Don Bolles

Donald Fifield Bolles (July 10, 1928 – June 13, 1976) was an American investigative journalist whose relentless reporting on organized crime, political corruption, and real‑estate fraud in Phoenix made him one of the most daring reporters of his era. Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, he grew up in New Jersey where his father headed the state Associated Press bureau, and his family’s newspaper lineage traced back to his grandfather Stephen Bolles. After graduating from Teaneck High School in 1946, Bolles earned a government degree at Beloit College, where he edited the campus paper The Round Table and won a President’s Award for personal achievement. He served in the Korean War before joining the Associated Press as a sports editor and rewriter, working in New Jersey, New York, and Kentucky. In 1962 Bolles was hired by The Arizona Republic in Phoenix, quickly moving onto the investigative beat and becoming renowned for exposing influence‑peddling, bribery, and especially the activities of the Chicago Outfit in Arizona. His dogged pursuit of a land‑deal scandal involving the powerful Emprise corporation and alleged mafia links placed him directly in the cross‑hairs of powerful interests. On June 2, 1976 he met informant John Adamson at the Clarendon Hotel, only to be lured into a parking lot where a remote‑controlled bomb detonated beneath his Datsun 710, shattering his body. Despite emergency surgery, he succumbed to his injuries on June 13, 1976. The murder sparked the nationwide Arizona Project, a collaborative series of investigative reports led by Robert W. Greene, and cemented Bolles’ legacy as a martyr for press freedom. Over his career he received the Conscience‑in‑Media Award, the Arizona Press Club Newsman of the Year (1974), and posthumously the John Peter Zenger Award (1976). He was married twice, fathered seven children, and remains a symbol of the risks journalists face when confronting organized crime and political corruption.