The High Life and Final Days

This is an IiHart podcast Guaranteed human. This is Chelsea Handler from Dear Chelsea. I'm going to be honest with you. I am online way more than I probably should be. And between me and everyone else at my house, we've got a zillion screens going on at any given moment. So when my internet slows down, it is a full crisis. That's why having fast, reliable internet that can keep up really matters and why you need optimum famously Fast Fiber Internet Optimum fiber blows flaky five G out of the water and keeps it cool with the fastest and most reliable speeds that don't slow when things heat up. And right now, they have the deal of the summer, just thirty dollars a month for five years. So don't wait, callall eight eight eight for optimum. Visit optimum dot com or stop by your local optimum store today Famously Fast Fiber for thirty dollars a month for five years. You can't beat it Terms apply, see optimum d. com for details Summer is a gift It's a gift of days that last a little longer, a brighter state of mind So giveift yourself a new Kia at the KIia Summer Sticker sales event, Eespecially taged vehicles including the Sornto, Sportage, Carnival, as well as the Nuro Hybrid, all backed by a ten year one hundred thousand mile limited powertrain warranty. So the gift of summer can keep on giving for summers to come. Kia Movement that inspires Call eight hundred three three threety four K for details host Jafree event and seven hundred six twenty six to dealer for warranty details The Second World War was the largest event in human history twenty part documentary series with Tom Higs. No part of the globe was untouched, no life unchanged. experience the ultimate account of World War I. Every single person had a story These are the stories that make us who we are Tom Hanks, new episode Monday at eightight, part of History Honors two hundred fifty On on the history channel. Wasn't that delicious? So good. Your bill, ladies? I got it. No. I got it Seriously, Iist. I exist first I be silly. You be silly. People with the Wells Fargo Active Cash credit card prefer to pay because they earn unlimited two percent cash rewards on purchases. Okay, Rack paper scissors for it. Rock paper scissors For Wells Fargo Aive cash credit card, visit Wells farargo. com slash active cash terms apppplly If you want to find a stress free way to buy your next car, start at Carmax and shop your way. If you want to browse with confidence, get free qualified online with no impact on your credit score and shop cars within your budget, from luxury cars to family rides Carmax has options for almost every price range, including more than twenty five thousand cars priced under twenty five thousand dollars. So hey, wantan to get started? Just head toarmax dot com for details and get pre qualified today wantant to drive Carmax Welcome to unexplained Me, your host. Richard McLane. Smith Where each week we explore another true tale of high strangeness If you're new here and you're a fan of expertly told atmospheric stories about the strange and unexplained then you've come to the right place. And please subscribe to the show if you haven't already done so Now, as some of you might know, I was in Las Vegas recently for Crime C which I can't recommend highly enough if you've ever thought about going You can read more about my thoughts on Vegas O my sububstack at Richard McLan Smith at sububstack. com where you can find a whole host of other writing from fiction my thoughts on the manosphere as well as my reflections regarding a trip I took to the Auschwitz Memorial a few years ago amongst other things I should also say I'm hugely excited to be performing at this year's Edinburgh Fringe Festival. where I'll be giving a haunting account of the Flanon Isles mystery Uexplained life will be playing at the space's sururgeonss Hall venue at five past ten PM every night. from august seventh to the twenty ninth Except for the sixteenth and twenty third You can get tickets at ww. thepaceuK. com forward slash shows twenty twenty six forward slash unexplained hyphen Live. Or just go to my website at w. unexplained podcast. com forward slash events and follow the link there. But now back to this week's episode Since I was going to be telling a story at Crime Con, I wanted to find something that was relevant to Vegas and all its wild history And frankly, I feel like with three parts, we're barely even scratching the surface of this one And I'm astounded that I'd never heard anything about it before or the colourful cast of characters that it concerns. Anyway, it feels like a good excuse to try something different So shortly after the last episode drops, I'm going to host a live Q and A on YouTube where we can all discuss the case, or anything else you want to ask about me or the show I haven't quite figured out where the best time is to do this, so listen out for further details regarding that in the near future Now finally With all that said This is unexplained Season nine, episode twenty seven Death in Vegas The Ted Binion Mystery One of three It was approaching two in the morning in Prump, Nevada On Saturday, september nineteenth, nineteen ninety eight When attired Sergeant Ed Howard Deputy Sheriff Dean Pennot Pulled onto the one hundred sixty made their way toward Terble's toown casino. It had been a long day overseeing the Perump Harvest Festival and the men were looking forward to finally getting some dinner The festival was a wholesome affair A rodeo. stock car races A large parade A far cry from the adult gaudy glitz and glamour of the vagar strip which lay only sixty miles away across the Sring mountains Where Vegas is bright lights scary spectacle and noise. P Rump is sun bleached, wide open streets and desert silence But you can never quite escape Vegas entirely The Prump's vast desert sky is blanketed with an endless carpet of stars Alongside that There's the distant glow of Vegas on the horizon bleeds into the dark like a bruise And even out there in the basin Something of Vagus always seeps through So when officers Howard and Penneet spotted a cluster of bright headlights, emerging out of a vacant lot. It was pure instinct that told them to turn off the highway and investigate making their way down a dirt track The officers saw three figures moving about alongside a large belly dump truck The officers didn't recognize any of them The figures froze when Howard flashed his lights and brought the cruiser to a halt Stepping out of the car The officers could now also see there was a large mechanical digger there too as well as a sizable mound of freshly turned earth hole in the ground One of the men stepped forward and said they were just out there digging up old ammunition for a client while another tall dark haired man. who gave his name as Rick Tabish, quickly cut him off and said they were actually there just clearing out some old concrete The confused Sergeant Howard asked if he could take a look in the back of the truck and see for himself what they were doing The men shifted uncomfortably Rick gazed back toward it then gave a slow nod of a scent. Howard jumped up the s and peered over the edge His eyes widen Okay. I lied, said Tabish Howard was now staring at was roughly forty eight thousand pounds of silver bars and coins, worth well over five million dollars. Closer to ten in today's money Seeing the look on Sergeant Hower's face, Tabish was quick to insist that it wasn't what it looked like Because what it looked like was that they were out there digging up a load of silver that didn't belong to them didn't deny that it wasn't theirs But he insisted they weren't trying to steal it. They were merely doing a favour for the man whose silver it was Binion Now, that name was instantly recognizable to Sergeant Howard There weren't many in Nevada who hadn't heard of Ted and the Binyions. After all They were one of the most powerful families in Las Vegas Ted was probably its most well known living member The only thing was two days before. Binion was found dead in his home from a suspected and uncontroversial drug overdose. As Rick had it He and his two colleagues were out there two in the morning to keep the silver safe for Ted's daughter, Bonnie. So the rest of the Binions couldn't get their hands on it Just as Rick had apparently promised to do for Tet, if anything ever happened to him He never believed the day would actually come, he told them But now Here they were Understandably, the cops were skeptical But Rick, it seemed, had a Trump card He claimed he'd already arranged it with their boss, Sheriff Wade Lazki if they just call him He'd straighten it all out. But when they did Liseki claimed not to know of any such arrangement and told them to sit tight thirirty minutes later He arrived at the scene Interestingly, Howard and Penock would later testify that their boss didn't seem his usual self. and that he was oddly agitated Another officer, Steve Huginins would claim that Rick told him He'd arranged to give Liseci a hundred thousand dollars for allowing him to take the silver Misei denied everything and then allegedly prevarricated on what to do next suggesting they let the men go home and simply confiscate the silver But Howard and Pennick insisted on making arrests And eventually the sheriff agreed night when officers searched the scene briefcase belonging to Rick Tabish was also confiscated Inside it Officers found what appeared to be love notes. written to Rick. by a woman named Sandy Murphy Sandy, it just so happened was Ted Binion's girlfriend suuddenly that supposedly unremarkable death of his was about to become a whole lot more complicated Hey,'s Ran Reynold here from Mit Mobile Now, I was looking for fun ways to tell you that Mint's offer of unlimited premium wireless for fifteen dollars a month is back. So I thought it would be fun if we made fifteen dollars bills, but it turns out It's very illegal. So there goes my big idea for the commercial. Give it a try at midmobile d. com slash switch. Upront payment of forty dollars for three months ninety dollars for six months or one hundredy dollars for twel month plan reired fifteen dollars month equalent to taxes extra. initial planerm only greater than fifty gigytes slow netork busy terms Summer is a gift It's a gift of days that last a little longer, a brighter state of mind So givet yourself a new Kia at the KIA Summer Sticker sales event, Eespecially taged vehicles including the Sornto, Sportage, Carnival, as well as the Nuro Hybrid. all backed by a ten year one hundred thousand mile limited powertrain warranty. So the gift of summer can keep on giving for summers to come. Kia Movement that inspires Call eight hundred three thir threety four K for details h J safy event and seven six twenty six to dealer for warranty details The Second World War was the largest event in human history twenty part documentary series with Tom Higs. No part of the globe was untouched, No life unchanged experience the ultimate account of World War I. Every single person had a story These are the stories that make us who we are Tom Hanks new episode Monday at eightight, part of History Honors two hundred fifty onlyn on the history channel Ns, that's KNIX leeak proof underwear isn't just for one moment, it's for all the everyday moments you didn't realize leak proof underwear could make easier Maybe it's day one of your period. Maybe it's a long travel day, Maybe it's hot outside, you're on the move, and you just want to feel fresh Their leak proof underwear comes in a range of absorbancies, from light to ultra, and helps protect against periods, light leaks, sweat, and everyday surprises. And because they look and feel like real underwear, they're soft, invisible underclothes, and machine washable. No extra hassle, no complicated routine Just dependable protection, you can wash and rewear See why millions have made the switch to leak proof underwear Visit Ns. com that's knX. com and use code fllow fifteen for fifteen percent off That's kniX. com Code fllow fifteen. Wasn't that delicious? So good. Your bill, ladies? I got it. No. I got it Seriously, Iist. I exist first. I don't be silly. You be silly. People with the Wells Fargo Active Cash credit card prefer to pay because they earn unlimited two percent cash rewards on purchases. Okay, Rck paper scissors for it. Rock paper scissors. To Wells Fargo Aive Cash credit card, visit Wellspargo. com slash active cash terms apppply To understand the story of Ted Binion You have to go somew way back to a time that some might describe generously As the good old days In the early nineteen twenties in Texas A powerful temperance movement had swept across the United States outlawing alcohol sex work and gambling But Texas has always been a fiercely independent place U to Dallas, In the smoke filled back rooms of the St. George Hotel on Main Street A man named Warren Diamond had other ideas Diamond had established himself as the so called czar of Dallas gambling H is no limits, craps game The only real game in town operated with armed guards and the rumored protection of local politicians and law enforcement, in those rooms The atmosphere was never less than electric Watching it all unfold Wide eyed and hungry W a kid called Benny Binion At age fifteen Benny left his home in Pilot Point just north of Dallas Having grown tired of his alcoholic father, He drifted into the city and into Diamond's orbit. where he became his errand boy. Parking carts and slipping envelopes of cash into the right officer's hands kind of thing One night Benny was in the room time oil manan from East Texas saunted up to the craps table and threw a large envelope down in front of Diamond fromr under his Stetson He told Diamond to look in the envelope before agreeing to the bet Diamond didn't flinch He left the envelope exactly where it was took another long drag on his cigarette and told the Croupier giveive the man the dice Two rollles later, and it was all over The oil man walked away without his money. And without a word Inside the envelope. one hundred seventy thousand dollars Just over three millionars in today's money For Benny, it was a pivotal moment The world of gambling was full of hustlers and chancers for sure But at the heart of it, There was a strange kind of honor A simple code honor your debt He had no doubt that Diamond would have paid if he'd had to And when you boil life down to a code that simple brings a certain sense of clarity Benny had never been to school but he was sharp and a fast learner And over time he began to branch out a little It started modestly A numbers game here table there A few small operations that he ran on the site But in the late twenties, Warren Diamond's health deteriorated Benny began slowly take over the city Because the other thing about Benny Binion was this He didn't mess about He was willing to do whatever it took And in the world of Dallas gambling and racketeering invariably killing people By the early nineteen thirties Benny Binan had established himself as the gambling kingpin of Dallas and had expanded into bootlegging One afternoon Benny was sitting on a crate in his backyard. When he sensed a flurry of movement in the corner of his eye up just in time too see a man charging at him with a knife As the man drew near, Benny fell back pulling the crate down with him then in one continuous motion He grabbed a pistol from his pocket and fired several shots over the crate at his assailant The man was a rival bootlegger named Frank Boldding. And he died instantly After that Benny was known as the cowboy The name was at not only because of his sharp shooting But because of what it said about his proclivity for frontier justice In Benny's world, there were rules And if you broke them consequences. It was as simple as that The first to seriously challenge Binyan's ascendancy in Dallas was a rival numbers operator called Ben Frieden. One afternoon. Frieden was sitting in the back of his chauffeur driven car. Talking to an acquaintance through the window Benny Binan drew up alongside him and shot him multiple times Binion claimed it was self defence and even allegedly gave himself a flesh wound to make it look convincing To anyone who mattered in the city The message was loud and clear It's said that when the Italian mafia discussed American cities they'd yet to make inroads into, They decided not to bother with Dallas becausecause musling in on Benny Binyan's territory was thought to be more trouble than it was worth. But over the course of the nineteen thirties and into the forties, Things in Dallas began to change A new breed of young aspirational politicians were getting elected Men who were determined to drag the city out of the wild West clean up its image. The cozy relationship between organized crime and law enforcement began to break apart Benny's world was steadily shrinking And in truth Benny was probably a little tired of living life so permanently on the edge. He had a family now. So he needed somewhere a little safer But where his particular talents would still be rewarded just in a rather more socially acceptable way I'll give you one guess where he decided to go It's said that Benny Binan arrived in Las Vegas in nineteen forty six wife, Teddy Jane their five young children. Betty, Barbara, and Brenda. And a suitcase containing two million dollars in cash The equivalent of something approaching thirty five million dollars today After a short stint co owning a casino, Binion was granted a gambling license in nineteen fifty one and bought the El Dorado Club on Fremont Street. reennaming it Binions's horseshoe Meanwhile, back in Texas Nhing major was about to go down At eleven thirty, on the morning of august seventh, nineteen fifty one A smartly dressed man appeared at the front door of a sprawling farmhouse property S miles north of Grapevine just outside of Dallas. cautious as he always was now First, He checked under the bonnet of his black forward sedan Then he got down on one knee and checked underneath it too Satisfied always well He got in and started the engine He shifted the car into gear and eased it three hundred yards up to the mailbox at the end of the drive Then he wound down the window and leaned out The explosion was catastrophic It obliterated the man and the car in an instant seending pieces of bone and metal and flesh Scattering across an area two hundred feet in diameter. five hundred and fifty dollars in cash rained down with the debris a deck of playing cards that had been in his pocket Drifted to the ground too The Joker, landing face up beside the man's straw hat next to a smoking Four foot deep hole The man was forty one year old, Herbert Noble A rival Dallas operator of Benny Binions who had a decade earlier made the mistake of refusing to give Benny the cut he demanded for his business twwelve attempts were made on noble's life. including one that killed his wife. This was the one that got him Binion as ever claim to know nothing about it But few believed him And there is little doubt that the reverberations from that explosion were felt all across Vegas opinion was not someone you wanted to cross At the time, Vegas was in the process of rapidly reinventing itself. Mob money was flowing in And the strip further south of Fremont was steadily transforming into the neon playground that we know today Horseshoe remained defiantly something else There were no shows and no fancy restaurants justust eighty rudimentary rooms a casino floor. and the serious business of gambling It was all low ceilings velvet wallpaper and soft lighting. The place where serious players came to play seriously No fast food restaurant lighting, designed to keep you permanently alert. just the felt dice and the cards Bennies I in rule No bet was ever too large Down at the horseshoe during Benny Binion's time You'd also find a horseshoe shaped display case Containing one million dollars in ten thousand dollars bills About ten million by today's standards Benny, it seemed Theatre And he liked people to understand immediately the kind of establishment they were walking into Also, though you wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of him It's said that Benny was a real people person who liked people almost as much as money And that Beyond his various dubious dealings was the real secret of his success He was funny and warm And over time, he became one of the most powerful crucially well liked figures in Las Vegas course He also knew how to keep the right people on site How the world really worked, when money and politics were involved He'd earned that knowledge the hard way. In nineteen seventy He launched the Wor sereries of Pker which would eventually become the most prestigious poker event on Earth Then in nineteen eighty eight, He bought the Mint hotel and casino next door adddding nearly three hundred hotel rooms and six hundred slot machines to his empire By then Benny was in his early eighties, and Las Vegas had long since turned him into a legend He died on Christmas Day, nineteen eighty nine That is funeral. It's said that eighteen thousand people turned out to attend including many famous performers Singers, politicians and law enforcement It was a warm send off For a man who, by any measure had lived several lives A statue is even made for him placed in a prominent spot at the top of Fremont Street where his casino was located all of which is a rather long winded But I think important way of saying Benny Binion The real deal Regardless of where you stand on what he did on a moral level Whether we like it or not The world he inhabited very much exists And he was almost preternaturally gifted at riding it for his children Born into wealth and privilege A world away from Pilot Point, Texas in the nineteen hundreds, however It was a very tough act to follow He had built something quite remarkable. The question was whether his children could keep it Benny's wife Teddy Jane, had always been the quiet backbone of the operation. tasked with overseeing the books When she died in nineteen ninety four F years after Benny. The fragile equilibrium of the family began to shift Up until the time that Teddy Jane died Benny had only involved his sons in the running of the casino But Teddy Jane, named her daughter Becky as executics of her estate Giving Becky a larger stake in the business than many had expected The eldest son received around forty three percent Ted received twenty daughters Becky, Brenda and their families the remainder Though they had always been kept at something of an arm's length from the day to day running of the casino What followed? was by any account A Shakespearean struggle for dominance. And at the center of it, or rather spiraling away from the center of it was Ted The family had lived for years on West Bonanza Road On a six acre ranch with a sprawling four thousand eight hundred square foot home Later, they moved to a property on nearby Rancho Drive. Ted spent a considerable time in a suite upstairs at the casino itself. liiving in a sense inside the thing his father had built Ted never went to college and went straight into the gambling business the moment he was eligible for a license Benny had always intended He was around for the early World series of poker tournaments which drew celebrities and high rollers from around the world And he took to the casino floor with a natural ease. Ted wore custom made cowboy boots, western shirts and a ten gallon hat. and was very much a man made in the moould of his father Except in one crucial department Benny lived by a coat where family above everything had been the organizing principple of his life Ted was drawn to the glamour and the lifestyle. He liked to drink He liked to party And somewhere along the line He got into heroin By nineteen eighty six, it had cost him his gaming license The suspension would last until nineteen ninety two. period that must have felt like a kind of exile For a man who'd grown up on that casino floor In nineteen ninety Ted was indicted on charges relating to the robbing kidnapping and beating of what were described as undesirable patrons at the horseshoe A racist policy that often targeted black customers due to Benny Binan's belief that his regular white customers were intimidated by them down on this kind of behaviour to everything that was changing about Las Vegas around that time The city was cleaning up its image People like Ted and Benny, with their old habits and old entitlements We're increasingly finding themselves on the wrong side of that process Summer is a gift It's a gift of days that last a little longer, a brighter state of mind So give yourself a new Kia at the KA Summer Sticker sales event Eespecially tacked vehicles including the Srento, Sportage, Carnival, as well as the Neurohybrid all backed by a ten year one hundred thousand mile limited powertrain warranty. so the gift of summer can keep on giving for summers to come. Kia, movevement that inspires. Call eight hundred three thirty three four K Free details hosoafe event and seven six twenty six S D deala for warranty details The Second World War was the largest event in human history twenty part documentary series with Tom Higgs. No part of the globe was untouched, No life unchanged experience the ultimate account of World War II Every single person had a story These are the stories that make us who we are N new episode Monday at eightight, part of History Honors two hundred fifty Nix, that's KNIX leeak proof underwear isn't just for one moment, it's for all the everyday moments you didn't realize leak proof underwear could make easier Maybe it's day one of your period. Maybe it's a long travel day, Maybe it's hot outside, you're on the move, and you just want to feel fresh Their leak proof underwear comes in a range of absorbencies, from light to ultra and helps protect against periods, light leaks, sweat, and everyday surprises. And because they look and feel like real underwear, they're soft, invisible undercothes, and machine washable. No extra hassle, no complicated routine Just dependable protection, you can wash and rewear See why millions have made the switch to leak proof underwear Visit Nx d. com that's knX d. com and use code flow fifteen for fifteen percent off That's knX dot com code fllow fifteen Wasn't that delicious? So good. Your bill, ladies? I got it. No. I got it Seriously, Iist. I exist first. be silly. You know he' silly. People with the Wells Fargo Active Cash credit card prefer to pay because they earn unlimited two percent cash rewards on purchases. Okay, Rck paper scissors for it. Rock paper scissors The Wells Fargo ActiveCash credit card, visit wellspargo d. com slash active cash terms apply I'm Gln Washington, host of Snap Judgment. The award winning storytelling podcast from KQED and every week, Snap deals a new card, like jumping on Rihanna's private plane, or the accidental bank robber, or even the man who was swallowed by a hippo. What Any card. Snap judgment from KQED, M episodes every Thursday, wherever you get your podcast When Ted first lost his license He hired Oscar Goodman to contest the ruling The same Oscar Goodman, who'd once represented Antony Spilotro one of the most feared mob enforcers in Vegas history You know that character in Casino played by Joe Pesi The one who puts a man's head in a vice and pops his eye out That was based on Antony the Ant Spilotro Goodman was the best But even the best can only do so much By nineteen ninety five Binion was fifty one years old On the cusp of losing his license again, drugs. and his questionable relationships with a few mafia figures And he was not in a good place several hundred miles away. Bell Flower just north of Long Beach, California. twenty three year old Sandy Murphy. was not in a good place, either Sandy, born Sandra grown up in what those who knew her described as a loving home but a fractured one Her parents divorced when she was a toddler And she was estranged from her biological mother raaised instead by a loving father and stepmother St It is said with some truth that when parents divorce They blow up the planet that their children live on The effects can reverberate for a lifetime expressing themselves in a search for security that never quite finds what it's looking for Gring up in a beach town Sandy loved the sea and excelled at sport She even took time to teach swimming to children, preparing to compete in the Paralympics a generosity that tends to get overlooked in the versions of this story that are more interested in what came later When Sandy was a teenager She was rape This fact tends to appear in accounts of her life in the most cursory, matter of fact way Before the narrative moves quickly on But an experience like that at that age doesn't just leave a mark It reorganizes a person. It changes the way they move through the world who they trust and what they reach for Sandy, it seems had reached for something solid and independent That's seventeen She met a man ten years her senior. I moved in with him in Huntingdon Beach