On This Day

[John Boylan]

"Henry M":

>and in '35, Ma Barker died in a four hour shootout

"Me":

  When FBI agents killed Freddy Barker of the Karpis-Barker gang ( for
those who get their outlaw history form Roger Corman, _not_ a gang of
glue-sniffing yokels but a tough, professional, well-connected and
enormously successful outfit ) they discovered the bullet-riddled body
of Freddy's mother as well. She had taken no part in the gang's many
bank robberies or kidnappings, but Hoover was in the midst of his big
publicity push, and so was born the FBI-cooked up legend of "Ma" Barker.