02-18-64 / Tulsa Daily World

Police Rookie Uses Head And Book To Solve Crime

By Al Sylvester
Of The World Staff

A 23-YEAR-OLD ROOKIE POLICEMAN WAS CREDITED Monday with solving two crimes-a hit-and run accident and a stolen car case-by simply thumbing through a Tulsa telephone directory.

Superior officers said Patrol Officer Gary Glanz used outstanding detective work in arresting two Texarkana, Ark. Youths, 18 and 14. They are being held for the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The case began about noon Sunday when two women were struck by a hit-and-run auto at the intersection of Lewis Avenue and 11th Street.

Mrs. Anna Lou McEvers, 32 of 2211 E. 12th Place, and Mrs. Donna Howard, 52, of Springdale, Ark., were released after treatment at Oklahoma Osteopathic Hospital.

Officer Glanz located a damaged Arkansas car abandoned near the scene, and talked to a witness who had seen a youth toss a "heavy object" over a nearby fence. The object turned out to be a telephone directory.

"I figured it must be important if they were trying to get rid of it," said Glanz, a Webster High graduate who still doesn't have to shave.

Thumbing through the book, Glanz found a page turned down and two names underlined. Police checked, found the two youths and arrested them Sunday night.

The underlined names were those of relatives the younger boy was hoping to visit while in Tulsa. The teen-agers admitted theft of the car from Texarkana, and both said the younger boy was driving the car when it was involved in the hit-and-run accident.

Fellow policemen praised Glanz, pointing out that he has come up with "extra effort" and "good thinking" that has solved sketchy cases.

Glanz joined the Tulsa force in May 1962. Less than two months later he drew a letter of commendation from Police Commissioner Bennie Garren for apprehending a fugitive wanted by the FBI for car theft.

He rated another departmental commendation in March 1963 when he rescued Richard Ross, 48 from a burning house, saving the man's life.