BARKER GANG Ep. 5 | “The Hamm Kidnapping”

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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• 1:05Speaker 01

  "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 Fourth 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

• 1:48Speaker 01

  Avenue, and straight ahead at the point, were windows. From any direction, anyone outside could see the entire interior of the bank. Alvin Karpis 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, read "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-Karpis gang's previous efforts.

• 2:31Speaker 01

  For the past 18 months, since Fred Barker and his friend Alvin Karpis 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.

• 3:16Speaker 01

  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 3:00 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.

• 3:59Speaker 01

  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-Karpis gang would test the enforcement of the O'Connor Code, which made Ma Barker really nervous.

• 4:44Speaker 01

  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 Karpis, 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.

• 5:28Speaker 01

  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 additional 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?

• 6:13Speaker 01

  From Black Barrel Media, this is Infamous America. I'm your host, Chris Wimmer. In this season, we're telling the story of the Barker-Karpis gang, the longest-running and deadliest group of Depression-era outlaws. This is episode 5, "The Ham Kidnapping."

• 6:39Speaker 01

  The Third Northwestern National Bank job would be an all-hands-on-deck affair. Fred Barker and Alvin Karpis 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.

• 7:24Speaker 01

  On the afternoon of December 16, 1932, the gang assembled at the Barker Lake House. Alvin Karpis 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 against a curb around the corner from the bank. Fred, Doc, Alvin, Larry DeVal, William Weaver, and Vern Miller stepped out of the car and strode up the sidewalk toward the bank.

• 8:05Speaker 01

  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 3:00, 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 Karpis 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 sirens started to wail almost immediately.

• 8:50Speaker 01

  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 Karpis 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 DeVal 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.

• 9:34Speaker 01

  Instead of bothering with the doors through which they had entered, Alvin Karpis 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 backseat, and Vern Miller slid over to the driver's

• 10:19Speaker 01

  seat. Miller 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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• 12:03Speaker 00

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• 12:31Speaker 01

  The third Northwestern National Bank job was the gang's bloodiest robbery to date, and it netted them an underwhelming 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 Ma in Chicago and high-tailed it west to Reno, Nevada, where a young Chicago hoodlum named Lester Gillis, known as Baby Face Nelson, was hiding. Larry Duvall stayed in St. Paul. Instead of fleeing, he celebrated the heist with a drunken bender. Less than three days after the robbery, Duvall hit the streets for a pub crawl. By the end of the night, he was a mess,

• 13:15Speaker 01

  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 Duvall stumbled in. The journalist didn't connect Duvall to the crime, but the journalist wasted no time calling the police on the intruder. By the time the law arrived, Duvall had managed to lurch back to his own unit and change into attire that was truly absurd. When the cops kicked in his door,

• 13:59Speaker 01

  he wore only his underwear, his socks, and a long fur coat with his pistol in a coat pocket.

• 14:11Speaker 01

  Duvall 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 loot. Caught red-handed, Larry Duvall 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,

• 14:54Speaker 01

  effectively ending his long run with the Barker-Karpis gang. It was a tough blow to the organization. Duvall 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 Baby Face 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

• 15:39Speaker 01

  that they decided to go back to the old formula of robbing banks in small towns. The third Northwestern job had certainly provided excitement, but at the cost of three dead and a longtime friend in prison for life, the haul wasn't worth the action. The Barker boys and Alvin Karpis set their sights on the First National Bank of Fairberry, 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 Northwestern job, returned to handle the getaway car. Rounding out the team was Eddie Green,

• 16:22Speaker 01

  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 escape the prison in 1931. Now, in the final five months of his life, he signed up for his last robbery.

• 16:52Speaker 01

  At nine o'clock in the morning on April 3, 1933, the First National Bank of Fairberry, 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 Karpis followed close behind and leveled 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,

• 17:36Speaker 01

  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 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 Karpis, the guard pulled his pistol and fired a shot through the window at Earl Christman outside on the street. Caught in the crossfire, Earl took a bullet from one of the shooters,

• 18:22Speaker 01

  but he didn't go down. He reloaded his tommy gun and kept firing.

• 18:29Speaker 01

  At the back of the bank, Eddie Green heard the gunfire and ran around to the front to join Volney Davis and Earl Christman. Christman suffered more injuries as the Fairberry 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,

• 19:13Speaker 01

  they paused just long enough to dump the hostages before tearing off toward Kansas City. They needed a doctor who wouldn't ask 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, Karpis 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,

• 19:55Speaker 01

  $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 Fairberry, eight others were in hospital beds. Luckily, the people in Fairberry survived, but it was getting so the gang couldn't even rob a small-town bank without finding themselves in a serious gunfight.

• 20:38Speaker 01

  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. By late May 1933, the core 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.

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• 22:01Speaker 01

  Jack Pfeiffer fue el propietario de Hollywood Night Club, un popular "speak easy" para criminales en St. Paul. Pfeiffer había estudiado el caso de la kidnappaje de Lindbergh, que había convertido en una de las mayores noticias de noticias en el mundo el año pasado. En marzo de 1932, alguien había kidnado y finalmente matado al hijo de 20 meses del famoso aviador Charles Lindbergh. El caso de Lindbergh era un desastre en casi todas las posibles formas, pero Pfeiffer pensó que el principio era sencillo: kidnazar al dueño de una fortuna, mantener a la persona para el rancio, y ganar un montón de dinero con muy poco riesgo de entrar en una pelea con la policía. La caza de Pfeiffer fue el 39 años William Hamm Jr., cuyo abuelo Theodore había fundado

• 22:45Speaker 01

  la Brewery Hamm justo allí en St. Paul en 1865. La empresa de vino de estilo alemán era un juzgón. Había sobrevivido a los 13 años de prohibición haciendo bebidas no alcohólicas, pero con la prohibición nacional del alcohol terminada en unos pocos meses, la brewery estaba dispuesta a ganar más dinero que nunca. La empresa ya valía 4.5 millones de dólares, el equivalente a 116 millones de dólares hoy. El hijo de Theodore, William Senior, condujo el negocio durante mucho tiempo, pero falleció hace dos años en 1931. William Junior tomó el control de la empresa, así que en 1933 no era el dueño de una fortuna, era la fortuna.

• 23:28Speaker 01

  Pfeiffer quería que el grupo de Barker, Karpis, kidniera a William Junior y extorte a la familia por 100.000 dólares. Pfeiffer recibiría 10.000 dólares y el grupo mantendría el resto. Alvin Karpis estaba inicialmente hesitante sobre la idea. La kidnappaje podría rápidamente girar en el asesinato y sin dinero, pero estaba persuadido por la posibilidad de un salario de 90.000 dólares. Los dos últimos robores habían robado 60.000 dólares en dinero. Ambos habían involucrado batallas de armas con la policía y ambos habían resultado en asesinatos. Cuanto más Karpis pensaba en la kidnappaje, más le gustaba. Karpis oscureció a William Hamm Jr. todos los días durante aproximadamente dos semanas,

• 24:11Speaker 01

  memorizando las características de William y su rutina. William Junior era un joven presidente de la empresa y el marcador perfecto. Su inexperiencia combinada con la confianza protegida de un upbringing rico jugó directamente en las manos del grupo. Pero no había margen de error. El trabajo sucedería en St. Paul, lo que directamente violaría el Código O'Connor. Al cometer un crimen importante dentro de los límites de la ciudad, estaban desestabilizando su estatus de santuario. Para ayudar con un plan de este tamaño, incorporaron a dos veteranos de Chicago, Fred Getz y Byron Bolton. Getz y Bolton habían sido jugadores clave en la famosa masacre del día de San Valentín en Chicago en febrero de 1929.

• 24:54Speaker 01

  El hit se alega haber orchestrated por Al Capone contra su rival Bugs Moran. Getz fue acreditado como el maestro del plan, donde él y algunos otros se vestían como policías de Chicago y atraparon a siete de la banda de Moran a un almacén. Byron Bolton era alegadamente el lookout que se suponía confirmar para los disparos que Bugs Moran era uno de los siete hombres. Bolton dio el símbolo, los disparos abrieron fuego, y mataron a seis de los siete miembros instantáneamente. El séptimo hombre sobrevivió sólo lo suficiente para llegar al hospital antes de morir. El problema fue que Byron Bolton había estado equivocado. Bugs Moran no era uno de los siete, y la palabra en la calle era que Capone estaba furioso.

• 25:39Speaker 01

  La masacre de la tierra del grupo hizo que se publicaran en las noticias nacionales, y no había sido por nada. De acuerdo con la historia, Fred Getz de alguna manera persuadió a Al Capone a dejar a Byron Bolton vivir. Y ahora, cuatro años después, Getz y Bolton comenzaron a configurar la parte de Chicago del plan de kidnappaje de Hamm para el grupo de Barker. Getz y Bolton aseguraron una casa de seguridad en Bensonville, fuera de Chicago, donde William Hamm sería transportado de St. Paul. El último pedazo del rompecabezas era el caballo de Troja, Charlie Fitzgerald. Charlie era un criminal de carrera que estaba en sus 50s. Con su pelo dorado y un bonito vestido, fácilmente pasaba por un empresario distinguido.

• 26:24Speaker 01

  Para mezclar metáforas, Charlie sería el pescado para atrapar a William Hamm en la trampa. El 15 de junio de 1933, Alvin Karpis, vestido como un conductor, se sentó en un sedán negro cerca de la Brewery Hamm. Todos los días a exactamente 12:45 PM, William salió de la brewery y caminó la misma ruta a casa para comer. Cuando comenzó su caminata, Charlie Fitzgerald se acercó y se acercó para dar la mano a William. Charlie, con su pelo perfectamente acomodado y vestido de forma precisa, pidió discutir una cuestión de negocio con William. Guidó a William hacia el trasero de un sedán negro, que convenientemente esperaba por allí. William confiaba en el extraño bien vestido y subió al asiento trasero.

• 27:08Speaker 01

  Charlie se metió junto a William, y luego la otra puerta trasera se abrió y Byron Bolton se agarró al asiento trasero del otro lado de William. El presidente de la empresa fue ensandificado entre Charlie y Byron, y luego Doc Barker saltó al asiento delantero. En segundos, el carro estaba lleno de cuatro hombres extraños y William Hamm. Pero la parte más extraña, al menos para el grupo, fue que William no parecía estresado en la más mínima. El grupo fue asustado por el calmo comportamiento de William. El tipo era either absurdamente tonto o poco comúnmente cómodo bajo la presión.

• 27:50Speaker 01

  Cuando Charlie Fitzgerald ordenó a William que se duela en los muros para mantenerse fuera de vista, William permaneció calmo y hizo lo que le dijeron. No preguntó preguntas, no curse a los hombres y no peleó. El grupo condujo 15 millas a un lugar de transferencia donde Fred Barker y Fred Getz estaban esperando con otro carro. Durante el transferencia del prisionero, Fred Barker entregó notas de rancio a William. William las firmó de manera obediente y no preguntó preguntas. Fred Barker y Fred Getz permanecieron en St. Paul para facilitar el rancio, y el resto de la crew blindfoldó a William para la 385 milla de Bensenville, Illinois. Durante el viaje de siete a ocho horas, William nunca hizo ruido.

• 28:34Speaker 01

  Cuando llegaron a Bensonville, Alvin Karpis estaba en desconfianza. Había sido demasiado fácil. William Hamm Jr. causó ningún problema de ningún tipo. Karpis en realidad comenzó a le gustar. En la casa de seguridad en Bensonville, Karpis aseguró a William que se liberaría tan pronto como llegara el dinero. Karpis trató de ganar la confianza de William ofreciéndole un vino, pero cuando William aceptó, Karpis pánico. Realizó que no tenían vino de Hamm. Largado por servir un vino de competidor, Karpis despejó la etiqueta de la botella. William, como siempre, aseguró a Karpis que no podía decir la diferencia. Y mientras las cosas iban muy bien en Bensonville, Fred Barker y Fred Getz llamaron al socio

• 29:18Speaker 01

  de negocios de William en la brewery con instrucciones para el rancio. Getz dejó la nota de rancio en la farmacia Rosedale. Demitía 100.000 dólares en cinco, diez y veinte. El dinero debía ser entregado en un tránsito de Brewery Hamm con las puertas de lado despejadas para probar que no había policías escondidos dentro. La madre de William llamó inmediatamente a la policía, y ignoraron las instrucciones sobre las puertas. La familia Hamm y la policía de St. Paul configuraron el descubrimiento con un oficial de la policía escondiéndose en el trasero de la van, listo para atacar al portavoz. Afortunadamente para el grupo, tenían el último intrínseco, el ex jefe de policía de St. Paul, Tom Brown, en su salario.

• 30:02Speaker 01

  El Código O'Connor, que protege a los criminales en St. Paul, había sido iniciado por el jefe John O'Connor y continuó por el jefe Brown. Pero el código estaba lentamente erodido. Un nuevo alcalde había demotificado al jefe Brown a detective, pero luego Brown se le asignó como líder del grupo de kidnappaje, lo que era perfecto para el grupo de Barker. El detective Brown ahora administraba la investigación del kidnappaje de Hamm mientras escondiéndose asegurando que el grupo de Barker lograra. Brown despidió al grupo de Barker de que el primer descubrimiento era una preparación, y el grupo abordó el portavoz. La madre de William estaba asustada de que habían perdido su oportunidad, así que cuando el grupo llamó con nuevas instrucciones, la familia y la policía los siguió a la letra.

• 30:45Speaker 01

  El 19 de junio de 1933, cuatro días después de la abducción, la familia Hamm pagó el rancio de 100.000 dólares. De acuerdo con su palabra, Alvin Karpis liberó a William Hamm inmediatamente. Pero el plan original de dejar a William en un lugar conveniente en St. Paul cambió. El grupo no podía arriesgar el prisionero a la ciudad. En lugar de eso, Karpis dejó a William en un campo de trigo. Sintiendo mal por dejar a su prisionero político en el medio de ningún lugar, Karpis entregó a William un ensandito para comer mientras esperaba. La familia Hamm y la policía recuperaron a William y lo hincharon sobre sus secuestradores. Desafortunadamente, William no pudo identificar a nadie. Más allá de los primeros minutos del kidnappaje, William no había visto rostros.

• 31:30Speaker 01

  Había estado blindado mientras estaba en el carro, y había sido forzado a usar gafas empiladas con bolas de acero, a menudo bajo un velo blanco, cuando interactuaba con los secuestradores en la casa de seguridad. Ciertamente apareció que el grupo de Barker Karpis estaba en la claridad, pero para asegurarse de ello, el detective Tom Brown dirigió la investigación hacia el grupo de Roger Tuwee, un vestido violento que había estado usando con la mob de Al Capone en Chicago. El esquema funcionó perfectamente, y el grupo de Tuwee fue arrestado por un crimen que no cometió. Mientras el grupo de Tuwee sufrió las golpes de la policía en la cárcel tratando de forzar una confesión, el grupo de Barker Karpis era aproximadamente 70.000 dólares más rico y bajando su nuevo vino favorito.

• 32:12Speaker 01

  Habían pagado 10.000 dólares a Jack Pfeiffer, como se acordó, y habían gastado otros 20.000 hasta ahora en briques que fueron financiadas por el detective Brown. Sin embargo, 70.000 dólares en dinero durante unas semanas de planificación y cinco días de trabajo de bajo estrés fue realmente bueno. No sería un shock para nadie cuando decidieran hacerlo de nuevo seis meses después. Pero mucho puede pasar en seis meses. La segunda vez no sería la misma que la primera, y señalaría el fin del tiempo del grupo en el santuario de St. Paul.

• 32:54Speaker 01

  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 Karpis 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-Karpis gang is next week on Infamous America. Members of our Black Barrel Plus program receive the entire season to binge all at once with no commercials, and they also receive exclusive bonus episodes.

• 33:37Speaker 01

  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.

• 34:02Speaker 00

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