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Rediscovering
Rediscovering episodes
- S1 EP03: The Menace Within
There were two threats brewing for Don Bolles in 1970, at least in his mind. And one was coming from inside the newsroom.
Bolles had begun to suspect that his reporting partner had Mafia ties. Despite a lack of evidence, his partner was taken off the beat.
The Arizona Republic would go public with allegations of wiretapping. It would also publish Bolles’ 10-day seminal series, “The Menace Within.”
But the threat from outside the newsroom continued to grow.
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32 min - S1 EP02: Wiretaps and wild allegations
After discovering that the Funk family may have wiretapped his phones, Don Bolles was put in a unique position. He wasn’t so much a reporter as he was trying to solve a crime.
Helping him in this endeavor was his reporting partner, Dom Frasca. Frasca was a Pulitzer prize-winning investigative reporter who had experience looking into the mafia.
When the duo started asking questions, major concerns were raised about the credibility of their main source. Despite those concerns, the paper wanted to go public about the allegations.
It was a decision that would cost them.
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45 min - S1 EP01: Shattered naiveté
The murder of investigative reporter Don Bolles shocked what was then a much smaller, sleepy Phoenix. He was a reporter killed for doing his job. It was — and still is — a rare incident in the United States.
In the years before his murder, Bolles was known for his tenacity, like a character out of film noir. Driven to keep the city from becoming mob run, Bolles worked diligently to expose ties between the Funk family — which owned the horse and dog racing tracks in town — and the Mafia.
He made few friends in doing so. Eventually, Bolles was told that the Funks had pawed through his bank accounts and wiretapped his phones to dig up dirt on him.
The man who was determined to hold people accountable now had to discover if these allegations were true.
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29 min - Coming soon - Rediscovering: Don Bolles, a murdered journalist
Don Bolles was an investigative reporter for The Arizona Republic in the 1960s and '70s. After years of reporting on corruption in the racing industry, he was killed by a car bomb in 1976.
Decades later, we found cassette tapes of his phone calls from the '70s. Thanks to those tapes, we're telling the story of Don's life and his quarrels with the mafia before his death and how his spirit was crushed long before his murder.
Rediscovering: Don Bolles, a murdered journalist is the latest podcast from The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com. The show launches with two episodes on Tuesday, Nov. 5. Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher Radio or wherever else you listen to podcasts.
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5 min
About Rediscovering
From the publisher's feed
SEASON FOUR: Arizona is less than 3% of the nation’s population but often plays a prominent role in American radicalism, like the insurrection at the nation’s Capitol on January 6th. This podcast asks why? Over four episodes, hosts Ron Hansen and Mary Jo Pitzl trace the history of Arizona’s brushes with extremism. It goes beyond outlandish acts and isolated criminal behavior. It’s a story of disillusionment, distrust of government and outright rebellion that have mixed into the state’s culture and politics. From Confederates drawn to Arizona to Ground Zero for election denialism, this is Rediscovering season four: The Roots of Radicalism.
SEASON THREE: Border Patrol Agent Lonnie Swartz responded to a drug smuggling attempt, leaving his assigned post at a Nogales port of entry on Oct. 10, 2012. The night would end with 16-year old Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez dead on the Mexican side of Ambos Nogales. The event would begin a nearly decade-long court battle for the Elena Rodriguez family as they sought justice for the killing. It also would be a historic moment for the U.S. Border Patrol when Swartz became the first agent to be federally charged on multiple counts, including murder. Families seeking justice would get an answer years later, when another cross-border shooting reached the U.S. Supreme Court. In season three of Rediscovering, Killed Through the Border Fence, host Rafael Carranza focuses on a case that changed the way the U.S. patrols its southern boundary with Mexico and its lasting impacts on both sides of the border.
SEASON TWO: In April 2010, Arizona enacted the Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act, better known as Senate Bill 1070. The state law required police officers to inquire about the legal status of anyone they thought might be in the country illegally. The law was a state-level response to a national issue that had stalled in Congress. It sought to break the federal log jam and show the nation that if Congress wouldn't tackle immigration reform, Arizona would. Ten years later, the law played a role in reducing the size of the state’s undocumented population and unquestionably reshaped Arizona politics. In season two of Rediscovering, SB 1070, hosts Ron Hansen and Yvonne Wingett Sanchez retrace the history of SB 1070: how it happened, who advocated for it and why it still matters a decade later.
SEASON ONE: Our show focused on Don Bolles. Bolles was an investigative reporter for The Arizona Republic in the 1960s and '70s. After years of reporting on corruption in the racing industry, he was killed by a car bomb in 1976. Decades later, we found cassette tapes of his phone calls from the '70s. With those tapes, we're telling the story of Don's life and his quarrels with the mafia before his death and how his spirit was crushed long before his murder.
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