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39-421: Earl Eugene Kynette (June 18, 1893 – June 3, 1970) was a pharmacist and an American municipal police officer. He served on the vice squad and the intelligence squad of the city of Los Angeles, California police department. Kynette allegedly had close ties to the local crime syndicate, and allegedly had work experience as a pimp associated with bootlegger Albert Marco . In 1938, Kynette was charged with conspiracy in

78-884: A pimp and con man in Nevada and Washington . According to one account, Albori came from "the Tyrol mountains on the border of Austria and Italy," emigrating around 1910 and landing in Seattle, where he found work in "swindling" with "procuring and pimping as a sideline". In 1919 he served a brief prison sentence for burglary in Sacramento . Crawford, an old friend from their days in Seattle convinced Marco to move to Los Angeles. Margo came down to Southern California with another pimp, Augustus Sasso , commonly known as Chito. In contrast with his patron Crawford and his partner Chito, "Marco bumbled his way into

117-517: A big man, accepted and took an awful beating before two of his henchmen rescued him. They knocked his opponent to the floor. Marco drew a gun and put a bullet into the helpless man." In the wee hours of June 28, Marco was arrested by officer John Brunty, and eventually put on trial for assault with a deadly weapon in the shooting of Dominick Conterno and Harry Judson. Marco was not an ideal witness in his own defense, as evidenced by attorney Dave Clark's cross-examination of him: Clark: “Did you fire

156-747: A car-bomb attack on Harry J. Raymond , a private investigator in the employ of local anti-corruption crusaders. Kynette was convicted and sentenced to several years in San Quentin state prison . After he was paroled, he allegedly killed two people while driving drunk on a mountain highway in Tuolumne County, California . Kynette died of natural causes in Los Angeles in 1970. Described in the influential Liberty magazine series " The Lid Off Los Angeles " as "a dough-faced, weak-eyed egomaniac with an army and medical background and considerable intelligence," Kynette

195-561: A defrauded investor who carried a printed copy of one of Shuler's broadcasts in his pocket bearing the title Julian Thieves in Politics . Nix claimed during an interview on another radio station that Shuler had as good as pulled the trigger by inciting public outrage over the acquittals in the first place." According to the Los Angeles Evening Post-Record in 1930, describing Kynette and others criticized by Rev. Shuler, Kynette

234-551: A private investigator and former San Diego Chief of Police named Harry Raymond . Raymond worked for a regional anti-corruption group, digging up evidence against the mayor and the police department. The trial was described by Time magazine as "Southern California's biggest political circus" and revealed that the Intelligence Squad was under direct control of the mayor's brother, and had spied on many local dignitaries including John Anson Ford (the mayor's political opponent in

273-404: A public servant." So, if not law enforcement, what was Kynette's real job? Quite unironically, Kynette's role was to defend, rather than attack, vice in L.A. "The Lid Off Los Angeles" put it this way: This, then, was Los Angeles in the years of Our Lord 1933 to 1937—a fantastic land of golden opportunity in which the underworld raked toward its vest the blue chips of gambling and prostitution while

312-451: Is a peaceful man". By December 1929, Kynette was ranked as a detective lieutenant and was transferred to the Venice bureau. In August 1930, he was "demoted" and transferred to Boyle Heights , likely due to his involvement in the investigation of the murder of Motley Flint ; "For Kynette, at the time Frank Keaton shot and killed Motley Flint, prominent banker, was the only officer investigating

351-493: Is addressed to people who can legitimately afford to take a chance." However, the California Corporations Commission began investigating the company for fraudulent sales promotions. In 1925, C.C. Julian sold his interest in the company for $ 500,000 to Sheridan C. (S.C.) Lewis and Jacob Berman (alias Jack Bennett). The following year the company merged with California-Eastern Oil Company. An audit revealed

390-773: Is made." When James E. Davis was appointed chief of police for the second time, in October 1933, "Kynette joined the chief's office after serving a stint at the Hollenbeck Heights division". In 1935, the editorial page of the Post-Record intimated that Kynette and other members of the LAPD Vice Squad were being favored within the department: "Apparently there is only one sure route to advancement on this police department. The candidate who would succeed in passing civil service examinations cum laude , so to speak, must pass his time in

429-553: Is the claim that "Marco, minus any talent for it, loved to gamble. While he was the Caliph of the Los Angeles heterae , he lost $ 260,000 one night in 1927 playing low ball in an apartment at the top of Angels Flight " against Nick the Greek . On the evening of June 27, 1928, Marco was welcomed to the Ship Cafe in Venice, California by restauranteur and retired boxer Tommy Jacobs . Marco

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468-500: The Harbor area for about three months before being transferred to the detective bureau downtown. In 1929 the downtown homicide bureau adopted a stray tabby cat ; Kynette named her Madame Pompadour . When Albert Marco was put on trial in 1928 for shooting two people one summer night at the Ship Cafe in Venice, the defense called Kynette as a character witness; he testified that "the defendant

507-502: The Mayor's brother , boss of an administration supported by that underworld, figuratively stood on the steps of City Hall auctioning off everything but his own underpants. And if you didn't like it, he had a Spy Squad, headed by Captain Kynette, that would kick your teeth in. In 1938, Kynette was charged with, and ultimately convicted of, conspiracy to commit murder in the bombing attack that maimed

546-552: The San Francisco Bay Area on a drunkenness charge, and then found to have "an empirin compound and codeine " in his hotel room, and as such, he was sent back to prison. At some point, post-prison, Kynette reportedly took up work as a pharmacist in Tuolumne County, California . In 1955, he was involved in a motor vehicle accident near the Sonora–Jamestown Highway in which two people were killed. At that time he

585-788: The ACLU filed a lawsuit on behalf of John Langan, "a Los Angeles resident...who had been returning from a job in Arizona when the LAPD had stopped him at the border," Langan abruptly withdrew himself from the action, which the ACLU said was because "LAPD lieutenant Earl Kynette pressured him to withdraw" but Langan denied this. Kynette was named captain of detectives in 1936, and assigned to the so-called Spy Squad. Supposedly, he had an especial aptitude for placing dictographs (eavesdropping devices). According to one historian, Kynette's career "was as crassly cavalier and oblivious to individual rights as mayor Shaw 's career as

624-680: The Syndicate to get Kynette on the Police department. Kynette was assigned to work on prostitutes, not those of course who had protection by working in Marco's houses". Within 18 months of joining the force, he was a sergeant, working on raiding " blind pigs " (illegal Prohibition-era drinking and gambling establishments). According to Strange in the Daily News , "In 1925 Sgt. Sidney Sweetnam, old-time vice squad officer who had worked with Guy McAfee when that worthy

663-694: The United States, but he was denied and ordered to return to Italy again. In 1952 a Daily News staff writer named Jack Strange claimed that Marco was still alive and living in Venice, Italy, where he ran a restaurant. Julian Petroleum Corporation Julian Petroleum was started by Courtney Chauncey ("C.C.") Julian in 1923. C.C. Julian had been successful the previous year in drilling for oil in Santa Fe Springs, California . The company sought out investors with colorful advertising such as: "Widows and Orphans, This Is No Investment for You! ... My appeal

702-537: The booklet. Other officers lied deliberately or evaded questions of reporters about the pamphlet. No reason was given for Kynette's transfer. He was simply ordered to report in uniform Monday morning at the east side station." Julian Thieves in Politics was one of Rev. Shuler's multiplatform sermons publicizing the Julian Petroleum Corporation scandal. Julian executives defrauded local investors of $ 100–$ 200 million (nearly $ 3 billion in 2019 dollars) with

741-450: The case to tell of the discovery of [Rev. Robert] Shuler 's vitriolic booklet Julian Thieves found in the murderer's possession. There was much talk at the time of the finding of the booklet that it might have been a contributing factor in Keaton's desire to murder the banker. Kynette was subjected to much criticism by friends of the broadcasting pastor for telling newspaper men that Keaton had

780-683: The charges were dropped or they were acquitted. S.C. Lewis, Jacob Berman and stockbroker Ed Rosenberg were acquitted in May 1928 on charges involving the Julian Pete fraud. However, District Attorney Asa Keyes was charged with accepting about $ 100,000 in bribes from Julian Petroleum officials in connection with the acquittal of the accused officials. He was found guilty in February 1929 and sentenced to one to 14 years in prison. He served 19 months before being pardoned by Governor James Rolph . Buron Fitts , who

819-607: The company had issued 4,200,000 unauthorized shares of stock and on May 5, 1927, the Los Angeles Stock Exchange halted trading in Julian Petroleum. The company had created financial pools from 400 prominent local businessmen, including Cecil B. DeMille and Louis B. Mayer , to support the over-issuance of stock. The funds were loaned to Julian Pete for short terms at high interest rates. A number of these investors were charged with violating state usury law but either

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858-598: The course of the lawsuit, Kynette filed an affidavit stating that he spent the summers of 1959 and 1960 in Missouri receiving "hospital treatment". In 1963, Kynette was stabbed in the abdomen and left arm, apparently by a drinking companion, in the man's "skid row rooms after a night of wine drinking in skid row bars". Earl Kynette died of natural causes in a convalescent home in Los Angeles County. Albert Marco Marco Albori , better known by his alias Albert Marco ,

897-523: The help of local businessmen and politicians. Grand juries indicted several of those involved, but the slow pace of the prosecutions led the Supreme Court of California to dismiss the charges en masse for failure to provide a speedy trial...Shuler blamed both the District Attorney of Los Angeles County, Asa Keyes , and Los Angeles City Prosecutor Lloyd Nix for the failure, implying on air that Keyes

936-476: The intellectually more stimulating society of prostitutes, gamblers, hop-heads , small-time politicians, and the like who may be encountered regularly in the routine of a vice squad officer." A close ally of Chief Davis, Kynette was heavily involved in the department's unconstitutional diversion at the state line of migrants to California ("Okies and Arkies"), an action sometimes known as the Bum Blockade . After

975-548: The men who was shot, the trouble started after Marco approached him and made a derogatory comment about his dancing partner, implying she was a prostitute". As told by the writers of " The Lid Off Los Angeles " series published in Liberty magazine in 1939, "Marco insulted a woman one night in the Ship Café in Venice, California. The woman's escort invited him into the men's room for the announced purpose of beating his ugly face in, Marco,

1014-408: The most recent election) and Buron Rogers Fitts (the district attorney trying the case). The scandal led Chief Davis' departure from the police force. Kynette served nine years for the bombing; two years in L.A. County Jail , and seven in San Quentin prison . He was released on parole in 1948, with the " proviso that he not return to Los Angeles County until 1952". In 1951, Kynette was arrested in

1053-459: The newspapers and onto the public scene several times before his 1928 arrest, trial, and subsequent incarceration on two counts of assault, with a deadly weapon". In the early 1920s Marco drove to L.A. in a Cadillac transporting alcohol to a Long Beach warehouse. The political connections created by Crawford's political machine let Marco operate without much fear of prosecution for his crimes. In 1925 Marco pistol whipped an LAPD officer and

1092-413: The shots?” Marco: “No.” Clark: “But you were at the Ship Café that night.” Marco: “Yes.” Clark: “You heard the shots?” Marco: “Yes.” Clark: “Where were you at the time?” Marco: “I can’t remember.” Clark: “Many witnesses have testified that you did indeed fire the shots. You took aim and shot Dominick Conterno in the back.” Marco: “I didn’t fire those shots. But if the jury believes I did I want them to know I

1131-634: Was a native of Council Bluffs, Iowa who graduated from the University of Southern California . He worked as a pharmacist and a hotel manager before entering the Los Angeles Police Academy, from which he graduated around November 1925. Pharmacist may have been, in part, a cover for "bootlegger," as pharmacies were permitted to dispense alcohol medicinally during Prohibition, which meant drugstores often became centers for illicit production and distribution of intoxicants. For that matter, "hotel manager"

1170-492: Was a vice squad cop, arrested Kynette for shaking down a prostitute on West Sixth street. He booked him for bribery and extortion. The next day, however, the chief of police kicked Kynette out of jail and suppressed the charges, later promoting him to a sergeancy." Kynette was first fired from the LAPD in 1927, after being charged with taking a bribe, but was rehired a few weeks later. After reinstatement he worked in Wilmington in

1209-541: Was acting in self-defense." Marco was found guilty on two counts and was sentenced to two seven-year terms by judge William C. Doran . On April 1, 1929, Marco was sent to San Quentin State Prison to serve his sentence. Marco appealed the ruling, but was denied a second trial. He was paroled on April 7, 1933. Marco was deported to Italy in November 1933. He returned to Los Angeles in 1937 hoping to permanently stay in

Earl E. Kynette - Misplaced Pages Continue

1248-626: Was an Italian-born bootlegger and pimp who was active in Los Angeles during the Prohibition Era in the 1920s. He is said to be the first to transport Canadian whiskey to Los Angeles. Marco worked closely with Charles H. Crawford , who ran city politics along with Kent Kane Parrot . Marco was born about 1887 in Italy. Marco came to the United States through Ellis Island in 1908. He started off as

1287-424: Was an expert in poisons and chemicals, and "As we know, Mr. Kynette has obtained the highest rating in the police school ever obtained by any policeman anywhere in the United States. He is a college graduate, an officer of the U.S. Army Reserves, a chemist and a man with a thorough scientific training. Besides that he has plenty of personal initiative and energy. He is the kind of man of whom the modern police executive

1326-449: Was described as a "former Twain Harte druggist". There were no witnesses to the accident, and criminal charges in the case were dismissed for lack of evidence. A civil suit was filed by the family of one of the crash victims, charging that Kynette was driving drunk and was responsible when the car "careened to the top of a 40-foot embankment and dropped down the vertical side to the highway". In

1365-479: Was given a $ 50 fine and his gun back. He was also associated with Max "Boo Hoo" Hoff of Philadelphia. Marco and Chito ultimately ran a couple dozen whorehouses "scattered through the downtown district and along the edges" staffed by "about 200 prostitutes". According to the IRS , between 1922 and 1924 Marco earned $ 500,000 from bordello prostitution. Another indication of Marco's income from running liquor and prostitutes

1404-412: Was in the company of three friends. As the party continued, "Marco became embroiled in an argument with other customers that escalated into fist fighting. Outnumbered, the gangster reached for his gun and fired. Two men were wounded." According to one history, "the testimony of witnesses at the cafe presents a sketch of Marco's less-than-sophisticated personality. According to one witness—a friend of one of

1443-414: Was in the pocket of the indicted businessmen and that Nix was negligent. Shuler's broadcast attacks forced Keyes to resign; the disgraced former district attorney would indeed later be convicted of taking a bribe from a Julian executive. Nix, also forced to resign, would eventually extract a measure of revenge on Shuler, but not before the imbroglio peaked with the killing of one of the indicted businessmen by

1482-413: Was most likely a euphemism for brothel keeper, as according to Daily News staffer Jack Strange in 1952, "Kynette was a pharmacist by occupation and once had managed a drug store on East Fifth street. He was a pimp by avocation and at one time had had a couple of girls working in [Alberto] Marco 's houses. Marco, impressed by the young man's ambition, intelligence and boldness, had used his influence with

1521-735: Was the lieutenant governor, resigned in 1928 and was elected Los Angeles County District Attorney and appointed prosecutor in the trial of Asa Keyes. S.C. Lewis and Jacob Berman were convicted in November 1928 and were sentenced to seven years in prison on charges relating to the sale of nearly $ 1 million in gold bonds of the Lewis Oil Company. C.C. Julian faced charges in 1931 in Oklahoma of conspiracy to defraud investors of $ 3.5 million. He then jumped bail and fled to Shanghai, China , where he committed suicide in March 1934. Financier Motley H. Flint

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