Barker-Karpis Gang, Public Enemies, Kidnappers
Alvin Karpis and the Barkers Botched the Bremer Kidnapping
No doubt January 17, 1934, dawned like any other Minnesota frigid winter day for Edward G. Bremer, Jr., president of the Commercial State Bank of St. Paul, Minnesota. As was his custom, Bremer left his home for the bank driving his own car, a black Lincoln, accompanied by his daughter, Betty, whom he daily took to her private school on his way to work.
After dropping off Betty, Bremer was accosted at an intersection by armed men who ordered him to drive away and then knocked him unconscious with blows to the head.
Bremer would not remember the ride to the kidnappers’ hideout in Bensonville, Illinois. His captors were Alvin Karpis, Freddie Barker, Arthur (Doc) Barker, Volger Davis, and probably Harry Campbell, members of the infamous Barker-Karpis Gang (sometimescalled the “Ma Barker Gang”), high on the public enemies’ hit list of the fledgling FBI and its young J. Edgar Hoover.
Kdnapping Bremer Proved a Misbegotten Plot
When this tough, seasoned gang grabbed Bremer, though, they bought more trouble than they planned.
Bremer’s father, Adolph Bremer, was a good friend of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Kidnapping had become the crime du jour of the decade. The seizure of this prominent citizen garnered the personal attention of the President, putting extra heat on FBI and local authorities.
Bremer himself proved to be difficult. Karpis later wrote that Bremer was a demanding, cranky prisoner who informed the gang not to expect much of a ransom. Indeed, the gang had to keep him 22 days in an unpleasant captivity for all concerned, while negotiating the ransom with Bremer’s family.
One newspaper of the day, The Evening Tribune, reported the ransom to be an undisclosed amount of less than $200,000. Another, the Salt Lake Tribune, reported that $200,000 was paid to the gang. The FBI files contain the written ransom demands in Bremer's handwriting for $200,000, so it was probably the sum paid. Though a lot of money for 1934, it was far less than the gang had expected to get.
Karpis, the smartest member of the gang, was a reluctant party to the Bremer caper from the beginning. It was the brain child of the gang’s Chicago connection, Harry Sawyer, who ran the Green Lantern restaurant, a central hangout and safe house of sorts for notorious felons of the time.
In his book, Public Enemies, Bryan Burrough quotes Karpis complaining to Sawyer about the Bremer plan: “I’d hell of a lot rather rob a bank any day. I’d rather do anything than kidnap this guy. If we’re gonna kidnap somebody, let’s kidnap somebody besides this guy here. Let’s go to some other town too.” (Burrough, 172.)
But Karpis’ contemporary, Public Enemy No. 1 John Dillinger, had made “some other town” of any interest too hot to handle. So, Karpis was persuaded to go to St. Paul, even though he argued “a million reasons not to.” (Burrough, 173.)
Karpis perhaps had misgivings about kidnapping Edward Bremer because his rich family was reputed to have underworld connections forged in Prohibition that reached into Chicago. Adolph Bremer amassed his fortune brewing beer, a useful business in Prohibition days. Sawyer’s wife later informed the FBI that the Bremers owned the Green Lantern. Small world.
When the ransom was paid, the gang released Bremer bruised, shaken and nervous, but alive. With Bremer returned to the bosom of his family, the FBI’s manhunt was on.
Flaws in the Kidnapping Plan's Execution
In many respects, Karpis' plan was detailed and well-executed (e.g., not a fingerprint left in Bremer’s abandoned Lincoln). Alvin Karpis was a planner and never wanted to be surprised or leave loose ends. But the meticulous Karpis made mistakes.
The keys to Karpis' plan were anonymity and quick turn-around. Neither happened. The gang was saddled with Bremer, a very high profile kidnap victim, for the better part of a month. They also made mistakes unknown to them at the time.
One was the gauze they used to blindfold Bremer. He could see through it, and later identified the wallpaper of the room in which he spent his incarceration with the gang as well as a picket fence outside. The FBI traced sales of the wallpaper pattern he described and eventually located the house in Bensonville.
They took Bremer to it. He did not recognize the house itself, but he did recognize the wallpaper, the picket fence, and the sounds of the house's neighborhood, such as daily trains and 6:00 a.m. milkman.
The FBI’s search of the house's environs turned up Karpis’ second oversight, an abandoned flashlight in the vicinity that eventually proved to have been purchased in a store in the area (a third mistake). The store clerk picked out Karpis and Doc Barker from a collection of 100 mug shots. She had no doubt.
Arrest and Demise of Karpis and the Barkers
Karpis and the Barker boys were wanted for several crimes. Bremer's kidnapping was just one of the more compelling. Bank robbing, kidnapping and murder garnered them status as public enemies.
Doc Barker was arrested in Chicago on January 8, 1935. He had a map in his pocket that tipped off the authorities to the whereabouts of his brother and mother in Florida. He was shot and killed in 1939 trying to escape from Alcatraz.
FBI agents killed Freddie Barker and his mother, Kate Barker, in Florida, on January 16, 1935. Karpis always claimed that Ma Barker was a simple old lady on the fringe of the gang’s criminal career solely because she lived with them. Little real evidence exists to the contrary.
On May 1, 1936, the FBI arrested Alvin Karpis in New Orleans. The last of the decade's public enemies was off the streets. He served time in Alcatraz and went to Canada after his release, where he successfully wrote books. He died in 1979.
Sources:
Bryan Burrough, Public Enemies, Penguin Books, Ltd, NY 2004
Salt Lake Tribune, Salt Lake City, UT, June 30, 1934
The Evening Tribune, Albert Lea, MN, February 8, 1934
Alvin Karpis with Bill Trent, The Alvin Karpis Story, Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, NY 1971
Alvin Karpis, Public Enemy
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Karpis and Doc Barker were jailed in Alcatraz
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