(DON THOMPSON / iNFOnews.ca)

OPINION

Growing up, my friends and I often headed to Lake Weir to waterski, swim, fish and do what teenagers do best…hangout. The 5,685-acre lake - about 25 minutes from my parents’ home - is Florida’s fifth largest body of water…back then with a boat ramp, a ski jump and nearly 40 miles of shoreline dotted with “Summer” cottages.

The lake held enough alligators to make skiing and swimming, well…interesting. It held some history, as well…honest to goodness history…the stuff of books and movies. Ocklawaha - an unincorporated community of a few hundred folks, a gas station, post office and a restaurant of sorts - was a stone’s throw away.

The lake - named after Nathaniel Ware, a frontier-era state land official, whose name was misspelled when it was recorded - was just another spring-fed respite from Florida’s heat and humidity…until 1935.

At 7 a.m. on Jan. 16, 1935 - 88 years ago today - the largest F.B.I. gun battle in history awoke those who lived around Lake Weir. Some 14 F.B.I. agents surrounded a two-story frame house where two of America’s most wanted gangsters were holed up…ending in a four-hour gun battle of nearly 1,000 rounds.

Kate “Ma” Barker and one of her sons, Freddie - the youngest and her favourite - were pronounced dead just after 11 a.m. that day…he shot 11 times…she three times. Ma and her four boys - Freddie, Herman, Lloyd and Arthur, also known as “Doc” - had teamed up with Alvin “Creepy” Karpis after Freddie was his cell mate in Kansas State Penitentiary in Lansing, Kansas in 1931.

The Barker-Karpis Gang - which fluctuated between six and eight members - upped the ante from the Barkers’ bank robbing and mail hijacking days to more lucrative kidnapping and ransoming.

The first kidnapping in 1933 was William Hamm, a wealthy Minnesota brewer, who was ransomed for $100,000…more than $2.25 Million today. Shortly afterwards, they abducted Minnesota banker Edward Bremer, Jr., netting a $200,000 ransom…more than $4.5 Million.

It was more fiction than fact that Ma Barker was the gang’s ringleader…ruling her brood with an iron fist. Most newspapers and radio of the era were given to sensationalism…and the lives of George “Machine Gun” Kelly, John Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde, Al Capone, “Pretty Boy” Floyd and “Baby Face” Nelson were, well, sensational during the Great Depression.

FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover fed the ravenous press with mostly misleading characterizations about “Ma” Barker. While true that members of the Barker-Karpis Gang were ruthless and killed people at the drop of a hat - even innocent bystanders - evidence indicates “Ma” Barker was more a convenient shill…the mother of sons when they moved from town to town…what could look more innocent?

Certainly no angel, she was a doting mother more than willing to overlook her sons’ and their cohorts’ criminal acts.

By noon the day “Ma” Barker and Freddie died, hundreds of folks…mostly from my hometown, Ocala, crowded near the house hoping to catch a glimpse of the notorious gangsters. That afternoon the bodies were displayed in front of a funeral home in Ocala…hundreds more paraded past. The bodies were claimed by relatives ten months later and buried in Welch, Oklahoma.

No one really knows who was shooting what in the house. F.B.I. eyewitnesses said Freddie ran from window to window firing a variety of weapons…probably to make it appear the house was loaded with gangsters.

The F.B.I. recovered these weapons and ammunition from inside the Lake Weir shootout house.

Image Credit: SUBMITTED

The F.B.I. stacked a small arsenal on the house’s front steps, including two .45 caliber automatic pistols, two Thompson submachine guns, a .33 caliber Winchester rifle, a .380 caliber Colt automatic pistol, a Browning 12-gauge automatic shotgun and a Remington 12-gauge pump shotgun.

The headlines in newspapers from coast-to-coast and radio broadcasts on Jan. 17 trumpeted the news…the Barker-Karpis Gang was near its end.

Had the Feds made their move a few weeks earlier - near Christmas - virtually all members of the gang were at Lake Weir. “Ma” Barker and her sons, “Creepy” Karpis and other gang members were in Miami, before heading to remote Lake Weir for a peaceful rest that included daily picnics and some fishing. A couple gang members were in Havana, Cuba, laundering the ransom money - which was all marked - a little at a time. “Ma” Barker’s purse, found near her body, contained more than $10,000.

“Ma” Barker’s son “Doc” was captured by F.B.I. hero Melvin Purvis the week before she was killed, sent to Alcatraz and was shot trying to escape a few months later. Her son, Herman, killed himself after being surrounded after robbing a bank and killing a cop back in 1927. Lloyd was captured in 1935, served 25 years in prison, and was killed by his wife after release.

Alvin “Creepy” Karpis was captured by a team of F.B.I. agents led by Director J. Edgar Hoover…surrounding his New Plymouth coupe in New Orleans on May 1, 1936. Karpis was the F.B.I.’s final “Public Enemy Number 1”…and would become the longest serving prisoner - 26 years - of Alcatraz.

Karpis was paroled in 1969 and eventually deported to Canada, though he initially had difficulty obtaining a Canadian passport, since his fingerprints were removed medically in 1934. He lived in Montreal until 1973, then Spain, where he died in 1979.

Even today, you can visit the site on Lake Weir of the F.B.I.-“Ma” Barker shootout…now an empty lot. The actual frame house was moved across the lake to a park miles away…the bullet holes still clearly visible. Ocklawaha - even with 1,575 residents - remains an easy-going Southern town.

This F.B.I. Photo noting that it is where “Ma” Barker and son, Freddie, were found dead.

Image Credit: SUBMITTED

As a teenager, we would on occasion visit the old house…docking our boats at the remnants of the pier that still stood…walking around counting bullet holes and peering through the windows. The shootout was a topic of conversation then…and even all these years later kids in the area re-create the event with imaginations and pretend guns…as do adults once a year commemorating the event at the house’s new location.

Lake Weir remains a beautiful, spring-fed lake today…though more houses dot the shoreline…mostly year-round residents. Floridians who used to escape Miami’s heat and humidity in the lake’s cool water…now Summer in the mountains of North Carolina. It’s a different era…but Lake Weir is a storied part of both the world of gangsters and G-Men…and my teen years.

— Don Thompson, an American awaiting Canadian citizenship, lives in Vernon and in Florida. In a career that spans more than 40 years, Don has been a working journalist, a speechwriter and the CEO of an advertising and public relations firm. A passionate and compassionate man, he loves the written word as much as fine dinners with great wines.

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