Max Dunlap Dead at 80

Max Dunlap dies; convicted of killing 'AZ Republic' reporter.

by Glen Creno and Dennis Wagner - Jul. 22, 2009 12:00 AM

The Arizona Republic

A man convicted in the 1976 bombing death of Arizona Republic reporter Don Bolles died Tuesday in the medical unit of a Tucson prison. Max Dunlap, 80, was convicted in 1993 of murder and conspiracy to commit murder. The reporter's car exploded in the parking lot of a central Phoenix hotel. He died 11 days later. The Arizona Department of Corrections said Dunlap was transferred in March from the Arizona State Prison Complex-Lewis near Buckeye to a Tucson facility, where he was admitted to the medical unit. That is where the DOC said he died of natural causes around 11 a.m. Dunlap was part of what authorities said was a tangled plan to kill Bolles. They said Dunlap paid another man, John Harvey Adamson, to plant the bomb. Adamson said James Albert Robison triggered the bomb. Adamson served 20 years and two months for the murder, ending in 1996. He died in 2002. Dunlap and Robison were convicted of Bolles' murder in 1977. The convictions were overturned but both men had new trials in 1993. Robison was acquitted but later pleaded guilty to a charge of trying to hire someone to kill Adamson. Retired Phoenix police Detective Jon Sellers, the lead investigator in the case, said he always believed that Dunlap knew more about who was involved in the case. "I've always said we didn't get them all," Sellers said. "I think Max is the last living person who could give us first-hand information about the conspirators." Sellers said he testified that he believed that liquor magnate Kemper Marley Sr. was behind the bombing. Sellers said he believed Bolles was attacked either on Marley's orders or as a favor to him. Bolles had been writing about Marley's efforts to get a seat on the Arizona Racing Commission. Marley died in 1990, at the age of 83. He was not charged in the case. Among Dunlap's most ardent defenders was writer Don Devereux, who joined about 30 other journalists in producing the "Arizona Project," focusing on crime and corruption in Arizona. Devereux said he believes Max Dunlap was framed, and that Bolles was murdered by Adamson and another man on behalf of mob figures.