The Mysterious Death of Ted Binion

Ted's father, Benny Binion arrived in Las Vegas in 1946 with his wife Teddy, their five children and an alleged $1 million in cash stashed in the trunk of his car (I have also read that it was $2 million in a suitcase).

Benny Binion was a questionable character. He was known for being into racketeering, selling moonshine during prohibition, and running illegal gambling operations in Dallas, Texas. Benny was also known to have killed multiple men and the wife of one of his rivals. Although he never served any time for his crimes as some of the most powerful men in Dallas were his friends and on his payroll. In the late 1940s, new officials were appointed in Dallas and Benny was told to leave town or face jail.

Benny’s life in Las Vegas followed a similar criminal path. He had known ties to organised crime and became known around Las Vegas as “Cowboy” due to his western attire. Benny’s first venture into the casino business was as a partner of the Las Vegas Club, followed by opening the Westerner Gambling House and Saloon in 1949. After a disagreement with his partners, in 1951, Benny purchased the Eldorado Club and the Apache Hotel rebranding them as Binion’s Horseshoe Casino.

Binion’s Horseshoe developed quite a name for itself, it was the only casino in Las Vegas where there was no limit on the amount of money that gamblers could bet in one single hand. In 1970, the Horseshoe held the first World Series Poker tournament, an idea that is credited to Benny. The casino also had a $2 late-night steak special as well as $1 million in $10,000 bills on public view. Despite the success of Benny’s casino, he could not keep on the right side of the law and in 1951, Benny had his gaming licence revoked, followed by a five-year prison sentence in 1953 for tax evasion. Benny passed the running of the Horseshoe to his two sons, Ted, and Jack. Jack became president and Ted the casino manager, with Benny still having an active role in the background.

Ted Binion, like his father, was a questionable character. He had known ties with the mob, he was addicted to hard drugs and was a known womaniser. Although Ted had bad habits, he was a very intelligent man, it is said that he was a mathematical genius and could do perform complex calculations in his head.

Benny Binion died of heart failure in December 1989, and his wife passed away in 1994. With both parents deceased, the Binion siblings fought over who would control the Horseshoe. It remained in the control of Ted. However, in 1986, Ted was arrested for drug trafficking, which like his father, would cause problems with his gaming licence in years to come.

In 1995, Ted Binion was at Cheetah's, a Las Vegas strip club where he met 23-year-old Sandy Murphy, who was almost 30 years his junior. Ted divorced his wife and after a short period of dating, Ted moved Sandy into his mansion on Palamino Lane.

In 1997, Ted had his gaming licence suspended and later revoked. Ted’s sister Becky took over the running of the Horseshoe in 1998, after a legal battle. Despite having lost control of the Horseshoe, Ted was still extremely wealthy, having millions of dollars stashed away.

On September 17, 1998, Sandy Murphy found Ted’s lifeless body on a mattress located on the floor of his den at his home, Ted was 54 years old. Sandy told police that she came home from running errands and called out for Ted, after he did not answer, she went into his den to look for him, where she found his lifeless body.

Sandy and Ted had a volatile relationship. Sandy told police that, at first he swept her off her feet. She had gambling debts and had been struggling to make a living ‘selling costumes’ at Cheetah’s (although it was alleged, she was a stripper). However, Ted’s addiction to hard drugs took a toll on their relationship and Ted would often become violent towards Sandy when he was high.

It was well known that Ted was addicted to hard drugs and had been for some fifteen to twenty years. Heroin was his drug of choice, he would normally smoke it and then take Xanax, as prescribed by Ted’s neighbour and doctor. Toxicology reports found that Ted’s cause of death was an overdose of Xanax and Heroine and police originally concluded that Ted had died of either an accidental overdose or an overdose by suicide and the case was closed.

The Binion family thought otherwise, they were convinced that Sandy had somehow killed Ted to take his money, so they hired a private investigator to look further into the case. The private investigator brought to light evidence that did indeed point to foul play.

On the day of Ted’s murder, there was a call to the house at around midday from Ted’s realtor. Sandy answered the telephone telling the realtor that Ted could not come to the phone as he was out of it. At the time of the call, Ted was in his den and was either already dead or dying. An hour later Sandy left the house.

Evidence emerged that discovered that Ted was either about to break up with Sandy or he already had. On the day before he died, it was alleged that he called his lawyer to have Sandy removed from his will. On his death, she would not get a penny. What was the reason for Ted breaking up with Sandy? The investigator also uncovered that Sandy was having an affair with an associate of Ted’s, a man called Rick Tabish. Did Ted know about the affair?

Rick Tabish met Ted in the bathroom of a Las Vegas restaurant and the two soon became friends. Rick was married with two children and was the owner of a trucking company. Rick had assisted Ted in burying $5 million worth of silver bullion on some land that Ted owned in the desert, near the town of Pahrump. Approximately 36 hours after Ted’s death, Rick Tabish was caught in the night, digging up Ted’s buried silver.

When police questioned Rick as to what he was doing digging up land in the night, he initially told police that he was cleaning up the land and working in the night to speed up the job. However, when the police looked in the back of the truck, they found the silver. Rick then backtracked on his story and told police that Ted had asked him to dig up the money to put it in a trust fund for his daughter as Ted did not want his ex-wife to get her hands on the silver. When police arrested Rick, they found literature relating to selling antique silver coins. Police also discovered that Tabish was in a lot of debt which included a large tax bill that he could not pay.

The State of Nevada then reopened Ted's case due to the new evidence that the investigator had uncovered.

Police interviewed Ted’s gardener, Tom, who told police of a few things that he thought to be unusual on the day of Ted's death. One thing he told police was that there was a chair in the garden under the bathroom window, which was not normally there. When police took fingerprints from the window and chair, they found that they belonged to Sandy Murphy.

One theory was that Ted had already kicked Sandy out of his house, so she gained entry using the chair and climbed through the bathroom window. There was no doubt about it, Sandy was in the house at the time of Ted's death. However, was she alone? Investigators also believed that Rick Tabish was in the house, but this was only a theory.

On further investigation of Ted’s body, a pathologist stated that she thought Ted had been murdered due to unusual abrasions on his face. He had marks on his upper lip and nose, which she believed were a result of Ted’s body being face down at some point before being rotated face up. However, another pathologist stated that these were shaving marks.

In addition to the silver bullion buried in the desert, it was said that Ted had other money buried in the grounds of his house as well as around his house. However, on a police search, no money could be found.

Sandy and Rick were arrested, and the pair went to trial a year and a half after Ted’s death. The case was very high profile, attracting a lot of attention from the media and the public. There was an abundance of evidence that pointed to murder, but it was all circumstantial. Despite this, in May of 2000, the prosecution concluded that Rick and Sandy conspired to murder Ted, and they both received twenty years in prison.

How did they kill Ted, how did they get him to overdose? Did they hold a gun to his head and make him take lethal amounts of substance, or did they somehow feed him the lethal doses as Heroin was found in Ted’s stomach (although pathologists said that this was not uncommon even for people who smoked the drug)? One pathologist claimed that Ted could have been suffocated and killed by burking.

Four and a half years later, in October 2004, Sandy and Rick got a retrial due to indiscretions in the original trial. Rick and Sandy were both found not guilty of murder, but both were found guilty of stealing Ted’s money. Sandy was released, but Rick remained behind bars until 2010.

Today, the Binion’s casino is owned by Harrah’s.

Sources

https://www.reviewjournal.com/local/local-las-vegas/mystery-still-surrounds-ted-binions-1998-death-in-las-vegas/

https://www.lasvegasadvisor.com/question/binion-family-murphy-tabish/

https://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/forget-the-sopranos-meet-the-binions/

https://www.reviewjournal.com/local/local-las-vegas/binion-family-made-their-mark-over-70-year-history-in-las-vegas/

https://thecinemaholic.com/did-sandy-murphy-get-ted-binions-money-what-happened-to-his-money/

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-jun-26-mn-50325-story.html

https://www.wsop.com/history/