It’s well known that John McCain is rich, because of his marriage to Cindy Hensley McCain, who inherited the biggest Budweiser distributorship in Arizona, which earns $300 million a year, from her father Jim.
What’s less well known is the source of that money. Jim Hensley and his brother Eugene worked for Kemper Marley, Sr., who had cornered the Arizona liquor market after Prohibition was lifted, and assigned the Budweiser distributorship to Jim Hensley. Phoenix police named (but never charged) Marley as the man who ordered the infamous assassination of Phoenix reporter Don Bolles in 1976. The man convicted of the murder — John Adamson — testified that Marley ordered the hit after a Bolles story forced him to resign from the state racing commission. Bolles was investigating mob ties in Arizona — and had written about Marley’s political and business dealings — until 6 sticks of dynamite exploded under his car, killing him. Marley sued a coalition of reporters — formed in response to Bolles’ assassination — for libel after they reported his ties to the mob and to Bolle’s murder. The jury ruled that Marley was NOT libeled.
Hensley (Cindy McCain’s father) and his brother were convicted in 1948 for falsifying records to conceal illegal sales of thousands of cases of liquor at Marley’s firm. Five years later, Jim Hensley was tried for falsifying tax records at Marley’s firm, but — defended by William Rehnquist, who was later Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court — he was acquitted.
The Hensley brothers also bought a New Mexico horse race track in 1952. A 1953 New Mexico State Police report expressed concern that the Hensleys were tied to Clarence “Teak” Baldwin, a “bookmaker for leading tracks”, and added that Kemper Marley “is reputed to be the financial backer for the bookies.” The report also stated that Marley “owned a wire service formerly operated in connection with bookmaking of the Al Capone gang.” The Hensley’s denied that Baldwin had a stake in the track, but 2 years later records showed Baldwin had a one-third stake in the track. Baldwin sued in 1955 over his share, and settled out of court for $40,000 (a lot of money then). Jim sold his share of the track in 1955; Eugene kept his until 1969 and served time for skimming funds from the track for personal use.
Arizona (which borders Nevada) has long had a serious mob presence, with many mafia men retiring there. In 1995, McCain sent birthday regards, and regrets for not attending, to Joseph “Joe Bananas” Bonanno, the “boss of bosses” and head of New York’s Bonanno crime family (one of the big 5 families), who had retired to Arizona. Another politician to send regrets was Governor Fife Symington, who has since been kicked out of office and convicted of 7 felonies relating to fraud and extortion.