MARION COUNTY, Fla. – Lurking in the woods of Ocklawaha is a large, two-story house built nearly 100 years ago.
No one lives there anymore, but that wasn’t always the case.
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Originally, the home was built on Lake Weir in 1930 by the Bradford family, and it was mainly used as a vacation home.
However, that changed in 1934 when owner Carson Bradford got an offer to rent the home from the representative of a Mrs. T.C. “Kate” Blackburn — someone described as a “sweet little old lady” who wanted an out-of-the-way place where she could spend some quality time with her sons.
While Carson originally declined the offer, Mrs. Blackburn didn’t relent. Instead, the offer went up, along with an additional offer to pay cash in advance for the entire season.
Around two months later, the home became the site of the longest FBI shootout in history.
It turned out that Mrs. Blackburn was actually Kate “Ma” Barker, who was linked to one of the most notorious gangs of all time.
THE BARKER BOYS
Barker (née Arizona Donnie Clark) was literally the mother of a criminal enterprise, though she started off in bleak poverty.
Her four sons — Herman, Lloyd, Arthur and Freddy — began committing crimes before they even reached their teenage years. Of course, their activities escalated into full-blown robberies, paving the way to the gang’s formation.
Herman died after a failed robbery in 1927, where he shot an officer in the face before ultimately turning the gun on himself.
Meanwhile, Freddy was sent to prison for robbery in 1928, which is when he met Alvin Karpis. The two set out on a plan to form their own gang when they got out, and the duo eventually received parole in 1931.
Around a year later, they met up with Arthur Barker (who had also been sent to prison for robbery) and began putting the pieces of their plan into action.
“They robbed hundreds of banks. They robbed more banks than all the big-name gangsters combined,” local historian Wayne Hughes told News 6. “They stole more money than all those big-name gangsters combined.”
According to Hughes, the gang would go from town to town, renting places for a short time to commit their crimes (sometimes including murder) before heading on to the next place. Along the way, the gang picked up several other members to boost their ranks, and Ma Barker was known to help them out.
But after the banks dried up, Hughes explained, the trio then began kidnapping. One such case involved wealthy banker Edward Bremer, who was snatched in 1934 and released a short time later for a $200,000 ransom (nearly $5 million in today’s money).
However, that kidnapping gave investigators the clues they needed to track down the gang’s members.
HEADING TO FLORIDA
Shortly after the kidnapping, the gang disbanded, with Fred Barker, his mother, and a cohort named Harry Campbell heading to Florida. The two Barkers eventually rented out the Lake Weir home from Carson Bradford to hide out.
Shortly afterward, though, Arthur was captured by FBI investigators at a home in Chicago. Upon searching the apartment, investigators found a map of Florida.
According to investigators, Lake Weir was circled on the map.
Around a week after Arthur’s capture, FBI agents surrounded the Ocklawaha home and demanded Ma Barker, Fred Barker and Harry Campbell to surrender. After an approximately three-hour standoff, agents shot tear gas grenades through the house’s windows, sparking machine-gun fire from within.
From there, a roughly two-hour gunfight ensued — the longest in FBI history, Hughes told News 6. Afterward, Fred and Ma Barker were found dead in the home.
WHAT HAPPENED AFTERWARD?
Decades later in 2016, the property was sold to developers, who decided they didn’t want the house, according to county officials.
But out of interest for the site, the county decided to move the house across Lake Weir to the Carney Island Recreation and Conservation Area.
Nowadays, the house sits in the park woods.
Visitors can go take a look for themselves, though they’re required to get permission ahead of time.
THE GHOST STORIES
Like with many older places, there are plenty of ghostly myths about the home.
For example, the Tampa Bay Times reported on the story of a séance held by a Cassadaga medium at the home, during which the psychic claimed that Fred Barker’s ghost had moved on — but Ma Barker’s spirit refused to leave.
A county official told News 6 that the chair in Ma Barker’s old room — one that is still riddled with bullets from the FBI shootout — was known to move around the room without anyone touching it until a stanchion was placed in front of it.
“I’d come up here and say, ‘Hey, what’s it doing over here?” he said. “(They said), ‘We didn’t touch it.’”
While there are plenty of other instances where objects in the house have seemingly moved of their own accord, neither Hughes nor the other county officials were able to verify the home being “haunted.”
AN INSIDE LOOK
Going inside, visitors can see a sprawling foyer littered with old photos and information relating to the house.
From there, visitors can look through the dining room, kitchen, bathrooms, and bedrooms upstairs.
Below are some photos taken during a tour of the house earlier this month.
For more information on the home or to book a tour yourself, visit the Bradford - Ma Barker House website by clicking here.
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