The Barker-Karpis Gang: An American Crime Family

According to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, "Ma" Barker was the brains of the infamous Barker-Karpis gang, which terrorized the Midwest from 1931 to 1936, robbing banks in a ten-state crime spree that included two major kidnappings, and left eleven law enforcement officers, and other innocent victims dead. A fateful four-hour gun battle on the shores of Lake Weir, near Ocklawaha, Florida, that Hoover's G-Men finally put an end to the last of the Barker boys, Fred and his mother, "Ma" Barker, in January 1935. This is the definitive history of the last great outlaw gang of the 1930's.