Marking the Murder That Gave Life to IRE

By: Joe Strupp Friday marks 30 years since Don Bolles was blown up in his car outside a Phoenix, Ariz., office building where he had been lured with promises of inside information on a mob-related land fraud scheme. Bolles, an investigative reporter for The Arizona Republic, died 11 days later from injuries suffered in the bombing -- leaving behind a career of dogged investigations and gutsy reporting.

But while the 1976 tragedy ended Bolles' life, it gave a new spark to Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE), the nationwide group that was just forming when Bolles was killed. Seizing on the murder as a sign that investigative reporters needed to stand up to such intimidation methods, the group -- which held its first convention just days after Bolles' death -- chose to take a stand.

Led by veteran Newsday Editor Bob Greene, a collection of journalists from around the country convened in Phoenix later that year to not only show unity, but to finish Bolles' work. Between September 1976 and March 1977, some 30 reporters from New York to Denver worked on what become known as "The Arizona Project," a 23-part series on corruption, organized crime, and land fraud in Arizona. All or part of the series eventually ran in more than 25 newspapers, from The Press-Enterprise of Riverside, Calif., to The Miami Herald, according to Greene.

"It gave the idea that if you kill a reporter, we have such a unity that we will come in and continue the work," says Greene, now retired and consulting for Stony Brook University in Long Island, N.Y. "We also wanted it to sink in nationwide. The more widespread it was printed, the more hurt it does to them."

The Associated Press and United Press International also ran portions of the series, while CBS Radio offered audio reports. "One day, The Boston Globe skipped a part of the series and got numerous phone complaints," Greene recalls. "There was tremendous solidarity in the press."

IRE plans to launch a yearlong celebration of its 30th anniversary during this year's convention, slated for June 15 through 18 in Fort Worth, Texas. Much of the event will be devoted to remembering Bolles and the Arizona Project, according to IRE Executive Director Brant Houston. "You cannot talk about one without the other," he said of IRE and the project. "It has been inspiring to journalists all over the world."

IRE's related plans include an ongoing collection of new articles on the group's Web site and in The IRE Journal about Bolles and the project, testimonials on how IRE and the project affected journalists' lives, and a new fund-raising effort aimed at increasing the IRE endowment from $3 million to $5 million. Says Houston, "That will mean that the very core operation of IRE will be supported."

In addition, the IRE Web site will provide a daily look back at Bolles' death and the Arizona Project with a "30 Years Ago Today" feature that will chronicle what occurred each day from the time Bolles' car exploded to the end of the series.

Another related event will be the inclusion of Bolles' car, a 1976 Datsun, in the Newseum, which is set to reopen in its new Washington, D.C., location in 2007. A reunion of Arizona Project participants also is being formed for the 2007 IRE convention to be held in Phoenix. "They will help with more oral histories," Houston adds. "We want to recognize their importance."

Greene, who was a senior editor at Newsday when Bolles died, recalls Bill Woestendiek, editor of the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson at the time, calling then-Newsday editor David Laventhol. He said Woestendiek proposed that Greene lead a reporting team to finish Bolles' work.

"He thought it would be swept under the rug," Greene recalls. "It put IRE on the map." For seven months, reporters worked under Greene, along with some local college students and hired clerical help to produce the series. "We kept incredible notes, files and it was classic investigation," Greene says, noting that all of the documents are stored at the University of Missouri School of Journalism.

He remains surprised how many reporters joined in, many at their own expense. "Reporters gave up vacations to work two, three or four weeks on it," Greene says. "There were also newspapers and news people around the country sending money in." Many newsrooms set up payday collections, where staffers cashed their checks and handed over a portion destined for the Adams Hotel in Phoenix, where the project was based. "We got a lot from regular citizens, too," he said, estimating the project's budget at about $150,000.

Myrta Pulliam, director of special projects at The Indianapolis Star and daughter of former Star publisher Eugene Pulliam, was a young reporter in 1976 when she took part in the Arizona group report. She says no one realized what an impact it would have on the news business. "I don't think we had a sense that it was as important as it was," she said recently. "It did a whole slew of things, including making us better reporters. I think it has bought an insurance policy for reporters."

When it was all over, the project earned awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and other groups, while consideration was briefly given to a special Pulitzer Prize. At least eight libel suits were filed against the group, none of which was successful.

But it was not without its controversies. A number of newspapers, The New York Times and The Washington Post among them, declined to be involved. Ben Bradlee, executive editor of the Post at the time, says his paper passed because it did not want to be involved in a project of such size that it did not control. "If you can devote time to it, it ought to be your own reporters," Bradlee says today. "But we didn't do anything to try to stop it."

Another dispute arose over a book about the project, eventually penned by Michael Wendland, a Detroit reporter who was a member of the Project's staff. Greene said that those involved agreed from the beginning not to do their own story on their combined efforts. "We all agreed that we were not out to make money on Bolles," he adds. "Everybody agreed to that -- and Wendland came in and ripped it off." Wendland's book came out in 1977, with an updated version in 1988.

Wendland, who was then with The Detroit News and is now at the Detroit Free Press, disputes Greene's claim. He said the agreement was not to write anything until the series was published. "My stuff was well after that," he says. "They were the ones who had producers coming in during news meetings for a movie. When they did that, all bets were off."

Still, the overall results of the project have been immensely important. "There is nothing that has made me prouder," says Greene, who also directed two Pulitzer Prize-winning projects at Newsday. With current tighter deadlines and budgets and growing corporate oversight, could the Arizona Project be done today? "I don't know," he admits. "Local owners seem to be willing to put up more people."