# FBI summary of the Bremer kidnaping, report page 39: the 16 January 1935 raid at Lake Weir, Florida

Canonical: https://mobfiles.org/items/fbi-vault-bremer-summary-p40-lake-weir-raid-1935/

The Bureau's 1936 account of the raid on a cottage at Lake Weir, Florida, at about 5:30 a.m. on 16 January 1935, in which Fred Barker and Kate Barker were killed. It says "Kate Barker battled until death" and lists the weapons and money found in the house.

Viewer page 40 of the FBI Vault's "Bremer Investigation Summary Part 01 (Final)," which carries the report's own page number 39. It was read from the page image. Earlier pages (viewer 37 and 38, read in OCR) say that Fred Barker rented a cottage on Lake Weir, near Oklawaha, Florida, for himself and his mother, who moved in on 7 November 1934.

The page says that Special Agents learned "that Fred Barker and his mother were residing in a cottage located on Lake Weir," and that "At about 5:30 o'clock on the morning of January 16, 1935 Special Agents surrounded the Barker "hang out"" and demanded surrender. "For a few minutes there was no answer, then a voice was heard to say "all right go ahead."" It continues: "the answer to the Special Agent's last command was a blast of machine gun fire from the house," answered by tear gas and gunfire from the agents. "Kate Barker battled until death and when the house was entered later in the morning, Special Agents found the bodies of Fred Barker and Kate Barker. A .45 caliber automatic pistol was found near the body of Fred Barker and a machine gun lay at Ma Barker's left hand." It lists $14,000 in $1,000 bills and a small arsenal.

This is the Bureau's own account, written in 1936 by the agency whose agents fired. The FBI's later history essay says only that machine-gun fire came from the house and that both were dead. No independent record of who fired has been opened, and this archive does not state it as fact.

## Sources

- FBI Records: The Vault: https://vault.fbi.gov/barker-karpis-gang/bremer-investigation-summary/Bremer%20Investigation%20Summary%20Part%2001%20%28Final%29/view