On this date, May 1, in 1936, J. Edgar Hoover arrested Alvin “Creepy” Karpis in New Orleans, essentially ending the age of the big-name Depression-era criminals and elevating Hoover and the FBI to national prominence.
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Karpis, who had a sinister smile and a photographic memory, allied with the “Ma” Barker gang, making it the most formidable gang of the 1930s. The year 1934 saw the deaths of John Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde, Charles “Pretty Boy” Floyd, and Baby Face Nelson.
After FBI agents gunned down Barker in Florida, Karpis became the fourth and last Public Enemy.
Karpis is known as the prisoner who spent the longest time at Alcatraz and later for teaching Charles Manson how to play the guitar.
-Scott McCabe
