The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1930-06-02
BEAUTY BREAKS GANGLAND CODE, PAYS PRICE OF DEATH
Murder of Girl Is Linked
With RothStein's Staying;
'Squawked' on Killers of
Lover, FIouting Under
world Silence Decree.
BY PAUL w. WHITE
United Press STAFF Correspondent

NEW YORK, June ANNA
In Urbas, "A, and flamboyantly
pretty, was sought for months by
police and gangsters. The gang
SterS found her first. Her booy
lay unclaimed today in the
morgue, where it was taken after
having been lifted from the Har-
lem river.
Perhaps, in some remote way,
she owes her death to the fact
that Arnold Rothstein was slain.
So complicated are the mazeS of
intra -gangland feuds that no one
can be certain-but the murder of
Anna, of her one-time lover, Eu-
gene Moran, and of six other men
well may have developed as an
aftermath of the fatal shooting
of the casts best-known gambler.
Authorities admittedly have
their hands full in attempting to
find her killers, the men who at
tached wired weights to her neck
and right thigh and then threw
her into the Harlem to drown.
But then the Identification it
self was difficult, because two
months in the sluggish river had
erased all traces of her garish
beauty and otherwise had distig-
ured her.
MOT until detectives consulted
IN a dentist in Brielle, N. j.,
were they satisfied that the slain
girl was Anna Urbas. The dem
fist had known her as the wife of
John Rice, an alias taken last
summer by Moran.
Oddly enough, it was the same
dentist Whose name has been
withheld for fear of reprisalS)
who was able to identify Moran
after the whilom henchman Of
Rothstein had been filed with
bullets and then cremated in a
blazing motor car on the city
dump at Newark.
Anna Urbas knew too much
about Moran's aSsaSSins; at any
rate she talked too much.
Moran, according to police, was
a ST. ,0O0-a-week bodyguard Of
Rothstein and shared the guar
dianShip with such well-known
underworld characters as Fatty
Walsh and the Diamond brothers,
Jack Oegs) and Eddie.
The henchmen fell out after
Rothstein's murder and not long
afterward Walsh was shot to
death in Florida. Then came the
firing of several shots at Eddie
Diamond in Denver. Eddie since
has died, but from tuberculosis.
Gangland heard that the killing
of Moran was in retribution for
the attempt on Eddie Diamonds
life. Anna Urbas supported this
view and named three men as the
slayer of her paramour.
IT. n n
A MONG this trio were James
IA Batto and Morty Shubert,
both of whom since have been
taken on that form Of ride"
which has death as its destina-
ton. Meanwhile, occurred other
killings, including that of Frank
Devlin, known to have been in
Denver with Moran at the time
of the Eddie Diamond episode.
At length Anna Urbas realized
that to have spoken so freely in
a society where silence is the bet
ter rule was not particularly
healthy. She had been living at
the home of Moran's father, Will
liam Moran, whsn she was in
formed that guflman was look
ing for her. Anna lit out. The
police also wanted her for further
questioning concerning Moran's
Affiliations.
TT was long chase. At various
4 times she was trailed to West
Virginia, to Weehawken, N. j.,
and Cleveland. The police always
found that not only had she
evaded them. but that others we're
on the same trail. Her last known
abode was in Long Island City,
where she lived with Richard
Fuqua, a taxi driver.
Fuqua, questioned by detectives,
said he had not seen the girl
since the night of March "a. 1t
is assumed that she was overtaken
that night by gangsters and put to
death at once.
Police found that the girl had
taken out a $1,000 life insurance
policy. with her mother named as
beneficiary. They telegraphed the
mother, Mrs. Mary Urbas, of
1892 Hale avenue, Cleveland, and
received word from Police Chief
Graul of Cleveland that Mrs.
Urbas was financially unable to
assist" in Annals burial.
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