barker arrested for vagrancy Tulsa Oklahoma. {alleged}
- Jan 15, 1921-Arthur Barker involved in attempted Bank robbery-Muskogee Oklahoma
- August 16, 1921-Arthur Barker and Volney Davis involved in killing of James J. Sherrill a night watchman in Tulsa Oklahoma.
- Jan 16, 1922-Lloyd Barker received at Levenworth Prision {#17243}after arrest for robbing mail at Baxter Springs Kansas-sentenced to 25 years-released 1938.
- Feb 10, 1922-Arthur "Doc" Barker received at Oklahoma State Prision for murder of Sherrill.
- March 12, 1927-Fred Barker admited to Kansas State Prision
- August 29,1927-Herman Barker commits suicide in Wichita Kansas after being stopped by a Police roadblock {A Wichita Policeman J.E. Marshall had been killed Aug 9, 1927 by another gang-although Herman is wrongly credited with this killing}.
- March 30, 1931-Fred Barker released from Kansas State Prision for Buglary-{in prision met Alvin Karpis}
- June 10, 1931-Fred Barker and Alvin Karpis {alais George Heller} arrested by Tulsa Oklahoma Police invistigation of burglary. Karpis sentenced to 4 years but paroled after restitution made; Fred Barker also avoided jail sentence.
- Nov 8, 1931 Fred Barker killed Pocahontas Arkansas Police Chief [Manley Jackson].
- Dec 19, 1931 Fred Barker and Alvin Karpis robbed a store in West Plains Missouri and involved in killing of Howell County Missouri Sherriff [C. Roy Kelly].
- Jan 18, 1932-Lloyd Barker received at Levenworth Prision
- April 26, 1932-Body of A.W. Dunlap found at Lake Franstead Minn-killed by Fred Barker and Alvin Karpis
- June 17, 1932-Fred Barker, Karpis and 5 accomplaices robbed Fort scott Kansas Bank
- July 7, 1932-3 members of Barker-Karpis gang arrested by FBI
- July 25,1932-Fred Barker, Karpis-with an augmated gang robbed Cloud County bank at Concorida, Kansas
- Aug 14, 1932-attorney J. Earl Smith of Tulsa Oklahoma found killed at Indian HIlls COuntry Club north of Tulsa; {he had been retained to defend one of Barker-Karpis gang from the Ft Scott Bank Robbery-who was convicted. Smith was associated with Fred Barker and Alvin Karpis}
- Sept 10,1932-Arthur "Doc" Barker released from Prision
- Dec 16, 1932-Fred and Arthur Barker, Alvin Karpis and gang robbed Third Northwestern Bank on Minneapolis and killed two policemen {[Ira Leon Evans and Leo Gorski]} and a civilian. {One gang member in this shooting was also involved in 2 other police kilings}
- April 4,1933-Fred and Arthur Barker, Alvin Karpis and gang robbed Fairbury, Nebraska Bank.
- June 1933-William Hamm kidnapping by Barker-Karpis gang
- Aug 10, 1933-Barker-Karpis Gang robs a payroll at Stockyards National Bank of South St Paul Minnesota in which one Policeman {[Leo Pavlak]}is killed and one an invalid for life
- Sept 22, 1933-Two bank messengers held up by five men identified as Barker-Karpis gang; Chicago Policeman Miles A Cunningham is killed by gang while investigating a nearby traffic accident. {Barker Karpis gang Associate Vernon Miller is alleged to be involved in killing. Miller was also reportably involved in Kansas City Massacre in which 4 lawmen were killed}.
- Jan 17, 1934-gang kidnapps Edward George Bremer {Bremer released on Feb 7, 1934 after ransom payed}
- Jan 19, 1934-gang wounds M.C. McCord of Nortwest Airways Company {thinking he was a policemen}
- Mar 10, 1934-Barker gang member Fred Goetz and partictant in Bremer kidnapping killed by fellow gangsters in Cicero Illinois
- July 1934-underworld Dr. Joseph Moran last seen alive.
- Jan 6, 1935-Barker gang member William B. Harrison killed by fellow gangsters at Ontarioville, Illinois
- Jan 8, 1935-Arthur "Doc" Barker arrested; Barker gang member Russell Gibson killed
- Jan 16, 1935-Fred Barker and Ma Barker killed by FBI at Lake Weir, Florida.
- Sept 26 1935-body of underworld Dr. Joseph Moran found in Lake Erie; believed killed by Fred Barker and Alvin Karpis.
- Nov 7, 1935-Karpis and five accomplices robbed a Erie Railroad mail train at Garrittsville Ohio
- May 1, 1936-Karpis and accomplice arrested New Orleans Louisiana
- Jan 13,1939-Arthur Barker killed trying to escape from Alcatraz Prision.
(OF Barker-Karpis gang/associates 18 arrested; 3 killed by lawmen; 2 killed by gangsters}
- World War II-Lloyd Barker is US Army cook-ironically at POW Camp-Ft Custer MI-recevies Army Good Conduct medal and honorable Discharge
- March 18, 1949-Lloyd Barker killed by his wife; he is manager of Denargo Market in Denver Colorado; she is sent to Colorado State Insane Asylum
[edit] Popular Culture
The myth of Ma Barker inspired James Hadley Chase's novel No Orchids for Miss Blandish (1939), which features a mother in charge of her sons' gangster mob; this was eventually adapted to stage and screen, though with great difficulty from British censorship guidelines. Her story was adapted in the low budget film Bloody Mama (1970), directed by Roger Corman and starring Shelley Winters as Ma, depicted as a corrupt mother who encourages and organises her children's criminality. The film featured an early appearance by a young Robert De Niro as Lloyd Barker. The Southern Christian Hardcore band Maylene and the Sons of Disaster is named for the Barkers, and their story is featured prominently in several of the group's songs.
Another retelling of the legend occurred in the 1996 movie Public Enemies starring Theresa Russell. "Ma Barker and Her Boys", an episode of The Untouchables, pits Federal Agent Eliot Ness against the Barker clan, and depicts Ness as leading the assault on Ma Barker and her sons at their Florida hide-out. In real life Ness was not a member of the FBI at the time of the shoot-out, and had nothing to do with the Barker/Karpis case.
The story is also probably the inspiration for the 1977 Boney M music single "Ma Baker", the character of Pa Stark (Charles B. Middleton) and his sons in the 1938 Republic movie serial Dick Tracy Returns, the Ma Dalton character in the Lucky Luke comic strip, Ma Beagle and the Beagle Boys characters in the Scrooge McDuck universe, and Anne Ramsey's character Mama Fratelli in the 1985 Richard Donner film The Goonies, a movie about teenage camaradarie. The pirate chief and her sons in Castle in the Sky movie also may have a connection with her story. She may also have been the inspiration for the character Ma Jarrett in the 1949 James Cagney movie White Heat, and was certainly the inspiration for Ma Barker's Killer Brood and "Ma Parker" on Batman.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Bloody Mama (1970) (movie dramatization)
- ^ Karpis, Alvin with Trent, Bill (1971) The Alvin Karpis Story Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, New York;
- ^ Jones, Ken (1957) The FBI in Action Signet, New York;
- ^ Gentry, Curt (1991) J. Edgar Hoover: The Man and the Secrets W. W. Norton, New York, ISBN 0393024040 ;
[edit] References
- Hornberger, Francine (2002) Mistresses of mayhem: the book of women criminals
Alpha, Indianapolis, IN, ISBN 0028642600 ;
- Hamilton, Sue, and Hamilton, John (1989) Public Enemy Number One: The Barkers Abdo and Daughters, Bloomington, MN, ISBN 0939179652 ;
- Winter, Robert (2000) Mean Men: The Sons of Ma Barker Routledge, Danbury, Connecticut, ISBN 1582440905 ;
- deFord, Miriam Allen (1970) The Real Ma Barker: Mastermind of a Whole Family of Killers Ace, New York;
- Perkins; Jack; Drummond, John; and Cara, Mark (1996) Ma Barker crime family values (television documentary on VHS tape) A & E Home Video, New York, ISBN 0767010604 ;
