Click the play button on the video window to the right to see the storyPHOENIX - A man convicted in the murder of Arizona Republic reporter Don Bolles died Tuesday at the Arizona State Prison Complex-Tucson.
Max Dunlap, 80, had been convicted of murder and conspiracy to commit murder in 1993. He was serving a life sentence.
Republic reporter Don Bolles died in 1976 after his car exploded in the hotel parking lot of The Clarendon Hotel in downtown Phoenix.
Dunlap was later arrested -- and charged with the crime.
According to Arizona Corrections Department Spokesperson Bill Lamoreaux, Dunlap died of what appears to be natural causes.
MORE: Convicted Bolles murderer asks for clemency; health failingA 2006 ABC15 investigation opened new questions about Dunlap's role in the murder of Don Bolles, and even the possibility that he may have been framed.
The Dunlap family provided ABC15 with a 2005 videotape of Max Dunlap.
In it, Dunlap claimed he knew nothing about the plan to kill Bolles.
Dunlap also discussed the details of his case and how he felt he was wrongly convicted.
"It doesn't take that much to put someone in prison," Dunlap said in the jailhouse interview with his attorney and friend.
Dave Frazer was there in 2005 when Dunlap gave the jailhouse interview.
“Max was very involved in proving his innocence anyway that he could,” Frazer said.
For the last 32 years, Frazer had been fighting for Dunlap’s release from prison.
“I believe in our system of justice. And justice was not served with Max Dunlap,” Frazer said.
At the time of his death, Dunlap remained the only man convicted in the murder of Don Bolles.
Although his health was fading, Frazer said Dunlap was holding out.
“He was still hoping to get out and be with his family,” Frazer said. “It was really a blow, a blow to the family.”
For now, Frazer said he has his memories. He has collected almost every article written about Dunlap and put them in two large scrapbooks.
But he said this is not the end.
“It’s the end of the book, but it is not the end of the story,” Frazer said.
Frances Bolles Haynes, Don Bolles’ daughter, told ABC15:
“I feel for the children. They were victims of his actions too. I have sympathy for them.”
Read the original investigation below:
ORIGINAL STORY: November 3, 2006
By Investigator Abbie Boudreau and Nicole Longhini
ABC15.com
See the original video of the ABC15 InvestigationMAX DUNLAP – BEHIND BARS
In 1977, Max Dunlap was convicted of first degree murder in the killing of investigative reporter Don Bolles. But after 30 years, new information has surfaced, and more people close to the case are questioning if Dunlap was set up to take the fall for Bolles' murder.
Read current Attorney General Terry Goddard's statement regarding the Don Bolles case. (Adobe PDF, 190K)
"It's been a tremendous, traumatic thing for me and my family," Dunlap said. "Luckily, I have a very close family, and my wife has stayed in there. I call her my rock."
The Dunlap family provided ABC 15 with a 2005 video tape of Max Dunlap. In it, Dunlap claimed he knew nothing about the plan to kill Bolles and said he did not even know Bolles. Dunlap also discussed the details of his case and how he felt he was wrongly convicted.
"It doesn't take that much to put someone in prison, you just gotta get somebody to say a few things this way and a few things that way," Dunlap said in the jailhouse interview with his attorney.
On the tape, Dunlap said the prosecution's key witness, John Adamson, and a former Phoenix attorney and Dunlap's high school classmate, Neal Roberts, framed him for the bombing.
"Well, I always thought that the legal system was fair, and I really didn't know what to think," Dunlap said. "I wasn't involved in this thing in any manner, shape or form. And I thought that I would be exonerated."
Read Max Dunlap's letter to ABC15 Investigator Abbie Boudreau. (Adobe PDF, 980K)
HISTORY OF DUNLAP'S CONNECTION TO BOLLES' MURDER
In 1977, Dunlap was sentenced to life in prison for first degree murder, in this case.
In 1980, Dunlap's sentence was over-turned.
According to court records, defense lawyers argued they should have been allowed to further question the prosecution's key witness, John Adamson, but they were not given the chance.
"Dunlap's conviction was reversed by the Arizona Supreme Court," Phoenix attorney Jordan Green said. "His case was remanded by the Supreme Court back to the trial court. His matter was then set for trial," Green recalled about his former client's case.
Green said Adamson refused to testify in the 1980 trial, and without his testimoney against Dunlap, the state moved to dismiss the case. At that point, the case was dropped, and Dunlap became a free man.
Green said immediately after the case was dropped, Dunlap wanted to clear his name and demanded to be re-tried. But that did not happen.
Instead, Dunlap remained a free man, until prosecutors re-charged him in 1993, with the Bolles' murder, yet again.
This time, John Adamson testified against Dunlap at the trial.
According to court records, Adamson said he planted the bomb underneath Bolles' car, but that Dunlap paid him to do it. Adamson was considered the main witness in the prosecution's case against Dunlap.
Dunlap admitted he delivered money to Adamson, but said he did it as a favor for a friend. Dunlap said he did not know what the money was going to be used for, and that he had no knowledge of any plan to kill reporter Don Bolles.
In 1993, a jury found Dunlap guilty, once again, based mostly on Adamson's testimony, according to Green.
FORMER DUNLAP ATTORNEY SPEAKS OUT
"90 percent of the basis on which a jury would conclude that Max Dunlap was guilty or not guilty is based on what [John] Adamson says," Jordan Green told ABC 15.
Green is a criminal defense attorney in Phoenix. At one time he represented Dunlap in this case.
In his first ever t-v interview, Green said he believed the prosecution's key witness, John Adamson, lied on the witness stand, to save his own neck, and to protect the people who were really behind the blast.
"He was negotiating a deal in which he would escape the death penalty in exchange for his story," Green said.
In a deposition, Green questioned Adamson about how he built the bomb used to blow up Bolles' 1976 Datsun. Green said Adamason told him he used six sticks of dynamite in the blast.
But Green said Adamson struggled to show him exactly how he built the bomb, leading Green to question if Adamson even built the bomb in the first place.
"It tells me he didn't put the bomb together, he didn't see the bomb put together and he didn't put the bomb under the car," Green said. "You have to know whether Adamson is telling the truth or not in order to determine whether Dunlap was guilty or not."
In 1991, Green decided to re-enact the car bombing, to see if what Adamson said panned out.
The ABC 15 Investigators obtained never-before-seen videotape of that re-enactment. Green said he hired a dynamite expert and a physicist to perform it.
Green told ABC 15 he used the exact type and amount of dynamite Adamson said he used in his deposition, and placed the bomb precisely where Adamson said he put it.
Green even bought two 1976 Datsun's, which was the same kind of car Don Bolles was driving at the time of the bombing.
They then detonated the bomb.
Green said he soon discovered just what he suspected.
"This doesn't look anything like Mr. Bolles' car," Green said, comparing his re-enactment of the blast, to Bolles' car right after the bombing.
None of this re-enactment video made it in front of a jury.
"I think that if this evidence and other evidence had been used and used effectively Dunlap would not be in jail today."
Interestingly enough - Green's findings were supported by a Phoenix Police Bomb Squad Detective. In a deposition, the detective said he believed only three sticks of dynamite were used, and claimed six sticks would have caused excessive damage to Bolles' car.
NEW QUESTIONS RAISED – WAS MAX DUNLAP FRAMED?
The prosecution's key witness, John Adamson, testified Max Dunlap paid him to put the bomb underneath Don Bolles' 1976 Datsun. Dunlap admitted he delivered money to Adamson. Dunlap claimed he did not know what the money was for, and told police that he delivered it as a favor for a friend and former high school classmate, Neal Roberts.
Roberts was a prominent Phoenix attorney in the 1970's. Police had questioned him in this case, but Roberts was never charged.
Roberts' legal secretary at the time of the bombing was Elaine Roberts - no relation to Neal Roberts. According to Elaine Roberts, she said she asked her boss if he was ever involved in Bolles' murder.
The ABC 15 Investigators obtained a sworn statement of Elaine Roberts, where she recalled a conversation she had with Neal Roberts, not long before he died.
"I said, 'Tell me, why did you get involved? Why did you participate in that? Why did you do it?' And he said, 'Somebody had to do it,'" Elaine Roberts said the never-before-seen videotaped statement.
She went on to say, "He smiled and said, 'I was at the top of the totem pole. You don't think I would be anything else, do you?'"
In the video statement, she said she asked her boss about Max Dunlap, and whether Dunlap was involved in the murder.
"He again said, to the effect, that, 'I had my uses for him. He served a purpose, he served a purpose. He was always a patsy," she said.
To this day, Elaine Roberts believes Max Dunlap was set up by her boss, Neal Roberts, to take the fall for one of Arizona's most infamous crimes.
FORMER NEW YORK TIMES REPORTER TELLS HER STORY
Molly Ivins is a former syndicated New York Times columnist assigned to investigate the Bolles' murder years ago.
ABC 15 obtained a videotape deposition that has never been made public before, where Ivins recalled interviewing Neal Roberts. Ivins said she asked him about Max Dunlap's role in the murder.
"I sensed as near as I could tell from looking at this case, it was Neal Roberts set him up," Ivins said in her videotape deposition. "Off the record, what he told me was that if there's anybody who's innocent in this whole thing, it's Max Dunlap."
Ivins said she dictated everything she remembered from the interview into a tape recorder immediately after she was finished talking to Roberts.
"I later sent that tape to the Attorney General's Office," Ivins recalled.
Ivins said she tried going to the authorities with this information, but it was never clear if her story was ever investigated.
Read the police report Molly Ivins filed in 1988. (Adobe PDF, 740K)
DUNLAP FAMILY SPEAKS OUT
"We've stayed so silent, my family has been so silent about my dad," Max Dunlap's daughter, Karen Graham told ABC 15 about her father. "I absolutely with no question know that my dad had nothing to do with this murder."
For the first time in 30 years, the Dunlap family spoke out about why they believe Max Dunlap was framed for the murder of Don Bolles.
"We've always depended on the attorneys, or the court or the system to finally expose that we are a great family," Graham said. "We stand behind my dad 100% percent and I will till the day he dies and long after."
But for now, 77 year-old Max Dunlap remains behind bars.
"I would spend the rest of my life proving his innocence if that's what it takes," Graham said.
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