"One of the men didn't care for the way the cook had fixed his potatoes so he sent them back," Skoufis said. "The cook wasn't too happy about it, but the gangster kidded him along."

John Skoufis chatted with the outlaws about Springfield, Mass., where some of his relatives lived. The gang had driven through that city en route to Bangor.

The gangster trio then drove off into the darkness to Carmel, a small town 11 miles west on Route 2; and rented a $3 cabin at Auto Rest Park, a popular amusement spot they no doubt had seen while driving into Bangor earlier in the day. Around 9:45 p.m., near closing time, owner Leo Wise showed the gang to their cabin. Each unit in the semicircular tourist court bore a woman's name; the sign hanging over the front porch of the spacious Brady cabin read "Elizabeth," after Wise's mother.

Brady stayed inside while Shaffer and Dalhover dropped into the park's nearby restaurant for a snack. While eating they were startled to see state Trooper Russell Fletcher at the counter buying takeout coffee. Dalhover later said if the officer has so much as reached for a handkerchief, he would have shot him dead. Shaffer returned to the cabin while Dalhover walked across Route 2 to buy beer and cigarettes from Harry Willey,who operated a store and cafe. He returned to the cabin and retired for the night. The trio never turned down the bedclothes, sleeping on top of the blankets to be on alert for any trouble outside. All was quiet.

Around 6:45 a.m. Tuesday - Columbus Day - the outlaws left Carmel on a postcard-perfect autumn morning. The foliage must have been brilliant all along Route 2 as they headed back into Bangor to buy the Tommy gun.

FBI agents inside Dakin's were alerted by Chief Tom Crowley who said that, while being driven to the police station, he had spied the gangster's car proceeding down Hammond Street to Union. The agents took their positions as on Monday; this time they knew it was not a dry run. In the back of the store, G-man Bill Nitschke waited behind a partition, thirsting for some gunplay. With him was Inspector Jack Hayes, who had taken the place of Carl Lobley, a local police sergeant who had hidden there the day before.

In the front window hung a hunting advertisement. A string attached could be pulled from inside as a signal to G-men, hidden on the street, that a gang member had entered the store.

The thugs again pulled up to John's Cafe on Main Street, where they ate a leisurely breakfast. Around 8:20 a.m. they finished leaving dozens of pennies under their plates as a tip. John Skoufis, who thought they were nice young men, surmised they must have been playing penny-ante poker the night before.

Shaffer took his usual position behind the wheel, with Dalhover next to him. In the back seat, on the passenger's side, sat Brady. Shaffer drove down Main Street by Freese's Department Store and the New Atlantic Restaurant, where Kalil Ayoob, a young newspaper editor, and others were soon to have their morning meals disrupted by gunfire a few blocks away.

Shaffer then turned their stolen Buick onto Central Street. Unlike today's rotary traffic, downtown streets then were two-way.

Across the street from Dakin's the Paramount Restaurant, owned by Cost S. Vafiades, was filled with the usual breakfast crowd. Many of them were downtown employees who had to work that day despite its being a holiday.

Driving by Dakin's on their right, the three outlaws gawked into the store but passed by, proceeding up the street and turning left onto Harlow Street.

The gang is spotted

G-man Walter Devereux, hiding in a car near the Paramount jumped out and ran across to Dakin's after making a positive identification of all three men, especially Brady. He had studied the public enemy's mug shots so many times while chasing him in Chicago, there was no mistaking his profile, especially his prominent nose.

"I went to the alley along the store to where squads of other agents were stationed in the back," the tall, burly Devereux recalled in a 1980 tape recording, "and told them the suspects had just gone north in their automobile and crossed the bridge, going out of sight. I then ducked into the store and told Walter Walsh, who was posing as a clerk in the store..."

Devereux's unplanned venture onto the street could have blown the plan wide open. Walsh urged him to return to his vehicle and soon afterward the gang's car passed Dakin's again, now headed in the opposite direction. When Shaffer droveup Hammond Street - and possibly out of town - Devereux, his partner, and two men in another FBI car decided to tail the Buick and catch the bandits.

After five or ten minutes, having lost the gang's car in traffic, the G-men returned to Central Street to find the Buick double-parked a few doors down from Dakin's Dalhover had left the vehicle, walked down the sidewalk and into the store.