Phoenix New Instances co-founder and legendary Arizona writer Jim Larkin died on Monday. He was 74.

Larkin, who lived in Paradise Valley together with his spouse Molly, died from a
self-inflicted gunshot wound in Superior close to Boyce Thompson Arboretum,
in response to the Superior Police Division. No foul play is suspected
in his dying, police mentioned.

A police incident report concerning the suicide was not out there on Wednesday.

Larkin’s dying got here per week earlier than the scheduled begin of his prison
trial in federal court docket. In 2018, prosecutors charged Larkin and New
Instances co-founder Michael Lacey with a number of crimes associated to their
former possession of Backpage, the now-defunct on-line categorised advert web site.

“We’re devastated on the lack of James Anthony Larkin,” the household mentioned
in a press release supplied to New Instances on Wednesday. “Jim was an
unbelievable husband, father, grandfather, colleague and good friend. His life
and legacy embody the spirit of his house, the Sonoran Desert. Jim
fearlessly blazed his personal path in life and all the time caught to it.

“Because the writer of the Phoenix New Instances and different weekly various
newspapers for over 40 years, Jim fought for voices and points ignored
by society. He fought in opposition to police brutality, he fought for immigrant
rights and, above all, he fought tooth and nail at no cost speech. He
wasn’t afraid to select up the unmovable boulders of our society and shine
mild on the corruption beneath. Whereas many publishers deserted
journalistic ideas within the face of stress and harassment, Jim
stood quick and fought for the reality,” the assertion continued.

‘We pursued tales throughout America’

Lacey and a ragtag collective of Arizona State College college students launched the paper as
the Arizona Instances on June 9, 1970. It was their response to the Kent
State Bloodbath that Might and the anti-war motion sweeping throughout
school campuses.

Larkin, who grew up in Phoenix, launched himself to Lacey with a
handwritten be aware outlining the historical past of the native energy construction in
1972. That is when Lacey invited Larkin, a waiter on the time, to hitch
the paper.

“I bear in mind going over to Michael’s home . . . and he had simply come
again from giving blood (to boost cash for the paper),” Larkin informed
journalist and former New Instances employees author and columnist Stephen
Lemons in a Might 2020 story exploring the early days of the paper. “And that is the man that employed me? I assumed to myself, ‘I higher hold my evening job on the restaurant.’”

Larkin was named writer and president of the paper in 1974. The pair
exited the corporate inside a couple of years, however launched a stockholder revolt
in 1977 that reinstated them as executives.

By the late Nineteen Eighties, Lacey and Larkin had constructed the small paper into a serious drive and
had begun to accumulate alt-weeklies across the nation, starting with
Denver Westword and Miami New Instances. They have been, as Phoenix Magazineput it again in 1990,
the pioneering “new presslords” of different journalism. It was simply
the start of their enterprise ventures that ultimately grew to incorporate
17 papers and garnered tons of of journalism awards.

“Jim Larkin’s passing has torn at my coronary heart,” Lacey wrote of Larkin’s dying in a Wednesday assertion to
Entrance Web page Confidential, a web site specializing in free speech points operated
by Larkin and Lacey and edited by Lemons. “I knew him for over 40 years
as we pursued tales throughout America, actually from sea to shining
sea.”

“Jim was a businessman, and he acknowledged and created a marketplace for
various newsweeklies. He lower path the place most perceived solely danger,”
Lacey wrote. “Above all of his works, nonetheless, he was a household man. A
loyal husband, he reveled in his six youngsters.”

Larkin was resolutely unafraid to tackle the highly effective. “He relished the
combat. And I feel that sustained him,” remembered Tom Finkel,
editor-in-chief of Miami New Instances, and a longtime colleague of
Larkin’s.

Through the years, the writer and his papers feuded with outstanding figures, together with former U.S. Sen. John McCain, embattled former Phoenix police Chief Ruben Ortega and Vice President Kamala Harris, who pursued Larkin and Lacey as California lawyer normal.

Larkin’s household pointed to that legacy of difficult public officers of their assertion on Wednesday.

“Jim Larkin’s publications and unwillingness to compromise on the worth
of free speech drew the eye and ire of highly effective pursuits
all through his profession. Jim shouldered the burdens compelled upon him
head-on with the complete assist of his household and associates,” the household
mentioned.

“Above all else, Jim’s proudest achievement is his household, his six grownup
youngsters, 4 grandchildren and his marriage to his spouse. He was
sensible, type, humble and compassionate. Our world won’t be the
identical with out this uniquely caring, sturdy and noble man, however we’ll
proceed to honor his legacy daily. We love and miss him dearly,”
the assertion continued.

However nothing cemented Larkin’s legacy of supporting fearless reporting as
did the New Instances’ protection of former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe
Arpaio, who helmed the workplace for greater than 20 years. Beneath Larkin
and Lacey, New Instances uncovered numerous misdeeds on the sheriff’s workplace — and in 2007, the sheriff arrested the 2 executives for exposing a grand jury probe into the paper for its reporting. The fees in opposition to them have been ultimately dropped, they usually gained a $3.75 million settlement in 2013 after suing the sheriff. They donated the cash to their nonprofit, the Lacey and Larkin Frontera Fund, to distribute to native Hispanic teams.

Arpaio supplied this touch upon Larkin’s passing when reached by telephone
Wednesday: “He had a job to do. And he did what he felt was proper.”

One reporter on the paper on the time was John Dougherty, a author on the New Instances from 1993 to 2006. It was his reporting on Arpaio’s shady actual property dealings
that kicked off the grand jury saga. “I used to be very proud to be a part of
the workforce,” Dougherty recalled in a telephone interview Wednesday. He
remembered Larkin as a “class act,” and a writer who was keen to
spend money on the writers working at his papers.

“If Lacey purchased off on a narrative, Larkin was going to ensure the cash
got here,” Dougherty mentioned. With Larkin as writer, he mentioned, reporters
chased tales that different media shops shied away from. “It was as a result of
we had the liberty to comply with the tales, and we had the assist of the
writer. And the writer was Jim Larkin.”

Finkel shared comparable sentiments, remembering Larkin as “a person of utmost integrity.”

“He by no means stopped being a journalist at coronary heart. Within the fiber of his
being, he had the DNA of doing what these papers did,” he mentioned.

Larkin and Lacey bought their firm
— since renamed Voice Media Group — in 2012 to a gaggle of longtime
firm executives. After the sale, the pair continued to run Backpage,
which they launched in 2004 to compete with Craigslist.

Scott Tobias, Voice Media Group’s CEO, mentioned Larkin’s work nonetheless impacts the corporate right now.

“Jim was a visionary, a serial entrepreneur, and a mentor,” Tobias mentioned.
“For these of us who labored near him, we’ll bear in mind him as
extremely sensible, tenacious and aggressive in all issues that he did.
The journalistic and media enterprise that Jim and Mike Lacey based is
a part of the material that Voice Media Group is right now. There isn’t a denying
their affect. Our ideas are with Jim’s household.”

Larkin and Lacey bought Backpage in 2015 and the location closed its grownup advert
part in 2017. Federal officers seized the location and shut it down in
2018.

Federal trial scheduled to begin Aug. 8

Larkin’s dying comes simply days earlier than a brand new trial is about to start within the
U.S. Division of Justice’s long-running case in opposition to Backpage and its
executives. The primary trial, which started in September 2021, resulted in a mistrial. A retrial, which is predicted to final almost three months, is scheduled to begin on Aug. 8.

On Wednesday, Larkin lawyer Timothy Eckstein notified the court docket of
Larkin’s dying. The submitting additionally mentioned attorneys within the case will talk about
dismissing the indictment in opposition to Larkin throughout a standing listening to on
Friday with U.S. District Court docket Choose Diane Humetewa. The listening to was
scheduled earlier than Larkin’s dying.

Humetewa, in an order filed Wednesday, warned attorneys to be ready
for the trial to begin subsequent week. She additionally mentioned attorneys might want to
ask potential jurors if they’re conscious of Larkin’s dying and, if that’s the case,
whether or not that may affect their capability to be neutral.

“The court docket, having grow to be conscious of defendant Larkin’s passing, will
nonetheless count on the events to organize for trial to begin on the
present scheduled date,” Humetewa wrote.

Zach Stoebe, a spokesperson for the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace, mentioned
questions on the way forward for the case are more likely to be addressed on
Friday.

“As an preliminary matter, upon the passing of Mr. Larkin, we ship
condolences to his household and associates, and need them sustenance and
energy in a troublesome time,” Stoebe mentioned.

Eckstein didn’t reply to questions from New Instances.

In 2018, federal prosecutors charged Larkin, Lacey
and 4 different Backpage staff with facilitating prostitution, cash
laundering, conspiracy, and numerous different crimes over the location’s grownup
advert part. Prosecutors mentioned the case was about human trafficking,
facilitated by means of adverts on the location.

Larkin and the others argued that the case was in actuality concerning the First Modification
— and that Backpage executives weren’t chargeable for the adverts and
mentioned that they have been authorized to publish on the location. In addition they argued that
Backpage didn’t permit advertisers to supply intercourse acts in change for
cash.