Murphy told manicurist Binion would overdose on heroin

Wednesday, Aug. 4, 1999 | 11:03 a.m.

Sandy Murphy told her manicurist a week before Ted Binion's Sept. 17 murder that her boyfriend was going to overdose on heroin, police records say.

The manicurist, Deana Perry, talked about Murphy's prediction in an Oct. 21 interview with homicide detectives. The Sun has obtained a 14-page transcript of the interview, as well as other police transcripts in which Perry's co-workers at the Neiman Marcus beauty salon corroborate her story.

Perry told detectives that Murphy, charged in the former casino man's murder nine months later, and a woman she identified as Linda spent about five hours at the salon on Sept. 10 having their hair and nails done and trying on dresses.

Detectives believe Murphy's friend was Linda Susan Carroll, once a reluctant witness sought nationwide in the murder investigation.

Perry said it appeared to her that Murphy and Carroll were under the influence of alcohol or drugs when they came to the salon about 10:30 a.m.

Carroll's Huntington Beach, Calif., lawyer, Chet Bennett, said his client remembers joining Murphy at the salon that day. But he says she denies being under the influence of alcohol or drugs and is "outraged" that anyone would suggest that to police.

Perry told homicide detectives that Murphy, who referred to Binion as her husband, suggested the gambling figure would be dead of a heroin overdose within the next three weeks.

Murphy even talked about whether she could be seen with her new boyfriend at upcoming social events -- the annual Andre Agassi children's benefit at the end of September, and the Oct. 15 Bellagio grand opening -- following Binion's death, Perry said.

She identified her boyfriend as "Richard," whom police believe is Rick Tabish, her murder co-defendant.

Murphy's lawyer, Bill Terry, has refused to comment on the evidence police gathered during the homicide investigation.

The 27-year-old Murphy, meanwhile, had been predicting Binion's death to others, records obtained by the Sun show.

Steve Morris, a close Binion friend, told private detective Tom Dillard that Murphy had been talking about a Binion overdose with him as early as June. Dillard, hired by Binion's $30 million estate, has been working closely with homicide detectives.

Morris, in a 29-page transcript of his interview with Dillard, said it appeared to him that Murphy was going out of her way to exaggerate Binion's heroin problem.

In the months before his death, Binion had returned to using heroin after gaming regulators revoked his license at the Horseshoe Club, but Morris said he never saw him out of control or in as bad as shape as Murphy had been claiming.

"Gees almighty," Morris told Dillard. "She made it so obvious that I thought 'well, Jesus Christ maybe she's planning to kill the guy.' "

Pressed by homicide detectives, Perry said she also got the impression during Murphy's Sept. 10 visit to the salon that she might be trying to do in Binion.

Asked why she saw though that, she responded:

"Because (she) and Linda were joking about it the entire time they were there, and she was very adamant that this guy was going to die of a drug overdose, of a heroin overdose, and that she then ... would have gotten $3 million ... and the house. (And) then she could proceed on her (new) boyfriend who's worth a lot more than that, and she was only 23, 24 years old, and $3 million would get her until the next guy."

Perry said Murphy talked about going after more of Binion's money following his death.

"She said that he had a lot of money all over," Perry told detectives. "That he had a jewelry store in Oregon that was gonna be hers, and he had a bunch of money buried out in the desert that Richard, the boyfriend, and his best friend was gonna get."

Murphy told Perry the desert loot included "silver and coins."

Tabish and two other men were arrested two days after Binion's murder while digging up an estimated $4 million in silver Binion had buried in an underground vault in Pahrump.

Murphy has been charged with Tabish in the plot to steal the silver fortune, as well as valuables from Binion's Las Vegas home.

Perry said she got the impression that Murphy needed Binion's money to help her boyfriend (Tabish) "get out of his marriage" and gain access to the fortune in the boyfriend's family.

Tabish, a 34-year-old contractor, has a wife and young children in Missoula, Mont. He family is wealthy.

In separate interviews with detectives, Sheldon Cornette, the salon's manager, and Georgia Gastone, a facial and hair stylist, said Perry had told others at the salon that Murphy was predicting Binion's death.

Gastone said she once heard Murphy talking about how she stood to get more money if Binion were dead.