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no desire to maintain any high plane socially. They were poor and existed through no prolific support from Ma's husband, George Barker, who was more or less a shiftless individual, but who later profited from the criminal earnings of his wife and sons, but he did not put himself into such a position that he could be later termed a member of the gang. During the time his wife and sons, with other members of their gang, were roving the country perpetrating bank robberies and kidnapings, George Barker was content to remain in the vicinity of Joplin, Missouri and operate a small filling station until such time as he was to share in the estate of his deceased wife and his deceased son Fred Barker.

The early religious training of the Barkers, as is the case in families of this particular section, was influenced by evangelistic and sporadic revivals. The parents of the Barkers and the other boys with whom they were associated did not reflect any special interest in educational training and as a result their sons were more or less illiterate. Several years prior to Kate Barker's separation from Greorge Barker, which occurred approximately in the year 1928, and which was subsequent to the time that Herman, Lloyd and Arthur received prison sentences, it is possible that Kate bacame loose in her moral life. She was seen with a neighbor of hers sho was having outside dates with other men and was known to have been generally in the compay of other men in the vicinity of Tulsa, Oklahoma. This led to Kate's separation from her husband. She lived with her sons at such periods when they were released from their penitentiary sentences and cast her lot with their lawlessness and criminal activities. Inasmuch as she was more intelligent than any of her sons, she ruled them with an iron will and found this expression of dominance easily exerted because of the submission of her sons Fred and Arthur.

Ma Barker liked to live well. She purchased expensive clothing, furniture and other necessities from the spoils of her sons' depredations. Ma Barker was very jealous of her boys and did not wish to have them associate with firl friends. She would disclose the conversations had with various women members of the gang to her sons, particularly stressing the women's statements with reference to them. This procedure on her part caused frequent evidence of dissension among the other women of the gang who, in most instances made every effort to avoid the presence of Ma Barker.

Although Kate Barker gave most of her attention to her boys, she became a paramour, one Arthur W. Dunlop, alias George Anderson, believed to have ____ his fate as a result of his association with Kate Barker. Dunlop late in the year 1931 rented a cottage one and one-half miles from Thayer, Missouri, where

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he lived with Ma Barker and Ma Barker at this time was joined by her son Fred, who had been released from the Kansas State Penitentiary on March 30, 1931.

During the time that Fred Barker was in the penitentiary, where he had served a sentence for burglary, he became acquainted with Alvin Karpis, alias "Old Creepy", the alien. Alvin Karpis, like the Barker brothers, was from a poor and uneducated family. The parents of Alvin Karpis are Mr. and Mrs. John Karpavicz, who migrated to the United States from Lithuania. Upon first arriving in America, Mr. and Mrs. Karpavicz lived in New York City and thence moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan and then to Montreal, Canada, where they remained for two years. It was at Montreal, Canada that Alvin Karpis was born on August 10, 1907. He was christened Francis Alvin Karpavicz. When Alvin Karpis was two years of age, his family moved to Topeka, Kansas, where the family remained until 1923, after which they moved to Chicago, Illinois. Karpis shortly thereafter had an examination by a physician which disclosed that he had leekage of the heart and he was advised to take an extended vacation. Alvin then went to live with his sister, Mrs. Bert Grooms, at 1234 Monroe Street, Topeka, Kansas. It was at Topeka, Kansas that Alvin Karpis began an active criminal career, which was to lead him eventually to Ma Barker at Thayer, Missouri.

Karpis in 192_ had became involed in a burglary and was sentenced to serve ten years in the State Industrial Reformatory at Hutchinson, Kansas, where he was received on February __, 1924. At the Reformatory Karpis was assigned as a baker's helper. This required long hours of work from early morning, seven days a week, which was not in accordance with the desires of Karpis and as a result he violated many rules of the Instituation and served many days in solitary confinement. His mind was not idle while he was in solitary confinement and he planned ways of escape upon being released from "solitary". He plotted with another inmate, Charles Carroll, to escape and these two individuals were successful in escaping from the Instituation on March _, 192_. Karpis immediately rejoined his parents in Chicago, Illinois. The parents, while appearing to be law-abiding citizens, refrained from notifying the Kansas State authorities of the location of Alvin Karpis. They justified their position in this matter by the fact that it appeared Alvin Karpis was endeavoring to lead a law-abiding life and found employment with various bakers in Chicago, Illinois and also secured employment with a concern which sold medical equipment.

While on escape and while living with his parents, Karpis was joined by Larry De Vol and Karpis turned away from his lawful pursuits and drifted to Kansas City, Missouri with De Vol, where they were arrested on March 23, 192_ on the charge of auto larceny and safe blowing. Karpis at this time had begun the use of aliases and at the time of his arrest gave his name as Raymond

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Hadley. Karpis was not prosecuted on the charge of stealing the automobile, but on March 15, 1930 he was returned to the Reformatory at Hutchinson, Kansas as an escape. Due to the record which he had made for himself at the Reformatory, he was transferred to the Kansas State Penitentiary at Lansing, Kansas on May 19, 1930.

While in the Kansas State Penitentiary, the friendship between Alvin Karpis and Fred Barker was formed. Karpis was assigned to work in the coal mines at the Kansas State Penitentiary and while engaged in this occupation Karpis arranged with other prisoners to buy their "pay coal", in order to hasten his release from the penitentiary. The prisoners were required to dig a certain quantity of coal each day and for each ton mined over the required assignment, the prisoner was given good time and by his own efforts and the efforts of those whose "Pay coal" Karpis purchased, Karpis was released from the penitentiary on May 31, 1931. After his release, Karpis proceeded to Tulsa, Oklahoma and there joined, by prearrangement, Fred Barker. The following month, on June 10, 1931, Karpis was arrested by the Police Department at Tulsa as George Haller on investigation for burglary. Fred Barker was also arrested on this charge, which grew out of the theft of some jewelry. On Septmeber 10, 1931 Karpis, after entering a plea of guilty, was sentenced to serve four years in the Oklahoma State Penitentiary on a charge of burglary, but as restitution had been made the court paroled him. Fred Barker likewise escaped serving a penitentiary sentence for this offense and he, with Karpis, proceeded to Thayer, Missouri.

On December 18, 1931 Alvin Karpis and Fred Barker robbed a store in West Plains, Missouri, using a 1931 model De Soto automobile in the perpetration of this robbery. On December 19, 1931 Alvin Karpis and Fred Barker drove into the Davidson Motor Company garage in West Plains, Missouri in the DeSoto car which was recognized as being identical with the car used in the store robbery the day previous. Sheriff C. R. Kelly proceeded to the garage to conduct an investigation concerning the car and as he walked towards it to question the occupants thereof concerning the robbery, he was fired upon by them and subsequently died as a result of the wounds sustained. After the murder the police raided Dunlop's cottage at Thayer, Missouri on a report that suspicious persons were living there. They found in the cottage at Thayer, Missouri all the merchandise which had been stolen from the store at West Plains, Missouri, with the exception of some fifty tires. The raiders after the murder found the cottage at Thayer, Missouri had been abandoned hurriedly. Alvin Karpis and Fred Barker were positively identified as being the slayers of the popular sheriff. Dunlop, Kate Barker, Fred Barker and Alvin Karpis had fled from the cottage to the home of Herbert Farmer near Joplin, Missouri and upon Farmer's advice and instructions they proceeded to St. Paul, Minnesota. Herbert Farmer had been a close friend of the Barker family for many years and he was particularly friendly with Fred Barker, who spent much

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of his early life in association with Herbert Farmer, who had an extensive criminal record and it is safe to assume that Fred Barker received considerable education in the school of crime from Farmer.

The murder of Sheriff Kelly caused the flight of another criminal from the vicinity of Thayer, Missouri to St. Paul. This individual, who was later to be prominently identified with the Karpis-Barker gang was Phoenix Donald, commonly known as William Weaver, who had been paroled from the Oklahoma State Penitentiary on June 20, 1931, where he had previously been sentenced to serve a term of life imprisonment on the charge of murder. Weaver felt that his flight to St. Paul was necessary, in order to avoid becoming involved in further difficulties, in view of the fact that the automobile which had been used by Fred Barker and Alvin Karpis at the time of the murder of Sheriff Kelly had been abandoned by Karpis and Fred Barker near the home occupied by William Weaver at Thayer, Missouri.

William Weaver, in addition to his other aliases, was also known as "Lapland Willie" to his associates, due to Weaver having been reared in that part of Arkansas adjacent to Missouri known as "Lapland". He began his criminal career in July, 1916, when he was arrested for vagrancy by the Police Department at Joplin, Missouri. He also was arrested on May 26, 1922 by Special Agents of the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway at Sapulpa, Oklahoma on a charge of auto theft, but was not prosecuted on this charge. Weaver was next involved with the law at Garden City, Kansas in July of that same year when he was arrested by the Sheriff's Office at Garden City, Kansas for attempting to assist in a jail delivery, but likewise was not prosecuted on this charge. Weaver, as Phoenix Donald, on April 7, 1925 was received at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary to serve a life term for murder, which crime Weaver committed while attempting to escape after committing a bank robbery in the State of Oklahoma. In this attempted escape, he killed a member of the posse which was pursuing him and it was from this sentence he was paroled in 1931.

While in the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, William Weaver became acquainted with Ma Barker's son, Arthur, commonly known as "Doc", who had been received at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary on February 10, 1922 for the murder of James J. Sherrill, a night watchman at Tulsa, Oklahoma on August 26, 1921. Weaver at the penitentiary also became acquainted with Volney Daivs, who had been convicted with "Doc" Barker for the murder of the night watchman during a commission of a burglary. Volney Davis was received at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary to serve a life term for this murder on February 3, 1923, but succeeded in escaping from that Institution on January 8, 1925 but thirteen days later he was apprehended at Kansas City, Missouri and returned to the Penitentiary.

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