WOMAN BANDIT SHOT

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 169, 13 April 1935, Page 18

WOMAN BANDIT SHOT

5-Hour Police Siege

Mrs. Barker, an elderly woman who acted as machine-gunner for her gangster son, Fred, was shot dead with him during a raid by Federal agents on their hiding place in Florida For five hours the battle between the Federal agents and the Barkers raged at a small house in the village. The Federal agents used machine-guns and tear-gas, while Barker and his mother kept up a fire from machine-guns. When Federal agents finally burst into the house they found Barker and his mother dead side-by-side. Fred Barker was one of the most notorious gangsters remaining at large in the United States. Among other crimes for which he was “wanted” was the kidnapping of Mr. Edwartf G. Bremer, son of a wealthy brewer of St. Paul, Minnesota. Barker had learned that Federal agents were tramping through the countryside near Oklawaha seeking those suspected of complicity in the kidnapping, and as the agents approached the house, which was beside

the weir of a lake, the occupants opened fire, apparently believing that they had been discovered, This was at 7 a.m. local time, and the buttle which ensued lasted until noon. Before it ended. 25 officers of various grades had been brought in, ami more than 4,000 shots were exchanged. When Mrs. Barker’s body was- found she was still holding a machine-gun, from which part of a drum of bullets had been fired. After the gunfire from the house had been silenced, the Federal officers waited a full hour before closing in and discharging enotigh tear-gas to fill it. Mrs. Kate Barker was about 65 years old. Pictures published recently show her with coal-black hair apparently dyed. Fred Barker, who was about 35. was a brother of another notorious gangster. Arthur R. Barker, He and a gangster mimed Alvin Karpis led one of the most dangerous bands of robbers and kidnappers in the Middle West.