The Arizona Project
Their research aimed to expose and portray these deep-rooted links in a series of news articles to then be published nationwide, while also functioning as a message meant to reflect the unity of journalists and the consequences of killing a reporter.
"[8] Bolles's investigative work was the catalyst for the Arizona State Legislature commanding Emprise Corporation to divest investments in a number of dog and horse racetracks in 1976.
[7][8] Investigative work like this earned Bolles a nomination for a Pulitzer prize as well as an established reputation in the journalistic sphere throughout America, including an honorary award in his name at his former college.
[9] Bolles had stopped doing investigative work for various reasons around ten months before he received a phone call on May 27 from a man claiming to have evidence of land fraud schemes implicating the aforementioned Emprise Corporation and well known business and political figures.
[10] As Bolles lay half out the driver's side of the car, bleeding profusely and lapsing in and out of consciousness, he managed to whisper, "They finally got me... Emprise – the Mafia – John Adamson – find him."
"For years we had proceeded about our business ignoring threats to our lives and our job, more or less assuming that the bosses of organised crime and politics would 'be too smart' to kill a reporter or editor and stir up the whole journalistic community.
After days of discussion, it was decided the best course of action to defend what they considered an assault on press freedom – as well as to signal to the world that reporters could not be muzzled – was to form a team to continue Bolles's work.
After only a month, the series was finished – a collection of 23 different articles detailed with photographs and biographies of significant individuals, spanning a total of over 100,000 words that outlined an intricate and deep-rooted web of organised crime and corruption in the state.
The sixth story revealed Robert's involvement with an associate of American mobster Peter Licavoli and their partnership in the Arizona restaurant chain Hobo Jo's.
[27] Some of the key findings from the story revealed there to be 23 different major smuggling rings controlled by various crime families throughout America, as well as an estimation that as many as 800 licensed pilots earn a full-time income transporting narcotics from Mexico into Arizona.
[27] The final few stories dealt with organised crime and its corruptive influence on the criminal justice system, highlighting the leniency awarded to high-profile families and prominent individuals.
[1] Reception was mixed; many agreed that the investigation brought to light a better understanding of the deep-seated roots of criminal practice throughout Arizona, engendering awareness and propelling action against such corruptive behaviours on a nationwide scale.
[1][29] Prominent Los Angeles Times news critic David Shaw stated of the project that the stories, were 'vague, unproven, filled with innuendo,’ and, ‘instead of proof, the Arizona team too frequently offered unsubstantiated surmise, syllogistic reasoning and hyperfervid language’[30] A month after initial publication of the series, a polling service in Phoenix called Behavior Research Center surveyed 1000 households spanning the Rocky Mountains.
