Ma Barker: Criminal Mastermind or Overindulgent Mother?
Born Arizona Donnie Clark in the Ozark mining town of Ash Grove, MO in 1873, the daughter of John and Emaline (Parker) Clark, Ma Barker’s life was an ordinary tale of a Midwestern girl until it took a dark turn into crime history. With a background marked by church picnics and one-room schoolhouses, she seemed destined for a quiet farm life. But was she truly the criminal mastermind of the infamous Barker-Karpis Gang, or simply an overindulgent mother doing her best to protect her sons? Either way, she was the only woman to be J. Edgar Hoover’s Public Enemy #1!
Arizona Donnie Clark, affectionately known as “Kate,” married George Barker, a farm laborer, at 19. Together, they had four sons—Herman, Lloyd, Arthur, and Fred—who would later become notorious criminals.
The Barker Boys and Early Criminal Activities
The first significant brush with the law came on March 17, 1915, when her eldest son, Herman, held up five men playing cards in the back of a grocery store in Webb City, MO. Although he was released for lack of evidence, it marked the beginning of a life riddled with crime and law enforcement encounters for the Barker family.
By 1920, all four Barker boys had committed various crimes. Despite repeated complaints, George Barker always deferred to Kate, saying she was in charge of the boys. Ma Barker was fiercely defensive of her sons, arguing with law enforcement and pleading for leniency. She spent what would be today’s equivalent of thousands of dollars on attorney fees and bail, wrote numerous letters to various governors in a relentless effort to clear her sons’ names.
The Central Park Gang – Barker Inman Gang – The two Older Brothers
Herman, Lloyd, Arthur, and Fred either started or joined the Central Park gang involved in small-time burglaries and auto thefts across Missouri, Minnesota, and Oklahoma. The Barker house became their meeting place, a den of criminal activity, whether Kate “Ma” was involved or just innocently hosting her sons’ friends is unknown for sure.
Herman’s criminal escapades were particularly turbulent, leading to multiple jail stints. He used multiple aliases S.B.Wilson, D.W. Costello to name a couple. In 1925, Herman with his younger brother Freddy and Elmer Inman, organized the Barker-Inman gang. It was believed that this gang robbed a jewelry store in Vinita, OK of $12,000 in gems, but it could never be proved. Shortly after this, Freddy was arrested in Fort Smith, AR for robbing a movie theater. Herman and Elmer eluded the police. Ma bonded him out for $1,000.00. Soon after, in 1926 a jewelry store in McAlester, OK was robbed of jewels valued at $16,000.
At some point, Herman married Carol Hamilton who helped in his criminal pursuits. His next known arrest was with Ray Terrell for stealing a safe from First National Bank of Jasper, MO. There was a gun battle and Herman was wounded. Herman healed nicely and was being held in the county jail waiting to be transferred to Fayetteville, AR where he escaped from jail. Herman’s life ended tragically in 1927 when he committed suicide in Wichita, KS, rather than face arrest for killing Deputy-Sherriff Art Osborne during a bank robbery in Cheyenne, WY. Ironically, the police suspected Elmer Inman of the murder and didn’t know that it was Herman until they brought Carol, Herman’s wife, in for questioning and she confessed to the murder.
Lloyd joined a gang called the Baxter Trio in the early 1920s. The group consisted of Will Green, Lloyd Barker, and Gregory O’Connell. The three robbed G.H. Shields of 5 pouches of mail. Unfortunately, they were misinformed as there was no cash and only some registered bonds, which were of no use to them. Lloyd was sentenced to 25 years in Leavenworth for robbing the U.S. Mail. He was released in 1938.
After he was released, he gave up his life of crime. He was an Army cook at a Prisoner of War camp in Fort Custer, MI, and received an honorable discharge and a Good Conduct medal from the Army. After the war, he moved to Denver and married Jennie who had two children from a previous marriage, and she and Lloyd at two of their own. Lloyd lived the longest of all the brothers. He was killed in 1949, murdered by his wife, she pled that she was innocent because of insanity and was taken to the Colorado Insane Assylum. Lloyd was 51.
Fred Barker, while in juvenile detention, attempted to kill another inmate and was subsequently sent to Lansing, where he met the infamous Alvin Karpis, further solidifying the Barker-Karpis Gang’s nefarious activities.
2 replies on “Ma Barker: Criminal Mastermind or Overindulgent Mother?”
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