Public Enemies_ America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI - Bryan Burrough [209]
Still, Cowley told Hoover he could see no changes worth making. Hoover liked what he heard. For the first time in weeks, he seemed pleased. Two days later he phoned Cowley and, as he wrote in a memo, “advised that I was of the opinion that the [new] situation at Chicago would work out all right, and that I had told Mr. Purvis that until we complete the Dillinger investigation I wanted Mr. Cowley to take complete charge.”16
While Cowley assumed command, Purvis’s run of bad luck continued. Pete Pierpont’s old girlfriend, Mary Kinder, had gotten engaged, and Connelley had befriended her fiancé; the boy told him Kinder expected to meet Dillinger soon. That Tuesday, Purvis drove down to the town of Mishawaka, where agents had trailed Kinder to a shack where Pierpont’s parents were opening a barbecue stand. Purvis and his men watched the building until midnight when, to their dismay, a convoy of eight police cars drove up. Out spilled a dozen cops in bulletproof vests; rifles raised, they demanded to know who Purvis was. Sheepishly Purvis explained, apologizing for his failure to notify authorities he was in the area. Afterward he trudged to a phone to once again break bad news to Washington. “Mr. Purvis stated that of course the matter is ‘shot’ from our point of view,” an aide wrote Hoover, “and I approved his suggestion that it be turned over to the police to cover. I told him to caution the police, however, to give the matter no publicity.”17
On the Sunday Sam Cowley arrived in Chicago, Van Meter followed Dillinger into the brave new world of cosmetic surgery. He paid $5,000 for it. Once again Dr. Loeser came to Probasco’s house to perform the procedure, with Harold Cassidy assisting. This time everything went smoothly. Loeser slit open Van Meter’s nose, flattening a bump and removing tissue from the bulb. After cutting down the size of Van Meter’s upper lip, Loeser used acid to remove the “Hope” tattoo on his right forearm. Apparently, no one viewed this as a bad omen.
Two mornings later Loeser returned and used a hydrochloric acid solution to remove both Van Meter’s and Dillinger’s fingerprints. Dillinger endured the treatment in silence, grimacing, beads of sweat appearing on his forehead. Van Meter cursed loudly, dancing around the room, flapping his hands in an effort to fight the pain. Afterward Baby Face Nelson dropped by, plopping on a living room couch to smirk at his partners’ faces. “So you two decided to go out and buy yourselves a pair of new mugs,” he cracked. “Maybe you needed them.”
“At least I’ll be able to go out on the street and get around now,” Dillinger said.18
At one point, Piquett dropped by and told Dillinger he needed cash to pay attorneys who had helped represent Billie Frechette at her trial in St. Paul; as expected, she had drawn a yearlong sentence in a federal women’s prison. Dillinger sent O’Leary to his father for the money. On Wednesday night, June 6, O’Leary checked into the Claypool Hotel in Indianapolis. The next morning he found Hubert Dillinger at his filling station. Hubert cocked his head in the direction of Art McGinnis, the FBI informant who had been loitering around the station for over a month. “Be careful what you say,” Hubert said.
“What’s that rat doing here?” O’Leary asked.
“I want him around where I can keep an eye on him.”
“I have a note from Johnnie for your dad,” O’Leary said.19
Telling McGinnis that O’Leary was an FBI agent who wanted to see his father, Hubert drove him out to the Dillinger farmhouse in Mooresville. John Dillinger,