Full Notification

Deputy Constable Anthony Brian Couts EOW 25 October 1914

By Lt. John Stanley, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (2013)
________________________________________

He was to be married within days, and it was his intention to give up his job as a deputy constable before he exchanged vows and begin a new career. But, on the eve of what was to be his last day in law enforcement, twenty-three year old Deputy Constable Anthony Brian Couts agreed to perform one final act as a peace officer as a favor to a friend. It proved to be a fatal decision.

On August 19th, 1914, Mrs. May Thornton and J.W. Ferguson, a former miner now in the rooming house business, purchased the property at 222 ½ N. Main Street in downtown Los Angeles as a joint venture. On September 23rd, they took possession of the property but had problems with the previous tenants. This required that they go to court and seek an injunction. Deputy Constable Couts arrived on September 25th at the direction of the local justice of the peace in his official role to oversee the disposition of the building’s furniture. It was at that time that Couts first made the acquaintance of Mrs. Thornton, Mr. Ferguson and Mrs. Thornton’s daughter Edna Neathameyer. Deputy Constable Couts reportedly impressed all parties. But he particularly impressed young Miss Neathameyer. Couts told her that should she ever encounter any problems to give him a call and he would respond to assist her.

Late Saturday evening on October 24th, 1914, Edna witnessed a heated argument between her mother and her business partner Mr. Ferguson. Edna called Deputy Constable Couts and requested that he come to the property to intervene in the dispute. After receiving the phone call, Couts’s fiancée Corina Rogers purportedly urged him not to go. The Los Angeles Times even recorded a supposed dialog between the two as Corina attempted to dissuade him from going and prevailed upon him to remain with her:

“Don’t go, Tony,” she said when the interruption came. “I must,” was his answer. “But I don’t want you to,” she insisted with the command of a bride-to-be.”

Couts rode his motorcycle the short distance from his fiancee’s residence at 512 E. Twelfth Street to the north Main Street address. The dispute between the two property owners was concluded by the time Couts arrived, but he still went to Ferguson’s room to talk with the man. The conversation took place in the hallway just outside of Ferguson’s door and was overheard by Manuel L. Machado a man employed by Ferguson as a handyman to make the property ready for occupancy. Just as this was to be Couts last day as a peace officer, it was also to be Machado’s last day as a tenant and employee of Mr. Ferguson. He was discharged by Ferguson earlier that day and was granted one last night in the house before being turned out.

Machado came out of his room and began a heated exchange with Couts in the hallway that, according to all who testified about it at the coroner’s inquest, had nothing to do with the dispute between Mrs. Thompson and Mr. Ferguson, but rather about inappropriate remarks Machado made toward Miss Neathameyer. Again, the Times records a back and forth account of their dispute that today seems ripped from the script of a melodrama. Miss Neathameyer’s testimony at the inquest provides the most detailed record of the dispute between Couts and Machado. She did not hear Machado’s initial comment to Couts, but she did state she heard the deputy constable’s response and the rest of the conversation.

“Anyhow Couts said, ‘Well, you have got nothing to talk about because you have been throwing slurs to both of the women here. You have no right throwing slurs like you have.’ So Machado says, ‘I didn’t.’ Then I was there to see and said, ‘Yes, you did.’”

The argument between Couts and Machado grew more heated as Miss Neathameyer’s continuing testimony documented. “Couts finally said, ‘I think you had better come along with me and settle this business over to the police station.’ Machado said, ‘I will have your star taken away from you.’ Couts said, ‘Well, maybe I can have yours taken away, too. We had better go over to the police station and settle things.’”

At this point Couts grabbed Machado by the left arm. The young deputy constable was tall and broad shouldered and described in the Times as was powerful enough to lift four men. This assertion notwithstanding, what was certain was that Machado was not going to break free from Couts’s grip by physical force. Couts purportedly took a couple of steps toward the door with Machado in tow when the man pulled out a handgun and shot Couts in the stomach. Couts pushed himself away from Machado and attempted to run for the door. Machado shot at him twice more as he fled. One bullet went harmlessly through a plate glass window, but the other struck the young deputy constable in the back and he staggered out to the street.

As fortune would have it, LAPD Officer C.F. Fordice was standing outside the building. He testified at the coroner’s inquest that he heard the first shot, but thought it was a car backfiring. When he heard the next two shots he realized he was hearing gunfire. He stepped in front of the entrance to 222 ½ Main Street just as three or four people quickly exited, including the wounded young deputy constable. Couts told him that he had been shot and that the perpetrator was still inside. Officer Fordice called in the incident and then entered the property and took Machado into custody without incident.

Remarkably, a short time later, while Couts was at the hospital lying prostrate on a cot awaiting surgery from which he would never recover, Machado and he had another conversation; this time it was in the presence of LAPD Officer T.H. Zeiglar. Couts positively identified Machado as the man who shot him and Machado freely admitted to Zeiglar that he had done so. Zeiglar testified that Machado told him, “Yes, I shot him. I shot him three times… He came up there and was going to take my star away from me and I told him that I was an officer just the same as he was. I wouldn’t stand for it.”

Machado had been given a badge as a special deputy sheriff, an honorary award. Meanwhile, Couts was a full time deputy constable. It is ironic that Machado was given a badge of any kind. As he awaited trial, it was learned that he was a convicted felon. From March 24, 1905 to November 24, 1906 Machado served time in Folsom Prison for forgery. The photo of him was taken by state correctional personnel during his time in prison on that charge. His prison identification number is attached to his shirt.

Machado’s true nature was at the root of the argument between him and Couts. Zeiglar testified that after Machado confessed to him that he shot Couts and stated his rationale for doing so, Couts countered that Machado was jealous of his relationship with Edna Neathameyer and that Machado had also offered the girl five dollars to have sex with him. Machado’s attempt to solicit sex from Edna was the real reason Couts wanted to take Machado to the police station. When Officer Fordice testified at the inquest after Officer Zeiglar, he stated that Machado told him that it was Couts who offered Edna five dollars to have sex with him and he was in the process of putting Couts out of the building when the altercation occurred.

Edna was sitting in the gallery as Fordice testified. She immediately cried out that this was not true and that it had been Machado who made this statement. She was put back on the stand to corroborate this assertion and stated under oath, “Mr. Machado was the one that asked me if I wanted to make a five. I told him no, that I wasn’t that sort of a girl and he said, ‘O, well, if you don’t want to, all right.’ Then he comes back later and he shakes his fist and he says, ‘Well, gee, if I was a girl, I would get out and make all the money I could.’”

Machado’s conflicting statements and the testimony of the witnesses were used against him at his trial. He was convicted of manslaughter for slaying Deputy Constable Couts and sentenced to ten years in San Quentin.

Anthony Brian Couts’s great aunt was Arcadia Bandini de Stearns Baker, prominent Los Angeles land baroness, and he was one of her heirs. His older brother Robert Couts testified at the coroner’s inquest and identified his body. Robert would later join the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department as a deputy, perhaps to honor his brother’s sacrifice. Unfortunately, in 1920, tragedy would once again strike the Couts family when the body of Chalmers Couts, Anthony’s middle brother, was found under a pile of hay in Coyote Pass about a mile from the Midwick Country Club in Alhambra.

The rooming house at 222 ½ N. Main Street and all the other buildings around it were torn down in 1926 to make way for the Los Angeles City Hall which stands on the site today.

Deputy Constable Couts’s sacrifice was lost to history for almost a century. We honor him today on the ninety-ninth anniversary of his death for his service to the citizens of Los Angeles County.

The Sheriff’s Department is seeking any living relatives of Deputy Constable Couts to represent him next May at the Los Angeles County Memorial Ceremony. If you can provide any information in this regard, please call the Sheriff’s Headquarters Bureau at 323-267-4800.

Photo Credits:

There is no known photo of Deputy Constable Couts.
The photograph of Main Street, circa 1920, was taken from the WaterandPower.org website which has an amazing collection of historical images of Los Angeles County.

The images of Corina Rogers and Edna Neathameyer are from Los Angeles Times articles of the time chronically this event.
The photograph of Manuel Machado is from the State Archives.


Los Angeles County Sheriffs' Museum (Facebook):
https://www.facebook.com/losangelessheriffsmuseum



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Leroy D. Baca, Sheriff
Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department



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