There was a time when people believed that Conley Wolfswinkel was the richest, and therefore one of the most interesting and talented men in Arizona. Phoenix magazine reported that he would soon appear on Forbes’ list of wealthiest men. “Some of my closest friends are the Charlie Keatings, the Gary…
Perhaps we’re too quick to criticize political figures. Take the case of Mary Rose Wilcox, for example. She is now seeking a fifth term on the Phoenix City Council. As she embarks on her campaign, some express cynicism over her role in the Indian School dispute: During the city council…
I don’t know of a more astonishing failure in the present Congress than Representative John J. Rhodes Jr. Rhodes’ decision to avoid playing a role in the Indian School land swap is beneath contempt. It is a clear act of expediency compounded by cowardice. The amazing thing about Rhodes’ sorry…
I had forgotten how manipulative and deceitful Pete Rose can be. Rose was back on national television the other day attempting to convince everyone he never bet on the outcome of baseball games while managing the Cincinnati Reds. Recently released from Marion Federal Prison, where he served time for income-tax…
Charles Hyder, the career prosecutor, takes his seat in the witness box. He squares his shoulders and stares directly ahead. “Yeah,” he says in answer to a few of the first questions. “That’s right,” he adds, fending off a few others about his legal background. Hyder wears a brown suit…
Almost every day there is a new development in the America West Airlines story. I discount the ones that involve Governor J. Fife Symington III’s remarks about whether he will get the state of Arizona involved. Symington has enough financial troubles of his own. His own projects are on such…
It will be as tense a moment as anyone can ever remember in a Maricopa County Superior Court. The following words will be heard by the spectators crammed into Judge Frederick Martone’s courtroom on the thirteenth floor of the Central Court Building: “We now call Charles Hyder to the stand.”…
President George Bush’s appointment of Judge Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court is so slick, so urbanely cynical, that it will become a prime anecdote in the Bush legend. This is the way the old Yale man handled the questions of abortion, civil rights and equal opportunity. He picked…
“I’ve been waiting two days to get on the stand,” Chuck Diettrich says. He is a husky man in a dark blue pinstripe suit. He paces slowly up and down the nearly empty corridor on the thirteenth floor of the Central Courthouse in downtown Phoenix. Diettrich, 50, is waiting to…
He loved power. Without it, Ruben Ortega was just an ordinary man. He was possessed of neither dazzling wit nor overwhelming intelligence. His clothes were nondescript. His lack of sophistication and general knowledge was surprising even for a police officer. But as chief of one of the ten largest police…
I’m not surprised the jury didn’t convict Richard Horwitz on two counts of second-degree murder. I wouldn’t have voted for his conviction, either. There never was a real case against him for murder. And without being able to pinpoint the exact time Horwitz injected cocaine into his arm, there was…
The organ played softly. The casket containing Joseph Hessinger’s body was rolled slowly down the sloping aisle to the front of the church. Two of his sons, Joseph and Mark, both lawyers, one a prosecutor and one who specializes in defense, were among the pall bearers. His wife Julia, and…
This would be different. For nearly twenty years, Philip Marquardt had been a Superior Court judge. Whenever he took the bench to speak, people listened with respect. Others had reason to await his words with baited breath because Marquardt was regarded as a judge who handed down harsh sentences. In…
So much happened here. And now the grass bordering the headquarters of Charlie Keating’s American Continental Corporation at 2735 East Camelback is burned out. The trees should be trimmed. The yellow awnings are faded. Some are torn to shreds. They haven’t been replaced. The place is run-down and seedy. I…
Evan Mecham was back. And even though he still sported that same crooked grin, this was a new Mecham. No longer Arizona’s governor, he’s in the process of transforming himself into a newspaper publisher. Mecham stood behind a lectern in a meeting room at the Sheraton Hotel downtown. He looked…
These are truly dark days for sportswriters covering the Chicago Cubs. The sacking of Don Zimmer, a popular manager, is a comparatively minor source of the discontent. More and more, the total environment for the writers keeps evolving for the worse. There was a time when covering the Cubs was…
I wanted to make sure I’d get a seat at the America West Airlines stockholders meeting. For this reason, I drove down I-10 to the Pointe at South Mountain an hour early the other day. The parking lots were already filled. A crowd that would total more than 1,000 moved…
Jim Meredith, the former Republican majority leader of Arizona’s House of Representatives, is obviously a man without shame. If I were given the chance to pick the single AzScam defendant slick and duplicitous enough to merit stuffing into a hole in the Arizona state prison at Florence, Meredith would be…
We are too hard on Dan Quayle. We should accept the heir to the Pulliam fortune for what he is rather than fret about his becoming president. Detractors say Quayle is more suited to becoming president of the Paradise Valley Country Club than moving into the White House. What’s wrong…
His appearance in the courtroom was a shock. We all remembered him as belligerent and fearless during the impeachment trial of Evan Mecham. In those days, state Senator Jesus “Chuy” Higuera brandished a microphone in his hand as though it were the Sword of Damocles. Through sheer ferocity, Higuera was…
This is a brief account of a Maricopa County deputy sheriff’s overreaction and stupidity. During the sentencing of state Senator Jesus “Chuy” Higuera, I arrived early and took a seat in the front row, near the side door of the courtroom. A court employee came in the side door and…
A fable for modern times: Once upon a time, in a city not far away, a most remarkable thing took place. In this city, there was a very large plot of open ground that had been used for years as a school for the children of Native Americans. It was…
