Show Story r of 01 the FBI Bureau Files Capture Many Manya a Racketeer Editors Editor's note This Is the eighth of nine articles on the Inside Story of the FBI Jy 33 Andrew Andreu- Tully Tally V WASHINGTON ASHINGTON When a vi- vi ious little rack racketeer teer named De- De Gula was sentenced to he electric chair for and back in 1939 ne ate he paid his an unwonted tribute As Asie ie was led away by a a. guard Gula I to an F FBI B I agent standing ear by and croaked Cop huh You aint no cop cop cop- oure a filing cabinet Demetrius Gula GuJa may well have een bitter for it was a collection f minute odds and ends of mior- mior nation filed mation-filed filed In a steel cabinet cabine o be sure which sure which led to his downall downall downall down- down all and that of his three col- col down the agues In tracking the F FBI B I had solved four at once and had proved gain that dogged persistence ten will succeed where more efforts might fail Arthur Fried a sand company was in White lains laths N. N Y Dec 4 1937 Efforts 0 o ransom him failed and after a 8 ew w weeks his family heard no noore lore ore from the kidnapers Then Within a month five-month period in 1938 other persons were 1 greater New York George and Benny Farber coal and Norman Miller son of ofie oftie tie ie owner of a stevedore business Held for Ransom Mr was released after eing ing taken to his office to open is safe but both Mr Farber and Ir fr Miller were held until ransom of 1900 and had been paid The FBI believed the kidnap- kidnap were the work of the same I ang but had little to work on nUl agents gents talked with th young tiller liller who gave them their first lender clues Mr Miller like Mr Farber had hadeen hadeen hadeen een blindfolded but his other anses took certain apparently inor notes during his experience n 11 the first place he estimated it ok Kok the kidnapers' kidnapers car 25 minutes 5 J go from the site In rooklyn to the hideout At the he was aware of the licking of pool balls close by He passing through a aall aall aall all and touching about 25 rows f collapsible chairs He heard what sounded like a treet car He heard a church churchell ell ringing When en he asked for sod god it was produced in a short ime me as though obtained at a a. tore near by Remembered Steps Step After rAfter passing through the hall rith uth the collapsible chairs he four steps to another oom then went on to a a. third oom Dom connected with the second oom by a second flight of four In the third room he used wash basin whose tap handles ach had four prongs and lay on cot When he left the hideout e was warned by his captors to alk naturally one of them giving im his cue by saying That was good movie we saw Two hundred men G-men went to ork cork to break the case on those clues First on a large nap of Manhattan and Brooklyn circle was drawn enclosing those which assuming a debus de- de ious bus route might have been taken he kidnapers could reach in 25 minutes The map was cut up nto ato zones and an F FBI B BI I agent was assigned to each zone to check on very locality with a pool room i L meeting hall a church and a heater and which was served by byL byi L i surface car or elevated train I As expected the agents came ip with scores of such neighbor neIghbor- hoods hoods all all seemingly fitting the description given by the blindfolded blindfolded blindfolded blind blind- folded victim But other material was finding its way into the F FBI B I filing cabinets Because young Miller recalled the kidnap car had only two Jump seats in the rear it was Identified as probably a Packard club coupe Supposedly the kidnapers had put the finger on Mr Millers Miller's father at a racetrack racetrack racetrack race race- track so the reputations of persons persons persons per per- sons owning o Packard club coupes seen at race tracks were checked Packard Gives Clue One One of ot the Packards checked was registered in the name of Denis Gula who had a telephone listed E. E st st. the st.-the the address of a building known as Ukrainian hall liall One building away was the Commodore theater once tagged as the payoff spot in the Fried while near by was a Ukrainian church The clatter of ot ofa ota a surface car and an elevated line could be heard two blocks away Inside the hall a couple of fire Inspectors bought glasses of beer at a basement bar and watched a pool game They had been upstairs to look at the hall and had noted that four steps led from the hall up to the stage and another flight of four steps led from the stage to the dr dressing room In the dressing dressing dressing dress dress- ing room was vas a wash basin whose tap handles each had four prongs and a cot Denis Gulas Gula's son Demetrius had hada a prison record Furthermore it was learned the plates on Gulas Gula's Packard had been used on a Buick sedan and that one time the Buick bore 1937 plates numbered 7 N The files showed Jed a couple of high school kids had reported a car in the vicinity of the Fried whose plates started with N. 7 Violated Parole Pictures of Demetrius Gula and three pals Willie Jacknis John Virga and Steve Sa coda were identified by w witnesses as those of men involved in the had been arrested a few weeks before for violation of pa pa- role On Oct 28 1938 less 1938 less than thana a year after the first perfect men G men G-men nabbed Gula Gul J Jacknis and Virga Gula confessed he and had Arthur Fried and then shot and killed him in a panic when they read of ot the in a newspaper The body had been burned in the furnace at Ukrainian hall where Gulas Gula's father ran the bar and pool room The case was prosecuted by District District District Dis Dis- Attorney Thomas E E. E Deweys Dewey's office In the spring of 1939 Gula and died in the electric chair for the murder kidnap-murder of Arthur Fried John Virga is serving serving serving ing 50 years and Willie Villie Jacknis 25 years for the of Norman Norman Norman Nor Nor- man Miller and Bennie Farber Tomorrow The shoplifters who walked out the door wearing wearIng wear- wear Ing a store Copyright United Feature Syndicate |