Ma Barker and Gator Joe's

October 25, 2016

Today was a day of rest so Alesa put pine straw around the plants.while I waxed the car. Probably the first time I've waxed a car in over 20 years. It was a day of rest because Alesa is nursing a sore knee and I won't let her on the platform tennis court until tomorrow. Late this the morning we went for a ride. The house where the FBI killed Ma and Fred Barker in 1935 is on Lake Weir about 15 miles north of here in Oklawaha. They are in the process of moving it so I thought it would be a nice ride to the north side of the lake to see it in its original position. On Thursday they will be putting it on a barge and floating it about a quarter of the way around the lake to the west to a county park where it will be unloaded and put on display. While we were up there we stopped at Gator Joe's for lunch and had a very nice meal on the lake. It's about 400 yards down the shore from the Barker house, for now, not so much on Thursday. Joe was the name of a big gator that was a tourist attraction on the lake back in 1935. It was the mention of Joe in one of Ma Barker's letters that eventually led the FBI to the Barkers' location and their eventual demise.