The Ottawa Journal from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada • Page 112

The Alvin Karpis Story Part 3 nn I And the FBI director's fame is based on lies, according to Alvin "Old Creepy" Karpis, the last of the great gangsters of the 30s Among the terrible men of US crime, Alvin Karpis, a Canadian, may have been the most terrible. The very mention of his name struck terror into the heart of Depression-day America. US Public Enemy wanted for murder in 14 states Karpis finally went to prison on a kidnapping charge. He spent 33 years behind bars. In January, 1969, he.

was paroled and deported to Canada, where he went to work on his life story with BiU Trent. His book is being published in the US by Coward-McCann as The Alvin Karpis Story, and simultaneously in Canada by McClelland and Stewart under the title, Public Enemy Number One, The Alvin Karpis Story. In excerpts from the book last weekend, Karpis told about his life with the famous Ma Barker. Today, in a concluding episode, he straightens out some misconceptions about his arrest and calls FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover a liar.

THE LAST MONTHS of 1935 and the early ones of 1936 were hectic. 1 had to keep moving. It was important to present the FBI with a moving target. They carried the search into almost every state in the union. In New York City, for example, 40 agents surrounded an apartment house on a tip that I was inside.

They dragged a young guy out and threw him in jail. His crime: He owned a car with Oklahoma plates. They thought it was my car. In Cleveland and Toledo, they ransacked all my old haunts. In Chicago, they watched my parents' place.

In Little Rock, Arkansas, 60 agents got to-, gether for what FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover said was a regional conference. I learned they were following up a lead that I was holed up there. I was close. I was in nearby Hot Springs.

Freddie Hunter, the guy I took up with after the feds shot up my old friends, Freddie Barker and Ma Barker, in Florida, was getting pretty edgy about things. He was really nervous when we rented this place at an intersection in Hot Springs. There was a stop sign at the corner and every time there was a squeal of brakes on the street, Freddie would spring up, grab his gun and run to the window. WmUikI Mogaziit Mat. 13.

1971 We didn't settle in any one house for too long. We kept shifting locations. Fortunately, I had a good friend named Grace Goldstein, who was always finding a new address for Freddie and me. Grace was a peroxide blonde who ran a hooker joint that took up two floors of the Hatterie Hotel, next door to the luxurious Arlington Hotel, jn Hot Springs. She entertained all the top crooks and many politicians.

Grace was well-connected and when she found a place for us, it was usually a good one. Like this place on Malvern Road, which runs between Hot Springs and Malvern. Arkansas. The house, built on a hill overlooking Lake Catherine, was lovely. It belonged to a wealthy real estate operator named Woodcock and came equipped with two safety features: bright outside, lights and two barking dogs.

There was a double threat for us in Arkansas. Not only had the FBI moved in but so had the postal investigators. The latter had been hot after me because of a payroll train caper, and they were handling the search with better results than the feds. The postal guys were a busy bunch and somehow or other they got onto Freddie's girl Connie. They -hired a fellow to take her out on the town with instructions to fill her full of booze and let her talk.

Connie, though, was too smart. She poured the liquor under the table and it was the undercover man who drank too much. He told her who he was, and then suggested that the two of them turn Freddie in, collect a reward, and run off together. She brushed him off and reported back to us. Grace was the next person to report some funny business.

"The FBI paid a guy I know $1,000 to take me out," she said. "He's an undertaker." "A mortician?" I asked. I was surprised and had to laugh. "Tbey think I know where you are and that I'll tell this guy," she said. Freddie and didn't sit still long.

We took off for Texas with Connie. Before we left, I arranged with Grace to meet her in two weeks' time on a side road that ran into the Hot Springs-Arkadelphia highway. Then, while we were away, the FBI raided our Continued i i i it ii i i a r'n r-- 111 "i i i 11 i 'ii i i i I iuu I LJ LJ I 1LJ UUUUUL-UU By Alvin Karpis with Bill Trent Weekend Magazine ii 1 rnm-ninniMiiiiuijii Ky-: A i Hoover, at left, escorting Karpis shortly after his capture in New Orleans. Hoover said he personally made the arrest, but Karpis says the director's deputies did the job themselves. WhM MogaiiM Mar.

13. 1971 5.