Bolles: a players guide

"They finally got me...Mafia, Emprise, Adamson...find John Adamson..." — Don Bolles

On June 2, 1976, a bomb detonated under the car of Arizona Republic reporter Don Bolles in Midtown Phoenix. He survived an agonizing 11 days before he died. A recent article by Bolles' colleague John Winters lays out the basics. I've written about the case before here, as well as the Phoenix underworld. The closest assassins went to prison. Yet full justice was never served. The real puppetmasters got away with it. Many in high positions wanted it to go away.

But what exactly was it? The case has been extensively covered over the years, from the Arizona Project of Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) and contemporary, dogged reporting, by Republic and Phoenix Gazette reporters, including Al Sitter, Paul Dean, and Charles Kelly. New Times ran the IRE series and kept digging over the following decades, especially with Jana Bommersbach, John Dougherty, Tom Fitzpatrick and Paul Rubin. The Republic continues with retrospectives. Don Devereux, who worked for the Scottsdale Progress, still writes a blog about the case. A fascinating new book by Dave Wagner, an R&G city editor, The Politics of Murder: Organized Crime in Barry Goldwater's Arizona, makes an important contribution.

With so much having been written, so many characters and theories, one danger is becoming lost in a house of mirrors. The Bolles case would be the ultimate test of a mystery writer, were he foolish enough to try to make it into popular crime fiction. That's because in real life, the case was complex and shaded. It involved journalism and supposition, not all of the latter ultimately true. Carl Bernstein said that good journalism is the best available truth at that moment. But journalists write on history's leading edge and history is an argument without end. Law enforcement continues to debate the case, too. Files were lost or misplaced, perhaps deliberately. Among them, Phoenix Police file No. 851. In addition to the missing file, index cards for the files were also removed from the records room. Did it contain inconvenient information about Adamson, Emprise and Kemper Marley? Or more? Self-serving narratives, hidden agendas, and bad memories further blur the trail. Many questions remain. 

So my modest attempt for the 40th anniversary of the bombing is a list of the actual major players and their connection with the most notorious assassination of a reporter on American soil:

John Adamson: Don Bolles left his post covering the state Legislature to meet Adamson at the Clarendon House Hotel on June 2nd. Adamson promised a juicy tip on a land fraud involving Barry Goldwater, Harry Rosenzweig, Sam Steiger, and Kemper Marley. In reality, while Bolles waited for him in the lobby, Adamson planted the dynamite device under the driver's side of Bolles' new Datsun 710. After giving up on the meeting, Bolles returned to the parking lot, started his car, and pulled out when the bomb went off.

Usually portrayed as a small-time but menacing hood, Adamson hung out on the Central Avenue bars and the dog track. But he actually had worked his way up to being chief enforcer for land-fraud kingpin Ned Warren and had been retained by associates of Barry Goldwater for dirty business in a Navajo power struggle. He also worked as a confidential informant for someone in the Phoenix Police. Bolles identified Adamson in his famous last words. In exchange for cooperation, Adamson was given a 20-year sentence. When convictions from his testimony were thrown out, prosecutors charged him with first-degree murder. This conviction didn't stick. So after serving 20 years, Adamson entered federal witness protection, then voluntarily left it, dying in 2002. Some retired cops and journalists suspect that Adamson protected the true source of the death warrant on Bolles. In a jailhouse interview with Bommersbach and Rubin, Adamson said chillingly, "I didn't kill him for a story he'd written. I killed him for a story he was going to write."

Bruce Babbitt: The future Arizona governor was serving as state Attorney General when Bolles was killed. He ultimately took over the case from the County Attorney. Babbitt, from Flagstaff, was one of the few scions of pioneer families involved in the case with no ties to or coziness with organized crime. But even with his able chief investigator George Weisz, Babbitt's office failed to reach the top of the "food chain" that ordered the hit. Babbitt's handling of the case was also controversial with some in law enforcement, including accepting Adamson's confession and plea deal. PPD Organized Crime unit detectives have a poor opinion of Babbitt. They disapproved of many ways he handled the case, including his vendetta against Mickey Clifton and especially the state's determination to stick with the theory that Adamson, Dunlap, and Robison were the main actors. This foreclosed other theories and the concerns these cops had that Adamson had been completely truthful. Acting County Attorney Don Harris felt sandbagged when Babbitt took the case.

Moise "Mo" Berger: The Maricopa County Attorney from 1969 to 1976, Berger initially led the prosecution in the Bolles murder. Berger was forced to back off prosecution of Ned Warren, reputedly on the direct orders of Harry Rosenzweig. The jeweler and civic leader had compromising photos of Berger taken at a Mesa brothel. In a meeting with Phoenix PD Detective Lonzo McCracken, Berger admitted it, saying, according to Wagner, "See, I know these bastards are out to get me." McCracken taped their conversation and parts of the resulting police report made it into the Republic on Aug. 4, 1976. Berger resigned the next day.

Raul Castro: Kemper Marley and his family made a $25,000 donation to Castro in the 1974 governor's race, the largest single contribution to the campaign in these pre-Citizens United days. Gov. Castro appointed Marley to the state Racing Commission, but Bolles' reporting forced Marley to resign. Historian Jack August has said that the scandal took an emotional toll on Castro. He resigned as governor in 1977 to accept appointment as U.S. Ambassador to Argentina. Castro had been a Superior Court judge in Tucson before becoming governor.

Mickey Clifton: The lawyer, who had previously represented Adamson on unrelated cases, was the first to alert Phoenix detectives to Adamson's full involvement in the bombing, corroborating Bolles' last words, and ensuring his arrest. Adamson met Clifton at a Central Avenue bar soon after the crime and confessed to it. This was at a time when the New York Times was preparing to go to the White House, requesting that the FBI take control of the case. The national media were concerned that PPD would or could not solve a contract killing.  Clifton supplied other critical details about a wider conspiracy. He was ultimately disbarred and ruined. But one detective told me, "I believe he deserved better than to be exposed then and again now, for being a bad guy, when actually...he should be portrayed as a hero that knowingly risked his life and professional career to help clear up this murder conspiracy."

Max Dunlap: One of two co-conspirators named by Adamson (along with James Robison), Dunlap was a contractor and an old friend of Adamson's from North High School. Adamson claimed that Dunlap hired him to kill Bolles because Kemper Marley wanted revenge for the humiliation of being forced off the Racing Commission. Dunlap had received help in starting his construction business from Marley, assistance that had made him successful and prominent in Phoenix. He was a friend of Marley. Although he was sentenced to death in 1978, the conviction was overturned two years later. Amid the legal wrangling was the allegation that some Phoenix Police officers altered files and evidence was suppressed. He was finally convicted in 1990 and died in prison in 2009. Dunlap always maintained his innocence, saying he had been framed. This may well have been true.

Brad Funk: His family was the local partner of Emprise, the sports conglomerate, in running Arizona dog tracks. Before Bolles lost consciousness, he said to first responders (and versions vary in the wording), "They finally got me. Mafia, Emprise, Adamson..." Bolles had reported on the connections between dog racing and corruption. This led to a libel suit, settled in 1974. According to author Dave Wagner, one of the terms of the settlement was that Bolles would be removed from the investigative beat and no longer write on the Funk family. Devereux argues that Brad Funk had a personal grudge against Bolles. But Adamson owned greyhounds and frequented the track, perhaps providing protection to the families and becoming close to Brad. Neither Funk nor Emprise were ever charged.

Barry Goldwater: Although IRE's Arizona Project contained stories about the appalling conditions in which illegal aliens lived and worked in the citrus groves of Arrowhead Ranch, owned by the Goldwater and Martori families, the senator himself was never directly connected to the bombing. He may have known Adamson, however. In early 1976, Goldwater associates engaged Adamson to plant a dynamite bomb in the Navajo capital, Window Rock. The goal was to create havoc on the Navajo Reservation, impose martial law, and hasten the removal of Peter MacDonald, the Navajo chairman who had gone from Goldwater protege to enemy. Adamson chickened out in Tuba City and left the device in a trash can. On June 2nd, after the bomb exploded, Goldwater had an angry conversation with lawyer Neil Roberts, demanding to know what had happened. Beyond the Bolles case, Goldwater liked to run with a fast crowd, at the least. He was friends with Gus Greenbaum and other mobsters. And he, wittingly or not, wrote a promotional letter to help sell Ned Warren's Del Rio Springs real-estate fraud.

Harry Hawkins: Almost forgotten now, Hawkins was an in-your-face veteran of the NYPD who didn't mind challenging his bosses. As a detective, Hawkins reluctantly carried out a purge of the department's intelligence files on Emprise, on orders of Sgt. Jack Weaver or perhaps higher. Hawkins disclosed the purge in 1979. The sergeant later resigned and ran a bar frequented by mobsters. Troubled by the order, Hawkins reported the purge to another detective. Hawkins was demoted to patrolman, driving a paddy wagon in the Deuce. What really happened? A former colleague told me, "He's been teasing me with the story for 25 or 30 years."

Ed Lazar: An accountant for Ned Warren and president of Warren's Consolidated Mortgage Corp., Lazar was preparing to testify about the land frauds. Warren ordered his killing. Two hit men from Chicago shot Lazar to death in the stairwell of a Phoenix parking garage in 1975, a day before he was to appear before a grand jury. They tossed coins on his body — a gangland warning against anyone who wanted to "drop a dime" on mob activities. His son Zachary wrote a memoir seeking to understand how his respectable, suburban father became entwined with organized crime. One of the hit men, a member of the Chicago Heights crew of the Outfit, later confessed. He said the hit was ordered by Warren through Adamson and Carl Verive.

Kemper Marley: At the time one of the richest men in Arizona, Marley came from a pioneer Arizona family. He made his fortune with land and owning the state's largest liquor distributorship. In the 1930s, he had led the Associated Farmers of Arizona. Its bands of tough guys beat union officials trying to organize farm workers and improve their dismal conditions. In the 1940s, he tried to take over wire gambling in Phoenix when the mob summoned Gus Greenbaum to Las Vegas. Marley was also reputed to own a brothel in downtown Phoenix (his lawyer was a young William Rehnquist).

Bolles' reporting on Marley cost him a coveted position on the state Racing Commission. Marley was never charged. An enduring question is whether Marley ordered a hit — the "frontier justice" theory — or say in essence, "who will rid me of this troublesome priest" and henchmen took things too far? Or was he involved at all? Another theory holds that Marley was involved in skimming the proceeds from slot machines at nine Las Vegas casinos, which were to be laundered at Phoenix Greyhound Park. Was this the story Bolles "was about to write"? Details of the skim came out in a 1978 FBI memo concerning a Mafia ledger that had been discovered and given to the feds by Gerard DeNono.

Lonzo McCracken and Oscar Long: One of the incorruptible detectives in the Phoenix Police Department, McCracken worked doggedly to put Ned Warren behind bars. A friend and good source of Bolles, he was assigned to the Intelligence Division, or I-Squad. It became the Organized Crime Bureau (OCB), which Chief Larry Wetzel set up and worked to protect from political interference (it would put several corrupt local officials behind bars). To be sure, not all members of the unit were effective or even trustworthy, and OCB deserves its own Phoenix Confidential column. In the years of the Bolles bombing, OCB had been penetrated by the mob.

Long was instrumental in preventing the New York Times and other Eastern media from pushing for the FBI to take control of the investigation. He had a relationship with a Times reporter from previous land-fraud cases, and assured him that they had the prime suspects on the Sunday after the bombing but were waiting to see if Bolles died before making the arrest. The Times backed off and PPD kept control of the case.

McCracken brought solid land-fraud cases to Mo Berger's office only to see them slog along and die, with no indictment of Warren. Indeed, Berger asked the court to dismiss charges. In June 1976, lawyer Clifton immediately contacted Sgt. Oscar Long and McCracken after meeting Adamson. Long turned the information over to the Homicide Division so it could claim credit. Earlier, after an important Warren-connected case had collapsed under political and mob intimidation, McCracken gave a memorable valedictory that resonates through the years: "A sorry goddamned mess, this town."

Neal Roberts: This is one of the most fascinating, complex, and enigmatic characters. Also an alumni of North High, Roberts was a lawyer, fixer, and habitue of the Central Avenue bar scene. He was connected to all the main figures in the Bolles plot and some (including Max Dunlap) believe he was the mastermind. Adamson had been in Roberts' office on the morning of June 2, and the lawyer arranged for Adamson to be flown to Lake Havasu City and stashed in the Rodeway Inn later that day. Roberts was controversially given immunity. He died in 1999.

James Robison: "Jimmy the Plumber," a friend of Adamson's, hit the switch that detonated the bomb under Bolles' car. Based heavily on Adamson's testimony, he was found guilty of first-degree murder, as well as involvement in a conspiracy to murder Babbitt and another man, a former employee of Marley. But the conviction was overturned in 1980. It was dismissed when Adamson refused to testify against Robison again. He was recharged twice, unsuccessfully. He finally served five years on federal charges of trying to have Adamson murdered. Robison was released in 1989.

Harry Rosenzweig: Another member of a prominent pioneer family, Rosenzweig was one of Phoenix's most powerful leaders for decades. He and Barry Goldwater successfully ran as reform candidates on the Charter Government Committee slate in 1948. Both were lifelong friends, builders of the ascendant Republican Party in Arizona, and merchant princes (Rosenzweig, along with his brother Newton, owned a downtown jewelry store). After his term was over, Rosenzweig continued to exercise enormous behind-the-scenes power. The brothers developed the original family homestead at Central and Clarendon into Rosenzweig Center, a prestigious set of skyscrapers. But both the Arizona Project reporting and Wagner's new book show a less savory side to Rosenzweig, including ties to land fraud, organized crime, and protecting favored lowlifes such as Ned Warren.

Jon Sellers: The Stetson-wearing Phoenix PD homicide detective was the lead investigator on the case. In December 1976, along with the state's lead prosecutor William Schafer and others, Sellers took Adamson's full confession, writing 250-page record. He believes law enforcement got the right people behind the bombing. But he continued to believe Kemper Marley was somehow a suspect. “I always suspected it was done for him,” Sellers told the Republic's Richard Ruelas. “But there was never evidence it was done ... with his knowledge." Marley was never charged. ”Bolles "suffered like no man I have ever seen," he said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times.

Ned Warren: Born Nathan Waxman, Warren arrived in Phoenix in the 1960s and over the next two decades became the "King of Arizona Land Fraud." He set up shell companies selling fraudulent land, often through front men. He'd pull out the profits and send the company into bankruptcy, leaving the front man and hapless buyers with nothing. Tens of thousands of customers were cheated of millions. Warren bribed the state Real Estate Commissioner. He also insinuated himself to Harry Rosenzweig and was able to get letters promoting one of his frauds from Sen. Barry Goldwater and Rep. Sam Steiger. The Phoenix elite helped protect Warren from prosecution, even after a blockbuster series on him by Don Bolles. Some witnesses against Warren died under suspicious circumstances. His chief enforcer in the mid-1970s was Adamson. Warren was ultimately convicted on federal charges of land fraud and extortion and died in 1979.

Howard Neal Woodall: "Of the many con men who orbited Warren, none was more effective or ruthless than Woodall," writes Wagner in his new book. He became president of the massive Del Rio Springs land fraud near Prescott, the scam that caused embarrassment for Goldwater when his promotional letter was revealed — and anger when Al Sitter wrote about it in the Republic. The letter was aimed at armed forces personnel in Asia, recommending worthless land with no utilities and no title. But Woodall was also tight with the Chicago Outfit and a sometime police informant. He testified that Robison admitted to pressing the detonator button repeatedly until the bomb under Bolles' car went off. Also, that Robison had put a contract on Adamson's life so he could beat the rap. In reality, he entrapped the plumber — the feds had arranged to put Woodall in the Maricopa County jail, where Robison was awaiting trial. Woodall, in a federal penitentiary, had been pressing the FBI for months to let him tell about mob activities and help gain intel, including on the Bolles hit, in exchange for a lighter sentence. Yet the jury accepted the testimony of this notorious con man. Woodall served a few years in federal prison for fraud and went into witness protection.

Will we ever know? The Bolles case files are kept at the Arizona State Library under three levels of protection: open to the public, partially restricted, and restricted. The latter is deemed so sensitive that it is not to be released for 50 years (as I understand it, in 2037). Partially restricted access would need a court order. And even the open files merit a courtesy call to the state Attorney General's office. Archivists say they want serious scholars and not those seeking to exploit the crime.

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My book, A Brief History of Phoenix, is available to buy or order at your local independent bookstore, or from Amazon.

Read more Phoenix history in Rogue's Phoenix 101 archive.

Comments

[Mombo Number Five]

A shout out to Kemper Marley for laying the groundwork for carpet bagging John McCain to arrive in Arizona and proceed to suck the life out of the state. Karma sucks.

[Cal lash]

The Philantrophic Marley name can be found on many places from the Childrens Hospital to the Phoenix Art Museum. In my 66 years in Arizona I have not seen a overview of Marley holdings, but I suspect it's sizeable maybe even into other countries like Mexico.

[Cal lash]

Vote for one, Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump or Vito Corleone.

[Mombo Number Five]

The one with honor. Vito 2016

[Ramjet]

off topic but,
Hill will fill the bill (pun intended)

[bearsense]

NPR in Phoenix (KJZZ) had a good article on the Bolles case today. I never knew that thr R&G refused to publish the IRE's daily updates and they were instead read aloud on KOY radio.

[Cal Lash]

Freedom of the Press, Freedom of speech are one of the reasons to Keep Don Bolles alive in our future. These freedoms are under attack from every direction.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23209949-end-of-discussion
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/08/10/the-hell-you-say

[Cal Lash]

Why remembering Don Bolles is Important.

So political crimes and white collar crimes no longer exist in Arizona?

The Phoenix Police Department, (PPD) White Collar Crime (WCC) prosecution squad and the Organized Crime Bureau (OCB) no longer exist because there are no criminals to chase? No Mafia, No Land Fraud, No Economic crime, No Political crime? Or did these law-enforcement Bureaus in the PPD go away because of political pressure. Like the pressure brought to bear on reporters such as Jon Talton or the illegal arrests of New Times owner and editor?

How did chasing dishwashers become more important than investigating sexual assault cases or homicides? Where are the investigators chasing big crime? The PPD Police Chiefs no longer have complete control over the Police Department. They have to report to an assistant city manager to make sure no embarrassment is likely to pop up. No city officials investigated without city managers approval. No local or state politicians are investigated for fraudulent schemes and devices.

It’s all bullshit and it’s bad for us. The politicians have stripped down, tamped down and dumbed down law enforcement agencies to make sure they just arrest the average Joe or the guy mowing your lawn.

How do we know if the city managers are doing the legal thing? No favorable deals at the airport, no making sure the new freeway goes across the right land areas? No under-the-table favorable tax deals for big business? How do we know?

If you work in the city treasurer’s office and see a manager committing fraud favoring politicians or businesses and you fear telling your supervisor who do you call at the PPD? No one!

In the seventies when the PPD had a White Collar Crime Unit (WCC) some of the best cases were made by city employees acting as confidential informants reporting their observations to the WCC unit.

Did two Arizona senators steal from the Apache tribe? Did you see the state have anyone look into that matter? Are developers illegally removing sand and gravel and pushing politically to avoid water laws? Did the state violate the law by overriding an existing law that specifically states how state land trust moneys will be used? Would the public have defeated that issue if there had been better investigative reporting? It barely passed and passed in a sympathy vote.

Arizona has a few good reporters but almost no really good investigative reporters. Al Sitter and Don Bolles were two extremely humble guys who went after the really bad guys with a vengeance. Many of Al Sitter’s columns opened with two words, “Convicted Swindler”. When the bombing first was reported to Arizona Republic bosses their first thought was that the victim was Al.

So there is no big crime in Arizona anymore and hence no need for good investigative reporting. Well, we could use another column on how bad Child Protective Services is as a result of legislative underfunding and not caring about the poor.

I worry that big money is closing down on investigative journalism and soon it will just be all censored sound bites. Right Huxley, Orwell?

[B. Franklin]

At this point, The Arizona Republic exists mostly to deliver advertising. With the exception of Laurie Roberts, they're company men just trying to make it to retirement. Why do anything that might upset the status quo?

[Bill Richardson]

Organized crime in Arizona has grown like a well watered weed in the last 25 years. Phoenix PD no longer has an organized crime bureau. The AZ DPS doesn't either. The county attorney's office is out of the game. OC controls Arizona streets and highways and it goes unreported. IRE could set up
a permanent shop in Arizona.

[Cal lash]

Note White Collar Crime squads:
In my day the WCC squads helped 7 or more high ranking city officials decide to leave and or retire.

[Amy Ehalty]

Why is some of the library off limits to the public. No libraraain needs to be responsible for guarding files.

[Ken Buxton]

I loved "The Bomb Shelter". It kept me busy trying to remember who was really who. I remember when the Bolles bombing occurred and I've followed it ever since. Thanks for the update.

[Frank Murray]

More drivel from the self-named "rogue columnist." Will someone name a single solitary "solid land fraud case" that Lonzo McCracken and/or Oscar Long ever brought to the Maricopa County Attorneys' Office? I wasn't even an investigator, yet I was able to charge him twice in a matter of months - within a year I had sent him away to the Arizona State Prison, where he would die. This duo was well-known to the attorneys at the Maricopa County Attorneys' Office as feckless, disorganized and unsophisticated to a fault. Defenders of the "rogue columnist"on this site state that "Oscar Long looked at Warren in the face and promised him he would die in prison" - that is classic PPD. Full of braggadocio, they love to talk the talk, but when it comes down to it they can't walk the walk. McCracken and Long never did. Too busy spending all day cultivating the press - a long-standing cultural characteristic of PPD.

[C. cannon]

Another murdered journalist with disturbing echoes in high Republican places: Mr Kushner is said yo have green-lit the arrest of Jamal Khashoghi.

[Allan Starr]

It has been credibly reported that Kemper Marley Sr. ordered the Bolles murder. I'll always believe that.