Columnist Jeff German: Mystery of Binion valuables lives on

Friday, Aug. 24, 2001 | 4:30 a.m.

Jeff German is the Sun's senior investigative reporter. He can be reached at (702) 259-4067 or by e-mail at german@lasvegassun.com.

NEARLY THREE YEARS have passed since Ted Binion was killed. His death no longer is a mystery.

But the same can't be said of the whereabouts of his missing valuables, which were stolen from his Las Vegas home after his death.

The majority of the big ticket items -- possibly millions in gold and silver coins -- were never recovered. But the same jury that convicted Binion's girlfriend, Sandy Murphy, and her new lover, Rick Tabish, of killing Binion also found them guilty of stealing his prized possessions.

Since then, there have been numerous theories about what happened to the loot.

Was it buried in the desert by his convicted killers? Was it transported to Chicago to be sold on the streets by the mob?

No one really knows for sure.

And the two people who could shed light on the subject (Murphy and Tabish) are serving lengthy prison terms and not talking.

Amid all of the speculation, new stories about what Binion may have hid at his $1 million home surface almost daily.

Binion's sister, Horseshoe Club owner Becky Behnen, says nothing is beyond the realm of possibility when it comes to Binion's collecting habits.

"There was nothing that Ted didn't have," Behnen said. "He was a pack rat."

One longtime Binion friend now is throwing something new into the mix.

The friend, who doesn't want to be identified, says he recalls Binion showing him hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of gems two months before he died.

There was a small box that contained every kind of priceless stone imaginable -- diamonds, emeralds, rubies, the friend explains. There also was a bag of opals.

"When Ted got something valuable, he couldn't just lock them up in his safe," the friend says. "He had to show somebody."

The wealthy Binion, he says, kept the gems in a safe in his garage, the same safe that reportedly contained hundreds of gold and silver coins.

Those who have followed the well-publicized Binion murder case know that the safe was picked clean following his death.

Binion's friend says he's sure that millions of dollars worth of rare Carson City-minted silver dollars also may have been removed from Binion's home, though there are rumors Binion buried the coins at his Pahrump ranch.

Another interesting item still at large, the friend says, is a custom revolver once owned by the legendary Moe Dalitz, an old-time bootlegger who helped shape modern-day Las Vegas.

The revolver, which has two rubies on its handle, was passed on to another Las Vegas legend, Binion's father Benny Binion. Ultimately, the younger Binion obtained it.

As for the gems, Harry Claiborne, Binion's good friend and estate lawyer, says he doesn't recall seeing them. But Claiborne remembers Binion showing him some diamonds.

And like Behnen, Claiborne has no trouble believing that Binion had the gems.

Claiborne says it's possible none of Binion's missing possessions ever will show up. He suspects, however, that some of the coins ultimately will surface.

Behnen agrees.

"The world of coin collecting is a small world," she says.

Claiborne, meanwhile, has an interesting theory, shared by others close to the case, about the whereabouts of the valuables.

"The fact that they've never surfaced says that somebody is holding them somewhere," he says. "It may well be that whoever is holding them is holding them as collateral for furnishing funds for their defense."

Claiborne doesn't believe too many people other than Murphy and Tabish know the location of Binion's missing fortune.

"I don't see either one of these people cutting very many others in on a deal," he says.

And so the mystery lives on.