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still had about $100,000 of the original ransom money in their possession. The idyll was soon disrupted however, when a few of the female members were arrested for being drunk and disorderly in a hotel, and were quickly linked to the Barker-Karpis Gang. Karpis moved around the states, ending up in Miami, Florida, and then he and Dolores made their way to Havana, Cuba, where Alvin felt confident that agents would not find them. But Alvin Karpis would not be granted any rest, as his picture was already being circulated in the newspapers of Havana. He fled back to Miami, where once again several of the other gang members were starting to reassemble.

The FBI noted that during this period, Doc Barker spent time hiding in Toledo, Ohio, where he became infatuated with a woman named Mildred Kuhlman. Until then, many of Doc’s associates had termed him as a woman hater, who spurned female companionship with the exception of his frequent visits to houses of prostitution. He persuaded Mildred to accompany him back to Chicago, where he promised a life of luxury and riches. When she agreed to go with him, the FBI had already put her under surveillance. On January 8, 1935 special agents surrounded the Barker house on Pine Grove Avenue in Chicago and took them both into custody. Agents also found a Thompson submachine gun, and the crime lab determined that it had been used in a robbery on August 30, 1933, in which a policeman had been killed with that very weapon. Also found in the house was a map with a street in Ocala, Florida circled in pencil. Doc received a life sentence for his role in the Bremer kidnapping, and was sentenced to serve his time at Alcatraz. He was shipped to the Rock in October of 1935.

* * *

The hunt intensified even with the capture of Doc and special agents quickly descended on the town of Ocala and began an extensive investigation, believing that the map found in Chicago indicated the whereabouts of other Barker-Karpis gang members. Their hunch was right and they soon learned that Fred and Ma were living in a remote cottage located on Lake Weir at Ocklawaha, Florida. At 5:30 a.m. on the morning of January 16, 1935, special agents surrounded the cottage and told Fred and Ma to surrender. No answer or movement was detected for nearly fifteen minutes, and then finally the voice of Ma Barker was heard shouting: “all right, go ahead.” This was interpreted as indicating that they were going to surrender, but still no one emerged from the cottage. Seconds later the true meaning of the message was clear – the agents were forced to take cover under an intense bombardment of machine gun fire. The agents returned fire with a heavy barrage of machine gun rounds, rifle shots and tear gas grenades, and finally everything became quite.

FBI agents waited for nearly an hour before entering the bullet-riddled gang hideout. When they went in, they found Ma Barker dead with a machine gun lying by her left hand, and Fred spread out on the floor next to the window, dead from multiple bullet wounds. He was still clutching a .45 caliber pistol. In the aftermath of the shootout, agents discovered a small arsenal of weapons and nearly $14,000 in large bills. The bodies of Fred and Kate (Ma) Barker would remain unburied from January 16, 1935 until October 1st, when George Barker finally received assistance for their burial. The two would be laid to rest in a small unknown and unmarked countryside cemetery in Welch, Oklahoma, next to the eldest Barker son Herman.

Agents had also learned that the hideout where Bremer had been held during his kidnapping was in Bensenville, Illinois. Bremer returned to the house and made a positive identification, which would ultimately led to more arrests. Special agents from the FBI continued their search to locate the other fugitives from the Barker-Karpis Gang. Their efforts were successful and they continued to make arrests, including the capture of Volney Davis and Dolores Delaney. Delaney gave birth to a baby boy while in prison, and the child was named Raymond Alvin Karpowicz after his father.