90 years after fateful shootout, plaque lets Ma Barker rest in infamy

OCKLAWAHA, Fla. — At 10:30 a.m. Thursday in Ocklawaha, retired FBI agent Doug Jones stood before a small crowd in front of the Bradford-Ma Barker House and spoke softly beneath a gloomy sky.

Around the same time 90 years ago — when the house sat on the other side of Lake Weir — the last echoes of automatic gunfire crackled through the air. Kate “Ma” Barker and her son Fred lay dead on the second floor of the house, marking the demise of the notorious Barker-Karpis Gang after 4 1/2 hours of what is still the longest shootout in the history of the FBI.

Reporters, local dignitaries and high school students were invited to see the gang’s rented hideout, which still has its interior pocked with bullet holes from that period.

“Ninety years ago, anywhere from 15 minutes to 45 minutes from now, the shooting stopped. Heroic agents of the FBI ended that crime wave,” Jones said as he presented a plaque from the Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI, commemorating the infamous history of the two-story wooden-framed house.

The marker was unveiled nearly eight years after the house was moved across the lake on a barge. It has since been remodeled to remove alterations, restore its porch and more closely resemble its historic appearance, marking its new status as a museum.

George Albright III, the Marion County tax collector, spearheaded the effort to preserve the house after the owners of the lakeside property where it originally stood decided to demolish it. The house and its furnishings were instead donated to the county on the condition that it be relocated.

“For people to know where they’re going, they have to know where they’ve been,” Albright said, explaining his desire to save the structure. Period artifacts now adorn its rooms.

Barker’s exit in a blaze of glory was the stuff of legend at a time when the fledgling FBI, then called the Bureau of Investigation, tackled a rogue’s gallery of well-known roving gangs while waging its “War on Crime.” With Barker’s gang on the lam following a series of violent robberies and kidnappings, agents were clued to the house’s location after arresting another of her sons, Arthur, during a Chicago raid where they found a map pointing to Lake Weir.

At 5 a.m. on Jan. 16, 1935, the feds surrounded the house, believing there to be from eight to 10 people inside. In reality, just Ma and Fred Barker were there after Alvin Karpis and other gang members had left the house three days earlier.

Although staggeringly outnumbered, they would not surrender. According to eyewitness accounts, someone in the house shouted, “All right, go ahead,” seconds before gunfire erupted.

It’s estimated up to 2,000 rounds were fired into and out of the house in the hours that followed, with an arsenal of Thompson submachine guns and other weapons later recovered inside. Later, the crates carrying the guns were mysteriously emptied as they were transported to Washington, D.C.

The shooting ended with no agents being injured, and “essentially ended the era of idealized gangsters in America,” FBI Special Agent Kristin Rehler of Jacksonville said Thursday.

“The Bradford-Ma Barker House represents more than just a violent confrontation,” she said. “It encapsulates the myths and realities of the Great Depression era.”

Terry Turner, a tour guide for the last five years, is an encyclopedia of information about the house and Depression-era outlaws, regaling guests with tales of famed gangsters from Charles “Pretty Boy” Floyd to Bonnie and Clyde. Their photos sat among those of Barker and others illustrating a bygone era of criminal terror.

While a force to reckon with in her own right, criminal matriarch Barker, found curled up dead next to a Thompson, was also the object of embellishment by J. Edgar Hoover, Turner said. Hoover called her “the most vicious, dangerous, and resourceful criminal brain of the last decade.”

“That’s straight from out of his behind, like a lot of things he said,” Turner joked.

It was a myth started by Hoover possibly to mitigate backlash against the bureau for killing an older woman, but it was later repeated by numerous Hollywood depictions of Barker’s life. The real head of the gang, Turner said, was Karpis, a prison-mate of Fred Barker nicknamed “Creepy” for his disorienting smile.

Historians later opined that while Ma Barker certainly knew of the gang’s activities and protected its members, she most likely played no role in planning or carrying out its misdeeds.

As for preserving the house, advocates said that’s far from a glorification of an era in which gangsters were household names, one which Albright called “a huge cancer on commerce in America.” Instead, it’s a recognition of an infamous history in an otherwise quiet town, offering a cautionary tale against violence and criminality.

Members of the public can see the house, but must book a tour in advance (Be warned: There is a lengthy wait list).

“We in no way are embellishing crime here, quite the opposite,” Albright said. “This is a great story and testament to law enforcement. They used the techniques that were cutting edge to stop this trash from going on, and fortunately we’ve never seen anything like it since.”

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