Tulsan Admits He Peddled Pills to "Pep" Race Horses

By Windsor Ridenour

A "flying veterinarian" who admits selling 100,000 pills to a horseman to "pep up" his race horses, was freed from jail early today after facing five federal drug counts.

Dr. Charles A. Mohr, Jr., 50-year-old prominent Tulsa veterinarian, was arrested following a Hollywood-style investigation that spanned nearly eight months and ended in a blaze of action Thursday night.

Dr. Mohr, nationally known during the late 1940s when he became one of the first veterinarians in the nation to use an airplane in his practice, was released on $5,000 bond after being taken before U.S. Commissioner Ben B. Ballenger shortly after midnight.

Dr. Mohr became the first person in an 11-state area to be charged under recent amendments to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act making possession, use, or sale of amphetamines and barbiturates without prescription illegal.

Six Pure Food and Drug Administration agents and Tulsa Detective Gary Glanz, acting as an undercover man, made the arrest, which was termed "one of the biggest this year."

The officers said they set up the huge "buy" of pills through an informant identified as a notorious Tulsa pill-pusher.

The transaction was to take place on a county road near 78th Street between Union and 33rd West Avenues.

One agent was hiding in bushes near the "drop" and another was stowed in the trunk of the informant’s car.

The other men were staked out in two cars where they could observe and hear the conversation through walkie-talkie radios and tiny transmitters "bugging" the informant.

The informant reportedly gave Dr. Mohr about $200 for the pills, which were in two barrels. As the barrels were being shifted from Dr. Mohr’s "mobile clinic" pickup, the informant let the agent out of his trunk.

All the undercover officers began closing in, but Dr. Mohr reportedly returned to his pickup and fled the scene.

One agent leaped for the back of the moving pickup, missed the truck, and struck his head on its tailgate. He was not seriously injured.

Agents in a car followed the pickup but, in heavy dust, missed a curve at 33rd West Avenue and 78th Street and wrecked the car. No one was injured in the crackup.

The other car, containing Glanz and two agents, sped after the fleeing pickup. Glanz jumped from the vehicle at 91st street and 33rd West Avenue, ran to a nearby farmhouse and alerted Tulsa police.

Sgt. Jim Storts, hearing Glanz’ call for help, stopped Dr. Mohr at 31st Street and Harvard Avenue and held him until agents arrived.

Glanz said marked bills given to the veterinarian by the informant were recovered from Dr. Mohr’s pocket.

Reached by The tribune this morning at his home at 2210 S. Indianapolis Ave., Dr. Mohr admitted giving the pills to the informant.

"He had called and said he wanted them to pep up one of his race horses," Dr. Mohr said. "He’s a horseman, and I’ve known him a long time."

"All horsemen racing on those old 'brush tracks' give pills to their horses. You grind up 20 or 30, feed it to them, and it really wakes them up and makes them run."

Dr. Mohr said it is common practice for veterinarians to supply the drugs to horse racers.

"I don’t try to do anything but what’s right," Dr. Mohr said. "A man comes to me for stuff to hop up his old race horse, and I give it to him. All the vets do it."

"Poultry raisers up in Arkansas use tons of the stuff, feeding it to their chickens to make them lay more eggs. They call it 'chicken powder.'"

The veterinarian said he bought the pills from several Eastern drug firms, and they "cost me $80 per 100,000."

On the black market, similar pills have sold for $2 each.

Dr. Mohr denied that he had been fleeing from the agents.

"I was sure surprised when they asked me why I tried to run away," Dr. Mohr said. "I was driving my mobile clinic about 50 miles an hour and didn’t know anyone wanted me until the officer stopped me on 31st Street."

Dr. Mohr said it is not unusual for him to have on hand such a large number of pills.

"I’ve got that many vitamins and scour tablets," he said. "There must be $3,000 to $4,000 worth of drugs in that truck."

Dr. Mohr said the pills were 20 milligrams and are "too strong for people to take. I guess some guy could dilute them down."

Dr. Mohr said he believes he was arrested because he had failed to write prescriptions for pills he has distributed.

"If every time I sold something to somebody I had to write a prescription -- my land! -- all I’d be doing would be writing prescriptions."

Evert Atkinson, director of the Kansas City Bureau of Drug Abuse Control, who came to Tulsa Wednesday to take personal charge of the investigation, said Dr. Mohr was charged on five counts -- two of them alleging offenses prior to Feb. 1 when amendments to the Federal Drug Act became effective.

Dr. Mohr was not charged with selling the 100,000 pills found Thursday night but was charged with some 40,000 pills allegedly sold in five earlier transactions Atkinson said.