June 17, 1938

Photograph by the Los Angeles Times Police Capt. Earle Kynette, after initially refusing to be interviewed after his conviction in the Harry Raymond bombing, meets with the press. (Howard Decker writes of the flashbulbs the photographers are using: "Methinks them suckers put out a whole lot of light. Stop down your apertures, guys!") Photograph by the Los Angeles Times Bombing victim Harry Raymond in a photo published June 17, 1938

Above left, Auto Club Chief Engineer Ernest East, sometimes called the father of the freeway, and Assistant Engineer Harold Holley.

os Angeles Police Capt. Earle Kynette is convicted in the Harry Raymond bombing. No surprise, except perhaps to Kynette, who spent the next 10 years in custody. Officer Fred A. Browne, who was cleared in the case, died of a heart attack the next year in a Vermont Avenue bowling alley. Former Officer Roy J. Allen died of heart problems in San Quentin in 1942. Kynette was paroled in 1948 despite Raymond's protests. His wife had divorced him while he was in prison. He was sent back to San Quentin in 1951 for violating his parole after he was convicted of being drunk. He was freed again in 1952. His pharmacist's license was restored and he was working in a drugstore in Twain Harte, Calif.,  when he was charged with drunk driving in a car accident that killed two people. He was later cleared. In 1963, Kynette was stabbed in the abdomen and left arm during a drunken fight in a skid row hotel in Oakland. The Times failed to note his death in June 1970 in West Hollywood. Raymond died in 1957.    For me, the most surprising discovery in the Raymond case is The Times editorial, below. As far as the unsigned editorial is concerned, Kynette was a rogue officer in charge of a rogue department. The rest of the Police Department--and City Hall, presumably--was free of corruption. Below left, the next installment of Ed Ainsworth's series on traffic in Los Angeles. Listen to some of the predictions if the "motorway" system is built: Los Angeles to Santa Monica in 15 minutes. Pasadena to Inglewood in 19 1/2 minutes.  Los Angeles to Long Beach in 21 minutes. Email me

Comments

[Sam Flowers]

Larry, Thanks for bringing this important incident and trial to light. This incident changed Los Angeles government drastically. Thank you also for the update on the participants lives after the trial, I have always wondered what happened to them. Keep it coming. Sam

[Sean]

I'll add my thanks. I've researched this incident for a number of years, but the Kynette update yesterday was gold. It finally settled for me his release date. I had always read that he had searved ten years, but that he got out in 1952. The numbers didn't add up....now I know why. The news about his DUI and stabbing is very interesting. Is there somewhere I can find more information? As far as Harry Raymond goes, according to the San Diego Historical Society, the years after the bombing were hard on him....shortly before his death in April of 1957, he was arrested in downtown L.A. for being drunk and vagrant. Again, thanks for a great site