Professor Hamilton's Diary: Jan. 17, 1935
He "interviewed" Gwennie's teacher; 'Ma' Barker and son killed by FBI
Feeling better today, Professor Lanham was back on the Albright College campus. In the afternoon, he drove wife Margaret and baby Mary Elizabeth to a tea being given by a woman in town, and then had a meeting with Gwennie’s teacher. He said he “interviewed” her, which is an interesting way of putting a parent-teacher conference. “G is making progress, but does not concentrate on the work & so is kept back with the retarded group,” he wrote. By this he didn’t mean special needs, as we know it today, but just slow. Gwendolyn eventually excelled in music at Swarthmore and Yale and became a professor of music at Vassar!
While the Lindbergh trial grabbed the major headlines in the Reading Times today, another crime story was close behind it. The last of the infamous Barker family, including the mother whose four sons had blazed a trail of robberies, kidnappings and murders, were killed by the FBI at their Florida hideout. Paid subscribers can read on about this notorious gang, and the largely fictitious characterization of Kate ‘Ma’ Barker as its mastermind, perpetuated by none other than J. Edgar Hoover. The picture above is a “Most Wanted” trading card being offered on eBay.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Baptists, Bootleggers, and Everything in Between to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.