Les Kinney: Investigator. Researcher. Biographer.
Les has spent more than twenty-five years at the forefront of Amelia Earhart research. A former Treasury agent and Special Agent in Charge of multiple U.S. Customs field offices, his investigative career began with the Office of Naval Intelligence and later Treasury assignments in Washington, D.C., where he directed complex criminal investigations involving money laundering, organized crime, and weapons trafficking. He also served as liaison to the CIA, Pentagon, and State Department.
While stationed in Honolulu, Les developed intelligence-sharing networks across the Pacific. Multiple trips to remote islands exposed him to long-standing local accounts surrounding Earhart’s disappearance, transforming a professional curiosity into a decades-long investigation.
Les also served as assistant producer on the most-watched documentary ever made about Earhart’s disappearance, a project that still draws worldwide attention over her fate.
