Freshly dug hole found in Binion’s back yard

Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2001 | 10:43 a.m.

Three years after his death, Ted Binion's $55 million estate remains the target of treasure hunters.

Landscapers Tuesday found a large, freshly dug hole in the back yard of his vacant $1.5 million Las Vegas home on the day after the third anniversary of the wealthy gambling figure's Sept. 17, 1998, slaying.

"Somebody went on a treasure hunt," said James J. Brown, Binion's longtime friend and estate lawyer.

Like his legendary father, Benny Binion, before him, the 55-year-old Binion was known to have a penchant for burying things valuable to him.

Brown said the landscapers discovered the 4-foot-by-5-foot hole Tuesday morning near a playhouse Binion had built for his daughter, Bonnie, years ago.

During the Binion murder investigation, Brown said, the estate received an anonymous tip that suggested Binion had buried valuables under the playhouse, which sits on a concrete slab.

But the estate decided against digging up the yard at the time.

"We elected not to start digging," Brown said. "If you don't know what you're looking for, you could dig forever."

But Brown said that from the looks of the hole, which was about 4 feet deep, the intruders had a pretty good idea what may have been buried there. Some of the dirt unearthed was under the concrete slab.

Private detective Tom Dillard, who investigated Binion's death for his estate, was asked to take photos of the hole, nearby footprints and a shovel left behind, and turn over the photos to the district attorney's office.

"They spent some time, about an hour and a half, digging this hole," Dillard said. "I don't know whether they found anything or not."

Chief Deputy District Attorney David Roger, the lead prosecutor in the Binion murder case, said he was interested in anything the estate handed over.

"We're going to examine any trace evidence left by the intruders," Roger said. "We have spent a significant amount of time investigating the murder of Ted Binion and the theft of his property. It's unlikely this investigation will ever be closed."

Roger said he was interested in finding those who created the hole.

"I have some thoughts on who may be responsible for digging up Binion's property, but I do not think that it's prudent to disclose that information at the present time," he said. "I plan to look into that theory."

Binion's girlfriend, Sandy Murphy, and her new lover, Rick Tabish, were convicted last year of killing the former Horseshoe Club executive and stealing his valuables, many of which still are missing.

Murphy and Tabish, each now serving more than 20 years in prison, also were convicted of conspiring to dig up and steal Binion's $6 million silver fortune two days after his death from an underground vault on land Binion owned in downtown Pahrump. The silver was recovered.

In a February 1999 raid at the couple's Henderson apartment, detectives found a a map pointing to buried treasure at Binion's 125-acre ranch in Pahrump.

Six months later the estate discovered freshly dug holes at the site of an "X" marked on the map.

Last September, former Binion ranch manager, David Mattsen, led prosecutors on an unsuccessful dig for treasure at the ranch.