Ma Barker's Biography - "The Real Ma Barker"

I am aware of only one "biography" of Ma Barker. "The Real Ma Barker," by Miriam Allen deFord, Ace Publishing, 1970, NYC. It is a short paperback of 139 small pages. There are 18 pages of pictures of which 8 pertain to the Barkers and 8 to other criminals of the period. There are about 68 pages on the Barkers and Barker-Karpis gang. The last 40 pages are about other criminals, Pretty Boy Floyd, Al Capone, etc.

Very little research was actually done on Ma Barker's background. There are no footnotes or endnotes. The book was mainly an attempt to capitalize on Ma Barker's notoriety. As far as research on Ma Barker's early years, the book is essentially a flight of fancy. We learn from Ms. deFord that Arizona Clark (Ma Barker's name at birth,) had a "strain of American Indian." There is no proof of this. Ms. deFord muses that perhaps Arizona was named after the warlike Apache! In actuality, at that period, many people were named after states and a look at a few census records will confirm that. And - on the very same census page where Arizona Clark appears in 1880 - there is an older girl named Arizona Chilcutt. Arizona Clark may well have been named after her neighbors' child.

Then, to show how backward the Ozarks were in 1870-80, we learn that registration of births and deaths in the area was unknown! Well, it was also unknown in most of the country at the time. Registration of births and deaths for most of the country didn't began until the early 1900s.

Then we learn that "The given names of Ma Barker's parents are lost; so are the exact date and place of her birth." Anyone with the least exposure to genealogical records is aware that the 1870 and 1880 censuses would provide just that information - as indeed they do. And there is also Arizona's Florida Death Cert.

We learn that about the time Arizona Clark married George Barker she was no longer known as "Arizona" or "Arrie", but as "Kate." But she was married as "Arrie" and when she appears in the City Directory of Tulsa during the period 1914-1928 she always uses the name "Arrie" or "Orrie."

Ms. deFord takes George Barker to task for being a poor father - "He seldom saw any of them alive after he left," but the truth is that he didn't leave the family until in or after 1928, at which time one son had already committed suicide and the other three were in prison. In 1928 Freddie, the youngest, was about 26, so George hardly deserted the family.

Ms. deFord's primary research was into the criminal history of the Barker Gang and the Barker-Karpis Gang. This research was mostly done from newspaper accounts. As I have no interest in the gang's criminal activity, I can only hope that this portion of her history is more accurate than the details on Arizona (Clark) Barker's family background.