Columnist Jeff German: Binion’s last days filled with paranoia

Sunday, Aug. 8, 1999 | 9:26 a.m.

Jeff German is the Sun's senior investigative reporter. His column appears Tuesdays,Thursdays and Sundays. Reach him at german@lasvegassun.com or 259-4067.

AS THE DRAMA over Ted Binion's murder escalates, it's becoming clear that his last days were gripped with paranoia, mostly related to his stormy relationship with Sandy Murphy.

Binion was paranoid by nature, according to what his family members and friends have told investigators. He never left his sprawling home without a small handgun strapped to his body. And inside, he hid loaded weapons everywhere, in kitchen cabinets, bedroom drawers and bathrooms.

Around the perimeter of the 6,000-square-foot home, eight video cameras hooked to a 24-hour recorder kept track of the movements of anyone approaching his private domain. Binion often would watch the monitors from the very den where Murphy reported discovering his body next to an empty bottle of the prescription sedative, Xanax.

The wealthy gambling figure also had the capability of recording all of his telephone conversations. Tape recorders monitoring the phone lines in his house were set up in Murphy's bedroom.

Murphy, his live-in girlfriend for three years, appeared paranoid, as well.

She was obsessed with keeping track of Binion's money and maintaining a tight rein over his activities. Numerous Binion friends and relatives have told investigators they had trouble getting through to Binion in the weeks leading to his murder.

Though regarded as a drug user herself, Murphy made a point of letting it be known she was unhappy with Binion's return to heroin use after he had lost his gaming license at the Horseshoe Club.

Nine months after his death, Murphy and her reported lover, Montana contractor Rick Tabish, were charged with forcing Binion to overdose on heroin and Xanax.

In the last days of his life, according to court documents I've been reviewing, Binion had begun to suspect Murphy was not looking after his best interests.

He thought she had allowed one of her relatives to steal a bag of coins from his safe, and he became concerned about her $5,000-a-month credit card habit, even asking his secretary to cut her off.

Binion also began to suspect Murphy was having an affair with Tabish. The day before his murder, he hired private detective Don Dibble to put a tail on his girlfriend.

Prior to his death, Binion even worried that the 27-year-old Murphy might harm him. He walked through his house with his housekeeper unloading the bullets from all of his guns.

Then the day before he died, Binion telephoned his lawyer, James J. Brown, and told him to cut Murphy out of his will. In that conversation, Binion told Brown if something happened to him, he would know who was behind it.

Murphy, court records show, predicted to her manicurist a week before Binion's murder that he would die of an overdose.

Now comes more word of Binion's paranoia.

I've obtained a copy of a statement that Brad Perry, a video surveillance expert, gave to private detective Tom Dillard a week after Binion's death. Dillard has been investigating Binion's murder for his $30 million estate.

Perry told Dillard that Binion had summoned him to his house the weekend before his death to examine the video recording system hooked to the cameras outside his house. The system apparently had broken down.

That weekend, as Binion fretted over his surveillance system, Murphy and Tabish were living it up at a posh Beverly Hills hotel.

Binion told Perry he thought that Murphy was "chipping around on him" and he wanted the electronics expert to plant a bug in her bedroom phone.

But Perry said he never got a chance to install the recording device because Murphy came home the next day.

Perry told Dillard that he was present when Binion had talked to Murphy in California and begged her to come back to Las Vegas. Binion, he said, appeared in "bad shape" at the time.

Two days before Binion's death, Perry said, he returned to the former casino man's home to pick up the VCR to have it fixed. He did not rule out the possibility that someone had tampered with the recorder.

Whatever the reason for the breakdown, the VCR was not in the house the day Binion died, which means there was no way of keeping a record of who was coming in and out that day.

It was one of many ironies during Binion's last days of paranoia.