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Don Bolles wanted to be the best reporter in Arizona. That was all he wanted. It had always been enough for him. Above all, Bolles was a shrewd reporter, a writer of cautionary tales. Suffice it to say that Don Bolles lived for little more than his work and his family. He did not die satisfactorily. Bolles had been an investigative reporter for 14 years. He prided himself on his accuracy. It was a quality on which he placed the highest value. Since going to work for the Arizona Republic in 1962, Bolles had rapidly become the state’s leading journalist and nominated in ‘65 for a Pulitzer for his investigative work. On Wednesday morning, June 2nd, 1976, Bolles agreed to meet an informant at the swanky downtown Phoenix Clarendon Hotel. After a no-show from the informant, Bolles got into his car to leave. Reversing a few yards, it was then that the explosion occurred. The blast ripped the car’s four hubcaps off, and cut a 2’ hole in the floor beneath the driver’s seat. A huge cloud of white smoke billowed up from the shattered Datsun. The explosion blew open the door on the driver’s side and Bolles flopped out onto the pavement. He was semiconscious. His legs were shattered. He was trying to get up. But Bolles could not move. Lifting up his head, his glasses gone, his face blackened from the blast, Bolles spoke his final words — “They finally got me—the Mafia, Emprise. Find John Adamson.” Bolles was working on a story about the mob using Vegas skim money to finance a robbery ring in Arizona that was stealing millions of dollars in gold from the Motorola plant in Phoenix every month. In a 1986 interview from death row, acclaimed journalist, Jana Bommersbach (one of our sources) asked John Adamson what story Bolles had written that led to his murder. His response was “He wasn’t killed for a story he wrote, he was killed to stop a story he was about to write.”
As we wrap up Season 1 of The Syndicate: The Murder of Don Bolles with part two of our interview with Don Devereux, we'd like to thank all those who assisted in the production of this podcast.
From Devereux, Jana Bommersbach, and Richard Ruelas, to our amazing interns from the Cronkite School of Journalism, Bri Pacelli and Hogan Armstrong.
This has truly been a team effort.
All of us at Criminal Minded Media would also like to thank you, our listeners, for taking this journey with us.
Keep an eye on The Syndicate feed for updates on Season 2!
Thanks for listening.
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As we began working on The Syndicate, Jana Bommersbach suggested that we speak to Don Devereux about his decades long investigation into the murder of Don Bolles, telling us that “No one knows more about this case than him.”
As usual, Jana was right.
Here’s Part 1 of our first recorded interview win Don Devereux unedited.
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Syndicate listeners, welcome to another bonus episode.
For longtime Phoenix residents, Jana Bommersbach needs no introduction.
The Arizona Press Club awarded her their highest honor – The Distinguished Service Award, and she has been named Arizona Journalist of the Year on multiple occasions.
Here is our first conversation with Jana, unedited. Some of it you’ve heard, much of it you haven’t, as she tells her story & goes into detail on the Don Bolles case.
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Criminal Minded Media listeners, welcome to a bonus episode of the Syndicate.
We plan on releasing a few more for The Syndicate AND A SEASON TWO, so please check your Syndicate podcast feed.
In this interview, we sit down with Marley Fogelsong, a neighbor to the Dunlap’s who actually witnessed the disputed cash drop that was used for the defense of John Adamson.
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As we’ve investigated the murder of Don Bolles for close to a year, we’ve been fortunate to speak to a number of amazing journalists. From Richard Ruelas to Jana Bommersbach and Don Devereux, we’ve been led down a labyrinth of evidence, cover-ups and staggering revelations.
Whenever a journalist worth his salt is given information, you attempt to confirm those leads through other sources. The person who we believed could confirm a great deal of the evidence brought forth in Episodes 1-8 was Kathy Kolbe.
After months of trying to get Kolbe to go on the record, she agreed to speak with us on a number of topics related to the case. As coincidence would have it, the interview took place on June 2nd - 46 years to the day that the bomb went off under Don Bolles’ car.
As I stated in earlier episodes, Kathy Kolbe was a close personal friend of Don & Rosalie Bolles.
Little known fact - shortly after the attack on June 2nd, 1976, it was Kathy Kolbe who was tasked with bringing the Bolles children to the hospital to be with their mother & father.
That was just the start of an almost 2 week odyssey for Kathy & the Bolles children.
As the kids were with Rosalie in the hospital, Phoenix PD pulled Mrs. Kolbe into a nearby room with an urgent message - they were concerned the kids could be the next target.
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After almost a full year re-investigating the case, we (along with Don Devereux & Jana Bommersbach) break down exactly what happened in the murder of Don Bolles.
That includes who we believe was behind the murder, the investigation that got Don Bolles killed, and the innocent man who died in prison, convicted for the murder of a journalist. We attempt to settle all scores.
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In 1986, as the case flounders, Jana Bommersbach and 3 other journalists start a 12-month investigation for The New Times to coincide with the 10-year anniversary of the bombing.
While conducting a death row interview with the man convicted of luring Bolles to the hotel, Jana gets some information that turns the state’s theory on its head.
We are also given audio recordings of depositions that point to the innocence of Max Dunlap & the guilt of a local attorney in the plot to kill Don Bolles.
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The killing of Don Bolles would be followed with the mysterious death of another well respected Arizona journalist.
Bolles’ editor & confidant, Tom Sanford, would be found shot to death just 6 months after he was killed.
Sanford was deeply involved in Bolles’ investigations leading up to the bombing and was conducting his own investigation into his friend’s murder at the time of his death.
Quickly ruled a suicide, several troubling facts lead Don Devereux and others to believe Sanford was murdered.
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As we begin to roll up our sleeves in this investigation, it’s time to look at the players of this ugly chapter in Arizona history.
We must look at several key individuals, both according to the STATE’S THEORY of events, as well as several characters we feel need a much closer look.
With the premise of the state-sponsored theory, it appears that Don Bolles’ murder may have been misconstrued from the start.
Max Dunlap, John Adamson, and James Robison were all charged with being involved in the blast, but was it just a cover-up for the real players?
Let’s start with ‘The Kemper Marley Theory.’
Now remember, Kemper Marley was a local liquor magnate who lost his seat on the state racing commission due to a prior story Bolles wrote. So, the assumption was, he had an axe to grind. This theory includes the only men prosecuted for the murder of Don Bolles...
The state charged Max Dunlap with first-degree murder for ordering the hit on Don Bolles. But who was Mr. Dunlap & what was his connection to the murder of a famed journalist?
Before his arrest, Dunlap was a well-known figure in town. He was a family man, married to Barbara, and father to their seven children.
Dunlap was a contractor in the land development business.
He started his own company called MA Dunlap Construction and grew his company with the help of a close friend and mentor, Kemper Marley.
Prior to the Bolles murder, it would have been difficult to find anyone in the Phoenix area with a negative thing to say about Max. However, he was also definitely in the orbit of both John Adamson and Neal Roberts, a high school classmate and friend.
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Immediately after the bomb went off under Don Bolles’ Datsun, chaos ruled - at the scene, the Phoenix Police Department, the Arizona Republic & the Bolles home.
Those early hours, an entire city scrambled to come to grips with the savage attack, and who might be involved.
Bolles was taken to St. Joseph’s Hospital where he was in surgery for 5 hours and had his right leg amputated above the knee.
He eventually would lose both legs and an arm due to infection.
Though in critical condition, Bolles remained conscious after his surgery. Two police officers showed Bolles a picture of John Harvey Adamson and asked him if he was the guy.
Unable to speak, he nodded his head yes.
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Amanda is a wife. A mother. A blogger. A Christian.
A charming, beautiful, bubbly, young woman who lives life to the fullest.
But Amanda is dying, with a secret she doesn’t want anyone to know.
She starts a blog detailing her cancer journey, and becomes an inspiration, touching and
captivating her local community as well as followers all over the world.
Until one day investigative producer Nancy gets an anonymous tip telling her to look at Amanda’s
blog, setting Nancy on an unimaginable road to uncover Amanda’s secret.
Award winning journalist Charlie Webster explores this unbelievable and bizarre, but
all-too-real tale, of a woman from San Jose, California whose secret ripped a family apart and
left a community in shock.
Scamanda is the true story of a woman whose own words held the key to her secret.
New episodes every Monday.
Follow Scamanda on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.
Amanda’s blog posts are read by actor Kendall Horn.
