Merrily They "Roll" Along

"Fixers" Are in Fix In Narcotics Case

"Rolling" a detective is risky business.

Three men who police said tried the unorthodox maneuver with veteran Detective Cal Newton were charged today with possession of narcotics after former convictions of felonies.

The men, all ex-convicts, include often arrested Nolan Ray Craft, 34; Glen Eugene Ragle, 25, and J.D. Leigh, 22.

The almost unbelievable story told at the police station today was that Newton and undercover detective Gary Glanz found a drunk wandering the streets Saturday night, saying he had bought morphine at a house near Fifth Street and Gillette Avenue.

Glanz, dressed in ragged blue jeans borrowed from the police property room, took the drunk to that intersection and started walking the street looking for the house.

Newton hid in nearby bushes.

Three men came out of an apartment building at 2307 E. Seventh St., and asked Glanz and the drunk what they wanted. The drunk told the men he was trying to get Glanz a "fix."

"Put him in my car and we’ll fix him," one of the men was quoted as saying.

About then, one of the men spotted Newton behind the bushes.

"Who’s he?" one asked Glanz.

"He’s wanting a fix too," Glanz said he replied.

Newton, realizing that he had been seen, came staggering from the bushes holding an empty bottle, pretending to be drunk.

"We’ll fix him too," one of the men reportedly said.

The three walked to Newton and started guiding him down the street, feeling in his pickets and trying to lift his wallet, Newton said later.

The detective, afraid the men would bump into his handcuffs or holster, pushed the men away, still pretending to be drunk.

One of the men dropped behind the others and pulled a switchblade knife, Glanz said, then started after Newton.

Glanz pulled a revolver, stuck it against the man’s head, identified himself as a police officer, and ordered him to throw down the knife. The man refused. And Glanz knocked him out with the butt of the revolver and started to Newton’s aid.

Newton didn’t need it.

He struck one of the men on the head with his empty bottle, then pointed his finger at the other.

"Stick ‘em up," he ordered in the best Western fashion.

The man did, and the officers arrested the three. Three other police officers staked out nearby but unable to witness the melee, rushed to the apartment building and arrested Craft’s wife, Mary Ann, 24, for alleged possession of barbiturates.

She pleaded innocent today at her Municipal Court arraignment and was being held in lieu of $1,500 bond.