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 was a native of
Council Bluffs, Iowa who graduated from the
University of Southern California. 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. Similarly, "hotel manager" 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 Albert Marco|[Alberto] Marco's houses. Marco, impressed by the young man's ambition, intelligence and boldness, had used his influence with 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 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 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 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 the case to tell of the discovery of Robert P. Shuler|[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 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. According to the
Los Angeles Evening Post-Record in 1930, describing Kynette and others criticized by Rev. Shuler, Kynette was an expert in poisons and chemicals, 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 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 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
Frank L. Shaw's career as 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: == 1938 Harry Raymond bombing ==