The Politics of Murder

The Politics of Murder is a history of organized crime in Arizona from the heady days of prosperity after World War II to the end of the 20th century. It is a history of unsolved murders that include figures like Willie Bioff, a society gangster who was killed for double-crossing a Tucson kingpin on an unpaid loan. Another was Phoenix crime boss Gus Greenbaum, a friend of the state's most powerful politicians, who helped develop the Las Vegas casino industry. He was rewarded with a...
More Description

The Politics of Murder is a history of organized crime in Arizona from the heady days of prosperity after World War II to the end of the 20th century. It is a history of unsolved murders that include figures like Willie Bioff, a society gangster who was killed for double-crossing a Tucson kingpin on an unpaid loan. Another was Phoenix crime boss Gus Greenbaum, a friend of the state's most powerful politicians, who helped develop the Las Vegas casino industry. He was rewarded with a grisly murder that is still officially unsolved. Land-fraud king Ned Warren stole nearly a billion dollars from veterans and retirees. The Phoenix political network protected him even as he hired saboteurs and Mafia hit men to eliminate a dozen witnesses. All of these killings remained unsolved at the time of the most notorious murder in the state's history, the 1962 car-bombing death of Arizona Republic reporter Don Bolles. The newsman was investigating a tip that one of the most powerful businessmen in the state was working with the Chicago Mafia to launder Las Vegas casino skim through Phoenix racetracks. The motive for killing Bolles was directly related to evidence the reporter uncovered about the Las Vegas money laundering, but his murder remained unsolved for other reasons.Solving Bolles? death would have revealed a carefully kept secret: When Bolles was assassinated, Barry Goldwater's political operation was in the process of removing from office by covert means the president of the Navajo Nation. It was a case of domestic regime change imposed on a sovereign Indian government that refused to submit to policies imposed by Washington to benefit non-Indian interests.The connection between the Bolles case and the Navajo plot was a strange and ruthless man, an assassin who made a living by building dynamite bombs. Before he killed Don Bolles, he built a bomb for the Goldwater political operation as it set out to remove the leader of the Navajo Nation. The connection was never revealed to the public. It had to remain a secret at all costs, and it was-- until now.