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Author: W. D. Smith
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781945172786
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 402
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Book Description
The Barker-Karpis gang was one of the Depression Era's most ruthless, operated throughout the Midwestern U.S. from Missouri into the Dakotas. They were largely unnoticed as the public's attention was fixed upon the more familiar "celebrity" gangsters of the day such as the Barrow gang, John Dillinger, Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd, and others. The Barker boys, with their mother tagging along for the ride, and their partner Alvin Karpis, robbed banks and engaged in two major kidnappings before finally being stopped in a bloody four-hour gun battle with Hoover's Federal agents at a cottage in Oklawaha, Florida, on the shore of Lake Weir, on January 16, 1935. This is their story.
Author: W. D. Smith
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781945172786
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 402
Get Book Here
Book Description
The Barker-Karpis gang was one of the Depression Era's most ruthless, operated throughout the Midwestern U.S. from Missouri into the Dakotas. They were largely unnoticed as the public's attention was fixed upon the more familiar "celebrity" gangsters of the day such as the Barrow gang, John Dillinger, Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd, and others. The Barker boys, with their mother tagging along for the ride, and their partner Alvin Karpis, robbed banks and engaged in two major kidnappings before finally being stopped in a bloody four-hour gun battle with Hoover's Federal agents at a cottage in Oklawaha, Florida, on the shore of Lake Weir, on January 16, 1935. This is their story.
Author: Chris Enss
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1493025864
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 241
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Book Description
Was Arizona Donnie Clark, AKA Kate “Ma” Barker the mastermind behind the Barker gang terrorizing the Midwest during the early years of the great Depression? Or was she a terrible mother who urged her sons to criminal behavior for her own financial gain? Or does the truth lie somewhere in between. This lively retelling of the legend of Ma Barker and her boys is full of action, intrigue, and the answers to mysteries that have lingered for more than 70 years.
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 92
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Book Description
*Includes pictures *Includes a bibliography for further reading America has always preferred heroes who weren't clean cut, an informal ode to the rugged individualism and pioneering spirit that defined the nation in previous centuries. The early 19th century saw the glorification of frontier folk heroes like Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone. After the Civil War, the outlaws of the West were more popular than the marshals, with Jesse James and Billy the Kid finding their way into dime novels. And at the height of the Great Depression in the 1930s, there were the "Public Enemies," common criminals and cold blooded murderers elevated to the level of folk heroes by a public frustrated with their own inability to make a living honestly. Among America's most infamous "Public Enemies," perhaps the most unique and controversial was Kate Barker. With her prominent, hawk-tipped nose and plump, doughy face, framed by a classic dark curly coif and frilly day dresses to match, Ma Barker was as non-threatening as they come. Nary a second glance was given to this grandmotherly figure by those who crossed her path, perhaps at most a polite tip of the hat. Of course, as the age-old adage goes, appearances are often deceiving. According to the FBI and portrayals in popular culture, not only was Ma Barker a crass, greedy, and highly manipulative individual who coaxed her sons into the abyss-like vortex of criminality, she was the matriarchal mastermind of one of the most notorious gangs of the Dirty Thirties era. The public devoured the countless articles that their action-packed crimes generated with gusto, but few could compare to the meteoric whirlwind of morbid excitement that erupted when the sensational story of the Ma Barker Gang made its rounds. The Ma Barker Gang, as they were so branded, wasn't a typical band of small-time crooks. Quite the contrary, the unorthodox family-run enterprise was, as described by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, "the most vicious, cold-blooded crew of murderers, kidnappers, and robbers in recent memory." The gang was as accomplished - and dangerous - as it was elusive, and between 1930 and 1933 alone, they made off with an estimated $3 million. In their heyday, the gang boasted some 25 members, and through it all, the Barker boys remained its core members. Blood, as per the Barker code, would always be thicker than water. The Ma Barker Gang, which was reportedly governed by the middle-aged, misleadingly unassuming, yet apparently ride-or-die mother of the Barker boys, easily warranted a class of its own. The obvious novelty of the alleged gang leader's identity aside, the disturbing fates of the Barker brothers and many of their associates served as a cautionary tale about the dangers and delusions that ensue when one becomes consumed by unbridled avarice and arrogance. But why were the Barker brothers, once innocent young lads, steered so far off the path of righteousness? What was the true depth of Ma's involvement in the gang's laundry list of despicable crimes? How did the once untouchable gang's winning streak culminate in such catastrophic disaster? The pursuit of the Barkers was a piece of what made the FBI a national institution, and alongside similar efforts to bring John Dillinger and Bonnie & Clyde to justice, the "G-Men" became the symbol of law and order in the early 1930s. The FBI's dissemination of information about Ma Barker all but cemented her notorious reputation, but in the decades since, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover has become a controversial figure himself and modern historians have reached different conclusions about Ma Barker's involvement in the gang's criminal activities. Alvin Karper, one of the gang's leaders, insisted, "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."
Author: John Fleury
Publisher: BookCaps Study Guides
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 90
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Book Description
★★★ The Original Public Enemy of the F.B.I. ★★★ Before John Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd, and Baby Face Nelson made the term "Public Enemy" famous, there was Alvin Karpis--one of the ruthless leaders of the Barker-Karpis gang. It was him that J. Edgar Hoover first thought worthy of the title Public Enemy In a page-turning style, this true crime book traces his criminal origins from his young days as a bootlegger to his ultimate demise.
Author: Alvin Karpis
Publisher: New York : Coward, McCann & Geoghegan
ISBN: 9784871873338
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 256
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Book Description
"Alvin Karpis was released from prison in December, 1968, on extradition parole to Canada, having served thirty-three years of a life sentence he received for the kidnapping of William Hamm, Jr., of the Hamm Breweries in Minneapolis-St. Paul. Over a period of a year, Karpis (with co-author Bill Trent), taped his vivid memories of a remarkable life in thirties crime, of his friendships with the pantheon of professional criminals, and of his prolonged pursuit by J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI."--Page [4 of cover].
Author: Timothy R. Mahoney
Publisher: Minnesota Historical Society Press
ISBN: 0873519051
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 397
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Book Description
Among the most dangerous criminals of the public enemies era was a man who has long hidden in history’s shadows: Tom Brown. In the early 1930s, while he was police chief of St. Paul, Minnesota, Brown became a secret partner of the infamous Barker gang. He profited from their violent crimes, he protected the gang from raids by the nascent FBI—and while he did all this, the gangsters gunned down cops and citizens in his hometown. Big Tom Brown, 6'5" and 275 pounds, continued to enforce St. Paul’s corrupt O’Connor system, allowing criminals to stay in the city as long as they paid off the cops and committed no crimes within fifty miles. But in the early 1930s, the system broke down: no longer supported by cash skimmed from illegal booze, gangsters turned to robbing banks, and the Barker gang kidnapped two of the prominent citizens who had been complicit in the liquor trade. Brown was the insider who kept the criminals safe—but for highly political reasons, he was never convicted of his crimes. Timothy Mahoney tells this fascinating story, details how the fraud was uncovered, and at last exposes the corruption of a secret partnership.
Author: Paul Maccabee
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 392
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Book Description
Traces the history of crime in St. Paul, Minnesota, from 1920 to 1936, describing specific incidents, profiling criminals, victims, and law enforcement officials, and looking at places where criminal activity occurred.
Author: Claire Bond Potter
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
ISBN: 9780813524870
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 292
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Book Description
The first book to look at the structural, legal, and cultural aspects of J. Edgar Hoover's war on crime in the 1930s, a New Deal campaign which forged new links between citizenship, federal policing, and the ideal of centralized government. WAR ON CRIME reminds us of how and why our worship of violent celebrity hero G-men and gangsters came about and how we now are reaping the results. 10 photos.
Author: Alston Purvis
Publisher: PublicAffairs
ISBN: 0786746661
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 401
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Book Description
By the end of 1934 Melvin Purvis was, besides President Roosevelt, the most famous man in America. Just thirty-one years old, he presided over the neophyte FBI's remarkable sweep of the great Public Enemies of the American Depression -- John Dillinger; Pretty Boy Floyd; Baby Face Nelson. America finally had its hero in the War on Crime, and the face of all the conquering G-Men belonged to Melvin Purvis. Yet these triumphs sowed the seeds of his eventual ruin. With each new capture, each new headline touting Purvis as the scourge of gangsters, one man's implacable resentment grew. J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the FBI, was immensely jealous of the agent who had been his friend and prot'g', and vowed that Melvin Purvis would be brought down. A vendetta began that would not end even with Purvis's death. For more than three decades Hoover trampled Purvis's reputation, questioned his courage and competence, and tried to erase his name from all records of the FBI's greatest triumphs. Alston Purvis is Melvin's only surviving son. With the benefit of a unique family archive of documents, new testimony from colleagues and friends of Melvin Purvis and witnesses to the events of 1934, he has produced a grippingly authentic new telling of the gangster era, seen from the perspective of the pursuers. By finally setting the record straight about his father, he sheds new light on what some might call Hoover's original sin -- a personal vendetta that is one of the earliest and clearest examples of Hoover's bitter, destructive paranoia.
Author: W. Cleon Skousen
Publisher: Izzard Ink
ISBN: 1630720593
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 174
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Book Description
Be the FBI Agent in training under J. Edgar Hoover and run the gauntlet of Machine Gun Kelly, Baby Face Nelson and the Barker Karpis Gang. Step back into downtown Chicago of the 1930s and retrace the steps of some of America’s most notorious mobsters. True Stories from the Files of the FBI was written by W. Cleon Skousen under the direct supervision of Mr. Hoover himself. These first-hand accounts of actual "do or die" situations were used for decades to train thousands of FBI agents. In this riveting retelling of “G-men” arresting or killing perpetrators of the country’s most violent crimes, learn how the investigations led to clues for the Charles Lindbergh kidnapping case, the Kansas City Massacre, the raids by John Herbert Dillinger and his gang, “Killer” Kinnie Wagner's murder spree, and more. Reviews “True Stories from the Files of the FBI captures the history of landmark criminal cases with riveting, quick-read storytelling--a must for every crime reader's most wanted book list.” --Mark Singer, Founder of Chicago Crime Tours “True Stories from the Files of the FBI is an amazing book to read. A lot of history, a lot of detail, a lot to learn.” --Michael J. Thompson, AML
