Ma Not a Gangster

Regarding your Great Depression quiz, it’s been debunked that Ma Barker was any kind of a gangster, as she apparently spent most of her time doing jigsaw puzzles. Her being a “gangster” was government (J. Edgar Hoover) propaganda. This was written up in the Los Angeles Times around the time the last Dillinger movie came out. I also have to question Trixie’s (Nick Welsh’s) belief, expressed the other week [Angry Poodle, “Dog of Another Color,” 1/21/2010] that rum was the item behind the country’s early industrialization/capitalization. Instead, I believe it was tobacco. — Michael McLaughlin