Mattsen to point way to Binion treasure

Thursday, Sept. 21, 2000 | 11:20 a.m.

David Mattsen has offered to lead prosecutors to what may be millions of dollars in buried treasure at Ted Binion's Pahrump ranch, the Sun has learned.

In return, prosecutors have promised to give the 54-year-old Mattsen favorable treatment in his criminal case.

Mattsen, who managed the 125-acre ranch prior to Binion's Sept. 17, 1998, slaying, is looking to deal away theft charges stemming from a failed scheme to steal the wealthy gambling figure's silver fortune in Pahrump.

Attorney James "Bucky" Buchanan, who represents Mattsen, said Wednesday that Binion once told his client where he had buried millions of dollars in diamonds and double-eagle gold pieces at the ranch.

Harry Claiborne, a longtime Binion friend and attorney, said this morning that he knows Binion collected diamonds and gold coins.

Several years before his death, Binion had shown him stacks of gold pieces and a sack of diamonds in his safe at his Las Vegas home, Claiborne said.

"I know he had that stuff," Claiborne said. "I've been wondering what happened to it."

Claiborne said Binion's $55 million estate would welcome any help from Mattsen in locating the former Horseshoe Club executive's outstanding assets.

"We would be very happy about it," he said.

Buchanan said he had discussions earlier in the week about Mattsen's offer of assistance with Chief Deputy District Attorney David Roger, the lead prosecutor in the Binion murder case.

Roger declined to comment this morning.

But Buchanan said Roger has given Mattsen until Friday to decide whether to take investigators to the treasure.

Buchanan said Mattsen already has told him that he wants to participate in the Pahrump dig.

If substantial assets are found, Buchanan said, the charges against Mattsen could be dropped. But if no treasure turns up, there will be no deal.

And that, Buchanan said, will force Mattsen to return to preparing for his Nov. 13 trial on the silver theft charges.

Mattsen has been accused of helping Binion's convicted killers, Sandy Murphy and Rick Tabish, dig up and steal 48,000 pounds of silver bars and coins from Binion's underground vault in downtown Pahrump two days after his death. Mattsen, Tabish and another man, Michael Milot, were arrested after they had loaded the silver onto a tractor trailer.

Earlier this month, Mattsen suggested on the witness stand that he may know the whereabouts of some of the 55-year-old Binion's missing assets.

On Wednesday District Attorney Stewart Bell appeared to send Mattsen a message in a Sun story.

"If anybody were able to help us locate substantial assets that belong to the estate of Ted Binion, it would certainly be a bargaining chip for the defendant to play," Bell said.

This morning Bell added: "If he delivers the goods, obviously we'd give some consideration to that."

Bell, however, expressed reservations about Mattsen's credibility.

"I wouldn't believe it until I saw it," he said. "But if I saw it, I wouldn't turn a blind eye."

During a February 1999 police raid on a Henderson apartment shared by Murphy and Tabish, homicide detectives found a crude map appearing to point to buried treasure at Binion's ranch.

Last September Binion's $55 million estate informed Nye County sheriff's deputies that intruders had dug fresh holes at the very site of the "X" marked on the map.

Murphy had telephoned Binion's longtime secretary less than two weeks after his death to inform her that she knew where Binion had buried valuable property at the ranch. She offered to split the loot with Binion's brother, Jack Binion.

Mattsen once had sought a deal with prosecutors to cooperate in the murder investigation, but prosecutors balked after raising concerns about his veracity.

He has told the Sun and others that he saw Murphy and Tabish restrain Binion with rhinestone-studded handcuffs the evening before his death. But his story has conflicted with the accounts of other witnesses who saw Binion outside his home in the early morning hours of Sept. 17, 1998.

In March a federal jury acquitted Mattsen on charges of being an ex-felon in possession of firearms.

The charges were the result of a March 1998 raid on Mattsen's home in Pahrump by homicide detectives probing Binion's death. Several weapons were seized in the court-authorized search.

At one point detectives considered Mattsen a suspect in the murder conspiracy against Binion.

Investigators had uncovered a pattern of phone calls between Mattsen, Murphy and Tabish in the hours surrounding Binion's death.

Murphy and Tabish, who were lovers, were convicted of pumping Binion with drugs and suffocating him at his Las Vegas home.

Tabish, a Montana contractor, had put Mattsen on his payroll after the casino man's death.