Datsun of Death

On June 2, 1976, from a scene straight out of the opening of Casino, journalist Don Bolles left a meeting with an informant for the Phoenix, Arizona corruption story he was investigating. He walked to his brand-new Datsun parked in the hotel lot and started the ignition, triggering six sticks of dynamite that had been planted under the car. With a million and a half pounds per square inch of force in the resulting explosion, Bolles immediately lost both his legs and one arm. He died in a hospital 11 days later.

Surprisingly, the car is still largely in tact, and sat in an Arizona police yard for 28 years until donated to the Newseum, a Washington DC museum dedicated to journalism and media. It will go on display when the $400-million facility opens in 2008 as part of an exhibit about the dangers of reporting. Bolles’s killer was never caught and the motives behind his murder remain unknown.

One minor detail that perhaps should be clarified. Of the many articles on the Bolles case, the only one to mention the car’s model name says it’s a Datsun 210, but from the pictures it’s clearly a 710.

Source: [Idaho Mountain Express]