The Gang's All Here

Kate "Ma" Barker was famous for heading up her family business; mostly kidnapping, the occasional bank robbery, some protection rackets. Then she teamed up with Alvin "Creepy" Karpis in Saint Paul. The Barker-Karpis gang terrorized the capitol city for a few years. On this day in 1933, the gang robbed the offices of the Swift meat packing company in South Saint Paul, grabbing $30,000.00 in payroll cash and assorted cold cuts.

St. Paul was known as a haven for gangsters in 1920s. The mayor and police chief had a gentleman's agreement with mobsters: the gangs from Chicago and St. Louis and Kansas City could hang out in St. Paul as long as they paid a token bribe to city officials and promised not to cause too much trouble. It worked for a while, but after the Swift robbery the gang felt some heat and moved to Wisconsin, where they presumably stole cheese to go with the meats.

Here's a cute song about stealing, followed by a Brautigan poem on the same theme. It's especially appropriate because the new school year starts in a week or so and right after that our little town holds its annual celebration called (clumsily) "The Defeat of Jesse James Days'"

The memoirs of Jesse James
-- Richard Brautigan

I remember all those thousands of hours
that I spent in grade school watching the clock,
waiting for recess or lunch or to go home.
Waiting: for anything but school.
My teachers could easily have ridden with Jesse James
for all the time they stole from me.

Name That Dude

Happy birthday, Kid Creole! The Kid was born on this day in 1950 in the Bronx as Thomas August Darnell Browder. He started his music career as August Darnell with a group called Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band. He took the nom de clef Kid Creole when he started his own band, The Coconuts. 

I am a fan of The Coconuts, particularly the satirical song featured in this video.

Another favorite is this one about some lowlife who just got out of prison and is ratting out his former partners in crime. I can think of several who could and should be doing that about a certain crooked businessman turned TV personality turned office holder. Such a turn of events would be even better than this video.