Don Bolles' car could be coming home to Arizona
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Don Bolles' Datsun, at the Newseum in Washington shortly before its 2019 closure. Photo: Jeremy Duda/Axios
Don Bolles' bombed car could be coming back to Arizona.
The big picture: As the 50th anniversary of the bombing approaches, Freedom Forum, which ran the Newseum, a Washington journalism museum that closed in 2019, is actively seeking a place to display Bolles' Datsun, Axios has learned.
The latest: The organization is "in the early stages of conversations with several institutions," Freedom Forum spokesperson Julia Majors told Axios.
- She declined to say who Freedom Forum is talking with.
Catch up quick: Bolles was backing out of a parking space at Phoenix's Clarendon Hotel on June 2, 1976, when a dynamite bomb exploded underneath the driver's side.
- The Datsun went on display at the Newseum in 2008 but has been in storage since the institution closed.
Zoom in: At the end of last year, Freedom Forum adopted a new artifact preservation plan and it's "evaluating institutions that can provide long-term care, public access and educational value for artifacts," Majors said.
What they're saying: Rosalie Kasse, Bolles' widow, and Diane Bolles, his daughter, told Axios they support bringing the car back to Arizona.
- Diane Bolles called the car "a big piece of history" that belongs in Phoenix.
- Kasse said she doesn't want it displayed at any institution that bears the name of Kemper Marley, the liquor magnate who was believed by some to have been responsible for Bolles' death. Marley was never charged.
The intrigue: Due to the work of the philanthropic foundation named for him and his wife, Marley's name adorns plaques and buildings across the state.
- Bolles' family opposed a proposal in the 1990s to display the car at the Arizona Historical Society's Marley Center.
What they're saying: George Weisz, the attorney general's lead investigator for the latter part of Bolles case, called the car "a testament to journalists who put their lives on the line" and said Bolles was "a beacon of investigative journalism."
- Weisz, who persuaded the Phoenix Police Department not to destroy the car after the case wrapped up in the 1990s, told Axios he hopes the family's wishes for the car are respected.
Yes, but: David Bolles, the reporter's eldest child, said in the new book "Murder in the Fourth Estate: The Assassination of Investigative Journalist Don Bolles" that he and his siblings don't want the car displayed.