Secret or not, Roger got word of the pending indictment. On his
lawyer's advice, he decided it was best to leave town until they could work out
a way to avoid indictment, either in the courtroom or through bribes.
On July 17, 1933, Roger and four of his men left
for a brief working vacation to the north woods of Wisconsin to Rohrbacher's
Resort in the lake region. Although avoiding a subpoena was the primary purpose
of the trip, the other purpose was to find George Maitland. Maitland was the
sole witness in the killing of a syndicate enforcer named John Renelli, whom
the Touhys had gunned down several months before. Roger's informants had
discovered that Maitland was hiding out in the Lake region, at Renelli's
brother's place, The Chicago Tavern. However, when Maitland discovered that
Touhy was in the area he quickly fled back to the relative safety of Chicago.