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More on this story, https://www.nytimes.com/1976/06/14/archives/organized-crime-spreads-to-fastgrowing-arizona.html?_r=0
“In his few moments of consciousness after the bombing, Mr. Bolles whispered the words “Mafia” and “Emprise.” The latter is a sports conglomerate with headquarters in Buffalo, N. Y., that has sometimes been accused of having links to organized crime.

Lieut. Glenn Sparks, of the intelligence division of the Phoenix Police Department, said there “are about 50 or more known associates” of Mafia gangsters living in the Phoenix area and that many had acquired holdings here in restaurants, bars, hotels and other businesses.”

The article linked above also goes into some detail about two other murders occurring around the same time. It discusses land fraud and one of the mafia connected fraudsters. “Such practices have gone on not only in Arizona but also in other states for perhaps a dozen or more years. But in Arizona, sales exploded in the late 60’s and early 70’s, and the Phoenix Police Department zeroed in on Nathan Waxman, a former convict who moved here in the early 1960’s and changed his name to Ned Warren.

He began mixing with some of the top members of the Phoenix social and political set and was soon known to be the controlling force behind at least a dozen companies, including the Great Southwest Land and Cattle Company, the Queen Creek Land and Cattle Corporation and Consolidated Mortgage Company.

The Phoenix Police Department repeatedly tried to prosecute Mr. Warren and his associates, but, to its frustration, its case against him never came to trial. This is partly because of the murder of Mr. Warren’s chief aide, Edward Lazar, on the day before he was scheduled to testify before a county grand jury about activities of the land corporations.”

Interesting information on Cindy McCain’s dad in this story. (He got his start from Kemper Marley, who Police thought may have had something to do with the murder of Don Bolles.) From Wikipedia on Jim Hensley, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Hensley
“In 1955, Hensley founded the beer distributorship that would have his name,[19] borrowing $10,000 against everything he had to buy a small existing distributorship.[20] He was given a state liquor license . despite his normally disqualifying past felony conviction.[7] At the start it had 15 workers, sold 73,000 cases of beer a year, and had a 6 percent market share.[21] Hensley soon switched to exclusively distributing Anheuser-Busch beer.[6] Under the early names Hensley & Company Distributors and Hensley & Company Wholesale,[7] the company saw decades of steady growth.[7] It was aided by the Phoenix area becoming one of the fastest-growing regions of the country[6] while the company maintained its position as Anheuser-Busch’s only distributor there.[5] Jim Hensley’s tireless sales efforts[4] and the generous wages and benefits he gave employees[5] were also key success factors. By 1980 the business had become quite successful and Jim Hensley was a multi-millionaire.[22] Hensley had also distanced himself from Marley, and had helped set up a local hospital; nevertheless, he was never fully accepted by the Phoenix establishment.[4]”

I had forgotten about all the Mafia connections in the history of AZ politics. (Look up Emprise and Deleware North. They hold huge contracts with sports facilities and Government entities like Yellowstone, etc.) Amazingly tied to the Mafia in their formative years.

Wasn’t there a Q post with the name Abramson? I can’t find it now but that was what triggered me to remember some of these connections.