only two months after Filkowski's release, Filkowski witnessed 36-year-old lathing contractor Tony Veryk (also referred to in newspapers as Anton Veryk and Anthony Veryk) withdrawing a payroll of $1,500 from a Cleveland bank. Filkowski followed Veryk to an apartment building that was being constructed, where Veryk planned to pay his employees with the money from the payroll. While Veryk was still making his way through the scaffolding, having already paid out $900 of the total $1500, Filkowski approached him and demanded that Veryk give him the remaining $600. When Veryk hesitated, Filkowski shot him in the chest with a .38 caliber pistol and stole the briefcase containing the rest of the money. Filkowski fled in a nearby car where two accomplices were waiting to serve as getaway drivers, while Veryk was rushed to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival. Meanwhile, some of the construction workers who witnessed the murder were able to provide police with the license plate number of the car in which Filkowski fled. Police later discovered that the license plate numbers were faked. 1931-1932 crimes and developments Filkowski spent almost two years at large after the murder of Veryk. Because investigators had a lot of difficulty finding and apprehending him, he was nicknamed "King Kobra." He also had the nickname of "Smiling Joe" among his associates in the Cleveland crime underworld. During his time on the run for the murder and numerous prior and subsequent robberies, Cleveland police designated him "Public Enemy No. 1". On January 4, 1931, Cleveland detective Pat McNeeley saw a man who looked like Joseph Filkowski. He shot at the man and killed him before a confrontation could begin. The man he shot turned out to be Joseph Fortini, a newspaper route manager for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. In early May 1931, newspapers reported that Filkowski had eloped with Mary Kekic, the wife of a Cleveland man named George Kekic. Filkowski and Mary Kecik were childhood friends. Those same articles also reported that Filkowski had received plastic surgery on his nose in an attempt to conceal his identity and had also adopted the alias of William Blake, the name that he used at the hospital when he received plastic surgery. Other papers claimed that Filkowski dyed his hair red to avoid detection as well. On December 5, 1931, Filkowski, alongside a notorious Chicago-based robber named Morris Cohen, held up an