Arizona's reputation as a home for infamous outlaws and shocking crimes didn't end with statehood.
• The headlines on the front page of the Jan. 26, 1934, Star reported:
"DILLINGER GANG CAPTURED HERE"
"POLICE FORCED TO USE GUNS IN NABBING TWO GANGSTERS, OTHERS SUBMIT TO OFFICERS"
"Triggerman Pulls Gun On Chief In City Lockup"
"IDENTITY IS SURE"
"Men Are Wanted In East For Murders, Bank Robberies"
John Dillinger had been one of the most wanted men in the country for committing a string of bank robberies in the Midwest.
Tucson police were tipped off that he was in town and arrested him and three of his gang without firing a shot.
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Dillinger was sent to an "escape-proof" jail in Indiana but used a fake gun carved out of wood to take his leave. Less than five months later, he was shot to death by FBI agents as he left a movie theater in Chicago.
• Mafiosos also made their way to Tucson.
Joe Bonanno, whom the FBI identified as the leader of one of New York's five original La Cosa Nostra crime organizations, first arrived in 1941. Agents reported that a national commission of mob leaders booted Bonanno in 1964 when it learned he plotted unsuccessfully to assassinate three other members.
He moved here permanently in 1968 and styled himself as a businessman with interests in cheese and cotton farming. He was under continual surveillance but was never convicted of anything worse than bribery, tax evasion and contempt of Congress.
Peter Licavoli Sr., a mobster with ties to St. Louis, Toledo and Detroit, came to Tucson in 1945, set himself up as a racehorse breeder and remained a resident - except for two short prison stints - until he died in 1984. Along the way, bombs were exploded 20 times at his east-side ranch.
Licavoli had been into bootlegging, illegal gambling and extortion and was leader of Detroit's Purple Gang.
• America was stunned in 1976 when Arizona Republic reporter Don Bolles was assassinated in downtown Phoenix.
Bolles was an investigative reporter covering organized crime and land fraud when his car was blown up by a remote-controlled bomb.
Max Dunlap went to prison as the alleged mastermind of the murder. He was accused of hiring two others to do the crime, but questions linger to this day over who truly wanted Bolles dead. He had written extensively about wealthy liquor wholesaler and landowner Kemper Marley Sr., and his reporting had cost Marley a seat on the state racing commission. Some say Dunlap had Bolles assassinated to show loyalty to his friend Marley. The latter denied any involvement and was never charged in the case.