A review by imyourmausoleum
Ma Barker: America's Most Wanted Mother by Chris Enss, Howard Kazanjian

informative medium-paced

3.0

 Arizona Donnie Clark was born in Missouri in 1873. Arizona went by a host of alias during her life of crime and is now most famously known as Ma Barker. Barker married George Barker in 1892. The couple had four sons: Herman, Lloyd, Arthur, and Fred. The family were considerably poor, with basically no education. They resorted to odd jobs and a life of crime to make ends meet. Barker would become known as the ruthless matriarch of the family, becoming involved in the Barker-Karpis Gang. This book outlines Barker's criminal activities, which were pretty wild for the 1920s and 1930s. I learned a great deal from this book.

I have the Audible version, but if you are interested in a physical copy, it is just under 300 pages. I thought the book was tremendously well researched and informative. If you are interested in the Public Enemies era of gangs, this book would be one that you would likely be interested in.