Friday marks the 80th anniversary of the FBI's longest gun battle with gangsters in history. It took place in Marion County at Ma Barker's hideout.

"Everything is like it was — it's almost like it happened yesterday, from bullet holes in the walls and the furniture," Ocklawaha resident Charlene Yarborough said.

Those bullet holes are from the shootout between FBI agents and the infamous Karpis-Barker gang. It all took place on the shores of Lake Weir at a rented home.

When the gunfire finally ended, notorious gangsters Ma and Fred Barker were dead.

"This was one of the watershed moments, Jan. 16, 1935, where the FBI, the good guys won," George Albright said.

Before Albright became a state legislator and now Marion County tax collector, he had another job as caretaker of the home. He and his family are longtime Ocklawaha neighbors of the hideout.

Albright said his grandfather crouched behind a tree during the shootout as bullets were whizzing by. He split his pants as he avoided the gunfire. It went on long enough that he had time to walk to a hardware store, buy a new pair, and return to see the end of the shootout.

Now 80 years later, Albright wants to buy the home that's been in the possession of the same Miami family the entire time.

"There's a big concern because the property is zoned in land-use high density residential," Albright said. "So, you could knock the house down or move it and build condominiums there."

Albright has asked state legislators for $1 million to turn the home into a museum, which Marion County would run.

“The condition is wonderful, the original furnishings to the time are still in it so from a biographical and historical standpoint this is a perfect property to showcase the gun battle itself, the rise and the fall of the gangster movement and the rise of the FBI and their successes. It’s still a defining event in American history and it deserves to be protected,” Albright said.

Legislators are expected to make a decision this spring.

A haunted house?

Aside from being a historical landmark, the Barker house also has a reputation for the supernatural.

The owners of the house have long traded stories of furniture moving on its own and conversations in empty rooms.

A Medium held a seance in the 1970s, and told the owners that she had convinced Fred Barker to leave. But Ma Barker refuses to be evicted.

The medium also said the home was a playground of sorts for all kinds of dead mobsters -- including Al Capone.