Ma Barker: America's Most Wanted Mother

by Howard Kazanjian, Chris Enss

Overview

Was Arizona Donnie Clark, AKA Kate “Ma” Barker the mastermind behind the Barker gang terrorizing the Midwest during the early years of the great Depression? Or was she a terrible mother who urged her sons to criminal behavior for her own financial gain? Or does the truth lie somewhere in between. This lively retelling of the legend of Ma Barker and her boys is full of action, intrigue, and the answers to mysteries that have lingered for more than 70 years.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780762796311
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	10/05/2016
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	294,776
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Howard Kazanjian is an award-winning producer and entertainment executive who has been producing feature films and television programs for more than twenty-five years. While vice president of production for Lucasfilm Ltd., he produced two of the highest grossing films of all time: Raiders of the Lost Ark and Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. He also managed production of another top-ten box-office hit, The Empire Strikes Back. Some of his other notable credits include The Rookies, Demolition Man, and the two-hour pilot and first season of J.A.G.

Chris Enss is an award-winning screen writer who has written for television, short subject films, live performances, and for the movies, and is the co-author (with JoAnn Chartier) of Love Untamed: True Romances Stories of the Old West, Gilded Girls: Women Entertainers of the Old West, and She Wore A Yellow Ribbon: Women Patriots and Soldiers of the Old West and The Cowboy and the Senorita; Happy Trails; The Young Duke; and Thunder Over the Prairie—soon to be a motion picture— with Howard Kazanjian. Her recent books include Frontier Teachers: Stories of Heroic Women of the Old West and The Doctor Wore Petticoats.

Table of Contents

Foreword ix

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction xiii

Chapter 1 Brains of the Operation 1

Chapter 2 Ruthless and Daring 20

Chapter 3 The Firstborn 34

Chapter 4 Losing Lloyd 51

Chapter 5 Public Enemy 58

Chapter 6 Murder in Wisconsin 72

Chapter 7 Careless Crimes 86

Chapter 8 Pleasing Ma 102

Chapter 9 Dangerous Criminals 117

Chapter 10 Gunfight at Lake Weir 131

Chapter 11 Waiting for a Grave 150

Chapter 12 End of an Era 166

Diary of a G-Man 174

Barker Aliases and Addresses 184

Crimes Committed by the Barkers 186

Notes 190

Bibliography 208

Index 215

About the Authors 224

Editorial Reviews

Ma Barker: America's Most Wanted Mother tells of the notorious mother of several criminals who oversaw the Barker gang during the Depression years. Kate Barker's thirst for the finer things in life was challenged by the economic pressures of her times, and her image has been virtually set in stone from FBI records depicting her as a controlling mother figure. Was she really as terrible as history claims? Two entertainment industry writers survey the real facts of not only Ma Barker's life and participation in family and crime, but the milieu of her era, and the reality of her situation. History and biography readers will find this a lively and different exploration.

Midwest Book Review