Ma Barker, mother of several members of the Barker gang from the "public enemy era," was born 148 years ago today.
The exploits of the Barker gang, built-up by corrupt FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover, gripped the midwest.
Under various pseudonyms, she traveled with her sons during their outlaw careers. After she was killed during a shoot-out with the FBI, she acquired a reputation as a ruthless crime matriarch, who controlled and organized her sons' crimes.
J. Edgar Hoover described her as "the most vicious, dangerous and resourceful criminal brain of the last decade." Because of this, Barker has been presented as a monstrous mother in films, songs and literature.
However, her personal acquaintances insisted she had no active role in criminal activity and "couldn't plan breakfast," as one gang associate said.
Writer Tim Mahoney argues that the real force behind the gang was the corrupt St. Paul law-enforcement system, especially under the police chief, Tom Brown.
Before they met him they were nothing more than a "bumbling band of hillbilly burglars" who would have been captured or killed long before becoming nationally notorious.
"Had the Barker gang never come under Brown's protection, Ma Barker might have died lonesome in the Ozarks, an impoverished obscure widow," he wrote.