Editing Ma Barker (section)

==Family life==
Barker was born Arizona Donnie Clark in [[Ash Grove, Missouri]], the daughter of John and Emaline (Parker) Clark; her family called her "Arrie". In 1892, she married George Barker in [[Lawrence County, Missouri]], and the couple had four sons: Herman (1893–1927), Lloyd (1897–1949), [[Arthur Barker|Arthur]] (1899–1939), and [[Fred Barker|Fred]] (1901–1935). The 1910 to 1930 censuses and the [[Tulsa, Oklahoma|Tulsa]] City Directories from 1916 to 1928 show that George Barker worked in a variety of generally low-paying jobs. From 1916 to 1919, he was at the Crystal Springs Water Co. In the 1920s, he was employed as a farmer, watchman, station engineer, and clerk. An FBI document describes him as "shiftless" and says the Barkers paid no attention to their sons' education, and they were all "more or less illiterate".<ref name="FBI">[http://vault.fbi.gov/barker-karpis-gang/bremer-investigation-summary/Barker-Karpis%20Gang%20Summary%20Part%201%20of%201 Hoover, J. Edgar, "The Kidnapping of Edward Bremer", November 19, 1936]</ref>
[[File:Herman Barker.jpg|thumb|left|Police mugshot of Herman Barker]]
Barker's sons committed crimes as early as 1910, when Herman was arrested for highway robbery after running over a child in the getaway car. Over the next few years, Herman and his brothers were repeatedly involved in crimes of increasing seriousness, including robbery and murder. They were inducted into major crime by the [[Kimes-Terrill Gang|Central Park gang]]. Herman died on August 29, 1927, in [[Wichita, Kansas]], after a robbery and confrontation with police that left one officer dead. He shot the officer at point-blank range in the mouth. He killed himself to avoid prosecution when he was seriously wounded after crashing his car. In 1928, Lloyd Barker was incarcerated in the [[United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth|federal penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas]], [[Arthur Barker|Arthur "Doc" Barker]] was in the [[Oklahoma State Penitentiary]], and Fred was in the [[Kansas State Penitentiary]].

George was last listed living with his wife in the 1928 Tulsa city directory. Either she threw him out, as some say, or he left when life became intolerable with his criminal family. According to writer [[Miriam Allen deFord]], George "gave up completely and quietly removed himself from the scene" after Herman's death and the imprisonment of his other sons.<ref>Ford, Miriam Allen, ''The Real Ma Barker: Mastermind of a Whole Family of Killers'', 1970 Ace, New York {{page?|date=February 2022}} {{ISBN?}}</ref> The FBI claimed that George left Ma because she had become "loose in her moral life" and was "having outside dates with other men". They noted that George was not a criminal, but he was willing to profit from his sons' crimes after their deaths by claiming their assets as next of kin.<ref name="FBI" /> However, a family friend recalled that the couple argued about their children's "dissolute life". Arrie "countenanced their wrongdoings" while George refused to accept them. The crunch came when George refused to support Lloyd after his arrest, insisting that he should be punished for his crime. Arrie did everything that she could to get her sons exonerated, no matter what they had done.<ref name="tim">Mahoney, Tim, ''Secret Partners'', p. 15. {{ISBN?}}</ref>

From 1928 to 1930, Ma lived in "miserable poverty" in a "dirt-floor shack" with no husband and no job, while all her sons were in jail. This may have been when she became "loose" with local men, as the FBI suggested.<ref name="tim" /> By 1930, she was living with a jobless man named Arthur W. Dunlop (sometimes spelled "Dunlap"). She is described as his wife on the 1930 census of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Things improved for her in 1931 after her son Fred was released from jail. He joined former prison-mate [[Alvin Karpis]] to form the [[Barker–Karpis Gang]]. After a series of robberies, Fred and Karpis killed Sheriff C. Roy Kelly in [[West Plains, Missouri]] on December 19, 1931, an act that forced them to flee the area. Ma and Dunlop traveled with them, using various false names during their itinerant crime career. A wanted poster issued at this time offered $100 reward for the capture of "Old Lady Arrie Barker" as an accomplice.<ref name="Pot">Claire Bond Potter, ''War on Crime: Bandits, G-Men, and the Politics of Mass Culture'', Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, 1998, p. 175 {{ISBN?}}</ref> After this, she was usually known to gang members as "Kate".