“They finally got me… the mafia…Emprise…find John Adamson.” Investigative reporter Don Bolles used his final words to name the people he believed had set the car bomb that had left him dying in a hotel parking lot in midtown Phoenix. In his fourteen years as one of Arizona's top reporters, Bolles took on the Mafia, land fraud kingpins, and corrupt politicians. And someone wanted him silenced. Murder in the Fourth Estate: The Assassination of Investigative Journalist Don Bolles is the first definitive account of the case, which is the most infamous assassination of a journalist in American history. The murder broke an unwritten rule in the world of organized crime at the time: journalists were off-limits. Starting with the June 2, 1976 assassination, this book follows the murder investigation through innumerable twists and turns-mishaps, mistrials, overturned convictions, conspiracy theories, and political intrigue. Based on nearly a decade of research into the Bolles case, this book includes evidence from the attorney general's voluminous case file and interviews with key participants. “Jeremy Duda's riveting and unnervingly clear-eyed Murder in the Fourth Estate is a meticulous reconstruction of the most infamous assassination of an American journalist. It is also a sharp, nuanced autopsy of the political, criminal, and institutional failures that made it possible. Duda weaves archival detail, dogged reporting, and human compassion into a narrative that never loses sight of the reporter at its center or the stakes for a free press. By seamlessly cutting through myth and spin, Duda has produced a definitive account that reads with the urgency of breaking news and the depth of a long forensic inquiry. The result is a stark and timely reminder of the journalism risks that come with getting too close to the truth.” ―Gerald Posner, New York Times bestselling author of "Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK" “A journalist assassinated by dynamite names his killers with dying breaths. What followed was a decades-long search for the truth by Western lawmen, reporters, and prosecutors, unraveling a conspiracy of criminals, crooked businessmen, mobsters, and politicians. Was justice ultimately served? Or did someone get away with the murder of an American journalist in broad daylight? Jeremy Duda, through years of dogged reporting, and the discovery of hidden documents and previously unknown witnesses, brings us closer than we've ever been to knowing what really happened. His gripping and fearless narrative would have made Don Bolles proud.” ― Chris DeRose, New York Times Bestselling Author of The Fighting Bunch “Jeremy Duda's Murder in the Fourth Estate , the result of the kind of exhaustive research that Bolles himself would have appreciated, demonstrates the quality journalism and dedication to the truth that this landmark case deserves. I'm impressed, and readers will be, too.” ― Jeff Guinn, New York Times bestselling author of Manson and The Road to Jonestown Jeremy Duda is an award-winning journalist for Axios in Phoenix who's spent the bulk of his 22-year career covering Arizona politics and government. He's worked for the Arizona Mirror, Arizona Capitol Times, Daily Herald of Provo, Utah, and the Hobbs (New Mexico) News-Sun, and he's been a contributor for the Economist, History Today and the Washington Post, where he contributed to a Pulitzer Prize-winning project on the Jan. 6 attack. He's also the author of If This Be Treason: The American Rogues and Rebels Who Walked the Line Between Dissent and Betrayal (2016).