Ma Barker House, Ocklawaha, Florida

It is known as the Ma Barker House, even though she and her son only lived in it for two months. The home was originally located on property owned by Carson Bradford, who bought the real estate in Ocklawaha in 1892. His son, living in Miami, built the house in 1930. It was a two story Florida cracker style home with three bedrooms and two baths with a total of 2,100 square feet.

The home was quiet, nestled back from the street with a view of Lake Weir, the fifth largest lake in Florida. The Bradfords built the home as a weekend and summer retreat from Miami.

The cottage at Lake Weir where Ma Barker and Fred Barker
were killed while resisting arrest (Jan. 16, 1935)

 Carson Bradford had never rented his house on Lake Weir when in late 1934, he got a surprisingly generous offer from a representative of a Mrs. T.C. “Kate” Blackburn, describing her as “a sweet little old lady” was looking for an out of the way cottage to spend some quality time with her sons. They needed a place to rest and re-coup away from the cold Northern winter.

Bradford said the house wasn’t for rent. Not willing to accept no for an answer, the rent offer went up with an offer to pay cash in advance for the entire season. “It is the only time the house was ever rented,” says Carson Good, Bradford’s great grandson.

Two months later, the Bradford house was riddled with bullets and is the scene of the longest FBI shoot-out in history. Only when the shooting was over, did Bradford learn the true identity of his tenants. He had inadvertently rented to the notorious gangster, Ma Barker and her son Fred. It was the FBI they were fleeing, who had zeroed in on them as Public Enemy #1 after the FBI caught and or killed John Dillinger, followed by Al Capone, and Pretty Boy Floyd. The Barker-Karpis gang knew Hoover was coming for them next, so finding the the hide-out overlooking Lake Weir was a smart move at that time.

After the death of Ma Barker, Bradford wanted to build a new house on his property and was going to demolish the infamous "Barker" house. The Tax Assessor of Marion County heard about it and, knowing the history of the house, convinced the County to purchase the house, and then had it moved to its present location on the property of the Carney Island Recreation & Conservation Area. In order to view the Bradford-Ma Barker House, you must book a tour at 352-671-8560.

Our tour guide was a volunteer with Marion County and talked for about an hour telling us the history of the house as well as Ma Barker and her family. It was quite interesting.

The house was moved by barge from one side of the lake to its present location. 

Ma Barker was born Arizona Clark in Ash Grove, Missouri in 1873. She had a number of aliases, even as a child. Known to friends and family as “Arrie” or “Kate,” she was the mother of four sons, all criminals, who would form the Barker-Karpis Gang.

The gang would become infamous for its criminal activity, even earning the esteemed title of Public Enemy No. 1 from J. Edgar Hoover. These events occurred during an era when the exploits of gangs and criminals gripped Middle America and was excellent fodder for the public and the press.

After her death during a shoot-out with the FBI, she became known as a ruthless matriarch who controlled and organized her sons’ crimes, which included robberies, kidnappings and murder. J. Edgar Hoover, the Director of the Bureau of Investigation at the time, described her as, “the most vicious, dangerous and resourceful criminal brain of the last decade.”

Her portrayals in film and literature have presented her as a monstrous mother. Those who knew her insist this was not true and claim it was a fabrication by Hoover to justify the FBI’s killing of her.

Ma Barker

Ma Barker married George Barker in 1892 and had four sons between 1893 through 1901: Herman, Lloyd, Arthur and Fred. George, her husband, worked a series of low skilled jobs and was described as “shiftless” in an FBI document. That same document stated the Barker’s paid no attention to their son’s education. As a result, they were “more or less” illiterate.

George Barker

In the 1920s, organized crime and gangs grew at an insidious rate. By the 1930s, it had grown into a nationwide problem, spawning new and more malevolent crimes.

The boys’ criminal activity started as early as 1910, when Herman, her eldest, was 17. Herman and his brothers were involved in multiple crimes over the years with increasing seriousness and violence. Herman formed a gang when he was in his teens; he was arrested for robbery at age 15 and released in 1915 at age 22. He robbed banks with gangs, killed a police officer in 1927, and wounded policemen at a roadblock. He was the first born and first to die when he shot himself to avoid capture. Ma always took the side of her children, and Herman’s arrest, was heard saying, “My poor, innocent boy!” She was incensed at the indignity he had suffered, so much so that the family left and moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Herman Barker
(Oct. 30, 1893 - Aug. 29, 1927)

In Tulsa, they were barely making ends meet. Ma Barker, tired of barely getting by on what her husband earned, wanted the finer things in life. She began to see her boys as a means to that end. Recognizing that her son had made good money while in prison through criminal activity, she began to encourage petty theft and bad behavior, effectively training them and laying the groundwork for them to financially support her in the years to come.

Some years later, the boys were inducted into the Central Park Gang. Sadly, Herman died in 1927 after a robbery that left one policemen dead, shot by Herman at point-blank range in the mouth. Herman then killed himself to avoid prosecution.

The remaining brothers soon found themselves in prison for their various criminal activities, leaving Ma on her own. It’s believed her husband, George, left during this time. The reason is unclear. Some say the criminal life became intolerable; others say after his son’s death and the imprisonment of his other sons, he “gave up completely and removed himself from the scene.” Still, others say he and Ma argued about their son’s criminal lives.

Arthur "Doc" Barker
(June 4, 1899 - Jan. 13, 1939

Arthur had multiple arrests and time served in prison. He was arrested for kidnapping in 1934 and was sentenced to life at Alcatraz. He led an attempt to escape, made it to the water, but was shot by prison guards.  In 1932, Arthur was released from prison and joined the gang along with other criminal associates. They moved to Chicago, but decided to leave, not wanting to work for Al Capone. Their next stop was St. Paul, Minnesota which had the reputation as being a haven for wanted criminals. It was here that their most infamous crimes were committed. Operating under the protection of the city’s corrupt police chief, Thomas “Big Tom” Brown, the gang transitioned from being robbers to kidnappers.

By 1933, the gang had pulled off two successful kidnappings of wealthy St. Paul businessmen. The first being the kidnapping of William Hamm, which earned them a ransom of $100,000 (approximately $1.8M in todays money). They later kidnapped Edward Bremer and netted a $200,000 ransom (approximately $3.7M in today’s money).

It was fingerprint evidence from the Bremer kidnapping that tipped off the FBI to the gang’s involvement, putting them on the bureau’s radar. The gang knew they had to get out of the Midwest—and fast—because the FBI’s famous Flying Squad, a talented group of agents who were known for tracking down and ending the careers of many famous criminals, were not far behind.

Fred Barker
(Dec. 12, 1903 - Jan. 16, 1935)

Fred was sentenced to reform school from which he escaped and hid for three years. He was captured while stealing a car and sent to Kansas State Prison for 5-10 years. His cell-mate was Alvin Karpis. Barker was eventually paroled in 1931, and Karpis was paroled shortly thereafter. Fred joined forces with a former inmate, Alvin Karpis to form the Barker-Karpis gang. After a series of robberies and the murder of a sheriff in Missouri, the gang fled the territory, Ma and her lover with them. During this period, Ma used various false names and became known to the gang as “Kate.”

In an effort to escape, the gang, along with Ma, headed south to Miami, Florida. In Miami, they were looking for a place to live. How did they end up in Ocklawaha? Fred checked into the El Commodore Hotel in Miami on Sept. 29, 1934, using the alias of T.C. Blackburn. He asked hotel manager Joe Adams if he knew of a lakefront rental in a small town in Central Florida. Adams put them in touch with Carson Bradford, President of Biscayne Kennel Club, who owned a two-story lake front home in the small town of Ocklawaha on Lake Weir. Fred and other gang member went up there to check it out before renting. We know that Bradford eventually allowed them to rent the house. 

In the meantime, the FBI were still looking for them. For a time, it seemed that no one could find them, until a map indicating the location of Ma, Fred and the rest of the gang was discovered during the arrest of Arthur “Doc” Barker. With the help of an alligator named Gator Joe, who was referenced in the map, the Flying Squad found the gang’s elusive hideout. In the wee hours of January 16, 1935, agents surrounded the house and demanded the gang members surrender. Fred Barker chose this moment to open fire on the federal agents, and the shootout began.

Four hours later, the gunfire stopped. Bodies were found in the same bedroom. The Flying Squad had successfully taken out two members of the notorious Barker-Karpis gang.

Alone, with her sons in jail and her husband gone, Ma lived in miserable poverty in a “dirt-floor shack” from 1928 through1931. Rumors say she became “loose” with other men and by 1930 was living with a jobless man named Arthur W. Dunlop. However, things began to look up when Fred was released from jail in 1931.

Lloyd Barker
(Mar. 16, 1898 - Mar. 18, 1949)

Lloyd was the one son who really tried not to be a criminal, but was not totally successful. He served 25 years in prison and was released in 1938. He joined the Army in WWII as a cook, and received an honorable discharge. He married Jennie Barker and had two children. (She had two from a previous marriage.)

They were living in Denver, Colorado where Lloyd was an Assistant Manager of a Bar & Grill. One day his wife called to ask him to come home and take care of the children as she was having "one of those days." He immediately left work and went home, opened the front door and there was Jennie with a shotgun with which she blew his head off. I guess he "forgot" to tell Jennie about his past.

After the Volunteer finished telling us the history of the house and the Barkers, we were able to go inside the Barker house to look at the furniture and bullet holes in the walls. The furniture is the original furniture from the Bradford house era.

At the end of the gun fight, Ma Barker and her son lay dead, although the FBI did not know it at first. They paid the Bradford's grounds keeper to go into the house to find the Barkers, which he did cautiously, lest he got shot. He found them in the upstairs bedroom, both shot dead.

From what I can recall from the guide telling the story, the coroner was called to take the bodies away. They held the bodies in the hopes that someone would come and claim them. When no one did, they put the bodies on display and people paid 10 ¢ to view the bodies. When interest waned, they changed the price to 5¢. 

Tampa Jay did a YouTube video on his visit to the Ma Barker house. It's an hour long, but I added for your reference.