Infamous America - BARKER GANG Ep. 5 | “The Hamm Kidnapping”

Episode Date: August 12, 2026

When two violent robberies lead to three murders and a loss of a gang member, Ma Barker begins to wonder if there might be a better way to make money. Along comes a nightclub owner in St. Paul with an idea to kidnap the president of a bank, and he convinces the Barker-Karpis gang to embark on the first high-profile kidnapping of 1933. Thanks to our sponsor, Quince! Use this link for Free Shipping and 365-day returns: Quince.com/infamousamerica Thanks to our sponsor, Mood! For 20% off of your first order, use the promo code INFAMOUS at Mood.com Join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join   Apple users join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes, bingeable seasons and bonus episodes. Click the Black Barrel+ banner on Apple to get started with a 3-day free trial.   On YouTube, subscribe to INFAMOUS+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: hit “Join” on the Legends YouTube homepage.   For more details, please visit www.blackbarrelmedia.com or @blackbarrelmedia on Instagram. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Tis time to join our 1933 Christmas Savings. Club, read the sign above the awning of third northwestern National Bank of Minneapolis, Minnesota. The bank sat at the point of a triangular island of land, formed by the intersections of three streets. East Hennepin Avenue and Central Avenue were the long sides of the triangle which met at the point. The base of the triangle was southeast 4th Street. On the triangular island was a four-story building. The ground floor was shops and the three floors above were apartments. The ground floor was dominated by third northwestern National Bank.

It sat at the point, and all three sides of the business, facing Hennepin Avenue, Central Avenue, and straight ahead at the point, were windows. From any direction, anyone outside could see the entire interior of the bank. Alvin Carpus later described it as, working in a greenhouse. In mid-December of 1932, the windows inside the bank were adorned with Christmas decorations. A sign on the front of the building, facing the intersection at the point of the triangle red Third Northwestern National Bank, and above it was the temporary advertisement encouraging people to join the bank's savings club for the upcoming year of 1933. As robbery targets went, it was the opposite of the Barker Carpus gang's previous efforts.

For the past 18 months, since Fred Barker and his friend Alvin Carpus joined forces, they had targeted small banks in small towns in out-of-the-way locations. Third Northwestern National Bank was a big operation in a highly visible location at a major intersection, just three blocks from the popular waterfront area of the Mississippi River, which cut through the middle of Minneapolis. Downtown Minneapolis sat straight across the Hennepin Avenue Bridge from the area of the bank. Robbing Third Northwestern would be the most audacious crime the gang had attempted. It would require the most complex plan they had ever devised,

and it worried the hell out of Ma Barker. With the location of the bank at a major intersection and the architecture of huge windows on three sides, the robbers would be totally exposed. Pedestrians and motorists would see everything. To counter the exposure, the crew needed fear in the form of Tommy guns. The heavy artillery would intimidate the staff and hold the police at bay. The gang scheduled the hit for 3 o'clock in the afternoon, the exact time of the police shift change, hoping the transition would buy them a few precious minutes of confusion. They stashed

gas cans, food, extra guns, ammunition, and a switch car along the getaway route. They knew they would be chased, and there would likely be gunfire. Fred, Alvin, and Ma had been living at a lake house on the northern edge of St. Paul, which was technically a separate city from Minneapolis, but it wasn't like there was a wall between the two communities. They were essentially one large, sprawling city. And the gang was operating from St. Paul because it was protected by the O'Connor Code, named for former police chief John O'Connor. Criminals could feel safe in St. Paul as long as they paid bribes to the right people

and did not commit crimes within city limits. Third Northwestern National Bank was two miles outside of the city limits of St. Paul. But by robbing the bank, the Barker Carpus gang would test the enforcement of the O'Connor Code, which made Ma Barker really nervous. None of them wanted to lose their sanctuary in St. Paul, but they also really wanted to rob the bank. To do it right, they needed to get Ma out of harm's way. A few days before the robbery, they sent her to Chicago. She loved the city. The nightlife was fantastic, and it bristled with crooks, even before John Dillinger arrived in the summer of 1933. But her anxiety about the robbery started to overwhelm her.

Two days before the heist, she thought she was having heart palpitations. She called St. Paul in a full-blown panic. Alvin Carpus, who had lived in Chicago for a couple years as a teenager, knew the city the best. He made an emergency trip and spent a day and a night calming her down. She was fine. She wasn't having a heart attack or anything like that. She just had pre-heist jitters, which were stronger than normal because of the addition

layers of danger with the robbery. And she was right to be nervous. She and Fred and Alvin had nearly been caught in St. Paul 10 months earlier, thanks to warrants for Fred and Alvin for the murder of a county sheriff in Southern Missouri. She didn't know this was going to happen, but she would soon be forced to ask, what would happen when the gang killed three people in a brazen daylight robbery in a major metropolitan area? From Black Barrel Media, this is Infamous America. I'm your host Chris Wimmer, and this season we're telling the story of the Barker Carpus Gang, the longest-running and deadliest group of Depression-era outlaws. This is episode 5, The Ham Kidnapping.

The third Northwestern National Bank job would be an all-hands-on-deck affair. Fred Barker and Alvin Carpus were the leaders. Fred's older brother, Doc, had joined the crew one month earlier in November 1932, a couple months after he was released from prison in Oklahoma. In the second half of 1932, Fred and Alvin had led robberies in Kansas and North Dakota, both of which were technically successes but were riddled with problems. Now with Doc back in the fold and the rest of the guys on board, they felt they were ready to take down a big target.

In addition to Fred, Doc, and Alvin, regulars Larry Deval and William Weaver were in the crew, and they added Vern Miller and Jesse Doyle to bring the total to seven. On the afternoon of December 16, 1932, the gang assembled at the Barker Lakehouse. Alvin Carpus took off his jewelry and left behind his wallet, money, and IDs, real and fake. He walked out clean. Around 2.30 in the afternoon, the seven men piled into a black Lincoln town car. They drove roughly 15 miles through St. Paul and into Minneapolis to the bank.

The roads were covered with dirty brown slush as the town car parked. parked against a curb around the corner from the bank. Fred, Doc, Alvin, Larry DeVall, William Weaver, and Vern Miller stepped out of the car and strode up the sidewalk toward the bank. Each man carried a Tommy gun, likely down by his side to stay as hidden as possible. Jesse Doyle stayed with the car and kept the engine running. At 3 o'clock, six heavily armed men burst through the doors of the bank. Doc was the first inside.

He was flanked by Fred, Alvin, Weaver, and Miller, while Deval stood guard at the entrance. Vern Miller and Alvin Carpus commanded the floor, waving their Tommy guns to force everyone to lie down. Fred, Doc, and William Weaver jumped the counter through a teller window and headed for the vault. Despite timing the operation during a shift change, police siren started to wail almost immediately. But the gang knew that would happen. Given the setup of the bank, there was virtually no. chance they could stop someone from alerting the police. In the vault, Fred, Doc, and Weaver stuffed cash into canvas bags. In the lobby, Miller and Carpus kept customers and employees flat on the floor.

Outside, the first responding police car skidded to a stop in the slush near the bank, and Larry DeVall opened fire. His fully automatic Tommy gun roared in the street as he sprayed the car with bullets. At the sound of gunfire, Jesse Doyle drove the getaway car around the corner toward the bank to help Deval fight back the arriving officers. In the bank, the guys in the vault ran back into the lobby. Instead of bothering with the doors through which they had entered, Alvin Carpus shot the windows, and the gang scrambled through the shattered glass.

On the sidewalk, Larry Deval kept firing. He shot and killed Officer Ira Evans, and he wounded Officer Leo Gorski. But as he did, he slipped on the icy sidewalk and crashed to the ground. His finger was still clamped firmly on the trigger of his Tommy gun, and he sprayed the getaway car with bullets. He blew out a tire before he could gain control of the weapon. Jesse Doyle, the driver, jumped out to help Deval while the other five robbers stuffed the canvas bags of money into the car and shoved their way inside. Deval and Doyle climbed into the back seat, and Vern Miller slid over to the driver's seat.

gunned the engine. The Lincoln shrieked down the road on three tires and a metal rim. They made it to the switch car and started transferring the arsenal and the loot when a car with two curious men pulled up beside them. The men didn't know about the robbery, but they saw the damaged getaway car and asked if the robbers needed help. Fred Barker waved them off. But one man, a 29-year-old Christmas wreath salesman named Oscar Erickson, stared too long and leaned out his window for a closer look. Fred Barker shot Oscar Erickson in the head at point-blank range. Oscar died on the pavement nine days before Christmas.

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The third Northwestern National Bank job was the gang's bloodiest robbery to date, and it netted them an overwhelming total of $22,000 in cash. Even if it had netted millions, they had killed three people and they needed to flee St. Paul. Most of the gang scattered. Alvin, Fred, and Doc scooped up mob. in Chicago and high-tailed it west to Reno, Nevada, where a young Chicago hoodlum named Lester Gillis, known as Babyface Nelson, was hiding. Larry DeVall stayed in St. Paul. Instead of

fleeing, he celebrated the heist with a drunken bender. Less than three days after the robbery, Deval hit the streets for a pub crawl. By the end of the night, he was a mess, sloppily staggering through the freezing streets, completely oblivious to the outside world. In his stupor, he made it into his apartment building, but he shoved his way into the wrong apartment. He waved his pistol at the terrified strangers in the apartment and ordered them to leave his home.

In an interesting twist of fate, the apartment belonged to a member of the press, who was busy dissecting the robbery with guests when Deval stumbled in. The journalist didn't connect Deval to the crime, But the journalist wasted no time calling the police on the intruder. By the time the law arrived, Deval had managed to lurch back to his own unit and change into a tire that was truly absurd. When the cops kicked in his door, he wore only his underwear, his socks, and a long fur coat,

with his pistol in a coat pocket. Deval went for his gun, but officers swarmed him before he could fire. He kicked and screamed and bit like a cornered animal as they dragged him outside. to the squad car. Before they could push him into the car, he thrashed free and took off running. After only a few steps, the drunken fur-clad robber stumbled and face-planted into the snow. Officers recaptured him, subdued him, and then searched his apartment. There, sitting in plain sight, was his cut of the bank loom. Caught red-handed, Larry DeVall cracked. He confessed to the robbery and to shooting two officers outside the bank, but he refused to name the other members of the gang.

The courts handed him a life sentence, effectively ending his long run with the Barker Carpus gang. It was a tough blow to the organization. Deval wasn't just muscle. He was a childhood friend from the Central Park gang in Tulsa. To boost morale, Ma Barker threw a massive holiday bash in Reno, which included Babyface Nelson, who had been hiding in Reno since he broke away from a prison transport. in Illinois. The Barker clan enjoyed itself on the West Coast, but after a while, money started to run low and it was time to get back to work. Ma, Fred, Doc, and Alvin returned to the Midwest,

to Chicago in February 1933, two months after the Third Northwestern robbery. For their next job, it wasn't overly surprising that they decided to go back to the old formula of robbing banks in small towns. The third Northwestern job had certainly provided it. excitement, but at the cost of three dead and a longtime friend in prison for life, the hall wasn't worth the action. The Barker Boys and Alvin Carpus set their sights on the first National Bank of Fairbury, Nebraska, a tiny town in the southern part of the state, a full 500 miles west of Chicago. The trio brought in Doc's friend from Tulsa, Volney Davis, and Earl Christman, who had worked with them on smaller robberies in the past. Jesse Doyle, the Wheelman from the Third North

Western job, returned to handle the getaway car. Rounding out the team was Eddie Green, a renowned Midwest car thief and stick-up artist, and Frank Nash, a heavy hitter who was one of the most infamous bank robbers of the era. Nash was a fugitive from the federal prison at Leavenworth, Kansas, and he, along with Machine Gun Kelly, had helped a group of inmates escaped the prison in 1931. Now in the final five months of his life, he signed up for his last robbery. At 9 o'clock in the morning on April 3, 1933, the first National Bank of Fairbury, Nebraska, had just unlocked its doors when the Barker gang stormed the entrance.

Frank Nash and the Barker brothers led the charge. While the three men made a beeline for the vault, Alvin Carpus followed close behind and levelled his Tommy gun at the terrified employees. Outside, Eddie Green guarded the back door, while Volney Davis and Earl Christman patrolled the front. Across the street, Jesse Doyle waited in the getaway car. A nearby shopkeeper watched the action and dialed the police. In the bank, the cashier initially struggled with the combination to the vault, and just as the heavy door finally swung open, the thunder of gunfire erupted from the street.

While Doc and Fred shoveled cash and bonds into canvas sacks, the situation outside turned desperate. Deputy Sheriff W.S. Davidson raced to the scene with a local gun, gun supplier named Glenn Johnston. Taking cover behind a parked car, the pair opened fire on Volney Davis and Earl Christman at the front door of the bank. The outlaws returned fire, spraying bullets at the shooters and civilians who dared to shout at them. In the bank, a security guard made a daring move. While lying on the floor near Alvin Carpus, the guard pulled his pistol and fired a shot through the window at Earl Christman outside on the street. Caught in a crossfire, Earl took a bullet from one of the shooters, but he didn't go down. He reloaded

his Tommy gun and kept firing. At the back of the bank, Eddie Green heard the gun fire and ran around to the front to join Volney Davis and Earl Christman. Christman suffered more injuries as the Fairbury defenders put up a good fight. Inside, Fred, Doc, Alvin, and Frank Nash shattered the side windows for a quick exit. They dragged two hostages through the broken glass, but the Hostages were immediately wounded by gunfire. The gang tossed them aside and grabbed two more to act as human shields on the car's running boards. When they dove into the getaway car, Jesse Doyle floored it. As the car screeched around the corner and sped out of town, the gang scattered roofing nails on the road to cripple any pursuit. Miles out of town, they paused just

long enough to dump the hostages before tearing off toward Kansas City. They needed a doctor who wouldn't asked questions, and they knew they'd find one at Vern Miller's house. Miller had been one of the crew for the third Northwestern job in Minneapolis, and he had retreated to Kansas City to lay low. On the four-hour drive, Carpus poured whiskey over Earl Christman's wounds to stave off infection. They made it to Vern Miller's house just in time, and Earl got the morphine he desperately needed. But after yet another daylight shootout, the heat would be on them fast. So Fred, Alvin, and Eddie Green headed to St. Paul to hide the money. The loot was pretty good, $37,000 in cash, and $39,000 in bonds. Doc, Jesse Doyle, and Volney Davis stayed in Kansas City with Earl Christman. And Frank

Nash headed out on his own, possibly back to Chicago or maybe to Hot Springs, Arkansas, a known criminal playground similar to St. Paul. During the night, while most of the crew traveled, Earl Christman's luck ran out. A wound reopened, and he bled to death in the dark. Earl was dead, and back in Fairbury eight others were in hospital beds. Luckily the people in Fairbury survived, but it was getting so the gang couldn't even rob a small town bank without finding themselves in a serious gunfight. At that point, even though Ma Barker enjoyed the headlines, she wondered if there were a safer way to earn a living than knocking over banks. In late May, 1933, the Corps Group had reunited in St. Paul to discuss a new strategy.

They had received an invitation from a local club owner who promised that kidnapping could lead to big money with a fraction of the danger. Jack Pfeiffer was the 45-year-old owner of the Holly Hawks Night Club, a popular speakeasy for criminals in St. Paul. Pfeiffer had studied the Lindbergh kidnapping case that had become one of the biggest news stories in the world the previous year. In March of 1932, someone had kidnapped and ultimately killed the 20-month-old son of famed aviator Charles Lindbergh.

The Lindberg case was a mess in about every possible way, but Pfeiffer thought the principal was sound. Kidnapped the heir to a fortune, hold the person for ransom, and make a ton of money with very little risk of getting into a shootout with the police. Piper's target was 39-year-old William Hamm Jr., whose grandfather Theodore had founded the Ham's Brewery right there in St. Paul in 1865. The German-style beer company was a juggernaut. It had survived the 13 years of prohibition by making non-alcoholic drinks, but with the nationwide ban on alcohol set to end in a few short months, the brewery was poised to make more

money than ever. The company was already valued at $4.5 million, the equivalent of $116 million today. Theodore's son, William Sr., ran the business for a long time, but he passed away two years ago in 1931. William Jr. took over the company, so in 1933, he wasn't the heir to a fortune, he was the fortune. Pfeiffer wanted the Barker Carpus gang to kidnap William Jr. and extort the family for $100,000. Pfeiffer would receive $10,000, and the gang would keep the rest. Alvin Carpus was initially hesitant about the idea. Kidnapping could quickly spiral into murder and no money, but he was persuaded by the possibility of a $90,000 payday. The last two robberies had netted $60,000 in cash. Both had involved gun battles with police,

and both had resulted in killings. The more Carpus thought about the kidnapping, the more he liked it. Carpice shadowed William Hamm Jr. every day for about two weeks, memorizing William's characteristics and his routine. William Jr. was a young company president and the perfect mark. His inexperience, combined with the sheltered trust of a wealthy upbringing, played right into the gang's hands. But there was zero margin for error. The job would happen in St. Paul, which would directly violate the O'Connor Code. By committing a major crime within city limits, they were jeopardizing their sanctuary status. To help with a plan of this magnitude, they brought in two veterans from Chicago, Fred Gale. Gets and Byron Bolton.

Gets and Bolton had been key players in the infamous St. Valentine's Day Massacre in Chicago in February 1929. The hit was allegedly orchestrated by Al Capone against his rival, Bugs Moran. Gets was credited with being the mastermind of the plan, where he and a few others dressed as Chicago cops and lured seven of Moran's gang to a warehouse. Byron Bolton was allegedly the lookout who was supposed to confirm for the shooters that Bugs Moran was one of the seven men. Bolton gave the nod, the shooters opened fire, and they killed six of the seven gang members instantly. The seventh man survived just long enough to reach the hospital before dying. The problem was Byron Bolton had been wrong. Bugs

Moran was not one of the seven, and the word on the street was that Capone was furious. The gangland massacre made national headlines, and it had been for nothing. According to the story, Fred Getz somehow persuaded Al Capone to let Byron Bolton live. And now, four years later, Gets and Bolton started to set up the Chicago part of the Ham kidnapping plan for the Barker gang. Gets and Bolton secured a safe house in Bensonville outside Chicago, where William Hamm would be transported from St. Paul. The final piece of the puzzle was the Trojan horse, Charlie Fitzgerald.

was a career criminal who was in his late 50s. With his silver hair and a nice suit, he easily passed for a distinguished businessman. To mix metaphors, Charlie would be the bait to lure William Ham into the trap. On June 15, 1933, Alvin Carpus, disguised as a chauffeur, sat in a black sedan near the Ham Brewery. Every day at exactly 1245 p.m., Williams stepped out of the brewery and walked the same route home for lunch. When he started his walk, Charlie Fitzgerald approached and reached out to shake William's hand. Charlie, with his perfectly quaffed hair and sharp suit, asked to discuss a business matter with William. He guided William toward the back of a black sedan, which conveniently waited nearby. William trusted the well-dressed stranger and climbed into the

back seat. Charlie slid in beside William, and then the other rear door opened and Byron Bolton squeezed into the back seat on the other side of William. The company president was sandwiched between Charlie and Byron, and then Doc Barker hopped into the front passenger seat. In seconds, the car was full of four strange men and William Hamm. But the strangest part, at least to the gang, was that William didn't seem distressed in the slightest. The gang was stunned by William Ham's calm demeanor. The guy was either absurdly naive or uncommonly cool under press. When Charlie Fitzgerald ordered William to lie on the floorboards to stay out of sight, William remained calm and did as he was told. He didn't ask questions, he didn't curse at the men,

and he didn't fight. The group drove 15 miles to a transfer spot where Fred Barker and Fred Gets were waiting with another car. During the transfer of the prisoner, Fred Barker handed William ransom notes to sign. William signed them obediently and did not ask questions. Fred Barker and Fred Getz stayed in St. Paul to facilitate the ransom, and the rest of the crew blindfolded William for the 385-mile drive to Bensonville, Illinois. During the seven to eight-hour trip, William never made a sound. By the time they reached Bensonville, Alvin Carpice was in disbelief. It had been too easy. William Hamm Jr. caused no trouble of any kind. Carpus actually started to like him. At the safe house in Bensonville, Carpus assured William he would be

released as soon as the money came through. Carpus tried to win William's trust by offering him a beer. But when William accepted, Carpice panicked. He realized they didn't have Ham's beer. Embarrassed to serve a competitor's beer, Carpice scraped the label off the bottle. William, gracious as ever, reassured Carpus he couldn't tell the difference. And while things went freakishly well in Bensonville, Fred Barker and Fred Gets called Williams' business partner at the brewery with instructions for the ransom. Gets dropped the ransom note at Rosedale Pharmacy. It demanded $100,000 in fives, tens, and twenties. The cash was to be delivered in a ham brewery truck with the side doors removed to prove no cops were hiding inside. William's mother immediately

called the police, and they ignored the instructions about the doors. The Hamm family and the St. Paul Police set up the money drop with a police officer hiding in the back of the van, ready to ambush the pickup man. Fortunately for the gang, they had the ultimate insider, former St. Paul Police Chief Tom Brown, on their payroll. The O'Connor code, which protected criminals in St. Paul, had been started by Chief John O'Connor and continued by Chief Brown. But the code was slowly eroding. A new mayor had demoted Chief Brown to detective. But then Brown got himself appointed leader of the kidnapping squad, which was perfect for the Barker gang. Detective Brown now managed the investigation of the ham kidnapping while secretly ensuring the barkers succeeded.

Brown tipped off the gang that the first money drop was a setup, and the gang aborted the pickup. William's mother was terrified they had missed their chance. So when the gang called with new instructions, the family and the police followed them to the letter. On June 19, 1933, four days after the abduction, the Ham family paid the $100,000 ransom. True to his word, Alvin Carpus released William Hamm immediately. But the original plan to drop William at a convenient spot in St. Paul changed. The gang couldn't risk taking the prisoner into the city. Instead, Carpus dropped William in a cornfield.

Feeling bad about leaving his polite prisoner in the middle of nowhere, Carpus handed William a sandwich to eat while he waited. The ham family and the police retrieved William and grilled him about his kidnappers. Unfortunately, William couldn't identify anyone. Other than the first couple minutes of the kidnapping, William hadn't seen faces. He had been blindfolded while in the car, and he had been forced to wear goggles stuffed with cotton balls, often under a white hood, when he interacted with the kidnappers at the safe house. It certainly appeared the Barker Carpus gang was in the clear, but to make sure of it,

Detective Tom Brown steered the investigation toward Roger Tui's gang, a violent outfit which had been warring with Al Capone's mob in Chicago. The scheme worked perfectly, and Tui's gang was arrested for a crime it didn't commit. While Tui's gang endured police beatings in jail trying to force a confession, the Barker Carpice gang was roughly $70,000 richer and downing their new favorite beer. They had paid $10,000 to Jack Pfeiffer as agreed, and they had spent another $20,000 thus far on bribes which were funneled through Detective Brown. Still, $70,000 in cash for a couple weeks of planning and five days of low-stress work was really good. It wouldn't come as a shock to anyone when they decided to do it again

six months later. But a lot can happen in six months. The second time around would not be the same as the first, and it would signal the end of the gang's time in the sanctuary of St. Paul. Next time on Infamous America, the gang commits two more violent robberies before organizing the infamous kidnapping of Edward Bremer, a banker whose family owned Schmitz Brewery in St. Paul. The crimes vault Alvin Carpus to the FBI's public enemy number one and force the gang into hiding. But their discovery leads to a deadly shootout in Florida and prison sentences at Alcatraz. The end of the Barker Carpus Gang is next week on Infamous America.

Members of our Black Barrel Plus program received the entire season to binge all at once with no commercials, and they also receive exclusive bonus episodes. Sign up now through the link in the show notes or on our website, blackbarrelmedia.com. This series was researched and written by Mandy Wimmer, additional research and writing by me, Chris Wimmer. Original music by Rob Valier. Thanks for listening.