Remembering Don Bolles

Thirty years ago today, Arizona Republic reporter Don Bolles got into his 1976 Datsun, turned the key and was blown to smithereens. He clung to life for 11 days before dying.

Today, the motive for Bolles' murder remains a mystery and no one was ever arrested, although many people believe that he was killed because of a series of stories exposing the antics of a powerful Phoenix businessman. Others believed it was because of his stories on organized crime. Some believe it was both.

This much is obvious:

Don Bolles died because he was good at what it did. What he did is called investigative reporting. Investigative reporting is a dying field. It is dying because too many newspapers have become controversy averse, while others cannot justify assigning a reporter to chase potentially litigious stories for months on end when there is no guarantee that they'll ever see the light of day and every guarantee that they'll piss people off.

I had the honor of editing some of the best investigative reporters in the business. I was a hands-on editor. If I thought that a reporter was going into a dangerous situation, I'd accompany him or her.

Some reporters would bristle at being babysat, but one reporter -- well on his way to breaking a story about a methamphetamine ring being run out of the city hall office of a councilman's aide -- was most grateful for the company when the interviewee pulled a gun in the back room of a seedy bar.

We made it through okay. Paul Bolles made the ultimate sacrifice.

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The Republic has put together a package of stories to mark the 30th anniversary. Go here for a look see. And please support your local investigative reporter.