New signs honor Phoenix journalist Don Bolles at site of car bombing

PHOENIX – Street signs honoring slain Phoenix journalist Don Bolles were installed this week at the intersection where he was killed by a car bomb 45 years ago.

Ceremonial blue Don Bolles Way signs went up Tuesday at Fourth and Clarendon avenues, outside the Clarendon Hotel.

The hotel’s owner requested and paid for the tribute through the city’s ceremonial street sign program.

“On behalf of the city of Phoenix, I offer our thanks to Daron Brotherton – who has owned the Clarendon Hotel since 2019 – for honoring Don Bolles’ life and career with these ceremonial signs,” Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego said in a press release.

“Don was a crusader for justice who made our city a better place. Although 45 years have passed since his death, his legacy is still very much alive.”

As an investigative reporter for the Arizona Republic, Bolles was known for covering organized crime and political corruption.

His car was rigged with a bomb that went off as he started to drive away from the hotel, then known as the Hotel Clarendon, on June 2, 1976. Bolles died 11 days later.

“Arizona and the city of Phoenix are better because of journalists like Don Bolles,” Councilwoman Laura Pastor said in the release. “I thank my colleagues for supporting the ceremonial renaming of Don Bolles Way as a lasting tribute to his life’s work.”

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