Ted Binion
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Lonnie Theodore "Ted" Binion (November 28, 1943 -September 17, 1998 in Las Vegas, Nevada) was a wealthy gambling executive and one of the sons of famed Las Vegas casino magnate Lester Ben "Benny" Binion, owner of Binion's Horseshoe. Binion had 4 siblings - a brother, Jack, and 3 sisters: Becky, Brenda and Barbara.
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[edit] History
In 1964, Benny Binion regained control of the Horseshoe Casino after previously selling his interest to cover his legal costs defending himself from tax evasion and other charges. Since he was a convicted criminal, Benny was no longer allowed to hold a license to run a gambling establishment. His sons Jack and Ted took over the day to day operation of the casino. Benny remained on the payroll as a consultant, and went on to begin the World Series of Poker as a six-man event in 1970. Jack filled the role of president, while Ted became the casino manager. In that role, Ted was the face that was most seen during the peak evening hours of the casino operation and became well known as the host of the Horseshoe's poker tournaments.
Ted was an avid reader and enjoyed magazines and books. He was a history buff, particularly American Civil War history, and enjoyed both reading and watching History Channel and Discovery Channel programming. In addition, he was mathematically gifted - easily able to mentally calculate odds or the "house take" in gambling transactions with no aid. He also possessed a generous nature and was known to help out people he knew who were in difficult financial straits. Sadly, in spite of his intelligence and gifts, he lacked something important: the common sense to see when trouble was coming, and so he was often his own worst enemy.
Binion loved living the high life and partying, schmoozing with high-profile guests of the Horseshoe and flirting with attractive women. It was through this lifestyle that he became more and more involved in drugs, becoming a regular user of marijuana and later, hard drugs like heroin. He also often abused prescription medication as he grew older. He had an almost pathological fear of needles, so when he used heroin he chased the dragon, inhaling the smoke. In 1986 he was arrested on drug trafficking charges and began drawing attention for his connections to organized crime figures.
By the mid-90s, drug problems and associations with criminals had Binion in hot water with the Nevada Gaming Commission. He was provisionally banned from participating in the management of, or even entering, his family's casinos. He struggled to avoid falling afoul of Commission drug tests, and at one point shaved off every hair on his body to prevent use of a hair test to reveal his history of usage. By 1998, the ban had been made permanent and Binion was never to be associated with the famous family business again.
On September 17, 1998 Binion was found dead in his living room. The cause of death was listed as a drug overdose that was apparently a suicide. However, investigation of the case would reveal much more as covered below.
[edit] Buried treasure
After his death, it was discovered that Ted had a vault buried in the desert outside of Pahrump, Nevada in Nye County. The concrete bunker contained six tons of silver bullion, Horseshoe Casino chips, paper currency, and over 100,000 rare coins, many in mint condition.
Binion had contracted the construction of the vault with MRT Transport, a company owned by Rick Tabish. An MRT vehicle was used to transport the silver to the vault, and the only two people who knew how to get at the vault were Binion and Tabish.
The vault was discovered two days after Binion was found dead, when police captured Binion's associate Rick Tabish and two other men digging into it.
[edit] Death and aftermath
Ted Binion was found dead on a sleeping bag on the floor of his home in the 2800 block of Palomino Lane, near Rancho Drive and Charleston Boulevard, Las Vegas, Nevada, on September 17, 1998. Empty pill bottles were strewn nearby and an autopsy and toxicology report revealed that he had orally ingested a lethal dosage combination of the prescription sedative Xanax and heroin.
Binion's death was initially treated as a probable suicide. The court battle with his sister Becky in which she had gained control over the casino was believed to have played a role. His sister Barbara, afflicted with the same kinds of drug problems, had committed suicide in 1977 which also helped contribute to the perception that he would be vulnerable to suicide. Following the initial post-mortem, Clark County coroner Ron Flud declared the cause of death undetermined. Larry Simms, the Chief Medical Examiner, called it an accidental overdose.
Suspicious, Binion's estranged sister Becky Behnen had his estate hire a private investigator to look into any involvement on the part of Tabish or Binion's live-in girlfriend Sandy Murphy. After six months of considerable investigation, Ted Binion's death was reclassified a homicide by the coroner on May 5, 1999.
This led to the celebrated murder arrest in June 1999 of Sandy Murphy and her lover Rick Tabish. The prosecution's case stated that Murphy and Tabish had conspired to kill Binion and steal his riches, drugging Binion into unconsciousness and burking him, a form of manual suffocation. They were both charged with Binion's murder, and burglary charges relating to the removal of his fortune from the vault and his home. The case stimulated great media excitement because of its glamorous-sleazy Las Vegas essence: large sums of money and buried treasure were involved; Murphy, in her twenties and a former beauty queen from California, had met Binion, who was in his fifties, at Cheetah's, a topless bar; the alleged sexual liaison prior to the murder between co-conspirators Tabish and Murphy added to the intrigue.
The trial came to an end in May 2000, after jurors spent almost 68 hours deliberating. Tabish was sentenced to at least 25 years in jail, while Murphy received a minimum 22-year sentence. Allegedly, immediately following the trial the majority of the jury members were seen at the Horseshoe having dinner with the Behnen family who had paid several witnesses up to $20,000 each to testify. Later that year, David Rogers, who prosecuted the case, was elected Clark County District Attorney and David Wall, who second-chaired the prosecution, was elected District Judge.
In July 2003, the Nevada Supreme Court overturned the convictions, ruling that Judge Joseph Bonaventure had erred in key areas of the trial.
The defendants were tried again in 2004 in Judge Joseph Bonaventure's court. This time, Murphy and Tabish were acquitted of the murder charge but were convicted on lesser charges of conspiracy to commit burglary, burglary and grand larceny related to Binion's death.
The death of Ted Binion formed the basis for Burked, a September 27, 2001 episode of the TV program CSI. An interesting irony resulting from this was that after the jury in the re-trial found Tabish and Murphy not guilty of murder, news accounts reported that the jurors had been unwilling to find them guilty because the forensic evidence introduced by the prosecution had not met the standards of the television show.
The murder has also been covered extensively in "Death in the Desert," a book by Cathy Scott, and Positively Fifth Street, by James McManus.
[edit] References
- Positively Fifth Street, James McManus; published 2003 Amazon Link
- Death in the Desert: The Ted Binion Homicide Case, Cathy Scott; Published 2000 Amazon Link
