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Unraveling the Will, and Death, of Casino Owner

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

A lot more is at stake in the probate of Lonnie “Ted” Binion’s estate than the casino heir’s expansive, ranch-style home here--more than his collection of antique coins and guns, even more than a fortune in silver he buried in a small desert town.

No, what was really on the line last week in a courtroom a block from the venerable Binion’s Horseshoe casino was the question of how Ted Binion died and who, if anyone, should be held responsible.

Five months after Binion was found dead at 55 of a massive overdose of heroin and Xanax, authorities are labeling his death “suspicious.” A grand jury has subpoenaed records. And a Clark County prosecutor says he is “looking at one or more individuals for their possible involvement in [Binion’s] death.”

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Ted Binion was a garrulous ambassador of good times in Las Vegas’ old, western style. The casino his father founded half a century ago gained renown for catering to the most serious gamblers. It was once said no wager was too big for the Horseshoe.

Binion was heir to that free-wheeling style and all that came with it. So it didn’t surprise many in September when he apparently succumbed to one of his many vices.

But rumor and intrigue have mounted ever since.

No Murder Confirmed by County Coroner

Although no suspects have been named--indeed, no murder has even been confirmed by the county coroner--that hasn’t stopped Binion’s attorneys from creating a storm of suspicion in ongoing probate hearings.

Last week, that meant hauling the four central characters--the live-in girlfriend Binion met in a topless bar and three men accused of stealing his buried stash of silver in the dead of night--into district court. There, in a probate hearing, they faced questions about whether they had looted the dead man’s estate and suggestions that one of their number, 33-year-old trucking contractor Rick Tabish, was having an affair with the girlfriend, 27-year-old Sandy Murphy.

And, finally, they faced questions about phone records and witness testimony that indicated Tabish and Murphy may have been in contact almost until the moment she called 911 to report finding Binion’s body.

Tabish and the two other men repeatedly invoked their constitutional right against self-incrimination. Murphy did not even take the stand, her lawyers saying that they were fighting her desire to testify. She appeared composed and demure in a $3,600 periwinkle-blue St. John pantsuit, her honey-blond hair swept to one side as she laughed and chatted with her lawyers.

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Attorney Oscar Goodman said he was upset about the unfair rumor and innuendo that have surrounded Murphy.

“She is like a wounded caribou being chased by a pack of hungry wolves,” Goodman said. “And I’m of a mind to protect her. . . . That’s what lawyers do.”

But Binion’s probate attorneys want to know what happened to a safe full of cash, rare coins, a bag of diamonds, and silver certificates worth $300,000 they say Binion kept in his Las Vegas home. Equally intriguing, they note, is the emptied safe they found at Binion’s ranch in Pahrump, 60 miles away.

Girlfriend Had Been in Spotlight Before

Thursday’s hearing was not the first time that the tall, thin Murphy stepped center stage in the messy and somewhat mythic life of Ted Binion.

“Teddy,” as many people called the son, frequented a topless club in an industrial zone west of The Strip and was known by the girls there as a big tipper. He met Murphy, an Orange County native, there in 1995. It was love and she soon moved in, the two told a reporter last year.

At that time, Binion’s Horseshoe casino in Las Vegas’ downtown had been eclipsed by the newer, glitzier resorts along The Strip. Still, it stayed afloat by catering to a faithful, older clientele with its homey atmosphere, $3 steak dinners and Western feel.

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The family partnership that had once operated the casino was in disarray after the death of Ted’s father, founder Benny Binion, and Ted’s forced departure as manager of gambling at the hands of the State Gaming Control Board, which suspended his license.

During the state’s continuing investigation, Binion would blame his positive drug tests on Murphy. He told the commission that traces of the drugs found when strands of his hair were tested must have gotten there because Murphy was using marijuana and cocaine in their home. (Murphy took the 5th Amendment in her appearance before gaming officials.)

Binion’s friends say his relationship with Murphy, less than half his age, was tempestuous from the start. Nevertheless, the casino heir last July added his girlfriend to his will, which leaves the bulk of an estate estimated at as much as $30 million to his teenage daughter, Bonnie.

The amended will gave Murphy $300,000, the Las Vegas home and all its contents, which witnesses later said included a considerable collection of coins, cash, antique guns and other valuables.

But Binion’s attorney, James Brown, said that Binion had telephoned him a day before his death, saying he wanted to disinherit his girlfriend, whom he suspected of being unfaithful. (A judge has since ruled that telephonic order was not enough to eliminate Murphy’s inheritance.)

Binion’s lawyers and other associates now say that, in the days before his Sept. 17 death, there were plenty of other signals that something was amiss. They have been memorialized in a complaint filed by Binion’s brother, Jack, the executor of the estate, with the probate judge last month.

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Many of the events, Jack Binion alleged in a sworn declaration, occurred in the week before Ted Binion died. Among them:

Murphy and Tabish stayed together at a swank Beverly Hills hotel. Binion told his maid that he suspected Murphy of taking coins and jewelry from a safe and even emptied bullets from his gun, “saying he did not want Murphy to use them.” Murphy called the maid the day of Binion’s death and asked her not to come in. Finally, a phone call allegedly was placed from Tabish’s company cell phone to Murphy’s cell phone just eight minutes before Murphy called 911 to report that she had found Binion’s body.

Binion died of massive doses of both the tranquilizer Xanax and heroin, a drug that he told authorities he had stopped using in the mid-1980s after a long addiction.

But friends reject suggestions that Binion took his own life, or died by accident. If Ted Binion was a drug user, he was a careful one, they said. And he demonstrated no depression or other suicidal tendencies. In his final days, he was in fine spirits, discussing the future and musing about buying a new ranch, perhaps in Northern California or Oregon.

“From him being a very close friend and knowing his state of mind, there was nothing that would have made Ted commit suicide,” said his attorney, Richard Wright. Such reports have not been lost on police and prosecutors. But the heat surrounding the case does not mean a resolution is imminent, said one source familiar with the investigation. “They’re just letting this develop,” the source said. “There is no hurry.”

3 Men Take the 5th

The only charges thus far have been filed against Tabish and two other men who were arrested at 3 a.m. two days after Binion’s death. The trio was digging up at least $4 million in silver coins and bricks that the dead man had buried in the tiny desert town of Pahrump, Nev.

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Tabish said he was only following Binion’s earlier directions--to dig up the riches and return them to the Binion ranch if anything ever happened to Ted. But Nye County sheriff’s officials said those comments didn’t jibe with the stories they got from the two others, Michael D. Milot and David Lee Mattsen, a foreman at the Binion ranch.

It came as no surprise, then, that all three men took the witness stand in last Thursday’s probate hearing and invoked their rights against self-incrimination more than 200 times. Murphy’s appearance was delayed at least a week as she and her lawyer argued over whether she should take the 5th Amendment as well.

The assembled lawyers and media were left with nothing new but a few enigmatic gestures. Tabish furrowed his brow when asked about his purported affair with Murphy. Mattsen--resplendent in cowboy boots, leather vest and black Stetson--shook his head disdainfully as he was asked if he could resolve one of the signature features of the mystery: Who left a single dime in one emptied Binion safe and a single silver dollar in another?

The courthouse intrigue hasn’t slowed the action at the tables at Binion’s Horseshoe. Quite the contrary, said Becky Binion Behnan.

Ted’s baby sister took over operation of the casino last year after a nasty family feud and reports that the once-proud Horseshoe’s profits were down.

Now Behnan says that each news report about her brother’s mysterious death--and they come almost daily here--seems to bring more people in the door.

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She will oblige curiosity seekers by putting up more pictures of her father and Ted. She may even display an antique safe that once contained some of the diamonds, silver and coins that are now a subject of the probate proceedings.

“It certainly has been the topic of discussion in Las Vegas,” Behnan said. “In fact, business seems to be up.”

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