Search intensified for reluctant witness in Binion probe

Wednesday, April 7, 1999 | 11:04 a.m.

Homicide detectives and FBI agents intensified the hunt today for a reluctant witness in the Ted Binion murder investigation.

As of this morning, Linda Susan Carroll, who spent several hours with Binion's live-in girlfriend, Sandy Murphy, shortly after the gaming executive's Sept. 17 murder, was still at large and believed to be hiding in Southern California.

The FBI's Criminal Apprehension Team (CAT), armed with a warrant seeking Carroll's arrest as a material witness, is participating in the stepped-up search.

Chief Deputy District Attorney David Roger, who is spearheading the murder investigation, wants Carroll to testify before a county grand jury looking into the activities of Murphy and her reported lover, Montana contractor Rick Tabish.

Last Thursday, Carroll's Huntington Beach lawyer, Chet Bennett, told the Sun that he planned to surrender his client to authorities before she was arrested.

But since then, Roger has had no contact with Bennett, and detectives have worked harder to find her. Bennett could not be reached for comment today.

Over the weekend, the syndicated television show, "America's Most Wanted," showed a police-issued photo of Carroll to a national audience to help publicize the search.

The photo was taken when the 42-year-old Carroll applied for a work card as a cocktail waitress at Cheetah's adult nightclub in 1995. Cheetah's is the same place that once employed Murphy.

Tom Dillard, a private investigator working for Binion's estate, has said Carroll told him she had been threatened by the targets of the murder probe and feared for her life.

Carroll also was present when Murphy and one of Murphy's lawyers, William Knudson, videotaped the inside of Binion's home the day after Binion's murder.

The home was taped, sources said, after Binion's safe was cleaned out of valuables, including a $300,000 collection of rare currency.

On Tuesday, District Judge Michael Cherry, who is overseeing Binion's $30 million estate, ordered Murphy's other attorney, David Chesnoff, to turn over the tape to the estate.

Murphy, Chesnoff and Knudson had fought the estate's efforts to obtain the tape on grounds it would violate her attorney-client privilege and Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

But Cherry, after viewing the videotape, ruled Tuesday that there was no violation of any of her rights and that the tape actually contained material that portrays Murphy in a good light.

Both Murphy and Tabish have taken the Fifth Amendment when questioned in court about items missing from Binion's home.

Murphy stands to receive Binion's $900,000 home, its contents and $300,000 cash, but her inheritance is threatened by the murder investigation and her reluctance to help the estate locate the missing assets.

Tabish faces a series of charges with two other men in the attempted theft of a fortune in silver from Binion in Pahrump less than 36 hours after Binion's murder.

Binion died after receiving lethal doses of heroin and the prescription sedative, Xanax.