18. Ma Barker Raised Her Sons to Be Violent Criminals, and Led Them to Their Deaths
During the 1930s, America was swept by a wave of violent and flashy criminals, who fascinated, horrified, and titillated the public. This was the era of iconic outlaws such as Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde, and Machine Gun Kelly. Their numbers included Arizona Donnie Barker, AKA “Ma Barker”, who made the FBI’s Public Enemies list, and was described by J. Edgar Hoover as “the most vicious, dangerous and resourceful criminal brain of the last decade“.
It would have been bad enough if she had chosen a life of violent crime just for herself, but she raised her kids to be like her, and in so doing, doomed them. Sons Arthur, Fred, Herman, and Lloyd Barker were raised to become violent thugs since childhood, and they grew up to be car thieves, armed robbers, kidnappers, and murderers. It ended badly for son Herman, who killed himself in the 1920s to avoid capture after a bungled bank robbery. Ma Barker and another son, Fred, followed him to great beyond in 1935, when they got into a shootout with FBI agents in Florida.
