by Pebbla Wallace, LACHS Board Member
Right before the largest flood hit Los Angeles in 1938, a different kind of flood of corruption was happening in the City of Angels.
Harry Raymond’s Garage After explosion, 1938
Photo: Los Angeles Public Library Collection
It was around 10 a.m. on January 14, 1938, when Harry Raymond went out to his garage in Boyle Heights, turned the key on the ignition of his car and his engine bolted out of the hood of his car, filling Harry’s body with 186 pieces of shrapnel. The explosion was loud enough to hear throughout the neighborhood. Harry was rushed to the hospital where he received 100 stitches and was treated for multiple fractures and chest punctures.
Who is Harry Raymond, and why would anyone want to kill him? It began in 1933 when at the height of corruption in the city, Harry was appointed Los Angeles’ Chief of Police. He sought to get rid of department political influence and city corruption. But 90 days after he was appointed, he was fired by the City Manager. Unfortunately, he angered downtown businesses when he began to enforce vice laws and refused to cave in to pressure from City Hall. After his firing, he became a private detective.
As a private detective, one of his new clients was Citizens Independent Vice Investigating Committee (CIVIC). The group were citizens with the purpose of eliminating organized crime within Los Angeles city governments (LAPD and City Hall). Group members included Clifford Clinton (owner of the famous Clifton’s Restaurant), and LA County Supervisor John Anson Ford. Through his investigative work, Raymond had obtained enough evidence to show corruption within the LAPD, and show that corruption got the current Mayor, Frank Shaw elected. Clinton went to the grand jury with his evidence, but they refused to investigate.
The following year, Clinton convinced Judge Fletcher Bowron to appoint him to the grand jury. As a grand juror, Clinton requested to investigate LAPD Vice, but was turned down by the Grand Jury Foreman John Bauer. He went to Judge Bowron who oversaw the grand jury, who in turn interceded to allow him to proceed with an investigation. According to the LA Times, his grand jury report showed how organized crime money controlled by the Mayor, and protected by Chief Davis, had been funneled into city elections – and in return, city officials ignored organized crime elements. Following the report, a notary appeared before the grand jury and testified that the grand jury foreman John Bauer and D.A. Fitts were on the Mayor’s payroll.
The Retaliations
Following the report and testimony to the grand jury, Foreman Bauer and D.A. Fitts went to the notary’s home with a squad of detectives and beat him so severely that he ended up in the hospital. Raymond and Clinton also became Enemy Number 1 of the Mayor, Chief of Police, and the DA. Later a bomb ripped through Clinton’s family home, but no one was seriously hurt. All of this did not deter Clinton. Clinton asked Raymond to expand his investigation. As Raymond neared the completion of his case and was making plans to take the evidence to the Grand Jury, that is when a car bomb exploded with him in it.
The Spy Squad
The Spy House, 1938
Photo: Los Angeles Public Library Collection
Before the bombings, Captain Kynette and Lt. Allen from the Special Intelligence Unit of the LAPD – aka the “Spy Squad”, were spending their time at a rented house across the alley from Mr. Raymond’s house, where they spied and wiretapped Harry’s phone. This unit within the LAPD had a headquarters separated from the rest of the department. According to testimony by a squad member, “we were engaged in setting listening devices, spying, tailing, and generally conducting extensive espionage of persons who might engage in any political activities opposed to the interests of the city administration”.
After an independent outside investigation, and after investigators found bomb-making and other evidence in Kynette’s garage and home, Kynette and Allen were charged and then convicted on four counts of conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder, assault with intent to murder, and malicious use of explosives.
When all the dust cleared, Kynette served ten years in San Quentin, and later became a pharmacist in Los Angeles. The Chief of Police James Davis was forced to resign. Los Angeles Mayor Frank Shaw was removed from office by a special recall election after the grand jury report linked him to vice rackets, and Judge Fletcher Bowron, who oversaw the Grand Jury, became the new Los Angeles Mayor.