Author, journalist Charles Bowden dies at 69

Charles Bowden, an author and hard-boiled investigative journalist who often wrote about the American Southwest, died Saturday in Las Cruces, N.M., where he had moved from the Tucson area. He was 69.

Bowden's partner, Molly Molloy, said she found him dead at about 5 p.m. Saturday in their New Mexico home.

Pima County Supervisor Ray Carroll, a close friend of Bowden's, told The Arizona Republic that he had been battling an undisclosed illness and died in his sleep.

Bowden, an academic with a Ph.D. in history, built a notable second career in Arizona as an investigative journalist with a nose for regional issues. He wrote scores of books and penned articles for national magazines such as Harper's and Esquire, as well as Arizona newspapers.

The decade he spent writing about the drug wars permeating the Mexican border city of Juarez brought national attention to the city's culture of violence.

As news of Bowden's death rippled out Sunday, loved ones and friends in Arizona's literary community recalled Bowden as a gifted and singular writer who was generous with his time and mentored younger colleagues.

"He was a journalist's journalist," said Carroll, who befriended Bowden in the late 1990s. "The guy drilled deep into every subject matter. Whatever Chuck Bowden did, he did with all his heart."

Writer Barry Graham, a former Phoenix resident who lives in Portland, Ore., remembered an evening they spent together in the 1990s that he said sums Bowden up.

"He cooked dinner and it got very late; we drank copious amounts of red wine and I slept in the living room. Even though he'd drunk a lot like I had, hadn't much sleep, at 3 in the morning I heard him get up, stumble to his desk and start writing in the dark," Graham said, laughing. "That was how he managed to be so prolific."

Work ethic aside, Bowden was most proud of his ability to tell the truth, Valley resident and Arizona journalist Terry Greene Sterling said Sunday.

Graham, citing Bowden's work on drug violence, echoed that sentiment: "He kept saying that he was proud of his ability to be a witness. He was very proud of the voices he gave to people who didn't have a voice."

In addition to his "vast talent talent as a writer," Greene Sterling said Bowden will be remembered for the help he gave "younger writers, writers coming up."

"Because he was so kind to me and generous with his time, helping me out, I try to model that with younger writers and that's, I think, the largest lesson he taught me," Greene Sterling said.

Bowden was born July 20, 1945, and moved from Illinois to Tucson with his family as a young child for the health of his sister, Graham said.

His career began in American history, and he frequently joked that "he was the only person to get a Ph.D. to become a redneck," Graham said. He left a position teaching history at the University of Chicago, worked in manual labor for some time, and eventually became a reporter for the now-defunct Tucson Citizen. There he spent years reporting on gruesome crimes before he moved on to other investigative journalism, Graham said.

"He would actually refer to a book or an article as a song," Graham said. "He taught me to go to some of the ugliest, darkest places in life but not to write a horror story about it. To go where most of us really don't want to go but, essentially, to sing a song about it. To capture the music of what happened."

Though Bowden moved to Las Cruces from the Tucson area about five years ago, he had recently visited southern Arizona and was still deeply connected to the region, Carroll, the county supervisor, said.

"The first week in August he went back to Las Cruces because he wasn't feeling well," he said.

Bowden's death stunned and saddened his partner Molloy.

"He was my best friend and definitely one of the smartest people and best writers that I've ever known, friend or not," Molloy said. He was "compelling, because he drew people to him and he was drawn to people and dogs and birds and nature.

"I never have known a person who could talk about almost any subject and make you want to listen all the time because he would always say something you hadn't thought about or didn't know," she said.

Bowden's books include "Murder City," "Down by the River" and "Blues for Cannibals." He received a United States Artists Fellowship Grant for Artistic Excellence in 2010.

An autopsy will be performed at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.

Bowden had quit smoking, was lifting weights and was taking better care of himself.

"He was just trying to catch his second wind," Carroll said.

In addition to Molloy, Bowden is survived by his son, Jesse, 27, of Tucson.

Reporter Yihyun Jeong contributed to this article.