Identification of suicidal clients may most effectively proceed with information about the present threat and previous attempts, as Bartholomew and Kelley proposed, but it may be improved by considering these dimensions separately rather than by combining them to form a single indicator. An immediate emergency is more likely if the caller is widowed or divorced, is using alcohol during the call, and is concerned over the loss of a significant person. It is not related to sex. In contrast, callers with a history of having made a previous attempt are predominantly female. Divorce or widowhood, loss of a significant person and present use of alcohol are less strongly related to having made a prior attempt than they are to the degree of the immediate crisis. Using either criterion, the night service in Chicago received an excess of suicidal calls. Evaluation of suicide potential may become more effective not only by concentration upon these two powerful predictors, but also by considering their respective correlates. These correlates appear to be different for each of the criteria, and one purpose of this paper is to indicate which correlates are more closely related to each criterion. The most serious suicidal callers are not a homogeneous collection. The two indicators of suicide which were combined in the work of Bartholomew and Kelley — previous attempt and present emergency — are not associated, according to the data from Chicago. Each of them has different correlates. Correspondingly, for research as well as for practice, we should seek to better recognize these distinctive patterns.