Don Bolles monument bill has a path that sidesteps a key roadblock
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Don Bolles' Datsun sat on display in the Newseum in Washington, D.C. before the institution closed at the end of 2019. Photo: Jeremy Duda/Axios
A repeatedly stalled attempt to put a monument to assassinated journalist Don Bolles at the state Capitol could move forward after supporters found a way to get around a critical roadblock.
State of play: Rep. Selina Bliss, R-Prescott, is pushing a strike-everything amendment, which replaces the text of a bill in its entirety, authorizing the placement of a monument to Bolles at Wesley Bolin Plaza.
- The bill awaits a vote of the full House, which overwhelmingly approved a previous Bliss bill for a Bolles monument in February.
- House Speaker Steve Montenegro, R-Goodyear, told Axios he expects the bill to get a vote this week.
The intrigue: Because the Senate has already passed the bill, it won't have to go back to a committee in the chamber if the House OKs it as well.
- Instead, the proposal would go to the full Senate for approval.
- That would allow it to bypass the Senate Government Committee, where the chair, Sen. Jake Hoffman, R-Queen Creek, has refused to give it a hearing over the past few years, including this session.
Yes, but: If it passes the House, it would be up to Senate President Warren Petersen, R-Gilbert, to decide whether it gets a final vote.
- Petersen could defer to Hoffman, neither of whom returned messages from Axios.
- Bliss told Axios she's unsuccessfully attempted to contact Petersen about the bill and hopes to speak with him next week.
What they're saying: Bliss was a teenager at the time of the June 2, 1976, bombing, and remembers, "It just shook us to the core."
- She said she was frustrated by the bill's failure last year, and with the 50th anniversary of the bombing in 2026, she decided to sponsor it herself.
- "It needs to happen. It's an important part of our history," she said.
Flashback: Bolles suffered mortal injuries from a bomb that exploded under his car at Phoenix's Clarendon Hotel.
- He'd gone to the hotel to meet a source named John Adamson, who claimed to have information about corruption involving prominent elected officials.
- Adamson called Bolles in the hotel lobby to cancel the meeting, and the bomb on the underside of the reporter's Datsun exploded as he backed out of his parking space.
- Bolles died of his injuries 11 days later.
Between the lines: Adamson claimed he was hired to kill Bolles by Phoenix contractor Max Dunlap, who was upset by the reporter's writing about local liquor magnate Kemper Marley, and that he partnered with Chandler plumber James Robison to carry out the bombing.
- Dunlap and Robison were sentenced to death in 1977 largely based on Adamson's testimony, though an Arizona Supreme Court ruling later reversed the convictions.
- The pair was retried in 1993, with Dunlap being convicted and Robison being acquitted.
- Some followers of the case believe Adamson lied and that Bolles' murder was ordered by someone else.