Serial Slayers May Be Modern ‘Ma Barkers’ : Crime: Eight men have been murdered in Florida. The killers may be women. Locals are reminded of the notorious female gunslinger of the 1930s.

Not since legendary outlaw Ma Barker and one of her sons were gunned down here 55 years ago has a local criminal case attracted such worldwide attention. In the past 12 months, eight middle-aged men have been slain while traveling along interstate highways which cut through the hills of north-central Florida. Two other men are missing and presumed dead.

The killers may be women. “The possibility that women are involved makes this case unprecedented,” says Marion County Sheriff’s Capt. Steven A. Binegar. “It’s added a totally different dimension to our investigation.”

Indeed, the rarity of female serial killers is so intriguing that not only have the tabloid television shows visited this town of 37,000 residents, but criminologists are also taking a look. “Historically, very few women have operated on their own” as serial killers, says Steven Egger, author of “Serial Murder: An Elusive Phenomenon.” “But if it turns out that women are involved, I won’t be particularly surprised, given the changes in the female role.”

Last month, police circulated drawings of two possible suspects after concluding that the eight slayings were related. Both women are believed to be in their 20s or 30s. One is described as 5 feet 9 inches tall with stringy blonde hair and possibly a heart-shaped tattoo on her right arm. The other is short and stocky, with dark hair.

The description of the suspects came from a husband and wife team of paramedics who last July encountered two women walking away from a car that had crashed through a gate on a dirt road 15 miles northeast of here. The women were uninjured, and asked directions to Daytona Beach, the paramedics said.

Authorities learned that the wrecked car, with blood on the seat, belonged to Peter Siems, 65, who last June left his home in Jupiter, Fla., to drive to New Jersey. He has not been found.

But the bodies of eight other men, all between the ages of 41 and 60, have turned up. Each was a solitary traveler killed with a .22-caliber handgun. Some were shot several times. Police refuse to say if the same gun was used in each shooting.

Each of the victims had been dumped not far off an interstate highway, most often I-75, a major north-south route used each year by millions of tourists headed for Disney World. Some of the men were found nude, others partially dressed. Their money was taken, but their credit cards were not.

Three of the bodies have been discovered in Marion County. Four others were found in nearby counties. One corpse turned up off I-75 near Adel, Ga.

All of the murder victims were blue-collar businessmen. Two had backgrounds in police work. One owned a video store. Another was a welder headed for a reunion with a woman who had jilted him. The last victim discovered, on Nov. 18, was Gino Antonio, 60, who was driving to Alabama to look for work. He was found nude except for his socks.

Binegar, the lead investigator on the case, agrees that the connection between the two women described by the paramedics and any of the dead men is largely circumstantial. But, he adds: “Looking at some of the things found at the crime scenes . . . leads us to believe that the women may be involved. We can’t rule it out.”

To date, the most notorious female criminal linked to this area was Kate (Ma) Barker, who led a ruthless gang of bank robbers and kidnapers until a bevy of FBI agents caught up with her and son Freddie in a resort at nearby Lake Weir. After a 45-minute machine gun battle, the Barkers were found dead. Ma had a bullet in her heart and $10,200 cash in her purse.

But that was in 1935. In the 5 1/2 decades since, this area has been known for its horse farms, bass fishing and what is billed as the world’s largest artesian spring. Although a steady stream of newcomers has made the city one of the fastest growing in the United States, Ocala retains what Betty Perry of the Chamber of Commerce calls “the atmosphere of small town USA.”

Nonetheless, that atmosphere has been roiled by these killings, which overlap in time the grisly August murders of five students near the University of Florida in Gainesville, just 35 miles to the north.

“Truckers who were likely to pick up women hitchhikers are having second thoughts about it now,” says Henry Heilig, a manager at the Union 76 truck stop here.

Egger, a professor at Sangamon State University in Springfield, Ill., says that if the killers are women, the middle-aged victims “may be vulnerable because of their expectations about what women are capable of.”

Publicity about the murders has forced the 135-deputy Sheriff’s Department to assign two operators to full-time telephone duty just to handle the more than 700 leads and up to 100 reported sightings of the women suspects, which have come from as far away as California and Canada, according to Binegar.

Binegar says his hunch is that the women are not local residents, but rather “somebody who travels to and from this area.”

Adds Sgt. Robert L. Douglas: “We want to contact these two girls. But to label them serial killers, or angels of death--that’s premature.

“Yeah, they could be the killers. But you don’t want to look just at them. Because if you do, you’re going to miss something else.”