Bruce Campbell Adamson PO Box 1003 Aptos, CA 95001-1003

Born James Willis Hensley
April 12, 1920(1920-04-12)
San Antonio, Texas
Died June 21, 2000 (aged 80)
Phoenix, Arizona
Nationality American
Occupation Businessman
Known for One of Arizona's richest men;
Father-in-law of U.S. Senator and presidential candidate John McCain
Spouse(s) Mary Jeanne Parks (1937-1945)[1]
Marguerite "Smitty" Johnson Hensley (1945-2000)
Children Kathleen Hensley (b. 1943)[1] Cindy Lou Hensley (b. 1954)

In December 1952,[7] the Hensley brothers bought into the Ruidoso Downs racetrack in New Mexico, with Eugene running it and Jim returning to Phoenix.[6] In a May 1953 hearing before the New Mexico State Racing Commission, the Hensley brothers concealed the existence an equal partner, Clarence "Teak" Baldwin, who had been banned from any ownership role due to illegal bookmaking activities.[15] A 1953 New Mexico State Police investigation found further that Kemper Marley was a financial backer for bookmakers and had connections with Baldwin and with the bookmaking operations of organized crime,[15] a conclusion echoed decades later by the Arizona Project investigative reporting team.[16] The Hensley brothers gained their Ruidoso Downs racetrack license in 1953, as no New Mexico law barred convicted felons from race track ownership,[17] although in 1955 new Governor of New Mexico John F. Simms would say he was "appalled" by the previous administration's decision to do so.[17] Previous Governor Edwin L. Mechem had defended the approval, saying that the Hensleys had been under constant surveillance and deserved continued attention, but that no action was taken against them because the investigation showed that as race tracks go, all laws apparently were being observed.[18] Jim Hensley would sell his interest in Ruidoso Downs to his brother Eugene in 1955 (who would in turn sell it to a Marley-connected company in 1969).[5]

[edit] Hensley & Co.

In 1955, Hensley founded the beer distributorship to have his own name,[19] borrowing $10,000 against everything he had to buy a small existing distributorship.[20] He was given a state liquor license despite his normally disqualifying past felony conviction.[7] At the start it had 15 workers, sold 73,000 cases of beer a year, and had a 6 percent market share.[21] Hensley soon switched to exclusively distributing Anheuser-Busch beer.[6] Under the early names Hensley & Company Distributors and Hensley & Company Wholesale,[7] the company saw decades of steady growth,[7] aided by the Phoenix area becoming one of the fastest-growing regions of the country[6] while the company still maintained exclusivity with Anheuser-Busch.[5] Jim Hensley's tireless sales efforts[4] and the generous wages and benefits he gave employees[5] were also key success factors. By 1980 the business had become quite successful and Jim Hensley was a multi-millionaire.[22] Hensley had also distanced himself from Marley, and had helped set up a local hospital; nevertheless, he was never fully accepted by the Phoenix establishment.[4]

In 1981, Hensley hired his new son-in-law John McCain, recently married to his daughter Cindy, Vice President of Public Relations for Hensley & Co.[23] McCain soon left to begin his Congressional career. Jim Hensley's past record with the law, as well as his past connection to Marley (who was suspected by the police in the 1976 car-bomb murder of Arizona Republic investigative reporter Don Bolles[5]), became issues in McCain's 1986 campaign for the U.S. Senate.[14]

Hensley died in Phoenix on June 21, 2000.[19][24] By the time of his death, he was one of Arizona's richest men, although he never sought publicity.[9][25] He held most of the controlling stock in Hensley & Co.,[7] although he had withdrawn from daily operational control.[9] With 500 employees,[19] annual revenues were about $220 million[25] on 20 million cases of beer sold;[7] Hensley & Co. was the second-largest Anheuser-Busch distributor in the nation,[24] the fifth-largest beer distributorship overall in the nation[7] and the 12th largest privately held company in Arizona.[9] His frequently-amended will[12] left his entire estate to Cindy Hensley McCain,[1] who became the controlling stockholder and chair of the board after his death.[23] His first daughter Kathleen, her husband and children had received substantial ongoing gifts, credit cards, and college tuition payments in the decade before his death, but were left only one modest lump sum from his estate.

Don Bolles (July 28, 1928 - June 13, 1976) was an American investigative reporter whose murder in a bombing is linked to the Mafia.

Bolles grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey, and pursued a newspaper career, in the footsteps of his father (chief of the Associated Press bureau in New Jersey) and grandfather. He graduated from Beloit College with a degree in government, where he was editor of the campus newspaper, and received a President's Award for personal achievement. After a stint in the U.S. Army in the Korean War assigned to an anti-aircraft unit, he joined the Associated Press as a sports editor and rewriter in New York, New Jersey and Kentucky.

In 1962, he was hired by the Arizona Republic newspaper, published at the time by Nina Mason Pulliam, where he quickly found a spot on the investigative beat and gained a reputation for dogged reporting of influence peddling, bribery, and land swindles. Former colleagues, though, say he seemed to grow disillusioned in late 1975 and early 1976, and that he had requested to be taken off the investigative beat, moving to coverage of Phoenix City Hall and then the state Legislature.

Two marriages produced five children, four from the first and one from the second.

Bolles was the brother of Richard Nelson Bolles, author of the best-selling job-hunting book, What Color Is Your Parachute? He shares a grandfather, Stephen Bolles, with humanist theoretician Edmund Blair Bolles.

[edit] Death

On June 2, 1976, Bolles left behind a short note in his office typewriter explaining he would meet with an informant, then go to a luncheon meeting, and be back about 1:30 p.m. He was responsible for covering a routine hearing at the State Capitol, and planned to attend a movie with second wife Rosalie Kasse that night in celebration of their eighth wedding anniversary. The source promised information on a land deal involving top state politicians and possibly the mob. A wait of several minutes in the lobby of the Hotel Clarendon (now known as the Clarendon Hotel) was concluded with a call for Bolles himself to the front desk, where the conversation lasted no more than two minutes. Bolles then exited the hotel, his car in the adjacent parking lot just south of the hotel on Fourth Avenue.

Apparently, Bolles started the car, even moving a few feet, before a remote detonated bomb consisting of six sticks of dynamite taped to the underside of the car beneath the driver's seat was detonated, the impact shattering his lower body, opening the driver's door, and leaving him mortally wounded while half outside the vehicle. Both legs and one arm were amputated over a ten day stay in St. Joseph's Hospital, the eleventh day was the reporter's last. However, his last words after being found in the parking lot the day of the bombing were: "They finally got me. The Mafia. Emprise. Find John (Harvey Adamson)."

The exact motive for the crime remains a mystery, but many speculate the Mafia holds responsibility, as a large concentration of Bolles' work involved organized crime, even going as far as to run a story naming over 200 known mafia members operating in the state of Arizona. Some suspected that Kemper Marley, a man who made millions in the liquor distribution business in Arizona in a partnershp with Cindy McCain's father and fraternal uncle, was behind the Bolles murder, but Phoenix police could find no evidence linking him with the crime, and he continued conducting business in Arizona until meeting his own death, cancer-related, on June 25, 1990 in La Jolla, California.

The incident sparked an investigation in the months that followed, known as the Arizona Project, with Bob Greene assuming the head and drawing nearly 40 reporters and editors from 23 newspapers including The Milwaukee Journal and Newsday. Note: The Bob Greene who led the Don Bolles investigation was not the Bob Greene from the Chicago Tribune. He was Robert W. Greene, of Newsday.

John Harvey Adamson pleaded guilty in 1977 to second-degree murder for building and planting the bomb that killed Bolles. Adamson accused Phoenix contractor Max Dunlap, an associate of Kemper Marley, of ordering the hit, and Chandler plumber James Robison of triggering the bomb. Adamson testified against Dunlap and Robison, who were convicted of first-degree murder in the same year, but whose convictions were overturned in 1978. When Adamson refused to testify again, Adamson was charged and convicted of first-degree murder in 1980 and sentenced to death, which was overturned by the Arizona Supreme Court. In 1989, Robison was re-charged, and re-tried and acquitted in 1993, but pleaded guilty to a charge of soliciting an act of criminal violence against Adamson. In 1990, Dunlap was re-charged when Adamson agreed to testify again, and was found guilty of first-degree murder.

[edit] Newseum

The new $400 million Newseum will feature Bolles' 1976 Datsun 210, which had sat 28 years in a Phoenix Police impound lot, as the centerpiece of a gallery devoted solely to the slain journalist.