#ma barker

[thegikitiki]

Nothing says "family values" like being told to kill the witnesses, after you've found your faith.

Source: Bloody Mama Movie Poster, 1970

Movie Trailer on YouTube

[sowhatifiliveinfukuoka]

Ma Barker (1873-1935)

[wanderingmind867]

A lot of criminals from the 20s and 30s in America entered the folklore of the country, but it still baffled me how many times i've seen the story of Ma Barker influence media. I've seen it at least twice, both times in the 60s and 70s. Batman 1966 had a villian modelled after her (Ma Parker as played by Shelley Winters), and the european disco group Boney M had a song loosely based on her in the form of Ma Baker. I want to say there was a lot more inspiration on media from Ma Barker, but my mind is not thinking of it as clearly right now.

But I suppose it makes sense it entered the folklore and public consciousness. A mother who led her kids on a crime wave across the Midwestern US? That's pretty interesting. Whether it's all true or not, I can't say. But the idea of it all? I see why it fascinated people. A family crime empire, and all led by one older woman. It was probably revolutionary as a story for 20th century america. It's like... it's the same way we still know of people like Al Capone or Billy the Kid or Jesse James. They were real people, but the myth becomes more powerful than the truth. And that is always fascinating.

[pedritogames]

Essa é a Ma Patas de "Vai, Cachorro. Vai!", mas no estilo de "Gui e Estopa".

[historydailyfrancischappellblack]

THE BARKER GANG ROB A FEDERAL RESERVE MAIL TRUCK AND KILL A POLICE OFFICER WHILE GETTING AWAY WITH NO MONEY.

August 22, 1933

Image: Ma Barker (Wikimedia Commons)

The infamous Barker gang holds up a Federal Reserve mail truck in Chicago, Illinois, and kills a police officer. After obtaining only a stack of worthless checks, the Barkers returned to a crime with which they had more success—kidnapping. A few months later, the Barkers kidnapped wealthy banker Edward Bremer, demanding $200,000 in ransom.

After Kate Clark married George Barker in 1892, she gave birth to four boys: Herman, Lloyd, Arthur, and Freddie. As Kate became known, Ma Barker was presumably responsible for discipline in the family, but she let her sons run wild. She defended her boys no matter what they did, saying, "If the good people of this town don't like my boys, then the good people know what they can do." All the Barker boys became involved in crime during their childhood: In 1922, Lloyd robbed a post office and received a 25-year sentence in federal prison; that same year, Arthur "Doc" Barker got a life sentence in Oklahoma for killing a night watchman, though later it would turn out that he was innocent; Freddie was next to see the insides of a holding cell after robbing a bank. While serving time in Kansas, Herman committed suicide during a heated gunfight with police after robbing a bank in Missouri.

Herman's death inspired Ma Barker to pressure authorities to release her other sons, and Doc and Freddie were subsequently set free. Although Ma Barker is seen as the gang's mastermind, historians doubt this. Whether she was behind the gang's nefarious deeds or not, the Barkers were at the center of the Midwest's growing criminal community. When they tired of bank robberies, the Barkers began kidnapping.

Their first victim, William Hamm, earned the gang $100,000 in ransom. Although the Bremer abduction in 1933 produced twice as much, it brought them a lot of heat from federal authorities. With the FBI on their trail, Doc and Freddie attempted plastic surgery. But this half-baked idea left them with disfiguring scars, and Doc was captured in early 1935.

Doc, who was later killed while attempting to escape from Alcatraz in 1939, refused to talk to authorities, but police found papers in his hideout that led them to Ma and Freddie on Lake Weir, Florida. After a ferocious shootout lasting 45 minutes, the Barkers lay dead from the firefight, machine guns still at their sides.

Twelve years later, Lloyd Barker was finally paroled. He, too, met a violent end, but not at the hands of the police—his wife shot him dead in 1949. Father George Barker, who was never part of the Barker gang, was the family's sole survivor.

[schlock-luster-video]

On February 20, 2001, Bloody Mama was released on VHS in the United States.

[docgold13]

365 DC Comics Paper Cut-Out Villains - One Villain, Every Day, All Year…

May 10th - Ma Mayhem


A villain from the Batman Beyond Universe, Ma Mayhem is a gang leader who has embraced an anachronistic theme evocative of the gangsters of the 1930’s. Jilted by her former husband who had run off with another woman, Ma Mayhem and her sons embark on a crime spree to acquire numerous objects with particular meaning to her. This leads to a clash with Batman (Terry McGinnis) and it would be the first of many altercations between the two parties. Voiced by actress Kathleen Freeman in the animated series, Ma Mayhem was something of a homage to Shelly Winter’s character of Ma Barker who bedeviled the Dynamic Duo in the 1960’s Batman television series. Ma Mayhem’s first comic book appearance was in Batman Beyond #19 (2001).

[ghostghoul]

Reader Submission: Ma Barker's Fury

Reader Submission: Ma Barker’s Fury

The infamous Barker house

On January 8, 1935, FBI agents surrounded the home of gang matriarch Kate “Ma” Barker and her son Fred. After an intense shootout lasting several hours, Ma and Fred succumbed to the hail of bullets. Legend has it Ma still haunts her former home and harbors an intense hatred of law enforcement. Here’s a story from a retired police officer who encountered Ma on the 70th…

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