Rod Day was the one-time editor of the Durango Democrat, a morning daily (published 1899-1928). According to Al Look, who worked for the rival Durango Herald at that time, Day had been hospitalized for delirium tremens. The publisher of the Herald, McDevitt, instructed his staff and editor, a William Wood, not to write about Day's condition.
Wood disregarded this instruction, and published an editorial exposing Day's hospital stay. Unbeknownst to Wood, Day had been released from the hospital on the day the editorial was published. Day saw Wood on Main Street in Durango. He shot Wood in the back of the head as he was crawling away. US Census records show that both Wood and Day grew up in Ouray, Colorado, though Day was Wood's elder by several years.
