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Ma Barker & the Barker Gang Matriarch Dov Levy Of Crime Ma Barker & the Barker Gang FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover called her “the most vicious, dangerous and resourceful criminal brain of the last decade.” She has been held up as an example of maternal instincts gone wrong; a woman who contributed to her sons’ deaths by driving them to commit violent crimes. Yet many argue that she was a victim of FBI character assas- sination, guilty only of passivity. Read the story of the Barker Gang that terrorized the Midwest in the 1920s and 30s, and the role of the legendary Ma Barker. 80 | ZMAN • March 2014 ZMAN • Adar II 5774 | 81 t was the pre-dawn hours of January 16, brothers’ gang activities. (After his release all accounts George was completely unin- 1935, in a small town in Florida. A horde in 1938 Lloyd found employment and stayed volved in his sons’ later activities. Now Ma Iof agents from the Bureau of Investiga- away from crime. He served as a cook in the was left alone to look after her boys. tion (BOI), soon-to-be-renamed the Federal US army, working in a POW camp in Michigan Spurred by Herman’s death, Kate Barker Bureau of Investigation (FBI), descended on during World War II. He settled down in decided that something had to be done a quiet, secluded home at the edge of a lake. Westminster, near Denver, Colorado, where about the rest of her boys. She went to the Inside the two-story cottage, an unknown he helped manage a restaurant. Lloyd was authorities and pleaded with them for clem- number of members of one of the most shot and killed by his wife of less than two ency. She visited jail wardens, parole boards brutal gangs of hoodlums the United States months on March 18, 1949; she was subse- and state governors—anyone who would had ever seen were hiding. The gang that quently admitted to an insane asylum.) listen to her. When pleading didn’t work she Arthur “Doc” Barker spent six months years would have a showdown with law in Oklahoma State Prison for an attempted could not get their work done. Moved by the enforcementhad terrorized at thelast. Midwest for the last five bank robbery in early 1921. On the night of woman’swould kick predicament up such a ruckus and thatcopious the officers tears, August 16, barely a month after his release, The Florida cottage where the shootout took place as it to the gangsters inside that they were appears today. Ma and Fred Barker made their last, Doc was caught red-handed breaking into soon released. surrounded.When all Theywas ready, were theto come officers out shoutedat once desperate stand in the upper left bedroom. a warehouse in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He was officialsMa Barker’s relented efforts and Arthur to free and her Fredsons grewwere and surrender. together with childhood friend and fellow into a full-time occupation. She spent a lot There was no response. result the Barker boys were “more or less gangster Volney Davis. The night watchman of her time pleading for her boys as they Finally Agent Earl E. Connelly of Cincin- illiterate.” Ma Barker let her boys run wild who stopped them, Thomas J. Sherrill, was constantly shifted in and out of jail. nati called out, “Come out or we’re going to and refused to intervene when neighbors killed. The law caught up with Doc, and start shooting!” complained about their delinquent behavior. in February 1922 he began serving a life In reply a woman’s voice called out a “If the good people of this town don’t like my sentence at Oklahoma State Prison. The Barker-Karpis Gang challenge: “All right—go ahead.” boys, then the good people know what they Fred Barker’s time in the Kansas prison can do,” she would say. Kansas, in 1926 and was sent to Kansas proved to be a turning point in his career, The Barker boys had run-ins with the StateFred Prison Barker on Marchrobbed 12, a 1927.bank in Winfield, but not because it reformed him. Off to a Bad Start law from an early age. The oldest, Herman, On August 1, 1927, Herman Barker While in prison Fred met a fellow inmate Arizona Donnie Clark was born to was arrested on charges of robbery in entered a bank to cash some stolen bonds. named Alvin “Creepy” Karpis (so called parents of Scotch and Irish background, 1910 when he was just 16. He was arrested He was spotted by Sheriff Deputy Arthur because he often sported a sinister smile) possibly on October 8, 1873. She was born again in Joplin, Missouri, on March 5, 1915, Osborn who followed him as he drove - for committing a robbery along with the away in his car. When Osborn stopped inal relationship. Their partnership would in the Ozarks. Commonly known as Arrie, infamous Central Park Gang. Arthur, 19, was him, Herman shot the sheriff. He was also comeand the to two include formed the aremaining highly profitable Barkers crim and in Ash Grove, near Springfield, Missouri, arrested on July 4, 1918, for his involvement involved with the Kimes-Terril gang and its many other leading outlaws of the time. FBI Kate. Arrie Clark married George Barker in a car theft in Tulsa. He escaped from Director J. Edgar Hoover would brand their onat someSeptember later point4, 1892. she They took spentthe first the nameearly police custody. J. E. Marshall. Later, Herman Barker was gang “the most vicious, cold-blooded crew years of their marriage in Aurora, Missouri. stoppedAugust 9by murder police atof aWichita roadblock Police on AugustOfficer of murderers, kidnappers and robbers in George Barker, according to an FBI 27, after robbing a factory with two accom- recent memory.” report, “was more or less a shiftless indi- The Roaring Twenties plices. He refused to submit, instigating a vidual.” He worked as a sharecropper and Their crimes escalated during the 1920s, protracted shootout instead. Herman was held other various low-paying jobs. The with all four brothers involved in a list of killed by the police. couple’s oldest son Herman was born in bank robberies and shootouts that left law With Herman gone and the rest of his 1894, followed by Lloyd in 1896, Arthur in boys behind bars, George left the family in 1899 and Fred in 1902. Around 1904 the were alternately arrested, released from 1928. He spent the next years operating a family moved to Webb City, Missouri, and in prisonenforcement and then officials committed dead. more The robberies. brothers - 1915 they settled in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Early on, Lloyd “Red” Barker was involved tions are given as to why he opted out. Some The FBI describes the family as having in a mail robbery in Baxter Springs, Kansas. saygas Katestation threw in himJoplin. out, Conflictingwhile others explana suggest been poor with little ambition to improve He was sentenced to 25 years at the federal he could not make peace with his criminal its overall situation. The Barkers and the penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas, where family. The FBI accused him of enjoying the Lloyd Barker, perhaps the most pathetic figure in the family. He people they associated with did not place he began serving in January 1922. As a was incarcerated early on for his crimes. On his release from prison much emphasis on their education and as a result, he was effectively excluded from his to be very little basis for that accusation. By he turned straight but was shot by his mentally unstable wife. profits of his sons’ thievery, but there seems 82 | ZMAN • March 2014 ZMAN • Adar II 5774 | 83.
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