That same month or on July 22, two bombs exploded around Joe Bonanno's Tucson home, and two days later another one blasted in Pete Licavoli's ranch located near the city.
Peter Notaro’s home on North Rosemont Boulevard was also damaged in an August 16, 1968, bombing. His wife and daughter Wanda were at home, but remained uninjured.
Few months later, 15 more bombs exploded around Tucson, mainly around the homes of known mobsters.
At first, the newspapers started spreading rumours that this was an obvious Mob feud but no one had any hard evidence to support those claims.
In 1969 two men were arrested William Dunbar and Paul Stevens, since during the bombings on Bonannos house, his son got out and pulled one shot from his gun, thus wounding Stevens. So later they went to some local doctor and after awhile the investigators received a lead on these fellas.
During the questioning, they gave an information that they worked for this FBI agent named David Hale. This guy was a crooked agent, with connections to many gangsters and racketeers, and so Dunbar and Stevens informed on Hale, obviously so they can save their own skin.
So the guys told the investigators that Hale made a deal with them to help him in the setting of some bombs, and in return he was going to clean their records and also to help them in some of their current clashes with the law.
Hale allegedly also told them that he wanted a bigger share from the Mob's profits around Tuscon, and allegedly devised a plan to try and ignite a Mob conflict.
In no time, agent Hale was taken for questioning and he kept quiet, until his appearance in court. In his own defence Hale said that he was framed by the Mob for putting too much pressure on them. In the interview, Hale also said that some of his confidential informants told him that one Tucson hoodlum Charles "Batts" Battaglia ordered some of the bombings on his own.
Batts Battaglia was a LA crime family member, who was a close associate of the Bonanno’s and was also linked to the sporadic violence of the "Banana Wars" in New York, and so it seems that Hale wanted to use the situation. But the problem was that the beauty saloon of Battaglia's wife was also bombed and heavily destroyed, a situation which threw huge doubt over Hales statement.
One police officer also testified in the agent's defence and said that Hale was unknowingly implicated in the whole situation by one Jerry Max Pasley, Tucson bartender and a known hoodlum. But during court testimony, Dunbar and Stevens also said one crucial thing, in which Hale assured them that he had the backing of the FBI when they helped him set off the bombs.
So shortly after that same statement, FBI director J Edgar Hoover had ordered Hale fired and the case went very slowly, but besides that the damage was already done because suddenly the allegations against Hale and the FBI exploded in the press. In August 1970, Paul Dean, a columnist with The Arizona Republic in Phoenix, openly criticized the FBI in a letter to Hoover for cloaking the Hale affair.
Senator Mark Hatfield of Oregon and Vice President Spiro Agnew sent letters to Hoover saying that "A bombing by an individual is a terrible thing and should be punished severely, but a series of bombings by the FBI is one hundred times worse."
By the end of September 1970, Hoover learned that Richard Burke, the U.S. attorney for Arizona, was planning to call a federal grand jury on the Tucson bombings. At the FBI headquarters, Hoover expressed contempt that Burke was knuckling under a media pressure.
So Assistant U.S. Attorney Joana Diamos had lunch with two FBI agents and she told them the county attorney had met with her boss, Richard Burke, trying to get him to prosecute Hale in federal court. Diamos felt that the county attorney had a bad case and was trying to push it off on the federal government if possible. Burke allegedly wanted to call on Joe Bonanno and his son to testify against Hale but later was notified that they will refuse.
So in 1972, the chief assistant U.S. attorney for Arizona explained the investigation regarding Hale was going even slower because they were doing it without the assistance of the FBI. Even if the prosecutors ever presented evidence to a secret grand jury, no charges were ever returned. And by 1973, no one couldve been charged because the statute of limitations expired that same year. By that time, Hale already found a new job and worked as a free man in some security company.
Now lets try and figure it out what or who gave Hale such a courage to orchastrate the bombings of the homes of few of the most dangerous individuals in the country at the time?
Obviously the whole story about some Cosa Nostra mobsters being behind the bombings doesnt hold water at all, since it doesnt fit anywhere in the situation. Why would any made guy want a war in an area which was already considered open for all Cosa Nostra members?
Hale suspected some type of rivalry between the mobsters in AZ with the help of wiretaps, since during the 60s there was a small rivalry between some Chicago and ex-Bonanno members, but it was far less dangerous then the situation which really took place. Also, as i previosly stated Hale obviously wanted to use the previous Mob conflicts in New York as additional explanation for the bombings.
According to the informants, the second possibility is that Hale wanted to start a war between the mobsters but why? Again, the informants stated that he wanted a bigger share or payoffs from the Mob's procceedings. If that was the case, then Hale couldve simply raid everyone's joint and illegal operations anytime he wanted so he can place more pressure over the hoodlums, obviously because he represented the FBI. So this theory also doesnt hold water and I personally believe that he obviously lied to his low level criminal associates.
If you ask me personally none of this makes sense, and it seems that Acting Police Chief William Gilkinson had the right answer at the time. According to Chief Gilkinson, Hale was in fact supported by very well known people that we can never suspect of being involved in a situation such as this one. It was said that at the top of this "vigilante group" were political and commuinity leaders, followed by the second element formed by local hoodlums who were employed to plan and carry out the bombings.
My personal belief is that Chief Gilkinson was probably telling the truth, mainly because during that particular decade both the FBI and CIA were known for using some unusual tactics. For example, as most of us know, the CIA used many high level mobsters for many dirty jobs or operations, while the FBI was known for using different tactics.
The 1960’s was the decade when the FBI used some high level mobsters as confidential informers in their "Top Hoodlum Program", while those same gangsters continued to commit crime. On top of that, the feds also started using some type of “Gestapo” tactics like the “Lock Step Program” in which they followed their target literally from few steps away. In fact, Chicago boss Sam Giancana won a court order against the feds regarding that same type of tactic.
But there was another tactic or operation, which I personally believe it might explain this current situation with agent Hale and all of the bombings that took place.
You see, during that same decade the feds once tried to use one tactic known as operation “Hood Winked”. This was an operation to provoke clash between the Mafia and the U.S. Communists party. The operation was launched in October 1966 and ended July 1968, the same year and month when the bombings in AZ began. Coincidence?!
For two years the agents tried to provoke both sides by sending anonymous letters with death threats to many Mafia and Communist leaders from around the country. In the end, after two years none of the letters reached its purpose. Both organizations, meaning the Mafia and Communists, ignored the letters, thus proving that they were not stupid. It seems that Hoover wanted to kill two birds with only one stone but failed.
So it also seems that this same tactic very much resembeled like the bombing situation, which was probably created to continue the conflict between the mobsters and to "clean" the country step by step. One newspaper source at the time completely confirmed this theory, probably backed by the FBI, since they reported that Hale only wanted to destroy all of the rackets and to scare the mobsters out of AZ, and that the only selfish thing he did was to make a name for himself. In plane words, they tried to make a hero out of this guy.
Anyways, the case about the infamous Arizona bombings remains a “mystery” even today.
FBI Agent David Hale
He got away with it too, those bombs could have killed people, and if they weren't caught he was going to keep having them bomb people. I'm surprised the agents in the Bulger investigation got some punishment, because usually agents (like Hale) get away with anything.