A captured Alvin Karpis is brought to St. Paul on May 3, 1936, in connection with the Hamm and Bremer kidnappings.

Alvin Karpis when he entered the federal prison on Alcatraz Island, ca. 1936.

J. Edgar Hoover, director of the FBI during Hamm and Bremer kidnappings, in 1940. Hoover guided the FBI’s attempts to rid the US of “public enemies” like the Barker‒Karpis gang.

Alvin Karpis and Doc Barker served time on Alcatraz in the Bay of San Francisco. Karpis became the penitentiary’s longest serving inmate.

Alvin “Creepy” Karpis in 1936.

Fred and Ma Barker used this cottage as their Florida hideout. Here, FBI officers engaged in the shootout that killed both Fred and Ma.

Doc Barker, a suspect in the Edward Bremer kidnapping. Photograph by the Saint Paul Daily News, 1935.
HV8.2 p24

Purvis led the FBI’s investigation of the Hamm and Bremer kidnappings. Photograph by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, date unknown.

Alvin Karpis shows his altered fingertips, 1934. Karpis had his fingerprints removed by underworld physician Joseph Moran after the Bremer kidnapping.