Question of the Day - 25 October 2023

On September 3, 1987, a heart attack while snorkeling in Hawaii did what the Mob couldn't: It permanently silenced crusading journalist Ned Day.

Born Edward Gately Day Jr. on April 5, 1945, the man from Milwaukee would go on to create a storied legacy in Sin City, one that spanned multiple newspapers and earned him a commemoration in the Mob Museum.

Edward Day Sr. was a professional bowler, one who may have been entangled with the Milwaukee mob and a gambling ring. The Mob, run in Milwaukee by Frank “Fancy Pants” Balistreri, recruited Ned Jr. to do low-level jobs for them, working as a tout and bartender. He was also busted for kiting checks. 

A family friend persuaded Day to pull it together and enroll at the University of Wisconsin, where he developed his passion for journalism. He even sold his diamond pinkie ring.

More than a hint of Day’s future was to be found in the university’s student newspaper, where he exposed a professor’s resumé inflation (the teacher got fired) and interviewed a prostitute. After college, Day moved on to the West Alice Star, in Wisconsin, in 1975. He continued his muckraking habits, becoming a holy terror of city hall. 

For a time, he was a prime suspect in the strangling death of the stripper who was his live-in girlfriend and her 10-year-old daughter. Day was able to use his connections in the Milwaukee underworld to solve the murder, identifying the killer two days before police apprehended him. But Day was passed over for a job at the Milwaukee Journal, souring him on the news business in the Badger State.

Day’s scrutiny of the Vegas mob, though, had its roots in Milwaukee. There, he knew mobbed-up club owner Mike Maxicoolie. When Maxicoolie, a.k.a. “Mickey the Mope,” moved to Sin City, he urged Day to follow in 1976. Day’s first gig was for The Valley Times, now long since defunct. Day started at $150 a week. A friend remembered the paper as being “renowned for its bad checks, tough reporting, and strange characters.”

Recalled UNLV history professor Michael Green for "Nevada Yesterdays," “Bob Brown bought [The Valley Times] from Adam Yacenda in 1973 and soon converted it to a daily, hoping to compete with the older, more established Las Vegas Sun and Review-Journal. Brown and his editors wanted their reporters to dig into political and gaming stories that hadn’t been getting coverage.”

Tomorrow: Ned Day takes to Las Vegas like a fish to water.