Police Link Orange Man’s Charges to Binion Slaying

A businessman from Orange has been arrested on conspiracy, kidnapping and extortion charges that Las Vegas authorities said Monday are related to the murder case of casino heir Lonnie “Ted” Binion. John B. Joseph, 60, who is not a suspect in Binion’s slaying, will appear in Orange County Superior Court today for an extradition hearing. Joseph was arrested Friday by Orange police, local district attorney investigators and Las Vegas detectives.

The case against Joseph involves his business dealings with Richard Tabish, the man accused last week of killing Binion. The two men are accused of forcing one of Joseph’s partners out of a profitable gravel business so Joseph would be free to sell it to Tabish.

“It is all connected to the homicide in that the district attorney believes part of the motivation for the murder was Tabish’s financial troubles,” Las Vegas Police Lt. Wayne Petersen said.

The kidnapping and extortion case builds the prosecution’s theory that Tabish’s money troubles were a motive for Binion’s murder, Petersen said.

Binion, 55, was found dead of a massive overdose of heroin and the anti-anxiety drug Xanax on Sept. 17 at his Las Vegas home. The multimillionaire son of Benny Binion, founder of the high-stakes Horseshoe Casino, was known for his predilection for drugs and topless dancers, authorities say in a court affidavit filed in the case.

Prosecutors accuse Binion’s girlfriend, Orange County native Sandy Murphy, 27, and her lover, Tabish, 34, of staging the overdose and then attempting to plunder Binion’s assets.

Murphy, whom Binion met at a Las Vegas strip club, and Tabish were arrested Thursday in Las Vegas. They have previously denied involvement in Binion’s slaying.

The court affidavit names four others, including Joseph, who are wanted on charges related to Binion’s murder.

Authorities say Tabish’s own business was in the midst of a financial collapse when he and Joseph planned to get Joseph’s gravel business partner, Leo Casey, out of the way so that Tabish could buy the business.

In the affidavit, Casey states that Tabish, whom he had met through Joseph, talked about his affair with Murphy and plans to murder Binion and steal his assets, including silver.

Two months before Binion’s alleged murder, Joseph told Casey to meet Tabish and another man at a gravel pit, according to the affidavit. Casey alleges in the court document that Tabish and the other man placed a gun in his mouth, a knife under his fingernails and threatened to bury him alive unless he forfeited his share of the business to Joseph.

Petersen said Steven L. Wadkins, the other suspect in the alleged kidnapping and extortion of Casey, turned himself in to Las Vegas police Friday.

Two remaining suspects, still at large, are wanted in connection with the attempted theft of $4 million worth of silver belonging to Binion shortly after his death. The treasure was buried in a vault in the desert near Pahrump, about 60 miles from Las Vegas.