Right next to Lake Weir, in Ocklawaha, Florida, there’s an old two-story house that is the last place anyone saw the famous Arizona Donnie Barker – better known to history as “Ma Barker” – alive.
Photo credit left: orlandosentinel right: whaleoil
Updated 2/10/2020 – In the era of G-men and public enemies, Ma Barker and her son Fred were famously gunned down in this house on January 16, 1935, during a shootout with the FBI.
Ma Barker Died In This Lake Weir House After a Massive Gun Fight With Police
Astonishingly, the gunfight took several hours, and over two thousand shots were fired during it.
It is said that townspeople came to watch, and that there were even picnics being held during.
How is that for disturbing?
Even more disturbing is that it seems Ma Barker’s ghost hasn’t quite settled into the habit of being among the dead, even after all the intervening decades.
Photo credit: whaleoil
“If it’s really her I saw, it’s no wonder,” says Paul, an enthusiast of the time period as well as a relatively new believer in ghosts and things paranormal.
“A lot of the evidence points to the idea that she may have actually been innocent of all the stuff that was going on with the Barker gang, and so getting killed for it has probably left her spirit pretty unsettled.”
Paul, who has an undergraduate degree in Economics but claims that his real passion is history, claims he has actually seen the ghost of Ma Barker up close and personal.
“They have the house up for sale, you know,” he says. “The asking price is outrageous; they want a million dollars for it.
“Well, I don’t have that kind of scratch lying around, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to go there.
“You know, look around, pretend to be interested, that sort of thing.”
He laughs.
“I don’t know if I’m able to pull off the look of a man who has a million bucks to drop on a house, but I gave it my best shot.”
According to Paul, all went well on the tour of the house.
It has been preserved much the same as it was during the ill-fated tenancy of the Barker clan, and Paul says that he could “just feel the history bubbling up through the floorboards” during the tour.
Ma Barker Isn’t Very Happy About Her House Being Sold…
“I was just sort of walking around on the grounds around nightfall,” he says, “and I heard a noise from around the other side of the house.
“I didn’t know any of the legends, so I was pretty surprised when I came around to the backyard area and saw a woman facing away from me.
“I said something – I don’t remember but probably something like hello or are you okay – and the woman turned around.”
He pauses, staring at his hands for a long moment.
“And it was her.
“It was Ma Barker.
“I knew her face from her photographs, and I’m telling you it was her.
“She had this hole in her chest, and I knew the moment I saw it it was where they shot her.
“She got this weird, frightening look on her face, and then she just disappeared before my eyes.”
I’m guessing you didn’t buy the house.
“You’re damn right I didn’t!
I ran away and I’ve never been back.
That place is haunted, and I don’t need that in my life.”
