DAVID HENDERSHOTT DEC. 14 Speak no ill of the dead, you say? In the case of David Hendershott, who died of cancer at 69, that is simply not possible. In the words of Shakespeare’s Richard III, Hendershott was quite willing to “prove a villain” in public life. As the powerful chief deputy to Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Hendershott gleefully carried out Arpaio’s authoritarian agenda. He helped ruin the careers of sheriff’s office employees who spoke out against Arpaio or surreptitiously “dropped a dime” to the media. He also ordered the wrongful arrests of New Times’ owners, repeatedly threat- ened an Arizona Republic reporter with the arrest and the removal of her child, smeared Arpaio’s political opponents with false alle- gations and orchestrated fake assassination plots against Arpaio — which, in one case, railroaded an innocent man as the scapegoat. Cataloguing each of his heinous acts as Arpaio’s top henchman would require its own wiki. Perhaps the most egregious involved Hendershott’s leadership of the Maricopa Anti-Corruption Effort, part of a sinister plot to force the county government into receivership. MACE targeted county supervisors, superior court judges and regular county employees with criminal investigation, indictment and sometimes arrest. The cases all collapsed and the targeted individuals sued, scoring over $44 million in settlements. In 2011, Hendershott resigned to avoid being fired. Maybe Hendershott’s family loved him, but he’ll always be remembered as Arpaio’s top toady, his ogre, his slimy Jabba the Hutt. Good riddance. – Stephen Lemons BOB CORBIN SEPT. 9 Bob Corbin’s demise at the age of 96 brought on a flood of panegyrics to rival Noah’s. Corbin, who served three terms as Arizona Attorney General from 1979 to 1991, was hailed as an old-school Western icon. His hundreds of forays into the Superstition Mountains to hunt for the Lost Dutchman Mine were part of the Republican hard-liner’s throwback appeal. Other indicators of alleged greatness pale upon examination. Take Corbin’s prosecution of three men believed to have been involved in the 1976 assassination of Arizona Republic reporter Don Bolles. Corbin milked the case for attention, without going after Arizona rancher-racketeer Kemper Marley, the criminal kingpin believed to have set the car-bombing in motion. Cobin earned praise for his 1988 indictment of Gov. Evan Mecham on violations of campaign finance laws, but Mecham beat the rap and had already been impeached, convicted and removed from office by the state legisla- ture. When Mecham rescinded the establish- ment of Martin Luther King Jr. Day in Arizona, Corbin had paved the way by issuing an opinion that Mecham’s predecessor lacked the authority to establish the holiday. Corbin also sleazily took $50,000 in campaign donations from notorious S&L swin- dler Charles Keating Jr. and his associates. After leaving office, Corbin served as president of the National Rifle Association, campaigning against the so-called Brady bill, which made a federal background check a requirement for gun purchasers. Legendary? Don’t think so. – Stephen Lemons CHARLIE KIRK SEPT. 10 Charlie Kirk was a 31-year-old Phoenix podcaster and YouTuber who rose to MAGA stardom by barking conservative talking points at undergrads. But most normies didn’t know his name before a sniper killed him as he spoke at a college campus in Utah. Millions of people Googled Kirk — his Wikipedia page was the most-viewed English-language article on that site in 2025 — and did not like what they saw. The saga of Kirk’s life includes starting the twin Phoenix-based organizations Turning Point USA and Turning Point Action, which have accumulated outsized influence in national Republican politics. That saga also includes creating a “watch list” of “woke” professors — two Turning Point members wound up attacking one such professor at Arizona State University — as well as Kirk belittling Black people’s intelligence and saying the Second Amendment is “worth” mass shootings. As Kirk’s less savory opinions got new scrutiny, MAGA hounded people who dared to speak ill of a man who had made a career from talking his share of shit. The results were Orwellian: In November, Reuters counted at least 600 Americans who lost their jobs for disparaging Kirk. Many of their posts were in awful taste — “good riddance,” and the like — but others simply posted Kirk’s own words. Such harsh consequences for quoting a supposed free-speech champion further illu- minated the cynicism of Kirk’s whole bit. Far from elevating public discourse, his life’s work made the United States a crueler, more dangerous place. His barbaric killing only underscored that terrible fact. – Sam Eifling AARON GUNCHES AND RICHARD DJERF MARCH 19 & OCT. 19 In 2025, Arizona fired up the engine on an execution machine that, after a series of botched killings, had lain dormant for two years. Gunches and Djerf were the first two prisoners fed into its maw. Aaron Gunches was the first to be executed, dying by lethal injection in March. In 2002, Gunches murdered Ted Price, the ex-husband of Gunches’ then-girlfriend. Gunches shot Price three times in the chest and once in the back of the head in the Arizona desert before dumping his body. He was sentenced to death in 2008 and then again in 2013 after the Arizona Supreme Court found an error in his first death penalty trial. Gunches defended himself in those proceedings and did not fight his own execution. Seven months after Gunches’ death, the state killed Djerf. In 1993, a 23-year-old Djerf sadistically murdered the entire family of his coworker, Albert Luna Jr. Djerf held the family hostage in their west Phoenix home before killing them all, including Luna’s five- year-old brother and 18-year-old sister, the latter of whom Djerf also raped. He then doused the home in gasoline and drove off in Luna’s mother’s car. Gunches spent 17 years on death row, while Djerf awaited execution for 30. Despite controversy over Arizona’s execution methods, both men’s lethal injection deaths appeared to go smoothly, according to media witnesses. Neither offered any final words before the state executioners inserted IVs into their arms and pumped the deadly pentobar- bital into their veins. Gunches was 53, and Djerf was 55. – Morgan Fischer INDU THE ELEPHANT AND FERNANDO THE SLOTH MAY 8 & NOV. 4 In the bleakest days of the pandemic, when we all searched for something, anything to lighten the collective mood, the Phoenix Zoo put Fernando, its Linnaeus’s two-toed sloth, on Cameo, the website that offers person- alized videos from celebrities big and small (and non-human). While a cheery zookeeper read a message off-screen, Fernando would gaze placidly at the camera or perhaps munch on a leaf. Fernando was diagnosed with heart problems in 2024, and in November, after experiencing difficulty breathing, he died at a veterinary hospital at 9 years old. He wasn’t the only great loss at the zoo this year. In May, Indu, an Asian elephant who had lived at the zoo since 1998, was humanely euthanized at the age of 59. She had been receiving care for chronic osteoarthritis and age-related illnesses. Heather Wright, elephant collection manager, said in a statement that Indu “has made and continues to leave an indelible impression on all who have the privilege to care for her and the guests who have had the joy of seeing her.” – Jennifer Goldberg >> p 12 (All portraits by David Morgan)
