Kate "Ma" Barker was born Arizona Donnie Clark on 8 October 1873 at Ashgrove, Missouri and died 16 January 1935, aged 58 years old. The actual degree of her criminality is in doubt. Though her children were undoubtedly criminals and their Barker-Karpis Gang committed a spree of robberies, kidnapping and other crimes between 1931 and 1935, it appears that the popular image of her as the gang's leader and mastermind is a myth. Though she must have known of the gang's activities and did help them before and after them after they committed their crimes, there is no evidence that she was ever an active participant in any of the crimes themselves or involved in planning them. Alvin Karpis ("Old Creepy") was born Alvin Korpowicz 10 August 1907 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and died 26 August 1979. He was the leader of the Barker-Karpis Gang, he said Ma Barker did not have the known-how to rob a bank. Her son Herman Barker was born 30 October 1893 and died 29 August 1927, by suicide during a gun fight with the police, not as a teenager as on the "Untouchables." Lloyd Barker was born in 1898 and was killed by his wife on 18 March 1949, and Arthur "Doc" Barker was born in 1899 and died in 1939, not in 1935 as in the "Untouchables." Fred Barker was born in 1902, he did die in 1935, but not the other two brothers.Ma Barker did die in Oklawwaha, Florida as suggested in the "Untouchables," they got that part right! Nonetheless, it is still an entertaining version of "a" Barker and her boys! The FBI did shoot it out with Ma and Fred, but it is not recorded Eliot Ness was there or not? Sarge Booker of Tujunga, California
Review of Ma Barker and Her Boys
