Criminal Career
The Barker-Karpis Gang became one of the most formidable criminal gangs of the 1930s. They did not hesitate to kill anyone who got in their way, even innocent bystanders. On December 19, 1931, Karpis and Fred Barker killed Sheriff C. Roy Kelley, who was investigating their robbery of a store in West Plains, Missouri. The gang, including Ma Barker and her paramour Arthur Dunlop, fled to St. Paul, Minnesota.
Karpis has been described as the leader or "brains" of the gang. Gang member Fred Hunter said Karpis was "super smart" and he was reported to have a photographic memory. The other leaders were Doc and Fred, both now out of prison, and the gang included about 25 others. At this time a myth was started that Ma Barker ruled the gang with an iron fist, but the facts do not seem to support these claims. It is highly unlikely that criminals as adept as Karpis, and even Ma's sons for that matter, would have listened to her. Karpis later wrote about this subject in his memoirs:
"Ma was always somebody in our lives. Love didn't enter into it really. She was somebody we looked after and took with us when we moved city to city, hideout to hideout. It is no insult to Ma's memory that she just didn't have the know-how to direct us on a robbery. It would not have occurred to her to get involved in our business, and we always made it a point of only discussing our scores when Ma wasn't around. We'd leave her at home when we were arranging a job, or we'd send her to a movie. Ma saw a lot of movies."
Harvey Bailey, another well-known bank robber of the era, knew the Barker gang well, and in his autobiography published in the 1970s, he agreed with Karpis, observing that Ma Barker "couldn't plan breakfast," and was certainly no mastermind behind any gang activity. It is purported that Ma Barker's entire reputation as a criminal mastermind was concocted by Hoover to protect the FBI's public image after federal agents discovered they had killed a 62-year-old mother.
In 1933, on the same weekend as the Kansas City Massacre, they kidnapped William Hamm, a millionaire Minnesota brewer outside of his office. After being paid a ransom of $100,000, Hamm was released. Shortly after this, they abducted St. Paul banker Edward Bremer, who was released after the gang was paid $200,000 by his family. The kidnappings, however, led to the gang's end. The father of the kidnapped Edward Bremer was a friend of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Roosevelt had even mentioned the kidnapping in one of his fireside chats, and fueled also by the Lindbergh kidnapping, the FBI and local police bureaus greatly stepped up their pursuit of those engaged in these types of crimes. The FBI had by this time organized a group of highly skilled agents called the "flying squads," which specialized in hunting down the leading public enemies, and they had been very effective. The year 1934 alone saw the deaths of John Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde, Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd, Lester "Baby Face Nelson" Gillis, John "Red" Hamilton, Homer Van Meter, Tommy Carroll, and Eddie Green.
Just after Ma and Fred's death in a shootout with the FBI on January 16, 1935, Karpis nearly met his own violent end when the FBI located him in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Karpis and Harry Campbell managed to shoot their way to an escape, though Karpis' eight-month-pregnant girlfriend Dolores Delaney was hit in the thigh by a wild shot fired by Campbell. She was captured along with Campbell's girl. Dolores gave birth to a son, who was adopted by Karpis' parents. Karpis and Campbell hid out with brothel-keeper Edith Barry for several months.
Karpis continued his crimes with others, but had to keep on the move more than ever, as he was the fourth and last of the FBI's Public Enemies Number One, the previous three—John Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd and Baby Face Nelson—having been killed. He did manage to pull off a crime that echoed the times of the "Old West," a train robbery in Garrettsville, Ohio, which netted $27,000. After the death of Ma and Fred, Karpis allegedly sent word to FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover that he intended to kill Hoover the way Hoover had killed Ma and Fred. According to Karpis in The Alvin Karpis Story, the death threat was a rumor started by Hoover himself.
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