AllMovie

Part of the Great Crimes and Trials of the 20th Century ten-volume series, Public Enemies revisits "the stories that shocked the world." Supported by the American Bar Association, the series provides access to picture libraries, archive footage, and syndicated sources. Included in this installment is the case of Ma Barker, a woman shot down by the FBI in 1935 and said to have aided and masterminded the robberies and kidnappings carried out by her four outlaw sons. Later, historians and investigators wonder if the monster image of Ma Barker was more or less a cover-up for the mistakes of J. Edgar Hoover's FBI. Now, in this investigative documentary, experts ask if Ma Barker was a woman blindly devoted and protective of her sons, or a cold-blooded criminal.