Alvin Karpis and the Barker Gang in Minnesota

by Deborah Frethem, Cynthia Schreiner Smith

Overview

From their home base in Minnesota, the Karpis-Barker Gang cut a swath of crime and terror across the Midwest in the early 1930s. They kidnapped two important businessmen and held them for exorbitant ransoms. They stole payrolls and robbed banks as the bullets flew. Corrupt police and wily crime bosses helped Alvin Karpis and the Barker brothers Freddie and Doc every step of the way. Who were these men and women? What made them into killers and kidnappers? How did their reckless lifestyles lead to their downfall? From Ma Barker to Volney Davis to Edna Murray the Kissing Bandit, authors Deborah Frethem and Cynthia Schreiner Smith delve into the crimes, personalities and motivations of one of the most successful and infamous gangs in American history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781467146227
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	09/28/2020
Series:	True Crime
Pages:	160
Sales rank:	493,360
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Cynthia Schreiner Smith is an actor/writer/producer born and raised in St. Paul, Minnesota, where she still lives in a suburb outside the city. This is her first book, but she he has published short pieces on St. Paul history in the St. Paul Almanac in 2012 and 2014. Since 1998, she has worked as a tour guide for Down in History Tours in St. Paul, researching and writing scripts for its historical tours. She is best known there for performing the St. Paul Gangster Tour as Barker-Karpis gang member Edna Murray, the Kissing Bandit. Cynthia and her husband, Bick Smith, are co-owners of CyBick Productions, producing corporate videos and short films. In 2011, they produced Gangsterland, a documentary-style movie about 1930s gangsters in St. Paul.

Deborah Frethem previously published Ghost Stories of St. Petersburg, Clearwater, and Pinellas County with The History Press in 2007, Haunted Tampa: Spirits of the Bay in 2013 and Haunted Ybor City in 2014. She has also written scripts for historical tours in Minnesota and Florida and conducted these tours for more than twenty years. She has a bachelor's degree in history from Olaf College and has served as tour manager for Down in History Tours in St. Paul. She is currently a writer and storyteller, living on a boat in the Mississippi River in downtown St. Paul.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements 9

A Note Regarding the FBI 11

Part I Why Minnesota?

John J. O'Connor 13

The Three Rules 15

Harry "Dutch" Sawyer 19

Jack Peifer 21

Leon Gleckman 23

Tom Brown 24

Part II The Barker Family

Arizona "Ma" Barker 33

Herman Barker 38

Lloyd Barker 40

Part III The Gang

Alvin Karpis 43

Freddie Barker 90

Arthur "Doc" Barker 96

Edna Murray 103

Volney Davis 122

Other Gang Members 134

Part IV The End of an Era

Death in Florida 139

The End of the System 146

Bibliography 153

About the Authors 157