Casino Executive’s Death Resembles Pulp Fiction

Casino executive Lonnie “Ted” Binion liked all the topless dancers at Las Vegas’ Cheetah Club, but he particularly fell for a thin blond named Sandy. She was beautiful. And she seemed less interested in his money than the others.

So it wasn’t long before Binion, 55, one of the heirs to the founder of the venerable Horseshoe Casino, was calling the twentysomething dancer his girlfriend and moving her into his expansive home west of the Strip. That was Binion: He was impetuous and ribald in the old Vegas way.

But Binion is dead nine months now and authorities in his hometown have arrested the former stripper, Sandy Murphy, on suspicion of murder and conspiracy to loot her onetime boyfriend’s estate of a fortune in silver he had buried in a vault beneath the Nevada desert.

The arrest of Murphy, 27, and her alleged paramour and accomplice, trucking contractor Rick Tabish, 34, is the latest twist in Las Vegas’ longest-running criminal saga. It also writes the latest chapter in the darkly colorful history of the Binion clan, whose patriarch, Benny Binion, arrived in Las Vegas with $2 million in his suitcases after he was driven out of Texas by the law.

Murphy and Tabish, who were arrested Thursday evening, are accused of forcing a massive overdose of heroin down Binion’s throat, then waiting for him to die Sept. 17. In an arrest warrant affidavit released Friday, authorities depicted Murphy’s lavish lifestyle and alleged that she committed the crime because she coveted Binion’s wealth. Tabish also needed the money to prop up his failing trucking business, the affidavit added.

The trucker allegedly told an associate that he would “pump” Binion full of drugs and that no one would suspect murder because of the Horseshoe Casino scion’s longtime heroin addiction. And Murphy allegedly spent the days leading up to Binion’s death suggesting that he would soon die of a drug overdose and that she would soon be coming into a lot of money, the affidavit says.

Murphy and Tabish are being held without bail in the Clark County Jail. They are scheduled to be arraigned next week on charges of murder, robbery and conspiracy, and, if convicted, could be put to death.

Murphy and Tabish’s lawyers did not return phone calls seeking comment, but both defendants previously denied any involvement in Binion’s demise. Murphy had previously been represented by Oscar Goodman, who gave up her case several weeks ago and has since been elected mayor of Las Vegas.

Affidavit Reads Like Spillane Novel

The 109-page affidavit used to secure their arrest warrants reads like a Mickey Spillane novel--complete with drugs, double dealing, payoffs and threats. It’s a story the garrulous Binion might have enjoyed--if he hadn’t had to die in the end.

Ted Binion was fighting a longtime heroin addiction and helping run his family’s casino in 1995 when he met Murphy at his favorite topless bar, Cheetah’s.

The romance turned tempestuous not long after Murphy moved into Binion’s gated ranch house. He had been ordered out of the family casino by the state Gaming Commission because of his drug addiction and ties to organized crime figures. On the home front, he and Murphy fought routinely.

In at least one incident, Binion beat Murphy so badly that family members saw bruises on her arms and head, according to the affidavit.

Murphy bugged the home phones so she could keep track of her mercurial partner, the affidavit says, and Binion put in a series of surveillance cameras, apparently to do the same.

The relationship deteriorated even more seriously last summer. Binion told friends that he believed Murphy stole a bag of 1,000 silver coins from the home and had a family member convert them to cash, the affidavit says.

But if Murphy and Tabish are eventually convicted of killing Binion, it will probably be because of the incriminating statements they allegedly made to several people. A key break for investigators in the case came in March, when a childhood friend and former employee of Tabish came forward.

In exchange for immunity from prosecution, Kurt Gratzer told district attorney’s investigators that late last summer, Tabish approached him and attempted to hire him to kill a wealthy casino executive named Ted.

Gratzer told investigators that he later learned the intended victim was Binion and that Tabish suggested several possible strategies for the murder: a sniper attack on Binion’s ranch near Pahrump, Nev.; a point-blank shooting with one of the guns from Binion’s own collection, followed by a body disposal in a rock crushing machine or, perhaps, a faked suicide using heroin.

Despite offers of as much as $100,000 in cash and a new Trans Am automobile, Gratzer told authorities, he turned the job down. Gratzer, who has an unspecified criminal record, did not tell authorities what he knew, however, until after Binion’s death, the affidavit says.

About the time of those alleged conversations, Murphy and Tabish took a trip to the lavish Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills, the affidavit says. There, they enjoyed his-and-hers massages, a poolside cabana, fine wine and an in-room whirlpool. Murphy bought Tabish a dozen red roses.

Not long afterward, she was back in Las Vegas. Apparently while under the influence of drugs or alcohol, she was heard by employees in a Nieman Marcus store loudly declaiming about the failure of her relationship with Binion and about a new man in her life, according to the affidavit, which is signed by a prosecutor and a Las Vegas police detective.

A manicurist at the store’s beauty salon told authorities that while trying on clothes, Murphy proclaimed that “Ted was going to die of an overdose of heroin within the next three weeks.” She went on to say she was dating a man named “Richard,” who would then be able to retrieve silver buried in the desert, the affidavit states.

Ten days after Murphy allegedly made those statements, Binion was dead.

Friends told authorities that the casino scion was once again trying to kick his heroin addiction when he died. He had ordered Xanax, an anxiety medication, from a doctor friend to help ease the withdrawal, the affidavit says.

But he seemed upbeat about the future, having recently opened a $1-million investment account and talked about buying new properties. The day before he died, he welcomed then-Las Vegas Mayor Jan Jones to his home and handed her $40,000 in cash for her campaign to become governor of Nevada, authorities contend in the affidavit.

He apparently was ready to end his relationship with Murphy. He hired a private investigator to follow her and told friends they were finished. The day before he died, the affidavit says, he telephoned his longtime lawyer and friend, James J. Brown, telling him: “Take Sandy out of the will, if she doesn’t kill me tonight. If I am dead, you will know what happened.”

The next day, in the late afternoon, an apparently hysterical Murphy called 911 and told a dispatcher her “husband” was not breathing.

Investigators would wonder later why cellular phone records seemed to indicate the call came seven minutes after someone else called Murphy--someone using the cellular phone belonging to Rick Tabish.

Authorities said their suspicion was aroused immediately after the death because Binion had always smoked his heroin. The massive dose that helped kill him--along with the Xanax--was swallowed.

Excavating Vault of Silver

Less than two days after the death, Tabish and two other men were caught in the dead of night as they dug Binion’s silver-filled vault out of the desert floor near Pahrump, about 60 miles away. The contents have been valued at a minimum of $4 million.

That was only a part of Tabish’s suspicious activity, Las Vegas prosecutors now allege. According to the affidavit, the part owner of a sand pit in the Nevada town of Jean told police that Tabish and an associate kidnapped him and threatened his life unless he signed away his interest in the property.

At one point, police charged in the affidavit, Tabish beat the man with a telephone book and dangled him over a freshly dug grave until he agreed to sign over the property.

(Sand is an integral part of concrete production in a rapidly expanding city where concrete is in high demand.)

Tabish now faces a laundry list of other charges for that alleged incident, including extortion, kidnapping and assault.

Until Thursday’s arrests, police and Binion family members said it was unclear when the case would come to a head. Each new twist in the case has remained in the public eye in Las Vegas, however, as Ted Binion’s lawyers have fought to keep Murphy from inheriting Binion’s $900,000 house, its contents and $300,000 in cash.

Murphy was scheduled to appear in court Friday morning for a probate hearing on those issues. Instead, she remained in jail.

Binion’s sister, Becky Binion Behnen, now runs the Horseshoe Casino in Las Vegas’ old downtown. Although she had previously cast suspicion on Murphy, Behnen and other family members declined to comment Friday.