According to the Los Angeles Times, the councilman, from the Seventh Ward, was alleged "to have realized a profit of more than $50,000 by securing options on property within the terminal site, before the owners were aware of the proposed improvement." He was also said to have received a check of "several thousand dollars" from attorney Isadore Dockweiler, who represented the terminal company.[4]
Betkouski ran for reelection in 1917, placing 15th in a field of eighteen candidates, of whom only the first nine were successful in a first-past-the post election.[5]
The grand jury accusation was dropped after Betkouski lost the election on the grounds that the only penalty he might suffer would be removal from office.[6] In the same year, 1917, Betkouski was elected a member of the Los Angeles Board of Trade.[7]
He was born in San Francisco, California, and moved to Los Angeles in 1887. He died shortly before May 8, 1942, in his home, 1840 Canyon Drive, Hollywood, survived by his wife, Mary E. Betkouski, a son, Marcellian R. Betkouski, and two daughters, Marie C. Betkouski and Margaret T. Betkouski. Interment was at Calvary Cemetery.[1][2][8]
Paul R. Spizzeri, Homestead Museum, "'In the Big City Class': A Progress Map of the Union Terminal Warehouse District of Los Angeles, April and September 1917," The Homestead Blog, September 17, 2019 [1]
