National media revisiting case of Binion murder

Thursday, March 15, 2001 | 10:47 a.m.

The Ted Binion murder trial is coming back under the national media spotlight.

NBC's "Dateline" news magazine is airing its long-awaited broadcast Friday on the most high-profile murder case in Las Vegas history

The hourlong segment, produced in conjunction with Court TV, will run at 9 p.m. on KVBC Channel 3.

And A&E's "American Justice" series, which like "Dateline" spent a lot of time taping in Las Vegas last year, plans an April 11 broadcast on the case.

"Dateline" interviewed all of the key Binion players, including convicted defendants Sandy Murphy and Rick Tabish.

The two were found guilty May 19 of pumping Binion with drugs and suffocating him at his Las Vegas home on Sept. 17, 1998, in a scheme to gain access to his millions.

In their only post-conviction interviews, Murphy and Tabish sat down with "Dateline" at the Clark County Detention Center, where they both were incarcerated.

"Dateline" also interviewed nine of the 12 jurors who decided the fate of Murphy and Tabish, as well as Jeff German, the Sun's senior investigative reporter who has written a book on the Binion case.

German was the first reporter to write stories questioning whether Binion's death was the result of foul play.

His book -- "Murder in Sin City: The Death of a Las Vegas Casino Boss" -- is being published by Avon Books in New York and will be in bookstores across the country in August.