BLOODY MAMA

In rural Arkansas during the Depression, middle-aged Kate 'Ma' Barker, disturbed by the childhood incestuous rape that she experienced by her father and brothers, also brutalizes those around her while indulging in her monstrous sexual appetites. She is devoted to her four adult sons, pragmatic Arthur, sadistic Herman, homosexual Fred and loyal, drug-addicted Lloyd. Kate decides to leave her husband George and her Arkansas home to embark on a robbery-murder spree with her four sons.

When Herman and Fred are arrested and imprisoned for petty theft charges, Kate leads Arthur and Lloyd on a bank-robbery spree to raise the money to free her sons from jail. The gang is joined by gunman Kevin Dirkman, Fred's older cellmate who became his lover while incarcerated. Also accompanying them is a local prostitute, Mona Gibson, whom Herman frequented before his imprisonment.

While hiding out at a cabin in Kentucky, Lloyd is playfully approached by a young woman named Rembrandt, who swims to him as he dangles his feet in a lake. The encounter begins flirtatiously but quickly turns into rape and abduction after Lloyd shows her the needle marks on his arm. Lloyd tells her that he is a Barker in spite of Ma's warning to use an alias. Not wanting the woman to report their location to the police, the Barkers hold her captive, and Ma kills her by drowning her in the bathtub, despite the protests of her sons. Ma subsequently seduces Kevin, leading Fred to resent her.

After arriving in Tennessee, the gang abducts wealthy businessman Sam Pendlebury and holds him for $300,000 ransom. The sons, particularly Herman, bond with Sam, whom they see as the decent father figure they never had. When Herman and Mona attempt to collect the ransom, they barely escape from a pair of FBI agents. With the ransom eventually paid in full, they plan to leave Sam untied at the hideout, providing them the time to escape before he can talk to the police. Herman wants to see Sam's eyes—which remind him of their father. Sam says that he cannot see because of head trauma.

Ma insists that Sam be killed to avoid his identifying them. Sam is led into the woods to be shot, but the boys, now viewing Herman as leader, set him free, lying to Ma about killing him. To explain the need to leave the territory immediately, Herman tells Ma of the deception and knocks her to the ground, saying that she is no longer the boss.

The gang hides out in the Florida Everglades, where Lloyd dies from a morphine overdose. Mona leaves Herman and the gang after revealing her pregnancy and fearing for the safety of her unborn child. Her fears are justified when Herman and Kevin give away their hiding place. A local handyman and caretaker, Moses, witnesses them shoot an alligator on a lake with a Tommy gun and calls the police to report his suspicions. When asked, he says that their cars have Tennessee plates, and the authorities quickly deduce that these are the Barkers.

A large contingent of FBI agents and local police arrive at the Barkers' hideout and a huge shootout ensues between the authorities and the surviving members of the gang. Kevin, Fred and Arthur are killed (as are many officers). Herman dies by suicide to prevent from being sent to prison again. Kate is the last one to fall, firing her Thompson machine gun at the police, screaming, unable to accept that her boys are dead because of her.