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Continued from A-lbetween these underworldchieftains and leadingpower-brokers of both the Republican and Democratic parties. Some of these relationships havebeen accidental or cursory. But many are formutual advantage involving hood worship, power and money,The fruits of these relationships, according tosome critics, have been reflected in parsimoniouslaw enforcement budgetswhich force police to concentrate cn high-profile street crime, virtually ignoring such so-called vic-timless crimes as gambling and prostitution — major sources of income for the underworld. Today, for example, the Phoenix police department can muster a squad of only 12 officers to handle all of the gambling and prostitution in a city of 676,000 people. Tucson police have made one gambling arrest in the past ten years — a case forwarded to them by the FBI.This combination of events — existing criminalorganizations, understaffed law enforcement agencies, courtroom bottlenecks, tolerance on the part of some officials — plus close proximity to the heart of Mexico's drug-growing regions, has made Arizona perhaps the single most concentrated corridor of illegal narcotics entry into the U.S. This isparticularly true of marijuana and heroin since Mexico has replaced Turkey as the leading supplier of heroin to this country.The ability of mobsters to move unscathed and corrupt public officials to go unpunished has partially resulted from the benign attitude of some judges and prosecutors and bar associations that function more as social clubs than guardians of the legal ethic. The result is an attitude of arrogance and untouchability, logical precursors to the thought thatthe murder of a newspaperreporter is a reasonableway to halt his work.There is no question that organized crime is a major threat to Arizona. With the assistance of federal and local law enforcement agencies, the IRE teamwas able to identify morethan 200 persons in Arizona with ties to nationally recognized crime families.Many more are believed to be working in the state. The IRE list shows at least 171 of these persons to be in Phoenix and Tucson alone. The bulk of these criminals have arrived in Arizona during the past ten years, coincident with the population boom and the emergence of the state as a major narcotics corridor.Nor is this invasion limited to the big cities alone. IRE reporters discovered a virtual transplant of the Rochester, N.Y. branch of the Joe Bonanno crimefamily in Lake Havasu City, Ariz., near the Nevada border. Similar Cosa Nostra types were found in such smaller cities as Prescott, Kingman and even in the mountaintop, semi-ghost town of Jerome in central Arizona. The crime families represented come from such varied cities as New York, Boston, Detroit, St. Louis,DON BOLLES Murdered reporterChicago and Cleveland. But all have found a home in Arizona.“Organized crime is oneof Arizona’s major problems,’’ said Bruce Babbitt, the state's forceful, new attorney general. It hasArizona by the throat,” said outgoing U.S. Attorney William Smitherman. “It’s a monumental problem,’’ agreed Vernon Hoy,aggressive reformer of theDPS. “The odds are overwhelming,” said hard-nosed Phoenix police chief Larry Wetzel. ‘‘We are against the wall,” said Terry Grimble, dynamic director of the Four County Strike Force.Not all Arizonans agree, however, with this assessment. Sen. Barry Goldwa-ter (R-Ariz), after a month of ducking IRE requests for an interview, appeared on Phoenix’s KTAR-TV last Feb. 16 and criticized the IRE project.“I thought they (IRE reporters) came down here to solve the Bolles case,complained Golwater. Instead, they've interviewed my family, Rosen-zweig’s (former state GOP leader Harry Rosenzweig) family, God knows how many other families in this state, about things that have nothing to do with the Bolles case.”Asked whether the IRE team wasn’t looking into white collar and organized crime in Arizona, Goldwa-ter replied: “Well, I wish them all the luck in the world. I haven’t seen it and I’ve lived here for 68 years.”Typical of the problems faced by law enforcement in Arizona were those encountered by outgoing U.S. Attorney Smitherman, generally regarded as ahard-working, concerned public official. Smitherman’s office carried the fourth highest criminalcase load (heavy on narcotics) of any U.S. attorney’s office in the country.His office also reflects the twelfth highest demand for time consuming trial by jury. Smitherman had nearly 2,000 pending criminal cases in his office at the end of last November. Yet, he had only 29 assistants to handle all federalcriminal and civil mattersin Arizona.I tried my damndest to get more help from Washington, but they wouldn’t listen,” said Smitherman. Then I went to the Department of Justice to borrow some people. All they could send were greenies,kids right out of school. Ineeded expert help, but it wasn't there,” Smitherman said his predecessor had also tried unsuccessfully to build staff.Former assistant U.S. Attorney Ann Bowen of Tucson recently complained about the pace of the battle against organized crime in Arizona. She said: There has been a total lack of federal prosecution of organized crimein Arizona. I have the feeling that organized crime is well organized in Arizona and we are not.Smitherman says thathe understands the frustration of his former assistant. I feel the same way, he said. Organized crime and white collar crime cases are highly complicated. They tie up my assistants for months. Meanwhile the federal courts are telling us to bring current cases to trial and threatening to throw them out of we don’t. Heck, I can take you down to bankruptcy court. There are any number of cases there that are going through civil process that are really organized crime cases. But the governmentreally decides what I cando by the limit it puts on my staff.Phoenix Police Chief Wetzel feels the samesense of frustration. His police department is 800 fewer in number than he feels is the margin ofsafety. While Phoenixranks high nationally in crime statistics, most of these are petty thefts, and all crime is scrupulously reported. The FBI regardsthe department as superior. You keep telling the city that we are in mortal danger and everyone talks back about tight money,” complained Wetzel. Phoe-Arizona Attorney Generalnix reform Mayor Margaret Hance has been trying to help, but the recent defeat of a city sales tax boost earmarked for police spells trouble.Newly-elected Maricopa County (District) Attorney Charles Hyder mused on a similar theme recently. He blamed politics in part for the failure of earlier county attorneys. He was particularly bitter about the 1975 murder of Ed Lazar, star state's witness against Warren.Said Hyder: It's no secret that there hasn’t been the best relationship between the county board of supervisors and this office . . . There should not be political considerations in funding or not funding this office. Personalities and party considerations should be laid aside. I don’t think this has beendone in Phoenix.”Hyder feels that there must be a state-wide change in attitude. ‘‘Phoenix with all its growth and sophisticationis a small town in its attitudes towards crime and the prosecutor’s office,” he said. “The whole state’s that way and it’s reflected in the legislature. It took the bombing of Don Bolles to get through some legislation we’ve needed for years. And it took the killing of Ed Lazar to make people realize we weren’timmune to outside influences.”Despite the real problems of law enforcement,IRE reporters found the local offices of the FBI, Phoenix police, DPS and Four County Task Force to be honest, professional and hardworking. But the quality of the sheriff's offices in the 14 Arizona coun-ties is uneven, ranging from good to corrupt. How long law enforcement can stay healthy without massive extra support is aquestion mark.Although the Arizona picture is depressing, there are the initial stirrings of reform. Babbitt, despite accusations that he is an ambitious loner, has shrugged off politics and created an aggressive, professional office. Hyder has started on the same path. Freshman U.S. Sen. Dennis DeConcini, founder of the Four County Task Force, rates organized crime as the state's prime priority. The Arizona Association of Industries gave strong financial support to the IRE Project. The Phoenix Forty, representing the city’s business power structure, has effectively lobbied for a statewide grand jury and Hoy’sappointment to reformDPS. Now, shrugging off occasional charges of elitism, the Forty is pushing for a massive modernization of state regulatory agencies and substantial strengthening of the penal law. The state House ofRepresentatives, proddedby such hair shirts as Reps. John Hays and Tony West is beginning to react.The Senate, however, remains moribund. And reform is not easy to sell.From the beginning of the project to its end, Arizonans both in public and private life were cordial and helpful to members of the IRE team. There were never any threats and only one attempt at a payoff.Most submitted courteously and patiently to interviews. Many of those interviews will not appearin the stories to come because through them IRE reporters were able toreassess source information and decide against further investigation or stories.Exceptions were Sen. Goldwater, the giant DelWebb Corp., the Valley National Bank and two Phoenix businessmen. Officers of the Webb Corp., once headed by Del Webb, former co-owner of the New York Yankees, refused to be interviewedafter a reporter told an official of the publicly-held building company that IRE was interested in delving into specific mobstockholdings in the firm.The Valley National Bank failed to respond to numerous interview requests directed through one of its lawyers. The IRE had sought to question Valley, Arizona’s largest bank, about loans to mobfigures during the earlystages of the building ofLas Vegas and about certain activities of Robert Goldwater, brother of the Senator, who is a member of the bank’s board. These matters will be discussed in stories to come.So will Arizona, the land of periled promise.Copyright 1977 Investigative Reportersand Editors Inc.The following participated in the Arizona project of the Investigative Reporters and Editors:Team Leader: Robert W. Greene Assistant Team Leader: Richard Cady Team Story Editor: Anthony Insolia Reporters and writers: Ross Becker, Lowell Bergman, Don Devereux, Alex Drehsler, Jack Driscoll, Dave Freed, Bill Hume, Susan Irby, Harry Jones, Dick Johnson, Ron Koziol, Larry Kraftowitz, Doug Kramer, Dick Levitan, Dick Lyneis, Ken Matthews, Jack Me-Farren, Bill Montalbano, Phil O’Connor, Dave Offer, Dave Overton, Myrta Pulliam,John Rawlinson, Tom Renner, Mike Satchell,Ray Schrick, Ed Rooney, Bob Teuscher,Norm Udevitz, Jerry Uhrhammer, BobWeaver, Mike Wendland, Steve Wick, and Jack Wimer.Other team members: Steve Goldin, Dan Noyes, George Weisz.Assisted by contributors: Assistant Prof.James Johnson, Arizona State University; Profs. Don Carson, George Ridge and visiting instructor Bruce Dobler, University of Arizona.Legal counsel: Andrew L. Hughes, Townley and Updike, New York City, N.Y., and Edward O. DeLaney, Barnes, Hickam, Pantzer and Boyd, Indianapolis, Ind.Organizations: Albuquerque Journal, Arizona Daily Star, Boston Globe, CBS/WEEI Boston, Chicago Tribune, Colorado SpringsSun. Denver Post Detroit News. Elvria
Newspaper Details
Biloxi Sun Herald
Biloxi, Mississippi, US
Sun, Mar 13, 1977
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
Charles H.
AZ, USA 31 Dec 2019
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