Fred Barker

Frederick George Barker (December 12, 1901 – January 16, 1935) was an American criminal who, along with

After their release, Barker and Karpis joined up to commit a string of burglaries in

Things became difficult for the gang when they were confronted by Sheriff C. Roy Kelly in December 1931. Karpis and Barker shot and killed Kelly, an act that forced them to flee the area. The two had also probably killed an Arkansas police chief, Manley Jackson, a month earlier, but had avoided suspicion at the time.^[2] The gang relocated to Minnesota, where, in 1932, Barker, his brother Arthur, Karpis, and Lawrence DeVol robbed Third Northwestern National Bank in Minneapolis. DeVol killed policemen Ira Leon Evans and Leo Gorski during the escape, while Barker murdered Oscar Erickson, a passing motorist.^[3] Barker and Karpis were also suspected of killing Dunlop, an alcoholic whom they considered to be untrustworthy after someone tipped police to the gang's hideout. According to other gang members, Dunlop was also abusive to Ma.

Around this time Barker started a relationship with Paula Harmon, widow of bank robber Charles Harmon. Karpis did not approve of Paula, considering her to be a "drunk" and a "rotten choice, though you couldn't tell that to Freddie".^[4]

The gang became nationally notorious in 1933-4, when they organized the

With the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in pursuit, Barker and Karpis attempted to get plastic surgery to alter their appearance and remove their fingerprints. The procedure was carried out by Moran, an underworld doctor. The operations were so painful that Fred asked one of his friends to shoot him to stop the pain, but his friend refused. Moran disappeared shortly thereafter. A badly decomposed body was discovered a year later washed up from Lake Erie on Crystal Beach, Ontario, Canada. Police identified it as Moran. In 1971, Karpis wrote in his autobiography that the identification was mistaken; he claimed that Moran had been murdered by the Barkers and then buried in a lime pit in Michigan.^[5] The most accepted version of the tale is that Karpis and Fred Barker took Moran on a boat ride on Lake Erie, during which they both murdered him. He was killed either for his botched surgery or for shooting his mouth off about the gang in a brothel.^[6][7] The last time Moran was seen alive was at a brothel in which he drunkenly bragged, "I have you guys in the palm of my hand". He left the bar with Karpis and Barker and was never seen again.

After this the gang attempted to

Agents surrounded the house at 13250 East Highway C-25 on the morning of January 16, 1935. Unknown to the FBI, Karpis and other gang members had left three days before, leaving only Fred and Ma Barker in the house. Ordered to surrender, Fred opened fire. The resulting firefight lasted for about fifteen minutes. The FBI agents retreated to a safe distance, but lobbed smoke bombs into the house. Gunfire continued to come from the house, and Fred and Ma apparently moved from room to room, as shots came from different windows. The FBI returned fire. Allegedly, many local people came to watch the events unfolding, even holding picnics during the gun battle.^[9] Gunfire ceased coming from the house after five hours; the FBI ordered local estate-handyman Willie Woodbury to enter the house wearing a bulletproof vest. Woodbury reported that the occupants were dead.

Both bodies were found in the same front bedroom. Fred Barker's body was riddled with bullets, but Ma appeared to have died from a single bullet wound.^[9] A Thompson submachine gun was lying between the bodies of Ma and Fred.^[10] Their bodies were put on public display, and then stored unclaimed, until October 1, 1935, when relatives had them buried—at Williams Timberhill Cemetery in Welch, Oklahoma—next to the body of Herman Barker, who had died in 1927.^[11] On January 20, four days after his death, Paula Harmon was committed to the Rusk State Hospital for Insane in Rusk, Texas.

• In the 1957 docudrama Guns Don't Argue, Fred is played by Sam Edwards.
• Fred is portrayed by Joe Di Reda in "Ma Barker and Her Boys", an episode of 1959 TV series The Untouchables, which pits federal agent Eliot Ness against the Barker clan, and fictionally depicts Ness as leading the assault on Ma Barker and her sons at their Florida hideout. In this version, Lloyd, Fred and Arthur are all present at the final shootout. Fred is portrayed as the most devoted to his mother. He shoots Lloyd when he tries to give up. In reality Lloyd was in prison throughout the career of the Barker-Karpis gang.
• In The FBI Story, he is portrayed by Alan Craig.
• Fred is played by Eric Morris in Ma Barker's Killer Brood (1960). In this version, in the final shootout he is revealed to be a coward who wants to surrender, but Ma refuses to let him.
• In Bloody Mama (1970) he is portrayed by Robert Walden. In this version he is the weakest member of the family and is involved in a homosexual relationship with "Kevin Dirkman" (a fictionalized version of Karpis, who was still alive at the time).
• In Public Enemies (1996) he is portrayed by Gavin Harrison.

• Fred Barker's pinky ring found at gangs hideout in Oklawaha, Florida by metal detectorist Alan James on June 11, 2016.