The Barker Carpus Gang Kidnapping

The Barker gang was behind the kidnapping of several of America's wealthiest citizens. The FBI had found one member of the Barker Carpus gang in Chicago, Arthur Barker. Ma Barker wrote that wherever they were hiding, it was good hunting for a three-legged alligator called old Joe. On January 15, 1935, 15 agents swooped down on a large frame house on the shores of Lake Weir on the outskirts of this Florida Citrus Belt town. They found Ma Barker, 63, dead in an upstairs room. One arm cradling a submachine gun, the other cradling her dead son, Fred, 32.