Arizona Republic reporter Don Bolles' car post-car bombing at the Hotel Clarendon in Phoenix.
Don Bolles was a reporter working at the Arizona Republic when he went to the Hotel Clarendon in Phoenix to meet a source on June 2, 1976.
The source didn't show and Bolles went back to his car. A bomb in or under the car went off severely injuring Bolles, who died from his injuries June 13.
The bombing was linked to organized crime.
From the Arizona Daily Star, June 3, 1976:
Bomb In Car Injures Newsman In Phoenix
PHOENIX (AP) — Don Bolles, 47, an investigative reporter for the Arizona Republic, was critically injured yesterday when a bomb exploded in his car, police said.
Bolles' right leg was amputated above the knee during five hours of surgery.
A hospital spokesman said Bolles remained in critical condition after the surgery. Doctors had said they night have to amputate both his legs.
Police said there was no doubt that the explosion outside the Clarendon House Hotel in north central Phoenix was a deliberate attempt to murder the reporter.
Paramedics who rushed to aid Bolles said he told them he was "working in a Mafia story."
Police Sgt. Robert Konkle said Bolles identified a person who might have planted the bomb. That person was being traced.
Police Detective Dan Dryden said Bolles also was heard by several persons at the scene to say, "John Adamson and Emprise."
Political officials expressed shock at the incident, and the Arizona Senate stood for one minute of silence yesterday in honor of Bolles.
The state, newspapers and private citizens offered rewards for information about the bombing. The well-known Bolles was considered the dean of investigative reporters in the state.
According to the Arizona Republic, fellow reporters at the State Capitol said they found a not in the press room, "John Adamson, Lobby at 11:15, Clarendon House, 4th and Clarendon."
Emprise was a former corporation involved in dog racing in Arizona. It was reorganized as Ramcorp by the Jeremy Jacobs family of Buffalo, N.Y. Ramcorp, with the Funk Greyhound Racing Circuit, owns all of the dog tracks and Prescott Downs Horse track in Arizona. Bolles had investigated Emprise operations since the 1960s.
A spokesman at the Clarendon House said Bolles had been there a short time when he received a telephone call on an outside line, went to a parking lot, entered his car and began to drive off.
The explosion severely damaged the car. Investigators said a fragment of the auto was found on the third floor of the hotel and that the blast blew out the window of another car and broke windows in the hotel.
Fire Battalion Chief Robert Richards said a bomb had been placed beneath the floorboards of Bolles' car, on the driver's side. Investigators said tests will be made today to try to determine the type of explosive used.
Fellow reporters said Bolles left the Capitol pressroom at about 10 a.m., leaving a note saying he was en route to the Clarendon House to meet an unnamed person from San Diego who had information concerning Rep. Sam Steiger, R-Ariz.
Another Republic reporter said Bolles told him the information reportedly involved "some money exchanging hands." But he said Bolles told him he didn't think the information was true.
Following the incident, Steiger said from his home in Warrenton, Va., that he could not understand the motivation,
"I've never been in San Diego in my life," he said. "I can only think that whoever did this may have figured that using my name was one way to get Don's attention."
Steiger, an outspoken opponent of the corporation, filed a $2-million lawsuit against Emprise in April 1974, charging that company officials, employes and agents "conducted a campaign to harass, intimidate and interfere" with his performance of his congressional duties and to suppress his criticism of the firm's operation and what he called its underworld ties.
In January of 1974 Emprise named Steiger in a $1-million lawsuit accusing him of conspiring to defame the racing concession company.
Gov. Raul Castro, appalled at the incident, requested assistance from the U.S. attorney for Arizona, William Smitherman, in Tucson. Castro said Smitherman assured him all appropriate action would be taken.
Democratic Majority Leader Alfredo Gutierrez, D-Phoenix, read a statement saying the Senate was shocked and appalled at the violent and cowardly attack on Bolles, a respected member of the Capitol press corps and a well known investigative reporter.
"Such an attack strikes directly at the fundamental right of a free press to gather and disseminate information and at the right of the people to be informed, a right that is indispensable to a free and self-governing society," Gutierrez said.
"We pledge the fullest resources of our state government to bring justice to the persons responsible for this cowardly attack."
Phoenix Mayor Margaret Hance also issued a statement expressing shock at the incident.
"I understand there is a possibility that the automobile explosion which has sent Mr. Bolles to a hospital in critical condition is a result of an investigation in which he was involved as a reporter," she said. "Phoenix is not and will not be the kind of city in which this kind of occurrence becomes commonplace.
"But the questions about who, how and how to avoid it will be handled by the police. For the rest of us, I can only ask that we pray for his recovery and swift return to his work."
