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By Root 710 0

never again to return to Oklahoma. Once more the Barker gang went into full swing, pulling various bank and business heists. The family rented a house with Karpis and Dunlop at 1301 South Roberts Street in West St. Paul, Minnesota, but the landlady soon became suspicious on seeing them frequently entering and leaving the house carrying violin cases. Her son also recognized Fred Barker and Alvin Karpis from a detective magazine which featured a story about the killing of Officer Kelly. On April 25, 1932 the police raided the house, only to find that it had just been abandoned. The following morning, the body of Arthur “Old Man” Dunlop was found on the shores of Lake Frendsted near Webster, Missouri. Dunlop had been stripped of his clothing and shot three times at close range. Not too far away, the police found a bloodstained woman’s glove that was believed to belong to Ma Barker. The FBI later contended that Alvin and Fred had shot Dunlop to death, believing that he had been the one who tipped off the police.

The FBI had now started to close in on the Barker gang, which forced the outlaws to flee to Kansas City. Karpis posed as one of Ma’s sons, and the family bought a luxury home in an exclusive residential district known as Country Club Plaza. They attempted to masquerade as an upstanding family that worked in a successful insurance firm. The men ultimately teamed up with convicts Francis Keating, Thomas Holden, and Harvey Bailey (later an accomplice of “Machine Gun” Kelly), who had all escaped from Leavenworth Penitentiary. Another accomplice was Bernard Phillips, a corrupt police officer who had become a professional bank robber. The family started to move from one location to another, attempting to evade the FBI. On July 7th the FBI apprehended Bailey, Holden and Keating while they were playing golf at the Old Mission Golf Course in Kansas City. Phillips was also with the men, but he happened to be inside the country club, and watched from afar as the others were handcuffed and shoved into law enforcement vehicles. Phillips carried the news back to the gang, and Alvin and Fred quickly packed their belongings and fled. When the FBI raided the apartment they found cooked meals on the table, indicating an unplanned and rapid departure.

In July of 1932 Karpis, Phillips, Fred and Ma Barker, and another accomplice named Jess Doyle fled together from Kansas City to White Bear Lake in Minnesota, where they rented a summer cottage in a small resort. The gang maintained a low profile with the exception of frequenting a small nightclub called the Hollyhocks, which was owned by an associate named Jack Peifer. Their crime spree continued with a daring daylight robbery of the Cloud County Bank in Concordia, Kansas, where they secured over $240,000 in bonds and thousands of dollars in cash.

The family paid for the services of a private detective named Jack Glynn to help negotiate the release of Doc, who was imprisoned at Leavenworth at the time. Glenn conducted independent investigations, and managed to win Doc’s release on September 10, 1932. Glynn had also attempted to achieve the release of Lloyd Barker, who was likewise imprisoned at Leavenworth. But the authorities were unmoved by Glynn’s attempts, and denied Lloyd’s appeal. Doc spent a short time visiting with his father and a small stint attempting to make an honest living as a glass blower, and then reunited with Ma and the others back in Minnesota. Volney Davis was also successful in getting paroled, and he soon joined up with Doc.

On December 16, 1932 the Barker-Karpis Gang robbed the Third Northwestern Bank of Minnesota, and the violent aftermath left one bystander and two police officers dead in a hail of machine gun bullets. The gang had thought that the bystander was attempting to get their license plate number, and had therefore shot him to death. Gang member Larry DeVol was captured, and he was found to have $17,000 in his possession from the Third Northwestern Bank robbery. The others took flight once again, this time making their way to Reno, Nevada, where they