Tabish promoted tough-guy mob image

Thursday, Aug. 9, 2001 | 10:52 a.m.

Editor's note: This is the fifth in a series of seven excerpts from the new book, "Murder in Sin City: The Death of a Las Vegas Casino Boss." The book, which takes the reader into the heart of the Ted Binion murder investigation, was written by Jeff German, the Sun's senior investigative reporter. The series, exclusive to the Sun, will run daily through Friday and conclude on Sunday.

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Rumors of Rick Tabish's mob ties were nothing new to investigators.

Tabish himself did little to discourage such talk, mostly to enhance his tough-guy image with potential witnesses looking to testify against him in the murder investigation into Ted Binion's death.

Homicide detective James Buczek recalled having trouble gaining the cooperation of some witnesses -- people like Tanya Cropp and Linda Carroll, who were close friends with Tabish's co-defendant and girlfriend, Sandy Murphy.

That was one reason, he said, a grand jury was asked to assist in the probe.

"Tabish had put the word out about his connections to the Chicago mob," Buczek explained. "Some of the witnesses were afraid to talk to us. They didn't want to be harmed."

Even Murphy played the wise-guy game.

She loved hanging out with the late Herbie Blitzstein, sometimes going to topless nightclubs with him and Binion.

Murphy had always been attracted to tough guys and the aura of danger around them. She certainly knew the burly Blitzstein's reputation as the right-hand man to slain Chicago mob kingpin Anthony Spilotro, one of the most feared mobsters ever to walk the streets of Las Vegas.

"Something always in the back of my head," Buczek said, "was that Ted had friends who were shady characters with mob ties. He was murdered by Rick and Sandy, and Rick and Sandy were never killed. Through my readings about the Mafia, normally if an associate is killed, the Mafia would go after that person unless there was approval to kill the associate."

Buczek said he never ruled out the possibility that Tabish and Murphy had obtained permission from the mob to kill Binion.

"They were never touched," he said.

That theory, he added, helped explain the arrogant attitude of both defendants throughout the investigation.

Buczek also recalled that the same mob associates who had killed Blitzstein in January 1997 also once plotted Binion's death. The scheme was uncovered by FBI agents during the investigation into Blitzstein's gangland hit. Blitzstein was killed as part of a push by the Los Angeles and Buffalo crime families to take over street rackets in Las Vegas.

In early November 1999, the Sun disclosed a new mob connection to the Binion murder case. The newspaper reported that another reputed Spilotro associate, Joseph Cusumano, who had ties to Hollywood, was involved in a movie project on the well-publicized case.

Cusumano, listed in Nevada's Black Book of "undesirables" banned from casinos, was said to be using his friendship with Tabish to put the Binion film deal together. He reportedly offered to help Tabish with legal fees in return for his movie rights.

Several months later, KLAS Channel 8 reported that it had confirmed that Cusumano and author-screenwriter Nick Pileggi, who co-wrote the movie, "Casino," with legendary director Martin Scorsese, were among those signing on as producers of the Binion movie, which was being filmed for Showtime.

The station also said that both Tabish and Murphy had been cut out of the Showtime deal because they were demanding too much money.

Pileggi, who has written about the mob and Las Vegas for years, credited Cusumano with jump-starting the Showtime project.

"He got the ball rolling," Pileggi said. "He recognized that there was a story in the Binion death. He got the rights to Murphy and Tabish, and sold it to Showtime."

The project, however, has yet to start production.

As the murder investigation progressed, word surfaced of links between Tabish and Salvatore Galioto, another reputed Chicago mob associate who dabbled in the movie industry.

Records showed that a man identifying himself as Galioto visited Tabish at the Clark County Detention Center on August 1999.

Galioto was well known to lawmen in Las Vegas, where he was said to be a frequent visitor.

By December 1999, Binion estate investigator Tom Dillard had managed to link Tabish further to Galioto.

Dillard discovered that Tabish had made several cellular phone calls to a Chicago area beeper number tied to Galioto in the hours immediately after Binion's death. The beeper number came back to the Melrose Park, Ill. address of a company called Entertainment Inc. That was the same address of an adult nightclub run by Galioto's family.

Records showed Tabish telephoned the number twice on the evening of Binion's Sept. 17, 1998, death and three times the next day, just hours before he drove to Pahrump with an excavator to dig up Binion's $6 million silver fortune.

The first call was made at 5:58 p.m. on Sept. 17, probably while Tabish was waiting outside Binion's home with neighbors who had learned of Binion's death on the evening news. The second call occurred at 8:50 p.m.

The next day, records showed, Tabish called the beeper number three more times between 10:24 a.m. and 10:26 a.m. Dillard discovered that Tabish had made numerous other calls to the Melrose Park number in the weeks prior to Binion's death. Despite making a trip to Chicago to seek out Galioto, Dillard never learned why the calls were made. Galioto wouldn't talk.

But there was speculation the calls may have had nothing to do with a movie deal.

Dillard said David Mattsen, Binion's former Pahrump ranch manager, once told him the mob was planning to help Tabish fence Binion's silver bars and coins in Chicago if the thieves had gotten away with stealing the loot.

And Chief Deputy District Attorney David Roger, the lead prosecutor in the Binion case, reported that he had learned early in the murder investigation from a friend of Tabish's wife, Mary Jo, that the silver indeed was headed for Chicago.

The silver, however, never got that far. It was recovered by sheriff's deputies in Pahrump. *

"Murder in Sin City" by Jeff German is available for $6.99 at all major bookstores in the greater Las Vegas area and around the country. It is published by Avon Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers in New York.

FRIDAY:

Prosecutors entertain the idea of a possible plea agreement with Sandy Murphy and Rick Tabish, as District Judge Joseph Bonaventure prepares to convene the murder trial.