Baby Face Nelson was never called "Baby Face" to his face, or by those who knew him. His favorite alias was "Jimmy." In California, Helen Gillis accompanied her husband, Lester "Baby Face Nelson" Gillis, to San Francisco, California. There they lived in harmony during the years 1932-1933, as "Mr. and Mrs. Jimmy Burnell." Drawn to San Francisco during the last years of Prohibition for the bootlegging, Lester Gillis went to the Andrometer, a saloon at 155 Columbus Avenue, to meet other members of the gang comprised of William Graham and James McKay, Hans Leon Strittmatter, Joe Parente, John Paul Chase, Anthony "Soap" Marino, "Doc Bones" Tambini, Fatso Negri, and others. They were to comprise the primary gang for Lester. Helen, his wife, thought of it as a safe refuge. In the Vallejo General Hospital, Helen was twice admitted for abdominal illness. While Baby Face Nelson is commonly thought to have been a Chicago-based outlaw, he actually had deep underworld roots on the West Coast in San Francisco and Reno. The saloon at 155 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco, stands today. The Andrometer boasts of a balcony. When Baby Face Nelson hung out here with Fatso Negri, both sat on the edge of the balcony and observed the front door. To the rear of the balcony was a doorway and a staircase. The staircase extended down to a subterranean level below the street. Legend says that there were catacombs beneath this notorious hideout, that stretched to the Barbary Coast. Coincidentally, the Andrometer was situated down the block from the corner lot that was to become the legendary City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco. From the gangs of Baby Face Nelson's time, to the beat poets of later generations that found a home in City Lights Bookstore, the block of 155 Columbus has been a mecca for those outside the margins of society.

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