If Trouble’s Brewing

On a Second Glance, You Will Find Glanz

It’s officers like Gary Glanz who keep Tulsa relatively free of crime.

Glanz is just one of 299 dedicated officers who fight vice, crime, and corruption with about every available tool -- whether legal or quasi-legal.

And they all do a job that has caused Tulsa to have a national reputation as a fairly "clean" city.

But Glanz, a youthful dynamo, has a knack for getting into the darndest, weirdest scrapes while "just doing my job."

His "job" Thursday night (while he was off duty) was to guide six federal agents into one of the largest "pill" purchases here in recent years.

They arrested a Tulsa Veterinarian who allegedly sold an informant 100,000 pills without a prescription.

But that wasn’t Glanz’ first major and exciting case.

One night, along with Detective Sgt. Cal Newton, Glanz arrested three of Tulsa’s well-known police characters who reportedly tried to rob the two officers.

Newton and Glanz, pretending they were drunk and looking for pills, had been stumbling down a dark street. The three thugs thinking the "drunks" were easy picking, tried to roll Newton and got knocked on the head by Glanz.

While Glanz has received more publicity than almost any officer for his daring scrapes, he shows little favoritism to the press.

Several months ago, Glanz "wandered" into the Tulsa Press Club and bought a drink. He arrested the bartender and confiscated bottles that belonged to half the newsmen in Tulsa.

Another time, Glanz found out about a whisky still operating in a northside home.

He and a couple of vice squad officers raided the house"without regard to the fact that house had been built as an urban renewal project and thoroughly embarrassed local officials of the federal agency.

A few of his "minor" escapades include the arrest of a well-known woman pill pusher who thought Glanz was a "nice college kid" looking for kicks.

Glanz earlier had picked up her husband.