Binion often kept huge sums of cash at home, ex-wife says

Thursday, July 22, 1999 | 11:27 a.m.

Ted Binion often kept $100,000 to $1 million in cash at his home, his former wife has told homicide detectives.

Doris Binion, who divorced the 55-year-old casino executive in 1996 after living with him for 30 years, said her ex-husband generally kept at least $50,000 at the 2408 Palomino Lane home.

Homicide detective James Buczek interviewed Binion for 70 minutes on Oct. 26, about five weeks after her former husband's murder. The Sun has obtained an 18-page transcript of the interview.

The information is relevant to the murder investigation because Binion's accused killers, his girlfriend, Sandy Murphy, and Montana contractor Rick Tabish, also are charged with stealing his valuables after his slaying.

Binion, 51, who has never spoken out publicly about Ted Binion's death, told Buczek her longtime marriage partner also kept a gold coin collection and an antique currency collection with bills dating back to the Civil War at their home.

Asked where he would keep his collections, Binion said: "Ah, sometimes in his closet ... Sometimes in the garage. Sometimes just on shelves in the family room."

Binion said she was told that her former husband had buried gold at the Palomino Lane home and that she knew he had buried cash at his ranch in Pahrump.

"And how would he go about burying it? Would he put it in any certain type of container?" Buczek asked.

"Yes," Binion responded. "Usually wrapped in plastic and then in an Army can."

Binion said Ted also stored "loose stones," including diamonds and emeralds at home. Often he would put jewelry in his suit pockets and boots.

She said her ex-husband also kept a lot of guns (as many as 15) around the house and never went anywhere without a weapon because he always felt he needed to be protected.

"He had Army cans of ammunition," she said. "And he always had plenty of guns that were loaded. And he knew which ones were loaded and which weren't loaded. I mean he always had guns ready."

When Buczek asked her if she thought it would be "particularly odd" that there wasn't a gun in the room where his body was found, Binion replied: "It (would) be very hard to believe. Be almost impossible to believe for me. Absolutely."

Binion confirmed what others have said that the gambling figure had a habit of smoking heroin, not ingesting it.

According to a copy of an autopsy report obtained by the Sun, Binion had high levels of heroin and the prescription sedative, Xanax, in his stomach. He may have been forced to drink a fatal cocktail of the two drugs, the report suggests.

Binion said Ted used Xanax on occasion whenever to quit using heroin to help him deal with the withdrawal effects.

But she said he never mixed anything with heroine.

Binion said the last straw in her souring relationship with Ted occurred in March 1995, when she learned he was having an affair with Murphy. She said she and her husband separated then, and one month later Murphy moved into the Palomino Lane home.

Buczek asked Binion to describe what she knew of Murphy's relationship with her husband.

"I think she was amazingly and unbelievably controlling him the last year they were together," Binion said. "And he could not receive calls from friends and family without going through her."

Binion said Murphy was answering 85-95 percent of his phone calls, often telling callers he was asleep or unavailable.

"You just couldn't reach him," Binion said.

She said she believed Ted had broken up with Murphy and was trying to get her out of his life, but that she had managed to come back into the picture.