John Peter Zenger

Lore & Background

Peter Zenger was born in 1697 in the German Palatinate, son of Nicolaus Eberhard Zenger and Johanna. His family immigrated to New York in 1710 as part of a large group of German Palatines. After his father died before settlement, Zenger was bound for eight years as an apprentice to William Bradford, the first printer in New York. By 1720 he was taking on printing work in Maryland, returning to New York permanently by 1722. In 1725 he became directly responsible for producing Bradford's New York Gazette and later a partner. After a brief partnership, Zenger set up as a commercial printer on Smith Street in New York City. In 1730 he published Peter Venema's Arithmetica, considered the first arithmetic text printed in New York. By 1731 his printing house had released 21 titles.

In 1733, Zenger was hired by New York politicians Rip Van Dam and Lewis Morris to print The New-York Weekly Journal, opposing the actions of newly appointed colonial governor William Cosby. The newspaper published articles critical of the governor. On November 17, 1734, on Cosby's orders, the sheriff arrested Zenger. After a grand jury refused to indict him, Attorney General Richard Bradley charged him with libel in August 1735. Zenger's lawyers, Andrew Hamilton and William Smith, Sr., successfully argued that truth is a defense against charges of libel. The jury returned a verdict of not guilty in ten minutes, a famous example of jury nullification.

Reader's Guide

The Zenger trial is considered the groundwork of freedom of the press in America, though not its legal precedent. In defending Zenger, lawyers Hamilton and Smith attempted to establish that a statement, even if defamatory, is not libelous if it can be proved. However, succeeding royal governors clamped down on freedom of the press until the American Revolution. As late as 1804, journalist Harry Croswell lost prosecutions because truth was not a defense against libel, as decided by the New York Supreme Court in People v. Croswell. Only the following year did the assembly pass a law allowing truth as a defense. The case became a cause célèbre, with public interest at fever-pitch. Zenger's acquittal by jury nullification demonstrated the power of juries to resist governmental overreach. The case is frequently cited in discussions of freedom of speech and press in the United States, though its immediate legal impact was limited. Zenger died in New York on July 28, 1746, at age 48, with his wife continuing his printing business.

Did You Know?

• Zenger was bound for eight years as an apprentice to William Bradford, the first printer in New York.
• The jury in Zenger's trial returned a verdict of not guilty in ten minutes, an example of jury nullification.
• Zenger published Peter Venema's Arithmetica in 1730, considered the first arithmetic text printed in New York.
• During World War II, the Liberty ship SS Peter Zenger was named in his honor.

A Life Built on the News

Don Bolles entered journalism through family tradition. Born in Milwaukee in 1928, he grew up in New Jersey where his father headed the Associated Press bureau and his grandfather had built a career in newspapers. After graduating Teaneck High School in 1946 and earning a government degree from Beloit College—where he edited the campus paper The Round Table and earned a President's Award—he served in the Korean War before joining the AP as a sports editor and rewriter across New Jersey, New York, and Kentucky. In 1962, he accepted a position at The Arizona Republic in Phoenix, a paper then published by Eugene C. Pulliam. There he carved out a niche on the investigative beat, earning a reputation for relentless pursuit of influence peddling, bribery, and real estate fraud, particularly as it intersected with the Chicago Outfit's operations around Phoenix. By late 1975 and into early 1976, former colleagues recall that Bolles appeared increasingly disillusioned with the work. He requested a transfer away from the investigative desk, first to cover Phoenix City Hall and then the state legislature. He was married twice and fathered seven children.

The Bombing on Fourth Avenue

On the morning of June 2, 1976, Bolles typed a brief note at his office desk explaining his plans: he would meet an informant named John Adamson, attend a luncheon at the Hotel Clarendon, and be back by 1:30 p.m. Adamson had promised details on a land deal that allegedly involved senior state politicians and possibly the Mafia. Bolles waited in the hotel lobby for several minutes before being called to the front desk, where his conversation with Adamson lasted no more than two minutes. He then walked to his 1976 Datsun 710, parked in a lot on Fourth Avenue adjacent to the hotel. As he pulled out of his space, a remote-controlled device made of six sticks of dynamite, taped beneath the driver's seat, was detonated. The blast shattered his lower body, blew open the driver's door, and left him half outside the car. Over the next ten days at St. Joseph's Hospital, surgeons amputated one arm and both legs. He died on June 13 at age 47 and was laid to rest in a crypt at the Serenity Mausoleum in Phoenix.

A Decades-Long Legal Tangle

The investigation that followed Bolles' death became one of the most protracted legal sagas in Arizona history. While still hospitalized, Bolles made statements pointing to the Mafia, yet Maricopa County District Attorney Donald Harris publicly dismissed that theory, insisting a 'country club set' conspiracy was more plausible. Bolles identified Adamson by photograph from his hospital bed, and Adamson's former attorney, Mickey Clifton, tipped police to Adamson's involvement. Trial evidence showed Adamson had bought components for two bombs during a trip to San Diego and had scouted the Republic's parking lot, asking a guard which vehicle belonged to Bolles. In 1977, Adamson pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and named contractor Max Dunlap as the hit's instigator and plumber James Robison as the triggerman. Both were convicted of first-degree murder that same year, but their convictions were reversed in 1978. The case kept cycling: Adamson received a death sentence in 1980 (later overturned), Robison was acquitted in 1993, and Dunlap was finally convicted of first-degree murder in 1990, dying in an Arizona prison in 2009. Adamson, released in 1996 under witness protection, died in 2002.

Emprise, the Last Word, and the Search for Answers

Among Bolles' final spoken words was the name 'Emprise,' a privately held company that operated dog and horse racing tracks and served as a major food vendor for sports arenas. In 1972, the House Select Committee on Crime held hearings into Emprise's ties to organized crime figures, and the company along with six individuals was convicted of concealing ownership of the Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas. Following that conviction, Emprise's Arizona dog-racing operations were placed under a state-appointed trustee. Bolles was actively investigating Emprise at the time of his death, though no direct link between the company and the bombing was ever established. Decades later, the 2022 documentary Who Killed Don Bolles? revisited the case through the lens of veteran journalist Don Devereux, who reported in the aftermath. Devereux alleged that Bradley Funk, an heir to the Emprise fortune whose ex-wife had dealings with Bolles, ordered the hit, and that a corrupt Phoenix attorney named Neal Roberts, a close friend of Funk, recruited Adamson, who in turn enlisted known hitman Carl Verive. The full truth may never be fully settled.

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