Det. Lt. Arthur Walter Bethel
(Jan. 1, 1886 - July 13, 1941)

On the afternoon of Monday, June 25, 1923, residents living on Crenshaw Boulevard, just south of Venice Boulevard, called police and reported that they had witnessed a suspected burglary. They reported seeing two men they didn't recognize entering a neighbor's house. Because the men seemed suspicious, the neighbors wrote down the license plate number of their car, and also provided police with a description of the two men.

A few hours later, at about 7 p.m., 37-year-old LAPD Sgt. Arthur Walter Bethel was on patrol when he saw the car containing two men who matched the descriptions of the suspects, at Sixth and Figueroa streets in downtown Los Angeles, about five miles from the scene of the suspected burglary. He pulled over their car, and discovered jewelry and furs inside. The items were later identified as having been stolen from the home on Crenshaw.

Bethel searched the suspects at gunpoint, then climbed into the back seat of their car next to the passenger, and ordered the driver to head to the Central Police Station, at 314 W. First St., between Broadway and Hill Street, for further questioning, which was common practice at the time.

In 1923, police officers and patrol cars weren't equipped with two-way radios, so it wasn't possible for Bethel to call for assistance. It wasn't uncommon at the time for police officers, when they were out-numbered by suspects, to order the suspects to drive to the police station in their own vehicles while the officers rode along in the suspects' car.

If the officer drove the suspects to the station, there was a risk that he could be overpowered. But even when riding as a passenger, it was always a dangerous situation for the officer.

On Dec. 6, 1921, less than 18 months before Bethel stopped the suspected burglars' car, LAPD Officers William Brett and Harry Clester stopped five burglary suspects, and ordered them to drive to the Central Police Station, while the officers rode along. One of the Brett and Clester's suspects pulled a gun during the drive and opened fire on the officers, killing them both.

For Bethel, just after the suspects' car turned right from Hope Street onto First Street -- between the current location of the Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, and a few blocks from the Central Police Station -- the driver pulled a hidden .45-caliber handgun out from under his seat, turned and fired three shots at the officer. The driver's first shot hit Bethel in the left hand; the second hit him in the left leg above the knee, shattering the bone and severing a major blood vessel; and the third hit him in the abdomen.

Bethel returned fire, hitting the driver twice in the head and once in the body, killing him.

Meanwhile, the back-seat passenger pulled a flashlight from his pocket and attempted to hit Bethel, who fired twice at his assailant. One of the bullets went through the man's shoulder and into his neck, severing his spinal cord and killing him.

Although both of his would-be assailants were dead, Bethel was severely injured, in the back seat of a car with no driver, uncontrolled and careening down the First Street hill.

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Bethel was born Jan. 1, 1886, in North Platte, Nebraska, the ninth of 11 children born to David H. Beightel and Nancy Alice Sumner Beichtel. (Bethel later changed the spelling of his family name.)

David Beightel was born in Pennsylvania, moved to Indiana, and served with the 145th Indiana Infantry Regiment during the Civil War. After the war, he returned to Indiana, where here he married Nancy Alice Sumner in 1868, and their first eight children were born in Michigan City, Indiana.

In 1885, the Beightel family moved to North Platte, where David worked as a farm laborer and cook for the Union Pacific Railroad. By 1910, Arthur and his younger brother, Henry, had joined their father working for the Union Pacific Railroad.

Two years later, Arthur moved to Los Angeles and joined the LAPD on July 12, 1912. On May 11, 1918, he married Michigan native Ruby Gay Phelps in Los Angeles. By 1920, Bethel had achieved the rank of sergeant.

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As the driverless car continued down First Street, the dead driver's body was slumped against the steering wheel, pressing on the button for the horn, which likely alerted pedestrians and other drivers who hadn't already been alerted by all the gunshots.

As soon as the shooting started, 23-year-old Emmanuel Gainsburg, druggist and co-owner of the Gainsburg and Drabkin drug store at the corner of First Street and Grand Avenue, ran out to the street, jumped onto the running board of the car, and grabbed the steering wheel. Gainsburg was unable to stop the car because the driver's foot was wedged beneath the pedal of the emergency brake, but he was able to guide the vehicle through traffic and two busy downtown intersections, and up onto the curb in front of the police station, where the car crashed into the police station building.

Bethel was initially not expected to survive, due to the severity of his injuries and his extensive loss of blood. He was initially taken to the Georgia Street Receiving Hospital, where police surgeons said his only hope for survival was a blood transfusion, which was still a relatively uncommon medical procedure. Among the many officers and citizens who responded to the plea and volunteered, LAPD Det. Lt. Theodore "Teddy" Mailheau was chosen and he donated a pint of blood. Bethel eventually recovered from his injuries, although his left leg was amputated and he permanently lost the use of his left hand.

The two dead men were described as "professional criminals" with long histories of burglaries and petty larcenies. They met while serving time together at the federal prison in Leavenworth, Kansas. They also served time together at San Quentin and Folsom state prisons in California, and separately at prisons in Washington and Missouri.

Both men had been most recently convicted of burglary in Stanislaus County, east of San Francisco, where they pled guilty to stealing six sacks of potatoes from a warehouse in Modesto and attempting to resell the vegetables in San Francisco. They were sent to San Quentin in May 1920, then to Folsom the following month. They were paroled from Folsom just a few weeks before they were killed.

After the shooting, police searched the hotel room where they two men were staying on West Sixth Street in Los Angeles, and discovered suitcases filled with items reported stolen in recent burglaries.

In the wake of Bethel's shooting, there was a public outcry demanding reform of the state's parole system. Los Angeles Mayor George Cryer said, "If the parole board insists on turning loose men of the character of this pair, the difficulty that faces the police in keeping down crime can readily be seen."

The Los Angeles Evening Express newspaper also decried the state's "rotten parole system" -- "This tragedy clearly reveals a monstrous defect in the parole system," according to its editorial. "Any system that turns professional criminals loose to prey on innocent people is faulty in conception or evil in operation. Unless the California system is modified so as to make impossible such an abuse of its provisions as this incident discloses, the people should wholly abolish it."

"Should Sgt. Bethel die," the editorial continued, "the primal responsibility for his death will rest upon the souls of the bandits he himself executed, but the moral responsibility will be chargeable against the officials who gave them freedom."

In a letter recommending that Bethel be retained at full pay until he recovers from his injuries, LAPD Capt. Robert Heath said, "This is just another instance of where the promiscuous paroling of convicts and particularly those with prior records has almost cost an officer his life."

LAPD Chief Louis Oaks praised Bethel's actions. Oaks cited Bethel's "remarkable heroism on the evening of the 25th when he shot and killed two bandits after a desperate fight. Particular attention is called to the fact that Sgt. Bethel killed the two desperados after he himself had been seriously wounded." Oaks also praised the quick action and bravery of Gainsburg in attempting to gain control of the runaway vehicle.

As he recovered, Bethel was transferred to White Memorial Hospital. However, due to the severity of his injuries, he would no longer be able to work as a police officer.

At the time of the shooting, Bethel was already planning for his financial future after his police career. He had purchased five lots on West 42nd Place, near Vermont Avenue, investing his life savings and spending most of his $195 monthly salary, where he planned to build five houses. Two of the homes were completed -- Bethel and his wife, Ruby, were living in one of them, and they rented the other for $45 per month -- and he was continuing to work on the other three. On the day he was shot, Bethel spent the morning doing plaster work on one of the houses.

After the shooting, the LAPD promoted Bethel to Detective Lieutenant, with a half-salary pension, for the rest of his life. Bethel's fellow officers and civilians quickly donated money to assist him, and Hollywood stars, including Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, donated $7,000 -- the equivalent of more than $130,000 today -- for Bethel's care and medical bills.

Thanks to the generous financial assistance, Bethel and his wife were able to remain at their home on West 42nd Place, and were able to complete construction on the other houses.

Six years after his shooting, Bethel's wife, Ruby, died suddenly of a heart attack on Sept. 14, 1929, at the age of 45. She's buried at Inglewood Park Cemetery.

After Ruby's death, Bethel's younger brother, Otto, a construction worker, briefly moved in with him. Then, on April 22, 1931, Bethel, 45, married 23-year-old Martha Ellen Dell, a native of Montana. In the 1940 Census, Bethel and his wife were listed as living at the home on West 42nd Place, and he was listed as the manager of the four neighboring properties.

But Bethel never fully recovered from his injuries. He died on July 13, 1941, at the age of 55 -- one day after what would have been his 29th anniversary with the LAPD. The lingering effects of the gunshot wounds he sustained 18 years earlier were officially listed as his cause of death. He's buried at Inglewood Park Cemetery, next to his first wife, Ruby.

Bethel died two days after LAPD Officer Ferris Stansell was killed when he was struck by a speeding car while directing traffic on Highland Avenue in front of the Hollywood Bowl.

At Bethel's funeral service, LAPD Chief Clemence Horrall served as an honorary pallbearer. "No police officer can ever forget the act performed by Bethel," Horrall said. "We honor him as one of the outstanding heroes of our department."

After Bethel's death, Martha Bethel remarried, and died on Oct. 31, 1998, at the age of 91. She's also buried at Inglewood Park Cemetery, in a separate section.

Although Bethel is recognized on the Officer Down Memorial Page and the Los Angeles Police Memorial Foundation page, he's not listed among the officers killed in the line of duty on the LAPD website, and he does not have an LAPD memorial sign.

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