Alvin Karpis

Alvin Karpis along with his partners who called themselves Barker Boys (they were the sons of Ma Barker) were an infamous gang of bank robbers, murderers, and kidnappers.

Background

1900–1920

• 1893 birth of Herman Barker
• 1897 Birth of Lloyd Barker
• 1899 Birth of Arthur Barker
• 1901 Birth of Fred Barker
• 1910—Herman Barker arrested for highway robbery in Webb City, Missouri.[after running over a child in the getaway car.]
• March 5, 1915—Herman Barker arrested for highway robbery in Joplin, Missouri. (Herman and Lloyd Barker reportedly involved with the Central Park Gang of Tulsa, Oklahoma.)
• July 4, 1918—Arthur "Doc" Barker involved in US automobile theft in Tulsa, Oklahoma; arrested (#841) (escaped).
• 1918-1919 Lloyd Barker in US Army {Cook}

1920–1929

• February 19, 1920—Arthur Barker arrested in Joplin, Missouri (#1740); returned to Tulsa, Oklahoma.
• 1921—Lloyd "Red" Barker arrested for vagrancy in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
• January 15, 1921—Arthur Barker aka "Claude Dade" involved in attempted bank robbery in Muskogee, Oklahoma; arrested (#822).
• January 30, 1921—Arthur Barker aka "Bob Barker" received at the Oklahoma State Prison (#11059); released June 11, 1921.
• June 17,1921 Lloyd Barker and William Green rob a US Mail Truck Baxter Springs kansas
• August 16, 1921—Arthur Barker and Volney Davis involved in killing of night watchman Thomas J. Sherrill in Tulsa, Oklahoma. (According to other sources[1]) Thomas J. Sherrill. was a night watchman at St. John's Hospital in Tulsa.)
• January 8, 1922—Central Park Gang involved in attempted burglary in Okmulgee, Oklahoma; shootout results in one burglar dead while police Captain Homer R. Spaulding[2] dies of his wounds on January 19, 1922. One gang member is sentenced to life in prison while another had his sentence overturned.
• January 16, 1922—Lloyd Barker received at Leavenworth Prison (#17243) after arrest for robbing mail at Baxter Springs, Kansas and sentenced to 25 years; released 1938.
• February 10, 1922—Arthur "Doc" Barker received (#11906) at Oklahoma State Prison for the murder of Sherrill.
• 1926—Fred Barker robbed bank in Winfield, Kansas; arrested.
• March 12, 1927—Fred Barker admitted to Kansas State Prison.
• August 1, 1927-Herman Barker cashed stolen bank bonds at the America National Bank in Cheyenne, WY. Sheriff Deputy Arthur Osborn[3] flagged down Barker's car. Barker picked up a gun from the vehicle's seat and shot Osborn. Osborn died as a result.
• August 29, 1927—Herman Barker commits suicide in Wichita, Kansas after being stopped at police roadblock. (Wichita Policeman J.E. Marshall[4]) had been killed on August 9, 1927, by the Kimes-Terrill Gang that Herman was associated with. Five other policemen were killed by the Kimes gang.[5]

Barker–Karpis gang

1930–1939

March 30, 1931—Fred Barker released from Kansas State Prison after serving time for burglary; met Alvin Karpis in prison.
June 10, 1931—Fred Barker and Alvin Karpis (alias George Heller) arrested by Tulsa, Oklahoma, police investigating burglary. Karpis sentenced to four years but paroled after restitution made; Fred Barker also avoided jail sentence.
November 8, 1931—Fred Barker killed an Arkansas police chief Manley Jackson.[6]
December 19, 1931—Fred Barker and Alvin Karpis robbed a store in West Plains, Missouri, and involved in the killing of Howell County, Missouri, sheriff C. Roy Kelly.[7]
January 18, 1932—Lloyd Barker received at Leavenworth Prison.
April 26, 1932—Body of Ma Barker's lover A. W. Dunlap found at Lake Franstead, Minnesota; killed by Fred Barker and Alvin Karpis.
June 17, 1932—Fred Barker, Karpis and five accomplices robbed Fort Scott, Kansas Bank.
July 26, 1932—Fred Barker, Karpis (with an augmented gang) robbed Cloud County bank at Concordia, Kansas.
August 13, 1932—Attorney J. Earl Smith of Tulsa, Oklahoma, found killed at Indian Hills Country Club north of Tulsa; he had been retained to defend Harvey Bailey over the Fort Scott bank robbery, but the man was convicted.
On July 25, 1932, Barker, Karpis, DeVol, Jess Doyle and Earl Christman robbed the Cloud County Bank at Concordia, Kansas, and made off with about $250,000 in cash and bonds.
On August 18, they pulled a second job at the Second National Bank of Beloit, Wisconsin, for $50,000.
September 10, 1932—Arthur "Doc" Barker released from prison.

• December 16, 1932—Fred and Arthur Barker, Alvin Karpis and gang robbed Third Northwestern National Bank in Minneapolis, killing policemen Ira Leon Evans and Leo Gorski[8] and one civilian. (One gang member Lawrence DeVol in this shooting was also involved in four other police killings-two police officers, Sheriff William Sweet[9] and City Marshal Aaron Bailey,[10] in Washington, Iowa, and Marshall John W. Rose[11] in Kirksville, Missouri, on November 17, 1930, and killing officer Cal Palmer[12] and wounding another officer before being gunned down in Enid, Oklahoma, in 1936.)
  

April 4, 1933—Fred and Arthur Barker, Alvin Karpis and gang robbed Fairbury, Nebraska, bank. Earl Christman is mortally wounded; a hostage Keith Sexton, a gun salesman Glen Johnson and Deputy Sherriff Bill Davidson are wounded but recover.[13]
April 6,1933 Christman died of wounds at Bank robber Vernon C, Millers home Kansas City Missouri and is buried by the Barkers in a unknown grave[14]

June 1933—William Hamm of the Hamm's Brewery family kidnapped by Barker–Karpis gang; Hamm released June 19, 1933, after ransom paid. It is believed by some that the gang turned over half of the Hamm ransom money to the Chicago Mob under Frank Nitti after Nitti discovered that they were hiding Hamm in suburban Chicago and demanded half the ransom as "rent".

August 30, 1933—Barker–Karpis Gang robs a payroll at Stockyards National Bank of South St. Paul, Minnesota, in which one policeman Leo Pavlak is killed and another disabled

September 22, 1933—Two bank messengers held up by five men identified as Barker–Karpis gang; Chicago policeman Miles A Cunningham[16] is killed

November 29, 1933-Vernon Miller is found dead near Detriot Michigan

January 17, 1934—Gang kidnaps Edward George Bremer, Jr.; Bremer released on February 7, 1934, after ransom paid. January 19, 1934—Gang wounds M.C. McCord of Northwest Airways Company, thinking he was a policeman.

March 10, 1934—Barker gang member Fred Goetz (also known as "Shotgun George" Ziegler, a participant in the Bremer kidnapping) killed by fellow gangsters in Cicero, Illinois.

April 1934-Doc Barker and associate Volney Davis get a surprise visit from John Dillinger and Homer Van Meter, helping them bury their comrade John "Red" Hamilton after Hamilton died from gunshot wounds sustained in a shootout in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Hamilton remains are later found and identified near Oswego Illinois)

• July 1934—Underworld doctor Joseph Moran last seen alive.

• January 6, 1935—Barker gang member William B. Harrison killed by fellow gangsters at Ontarioville, Illinois.
• January 8, 1935—Arthur "Doc" Barker arrested in Chicago; Barker gang member Russell Gibson killed and his colleague Byron Bolton captured at another address.
• January 16, 1935—Fred and Ma Barker killed by FBI in Ocklawaha, Florida (Marion County). Ma Barker was discovered by the FBI tracking her letters sent to her other son. She was writing to him to tell him about a large gator in Lake Weir that everyone had called "Gator Joe", which led to the name of the local restaurant known as "Gator Joe's".[17]
• September 26, 1935—The body of underworld doctor Joseph Moran found in Lake Erie; believed killed by Fred Barker and Alvin Karpis. (although Karpis alleged that Moran had been buried.)
• November 7, 1935—Karpis and five accomplices robbed an Erie Railroad mail train at Garrettsville, Ohio.
• May 1, 1936—Karpis and accomplice Fred Hunter arrested in New Orleans, Louisiana.
• October 29, 1938 Lloyd Barker paroled
• January 13, 1939—Arthur Barker killed trying to escape from Alcatraz Prison.

(Of Barker–Karpis gang/associates: 18 arrested; 3 killed by lawmen; 3 killed by gangsters; 1 died of wounds) Later events

• World War II - Lloyd Barker was a US Army cook ironically at A POW camp Fort Custer, Michigan; received US Army Good Conduct Medal and Honorable Discharge.
• March 18, 1949 — Lloyd Barker was manager of Denargo Market in Denver, Colorado; he was murdered by his wife; she was sent to Colorado State Insane Asylum.
• 1969 Alvin Karpis paroled
• August 26, 1979, Alvin Karpis died on accidental overdose of pills and alcohol in Spain

• 
  Herman Barker
• 
  Arthur Barker
• 
  Fred Barker
• 
  Alvin Karpis mugshot 1 May 1936
• 
  Alvin Karpis mugshot 1958