Murphy, Tabish confidant agrees to cooperate

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

A 24-year-old woman who spent time with Ted Binion's accused killers in the hours before and after his Sept. 17 murder has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.

Tanya Cropp, considered part of the inner-circle of homicide defendants Sandy Murphy and Rick Tabish, already has provided prosecutors with information that could lead to a major break in the murder investigation, sources close to the case said.

Cropp, who was hired to serve as Binion's secretary the day before his slaying, has told investigators that Murphy authored a hand-written list of coins believed to have been stolen from Binion's home after his death, the sources said.

The seven-page list wound up in the hands of investigators three weeks ago.

The Sun also has obtained a copy of the list, which includes circulated and uncirculated silver dollars dating to 1878 and proofs of half-dollars and quarters in the 1950s and 1960s.

Investigators have information that indicates the list may have been faxed to Tabish in Missoula, Mont., after Binion's death, sources said.

Murphy, 27, and Tabish, her 34-year-old reported lover, are charged with giving Binion fatal doses of heroin and the prescription sedative Xanax at his home and stealing his valuables in Las Vegas and Pahrump.

Binion was known to keep a lot of cash at the 2408 Palomino Lane home he shared with Murphy, as well as coin and currency collections. Binion's safe was empty and his collections were missing when police arrived at the death scene. Two days later, Tabish and two other men were arrested after they had dug up Binion's silver fortune in Pahrump.

Court documents obtained by the Sun show Cropp was at Binion's home the day before he died doing office chores for the colorful gambling figure.

She also showed up at Valley Hospital on Sept. 17 to console an emotional Murphy several hours after Murphy had reported Binion's death to police. Murphy, in an apparent hysterical condition, had been transported to the hospital by paramedics at the death scene.

Cropp and her boyfriend, Tony Musso, also reportedly followed Murphy from the hospital later that evening to a Binion neighbor's home, where she helped put Murphy to bed. Tabish had driven Murphy to the home.

And Cropp, documents show, was with Murphy, her mother and another friend, Linda Susan Carroll, the next day at Binion's home when Murphy got into a confrontation with James J. Brown, the lawyer for Binion's $30 million estate.

In March, Cropp, who lived in a home owned by Binion, was the first witness Chief Deputy District Attorney David Roger called to testify before a county grand jury investigating Binion's death.

At the time Roger, who declined comment today, was not aware of the list.

On June 30, however, Roger obtained the list from Binion's sister, Horseshoe Club President Becky Behnen, who had received it anonymously from a girlfriend of Cropp's.

Two unsigned memos from Behnen's secretary, Lynn Saladino, describe how the list came into Behnen's possession from a woman who identified herself as Glenda. Prosecutors recently turned over the memos to defense lawyers in the murder case, and the Sun has obtained copies.

In a June 29 memo, Saladino said the woman called the Horseshoe about 5:40 p.m. that day to speak to Behnen, who had already left the hotel-casino. The call came less than a week after Murphy and Tabish were arrested.

"She said she had a list of coins that would help Becky," Saladino wrote. "She said she did not want to be questioned by detectives or get involved. She was afraid."

The next day, Saladino said in another memo that Glenda had called the Horseshoe at 10:45 a.m.

Glenda told the secretary that she found the list in a suitcase Cropp had left on the woman's property. The suitcase, the woman said, also contained "antique guns," which Binion was known to collect.

Cropp, the woman said, telephoned her that morning wanting her suitcase.

"She was really worried," Saladino quoted the woman as saying.

The woman suggested that she had heard "a lot of conversations."

Cropp once told the woman that Murphy had inquired about a glass at Binion's home that might have been seized by police as evidence, Saladino said.

The woman suggested that the handwriting on the list should be analyzed.

This week, Roger filed papers in Justice Court to compel handwriting samples from Murphy, who currently is under house arrest on $300,000 bail.

Cropp, sources close to the investigation said, decided to cooperate when confronted with the list.

Prior to that, she had been considered loyal to Murphy and Tabish. After Binion's slaying, Cropp had been given a job as a legal secretary for William Knudson, an attorney for both Murphy and Tabish.

Knudson's name has surfaced throughout the well-publicized homicide investigation. He reportedly had lunch with Murphy and Tabish the day of Binion's murder.

Lawyers for Murphy and Tabish could not be reached for comment today about Cropp's decision to cooperate with prosecutors.

Meanwhile, in a transcript of an interview Cropp gave private detective Tom Dillard two weeks after Binion's death, she acknowledged being friends with Murphy, often going shopping together and nightclub dancing.

Cropp told Dillard, who has been investigating Binion's murder for his estate, that Binion appeared to be a "very happy man" while she was at his home Sept. 16.

But she said he also acknowledged having a fight with Murphy that morning, and in front of her, telephoned his retiring secretary to cancel Murphy's credit cards and checking account.

"That was going to be her new form of punishment," Cropp quoted Binion as saying.

Several witnesses have told investigators that Binion was planning to break up with Murphy at the time of his death.

Brown has said he telephoned him Sept. 16 and instructed him to cut her out of his will.