Columnist’s Car Bombed; He Suspects Mob Reprisal

LAS VEGAS —  An unoccupied car belonging to a newspaper columnist who wrote a “goodby column” to Tony Spilotro was destroyed in an apparent firebombing early today in the parking lot of an apartment complex, police said.

Police said the car, a 1983 Volvo, was destroyed and three others were damaged when someone threw a firebomb filled with a flammable liquid at the vehicle about 3:40 a.m.

The car belonged to Ned Day, who often writes about organized crime figures in the Las Vegas Review-Journal and does commentary for a local television station.

Day said he knows of no suspects in the firebombing but speculated that it may have been a message directed at him for two recent columns.

“I wrote a goodby column to Tony Spilotro that I understand his friends didn’t like,” he said. Spilotro, the reputed Las Vegas head of the Chicago mob, was killed last month along with his brother in an apparent mob slaying.

Day said he also wrote a recent column speculating on people who might be taking Spilotro’s place in Las Vegas.

Day called the incident “unsettling,” but said he isn’t too concerned about his physical safety.

“The other side of the coin is that to sneak into a parking lot in the dead of night and set a car on fire is not exactly the most courageous act in the world,” he said. “If that’s the best they have to offer, I feel very secure.”