Binion bought heroin on eve of death

Friday, July 23, 1999 | 11:33 a.m.

Ted Binion scored 12 balloons of crude tar heroin the night before his Sept. 17 murder, his longtime supplier told homicide detectives.

The 44-year-old dealer described the former casino executive's last drug transaction in an unusual Feb. 2 interview with detectives.

The Sun has obtained a 21-page transcript of the interview, which appears censored at times to protect names and other information brought up during the questioning.

Detectives James Buczek and Tom Thowsen prefaced the interview by telling the heroin dealer that he was not a suspect in any crime and that they merely were trying to find out what had happened to Binion.

The dealer told detectives that he had known Binion for 18 years and that when Binion first started using heroin, he needed one balloon -- or single fix -- a day.

The last several months of his life, the dealer said, Binion would use two or three balloons a day. Prior to his death, the dealer was providing Binion with heroin three times a week.

Balloons were described as the packaging used to transport the heroin.

On the evening of Sept. 16, the dealer said, he arrived at Binion's 2408 Palomino Lane home to deliver the 12 balloons of "crude tar" heroin he described as coming from Mexico.

He said he was greeted at the door about 8 p.m. or 9 p.m. by Binion's girlfriend and accused killer, Sandy Murphy, who had little to say to him.

After he turned over the balloons to Binion, the dealer said, Binion gave him 30 tablets of the prescription sedative Xanax. Binion had obtained 120 tablets earlier in the day.

The dealer said he had asked Binion for the Xanax, which he wanted to use to help himself get off methadone.

Binion appeared "kind of stoned" and had a lot on his mind at the time of the transaction, the dealer said.

Asked how Binion used heroin, the dealer said he always smoked it.

"Have you ever run across anyone in your lifetime that would eat heroin?" the detectives asked.

"No," the dealer responded.

Brown tar heroin, he said, either is smoked or injected into the body. He said he also heard it could be cooked up in a spoon and squirted up the nose.

An autopsy report obtained by the Sun shows that Binion had large amounts of heroin and Xanax in his stomach.

The only thing in his stomach at the time of his death, the report said, was a brown-gray fluid identified as a mixture of heroin and Xanax. The report suggests Binion was given a fatal cocktail of the two drugs.

Detectives asked the dealer what tar heroin tastes like.

"You'll never forget it," the dealer said. "It's one of the most bitter tastes you can imagine."

He said it would be an "amazing feat" if the taste somehow could be disguised.

Chief Medical Examiner Lary Simms, who conducted the autopsy on Binion's body, has said he believes Binion died between 5:30 a.m. and noon the next day. The time frame, Simms said, could be narrowed to 10 a.m.

Binion's death was reported to police at 3:55 p.m. by Murphy, who said she found his body on the floor of his den next to an empty bottle of Xanax. Police found pieces of balloons nearby.

Simms and homicide detectives believe Binion's killers staged the death scene and moved his body, which had several fresh bruises, before officers arrived at his home.