Ma Barker: AKA Rita Ma Barker
Ma Barker’s influence in the crime world during the Great Depression can be summarized by FBI Director Hoover’s statement “the most vicious, dangerous, and resourceful criminal brain of the last decade.” While she was the mastermind, planning every crime, her sons were the muscle that carried them out.
Barker didn’t limit herself to just robbing banks; as the mother of the leaders of the Barker-Karpis gang, she even started planning and executing murders, kidnappings, and every possible domain in the crime world.