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Cowley knew Hoover was underestimating the difficulty of apprehending Nelson, Floyd, and the Barkers. He made the Barkers his new priority, switching a dozen agents from the Dillinger case and putting them to work on the Barkers. Unfortunately, there weren’t many leads to chase. Working at his desk in the Bankers Building late into the night, Cowley cranked out several thick reports listing every member of the gang, their girlfriends, family members, and relatives. He had precious little information on the gang’s inner workings, however. The Barkers seemed far more secretive than Dillinger. They made no contact with their families, as the FBI learned during several frustrating months watching Dock and Fred’s father, George Barker, putter around his Missouri service station. There were no girlfriends to interview; six months after debriefing Beth Green, she remained the only person who had given the FBI any firsthand insight into the gang.

A second had dropped into Cowley’s lap on August 18, when agents arrested a woman named Helen Ferguson at her Chicago apartment. Ferguson had dated a minor member of the gang who had been killed during a robbery in Nebraska; she gave agents chapter and verse on the gang. Unfortunately, she hadn’t seen any of the Barkers for more than a year. After a week of interrogation Cowley released her, but told her to stay in touch. She might prove useful down the line.

The clue that finally led the Bureau to Toledo had been moldering in the Chicago file room for four months. It was contained in a list of phone calls made from Dr. Moran’s office. In the heat of the Dillinger hunt, agents simply hadn’t enough time to track down all the numbers. Not until Dillinger’s death did the Detroit office discover that Moran had phoned a Toledo gambler named Ted Angus, owner of the Barker’s favorite nightspot, the Casino Club. On Tuesday night, September 4, the Detroit SAC, William Larson, took a risk and telephoned Angus at his club. Larson identified himself as a friend of “Dock’s” and said it was urgent he reach Dock Barker. “Well, you know Dock is a pretty hard man to get in touch with,” Angus replied.

Yes, Larson went on, Dock was hard to find, but it was urgent he know of some things developing in Chicago. “Where can I call you tomorrow?” Angus asked. Larson said he was at a pay phone and couldn’t be reached. He promised to call again the following night.

Larson put down the phone convinced that Angus knew where the Barkers were. Now he needed someone inside, someone who could gain Angus’s confidence. He telephoned Chicago and told one of Cowley’s men to send Helen Ferguson to Detroit as soon as possible.

Cleveland, Ohio Wednesday, September 5

The morning after Larson’s ruse call to Toledo, a man walked into Cleveland police headquarters and asked if he could see a photograph of Baby Face Nelson. He thought he might know where Nelson was living. The man was taken to the Bureau of Identification, shown the picture and shook his head, saying it wasn’t the man he had seen. He asked to see other Wanted posters but was told the department didn’t keep such a file. Well, the man said, he was positive there was a fellow living at 4419 West 172nd Street in Cleveland who was a wanted criminal. Then he left. No one got his name.

A few hours later, at a bungalow at 4419 West 171st Street, three women were preparing for an afternoon on the town. Life as a fugitive was ponderous, and Paula Harmon, Gladys Sawyer, and Wynona Burdette had taken to coping the best way they knew. They drank. That afternoon, the three women put on their finest clothes and jewels and, along with Sawyer’s adopted daughter, Francine, drove downtown to the Cleveland Hotel, where they took seats in the hotel bar, the Bronze Room.

By five o’clock all three women were thoroughly and loudly drunk. When the manager asked them to leave, Harmon told him to go to hell. The manager called a house detective, who confronted the women and, as Harmon loudly cursed him, escorted them to