The Arizona Project

The Arizona Project is a vital chapter in Investigative Reporters and Editors’ story. Journalists across the country came together to complete the work of Don Bolles, an Arizona Republic investigative reporter murdered in 1976 in retaliation for his reporting. The large-scale collaboration,  the first of its kind in American journalism, took place just a year after IRE’s founding. It cemented the foundation for IRE’s collaborative spirit and belief that investigative journalism is essential to a free society. 

The murder of Don Bolles

On June 2, 1976, Arizona Republic reporter Don Bolles, one of IRE's founding members, was called to a meeting in a downtown Phoenix hotel by a source promising him information about land fraud involving organized crime. The source didn't show up. Bolles left the hotel, got into his car parked outside and turned the key. A powerful bomb ripped through the vehicle, leaving Bolles mortally injured.

Over the next 10 days, doctors amputated both Bolles' legs and an arm, but could not save him. He died June 13, 1976.

It was a year after IRE had been founded as a nonprofit organization, and just a few days before the first IRE Conference. Bolles — a 47-year-old husband and father — was scheduled to speak at that first conference in Indianapolis. 

His murder shocked dozens of IRE members, who descended on Arizona for a massive investigation. They set out to find not Bolles' killer, but the sources of corruption so deep that a reporter could be killed in broad daylight in the middle of town. They were out to show organized crime leaders that killing a journalist would not stop reportage about them; it would increase it 100-fold.

The project was exceedingly controversial and remains so. The New York Times and The Washington Post, giants in the business, chose not to participate. Some journalists, including IRE members, disliked the idea of reporters on a crusade.

Bob Greene, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner at Newsday, led a team of volunteers from 10 newspapers and broadcast stations for five months of cooperative digging. The resulting 23-part series was recognized with a special award by Sigma Delta Chi and a host of other prizes.

A place in journalism history

July 23, 1976

Dear IRE Member:
As you are all aware, one of our members, Don Bolles of the Arizona Republic, was killed in a bombing in June...

Chilling words in 1976 and chilling today. 

In his pitch to the IRE board, Newsday's Bob Greene said, at the very least, the Arizona Project would expose corruption and that people “would think twice about killing reporters."

"For all of us — particularly newspapers with high investigative profiles — this is eminently self-serving. As individuals we are buying life insurance on our own reporters. If we accomplish only this, we have succeeded."

They heeded the call. 

38 journalists from 28 newspapers and television stations across the country arrived to Arizona. Some came sponsored by their news organizations. Others used their vacation time. Some stayed for a month or longer. Others for just a week. 

Working under Greene, they set out to finish Bolles’ work of exposing Arizona's tangled underworld. There were many characters, to be sure, but none as colorful as the late Tom Renner, Newsday's mob expert who spent most of his time undercover working "deep and dirty."

The result of their efforts was unique in the history of American Journalism and critical to the survival of IRE.

The team-produced series made its debut on March 13, 1977, amid continuing controversy. Among those publishing the series: Newsday, The Miami Herald, The Kansas City Star, The Boston Globe, The Indianapolis Star and The Denver Post. The Arizona Daily Star in Tucson was the sole newspaper in Arizona to publish the series. Many others carried reports from the Associated Press that began on March 18, five days after the first stories started.

It soon was clear to everyone that the team had done exactly what Bolles' killers had tried to keep him from doing. 

Reflecting on the the Arizona Project decades later, Greene told the IRE Journal:

“I was never more proud of American journalism than I was at the time of the Arizona Project,” Greene said. “A reporter had been killed for doing his job. And throughout the country, fellow reporters responded with more than words and plaques. They took up newsroom collections to support our response and many gave up their vacations and came to Arizona to work on the project. Our craft solidarity was magnificent.” (2004).

This attempt at collective journalism had never happened before, and since inspired other collaborative efforts. Some, unfortunately, also during tragedy, such as the Chauncey Bailey Project in 2007.

For IRE, the murder of Bolles and the resulting Arizona Project brought national attention and stature to a brand new organization. A project that had a 50-50 chance of success was published. A tiny organization with little money flourished to become what it is today. 

Thanks to those who have gone before, IRE is now an organization that is strong enough to take on today's threats to investigative reporting.