Back to:- Gangsters & Villains -  Graves out of LA

" Final Resting Place of Ma Barker & Boys"

Kate 'Ma' Barker   1877 -  January 16th 1935.
Fred Barker  died January 16, 1935
Herman Barker  October 30 1893 -. August 29 1927
& Ma's Husband George.
Arthur "Doc" Barker also has a marker here but is actually buried in Olivet Memorial Park Cemetery in Colma, CA.

Williams Timberhill Cemetery, Welch, Oklahoma. 

Info and photo courtesy of Rick Mattix.

 

Kate 'Ma' Barker (birth name Arizona Clark) ( c. 1871—January 16, 1935) was a legendary American criminal from the "public enemy era", when the exploits of gangs of criminals in the Midwest gripped the American people and press. Her notoriety has since subsided, trailing behind Bonnie and Clyde and John Dillinger.

The actual degree of Barker's own criminality is in doubt. Though her children were undoubtedly criminals and their Barker-Karpis Gang committed a spree of robberies, kidnappings and other crimes between 1931 and 1935, it appears that the popular image of her as the gang's leader and its criminal mastermind is a myth.

Though she must have known of the gang's activities and did help them before and 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, the gang's second most notorious member (historically a much more important figure), later said that:

"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. There is not one police photograph of her or set of fingerprints taken while she was alive ... she knew we were criminals but her participation in our careers was limited to one function: when we traveled together, we moved as a mother and her sons. What could look more innocent?" 
Many, including Karpis, have suggested that the myth was encouraged by J. Edgar Hoover and his fledgling FBI to justify his agency's killing of an old lady. She was shot dead when the FBI raided the cottage she was renting with her son Fred at Lake Weir in the Ocala region of Florida on January 16, 1935. It was Fred, who was also killed in the raid, that had been the Bureau's main target.