Sandy Murphy and Ted Binion - Part 1

0:00 Hi, I'm Rich and I'm Tina. And if there's one thing we've learned in over twenty years of marriage. Some days you'll feel like killing your. Husband, and some days you'll feel like killing your wife. Welcome to love, Mary. Kill, Hey Tina, Hey Rich? How are you? I'm good? How are you? I'm good? Did you forget our opening that we've done two hundred times? Ah? Yes I did. Well, you're cutting into my nap time. It is a rainy, overcast day here in Michigan. Yeah, our weather has been all over the place.

0:46 It is a good afternoon for a nap, right. So that's all I'm saying is I'm a little sleepy. Well, I've got a great case for you. Today. We are going to Las Vegas. So that is going to be a Vegas baby. Yeah. How do you feel about Vegas people? Either, lover? I never went when I was really young, and I think i've been twice. And the two times I went once when your sister got married there and that was a nice trip. But we had Emma. Emma was just a she was always her birthday, her first birthday. Yeah, she spent in Vegas. And the other time we went when we were going to the Grand Canyon. Yeah, and we were on so I feel like I don't I haven't experienced Vegas. I don't know if I even gambled when I was at Vegas. I think we were at the airport and I put like like a dollar in the slot machine at the airport because I was like, oh, I didn't gamble at all. Yeah, but I think it's a it's a fun place. I think if you have a lot of money, it can be really fun.

1:41 Yeah, there's no place like it. I have a love hate relationship with it. I thought you really loved it. I mean I love it, but only in small doses. Like I've been there a lot, but for work, usually other than the trip we made for my sister's wedding. And you know, sometimes I'll stay in extra day or gamble or whatever. But after like two or three days in Vegas, I'm just like I have to get here. In researching this case, I thought that I should go to Vegas to help with my research. I remember to get I don't know why we couldn't find it in the Love Mary Kill budget. For me to do that, I think it would have made a much better episode. But I will do the best I can. All right, thank you. Well, before we get to the story, I have a super exciting snack for you today. Our listener Samantha sent us this box from She.

2:24 Has to be the kindest person in the United Kingdom. Yes, so she sent it all the way from the UK, and I opened it yesterday to see what was inside. And there is so much in here, Like Samantha went way over and above the call of duty, and I'm really excited to try everything. Yeah, there's a lot. So I'm gonna maybe we'll try three things now, and then we'll try three things after our break, and then we'll try more in part two, so we'll get through it all. But awesome, Yeah, thank you so much, Samantha. They were so so kind and generous of. You, extremely generous. All right, I am going to pull out the first three things that I chose. Here. We have some twiglets, which are I really have no idea what they are. They're high in fiber, they're oven baked and not fried. And then we've got mister Porky original scratchings. I'm guessing these are like yeah, I'm sure.

3:15 And then I've got jelly babies. Oh wow, awesome so let's give them a try. Okay, what did you think? It's so fun to try international snaps. I love it. The packaging, everything is just it's just really cool. The first thing I tried was were the twiglets, which are like pretzel sticks here. I love the texture. The texture is so good and just crunchy. I didn't love the flavors. They're really different, like they're. Very I don't know that flavor. Yeah, I don't mommy type flavor the mister porky scratchings. So I'm embarrassed to say this, but I did the Keto diet at one point, and the Keto diet you can have all the all the pork rinds you want. You could like dip the pork rinds into like cheese, and it's just so. I have a hard time with pork rinds because of that.

4:11 But these are actually really they're really interesting and tasty. Oh. I actually really liked them, even though I kind of have decided never to eat pork rinds again in this lifetime. And the jelly babies, I'm not sure what I was eating there, Like is it a bit like a little like a gummy bear, But it's a baby. I don't Yeah, I'm not sure. I was expecting it to be more like a jelly bean, but it's more like a a gummy like a yeah, like a juju bee. They were really different too, Like the texture is kind of like a gummy bear, but softer. Yeah. But yeah, really really, it felt a little weird eating a baby. But yeah, they were all really fun and interesting. Thank you so much. Yeah, thanks again, Samantha. Are you ready to get to the case?

4:53 I sure am. The desert town of Perump, Nevada was the kind of place where nothing generally happened two in the morning, A single stoplight blinked idly in the dark, and most of the town's six thousand residents were fast asleep. But at two am on September nineteenth, nineteen ninety eight, as Deputy Sergeant Ed Howard was sitting in his car behind the town's only casino talking to a couple other cops, he heard some noise that drew his attention. He followed the noise to the vacant lot between the casino and the Burger King, where he was surprised to see a heavy duty excavator digging furiously under the cover of darkness. Nearby was a belly dump trailer. This is a trailer used in the construction industry for hauling heavy items like sand, dirt, and gravel. Howard pulled his police cruiser into the lot to check it out. Before he could step out, a man strode up to his car and said, we'll be out of here in a few minutes. Howard asked what they were doing. The answer came quick, almost rehearsed. We're removing ordnance from the property. Ordnance meaning explosives or artillery.

5:56 A warning maybe, or a not so subtle way of saying get l lost. But Howard didn't leave. Instead, he called for backup. What authorities uncovered that night wasn't explosives. It was something far more shocking. Twenty four tons of silver hidden beneath the Nevada Desert, worth twenty five million dollars in today's money, and it belonged to one man. A man who had built his fortune in the shadows of Las Vegas, a man who had spent his life winning and losing millions, A man who just two days earlier had been found dead. His name Ted Binion. Ted's girlfriend, Sandy Murphy, had come home to their sprawling Vegas estate on the afternoon of September seventeenth, to find him lying on the floor of the den, an empty Xanax bottle beside him, nearby the tools of his heroin addiction, crumpled foyle, a pipe, a lighter. Police found no signs of foul play an overdose. They assumed a tragic but unsurprising end for a man who had spiraled ever since losing his gaming license. Outside reporters swarmed as Sandy, overwhelmed with grief, was wheeled out on a stretcher, sobbing uncontrollably. At a press conference, police assured the public no crime had been committed, but in the Nevada desert beneath the cover of night men were digging and the truth about Ted Binyon's death while that was just beginning to surface.

7:17 How old was Ted? Ted was fifty four. Ted Binyon's story had all the makings of a classic Las Vegas tragedy, money power, addiction and betrayal. His death was a sad end for a man who was practically Vegas royalty. You see, Ted wasn't just any casino boss. He was the heir to Beny Binyon, a legend in the gambling world. Benny was the man behind Binyon's Horseshoe, the iconic downtown casino, and the founder of the World Series of Poker. When he started the tournament in nineteen seventy, it was just six guys playing cards. Today, over ten thousand people compete for millions in prize money. But long before he was a Vegas kingpin, Beny Binyon was a hustler. He got his start as an eight teen year old moonshiner in El Paso during Prohibition. From there he moved to Dallas, where he built an underground gambling empire during the Great Depression. And let's be clear, Benny was not just some smooth talking businessman. He was ruthless.

8:14 His motto do your enemies before they can do you, and he lived by that. Benny personally killed at least two men, maybe more. In nineteen thirty one, he was convicted of one of those murders. But get this, he only got a two year suspended sentence. Why while the man he killed was a black bootlegger and in the eyes of the law back then, his life didn't seem to count for much. So he got a two year suspended sentence for murdering someone meeting he didn't serve any time. Yeah, isn't it shocking? It's horrible. Then in nineteen thirty six, Benny and an associate ambushed a competitor and unloaded their pistols into him. Afterward, Benny shot himself in the shoulder and claimed self defense. Those charges were dropped, so that's essentially two murders that be Binyon got away with Scott free. By the late forties, though, things were getting dicey in Dallas. Binyon was in a feud with a gambling boss named Herbert the Cat Noble, who was refusing to pay the forty percent take that Benny demanded on his earnings. Noble survived several attempts on his life until one day Noble's wife, Mildred, was killed instantly by a car bomb that had been meant for Herbert.

9:23 In retaliation, Herbert the Cat got hold of a small airplane, fitted it with bomb racks, acquired a couple of bombs, and mapped out the flight path to the home where Benny Binyon lived with his wife and five kids. R that look on your face, I know these guys didn't mess around. Get a hold of a small plane and arm it with a couple of bombs. Yeah, it's pretty pretty wild. That plot was actually thwarted by the police before the plane got off the ground, and Herbert the Cat's Nine Lives ran out a couple of years later when he was killed by a bomb as he pulled up to his mailbox. Whoa Not only was Binyon running into increasing competition, a new sheriff, one who wasn't on Benny's payroll, was making life difficult for him, and Arrival was gunning for his territory. So Benny made the smart move. He skipped town. And what better place for a high stakes gambler to start fresh than Las Vegas.

10:16 So when did Las Vegas become the Las Vegas that we visualize today. Well, I think when Benny showed up in Las Vegas, it was like late forties, early fifties, and I think at that point the city was still in its early days, but really starting to grow. And this all came about because the mobster Bugsy Siegel. There's a movie called Bugsy and His Boss Meyer Lanski. They had these big dreams of turning the Nevada desert into a gambling paradise. So Benny got there right kind of on the ground floor if that was just starting to take off. So Benny packed up his wife, his five kids, and two million in cash stuffed into a suitcase as one does, and he headed for Vegas. I just did a quick google, and two million dollars in nineteen fifty is worth over twenty six million dollars today.

11:03 Wow, he with twenty six million in a suitcase. That's hard to imagine. Once he got to Vegas, he established Binyon's Horseshoe, the first high stakes casino in downtown Vegas, also known as Glitter Gulch, and if you were a big time gambler, the Horseshoe was the place to be. Benny's philosophy was simple, treat the player's right and let them wager what they wanted to. A perfect example was William Lee Bergstrom. In nineteen eighty. Bergstrom walked into Binyons carrying two suitcases, one full of cash seven hundred and seventy seven thousand dollars to be exact, which is over three million dollars today, and the other suitcase was completely empty. He put the seven hundred and seventy seven thousand dollars on a single bet at the crab Staple, and he won.

11:48 A few minutes later he walked out both suitcases stuffed with cash. Beny Binyon himself helped him load up, but like a lot of gamblers, Bergstrom couldn't quit while he was ahead. He came back. A few years late he did something similar He won again, but then in nineteen eighty four he placed a million dollar bet and he lost. He never recovered from that, and a few months later he took his own life. Of course, Benny was tight with the mob. You couldn't run a Vegas casino back then without getting your hands dirty. He ended up doing prison time for tax evasion in the fifties, losing his gaming license in the process, but that didn't mean that he was out of the game. His wife, Teddy Jane took over the casino's operations, and his sons Jack and Ted stepped in Jack as president, Ted as casino manager.

12:35 The Binion boys had been raised in the world of high stakes gambling. They knew the horseshoe inside and oe. When Benny died on Christmas Day nineteen eighty nine, his friend slim Preston said quote he was either the gentlest bad guy or the baddest good guy you'd ever seen. When Benny's widow, Teddy Jane died a few years later in nineteen ninety four, the family empire didn't just pass smoothly to the next generations. Darked a war. Not a mob war with guns and car bombs. This was a family war fought in the courtrooms, and at the center of it all Ted Binyon. While all of Benny Binyon's kids inherited a share of ownership in the casino, the real question was who would take over the family empire and run the show. Most people assumed the natural successor would be Ted Binyon. He had the swagger, the connections, and the personality to run the place. His older brother Jack was smart and steady, a great accountant, but he didn't have the flare or charisma that made Binyon's horseshoe and icon. As for the Benyon sisters, Barbara, the eldest, had died by suicide in nineteen eighty three at age thirty nine after a heroin overdose.

13:43 Despite Benny making it clear that any dealer selling dope to Barbara would be a dead man, she still found a source for the drug. The second daughter, Brenda, had no interest in the casino. Her passion was rodeo and she lived far off from Vegas and air Amarillo. Becky the Youngest had run a casino briefly in the late nineteen seventies, but her husband, Nick Bainen, had a history of illegal gambling, making her a controversial figure in the family business. But Ted seemed to be Benny's carbon copy, right down to the cowboy boots, the ever present pistol tucked at his jeans, and his deep ties to the mob. Ted was close with guys like fat Herbie Blitstein, a top lieutenant for a notorious mob boss, Tony the aunt Spilatro, the real life inspiration for Joe Peshi's character in the movie Casino. Ted knew how to work with the underworld, just like his father, but he wasn't Benny's carbon copy.

14:41 A gambling historian Peter Ruschman wrote, quote Ted possessed all of his father Benny's bravado and none of his insight and good sense. Among Ted's vices were drinking, drugs and showgirls. His drug of choice was heroin, but he was terrified of needles, so instead of injecting it, he smoked in a process called chasing the dragon, spreading the heroin on a piece of foil with a knife, melting it with a lighter, and inhaling the fumes through a glass pipe. It was wasteful, but when you have unlimited money, who cares? Why was it wasteful? Just the way that the drug. Yeah, I think when you're trying to do it. I have no experience here, so I don't know for sure, but I think when you're trying to smoke it, like a lot of it just gets lost in the air, so it's not as efficient as injecting it.

15:27 For a while, Ten managed to keep it together. He had a lavish six seven hundred square foot ranch where he lived with his wife, Doris and their daughter, Bonnie. But heroin has a way of taking over. As his addiction grew, so did the cracks in his life. In nineteen eighty three, after twenty six years of marriage, Doris had enough. She packed up Bonnie and left. She later said, quote, I told him he had problems. I told him he was ruining his life and others. He said he would shoot himself if I didn't come home, He promised he'd quit if we came back. She gave him more than one chance, but it became painfully clear Ted Binyon wasn't going to change, and things only got worse. In nineteen eighty six, Ted was arrested on drug trafficking charges. His connections to organized crime were no secret, and by nineteen ninety six, the Nevada Gaming Control Board had seen enough they banned him from the casino business all together. Think about that, the Benyon name was synonymous with Vegas, and now Ted Binyon, the man expected to carry on his father's legacy, wasn't even allowed to set foot in his own casino, or any casino in Vegas for that matter.

16:35 It was a devastating blow. Meanwhile, the fight for control of Binyon's Horseshoe turned ugly. Becky and Jack were at war, suing each other over millions of dollars. Ted and Brenda cashed out selling their shares, and Becky eventually took control, but under her management, the casino spiraled into debt. By two thousand and four, she was forced to sell to Harri's Entertainment, and just like that, the Binyon Era and Vegas was over. But before that, in nineteen ninety five, Ted met someone new, Sandy Murphy, and that's when Ted's downward spiral started accelerating. We'll be back after a break.

17:21 Sandy Murphy was the classic California beach girl, blonde, tan, and carefree. Born in nineteen seventy two, she grew up in southeast Los Angeles County, where life was simple. Her dad was a repoman, her mom a homemaker, and by Sandy's own account, she had the kind of wholesome, all American upbringing most kids could only dream of. She later said, quote, my parents were the epitome of what good parents should be. My mom was home every day after school. She was always involving me in extracurricular activities. She was on the PTA. My dad went to work every day. Everything was about family. Her dad was a surfer, and Sandy followed in his footsteps, spending her days in the waves in the California sun.

18:04 In high school, she was described by classmates as an eyecatcher, a head turner. She was popular with people. She hung with the athletes, and her boyfriend was the star running back. She was still in high school when she met and fell in love with a much older man. The romance was intense, her grades in school took a nosedive, and soon she dropped out, moved in with him, and together they started an automotive accessories business with a friend. Sandy had her first brush with a law at twenty one, when she was arrested for driving on a suspended license and impersonating someone else to a police officer. Her stepmother bailed her out, but soon after she wrote to a judge saying, quote, since that time, I am not convinced that she will appear at all over court appearances. She asked the bail bondsman to revoke Sandy's bail.

18:52 That's pretty bad when your stepmom is asking the judge to reford your base. Yeah. Who was she impersonating? Don't I don't know any detail around that. I assumed she didn't want to get in trouble so she gave them. Yeah, or maybe she had a fake ID or something, but yeah, either way, not not a good idea. A year later, Sandy got arrested for driving under the influence, netting her forty five days in jail and a breathalyzer lock on her Lexus. Around the same time, Sandy's relationship fell apart. The stress of running a business, the pressures of adulthood, Sandy's legal problems, it all became too much. Now, twenty three year old Sandy was ready for a fresh start, and what place better to reinvent yourself than Las Vegas. Was close to fifteen thousand dollars saved up, she and her friend packed their bags and headed for what was supposed to be a two week adventure in Sin City.

19:40 But Vegas has a way of chewing people up and spitting them out. Within an hour of stepping into a casino, Sandy lost every penny. Can you imagine that? I can't imagine that I have never. Brought more than like three hundred dollars to gamble with, and even that I like, I may make that last as long as I could. I just can't imagine spending that much. Broke, But unwilling to cut their trip short, Sandy and her friend had to think fast. Her friend had brought along some costumes and lingerie she had made, so they came up with a plan. They'd sell them to the dancers at a strip club, and that's how they ended up at Cheetahs, one of the most infamous strip clubs in Vegas, made even more famous by the cold classic film Showgirls. I've never seen Showgirls.

20:24 I've never seen it either. Sandy approached the bouncer and asked if they could come inside and sell their wares to the dancers. Now this is where things get murky. Some reports say that Sandy ended up dancing at Cheetahs. Sandy says she was just hanging out selling costumes, soaking in the wild Vegas nightlife. But what we do know is that one night, while she was there, Ted Binyon walked through the doors of Cheetahs and everything changed. Ted wasn't alone. He was there with his mobster pail Herbie fat Herbie Blitzstein, and the two were doing what they did best, drinking, telling stories and throwing their money. And then Ted saw Sandy Murphy. She later claimed she was dancing for him, dressed in a Dallas cowboy's cheerleader outfit, while later she insisted that she wasn't a dancer at all. Honestly, doesn't really matter.

21:14 What matters is that night Ted Binyon met Sandy Murphy and he was instantly hooked. He came back the next night and the night after that, and soon Sandy just wasn't some girl at Cheetah's. She was Ted Binyon's girl. Sandy Murphy would later say that it wasn't quite love at first sight. The love came later, but lust that was instant. Ted Binyon was magnetic. He was charismatic, rebellious, and a little dangerous, driving around Las Vegas in a beat up pickup truck, looking every bit the bad boy. And if there was one thing that Sandy couldn't resist, it was a bad boy. Ted had a presence, the kind that commanded attention the moment he walked into a room.

21:54 So when Sandy's two week Vegas adventure came to an end, she wasn't ready to leave, and Ted Ted wasn't ready to let her go. She had to go back to California to face her DUI charges, but as soon as her day in court was done, she was back in Vegas, dialing the number that Ted had scribbled on a bar napkin. By April nineteen ninety five, Sandy was living in Ted's lavish home on Palomino Lane. Now Ted was the kind of guy who kept it simple. Jeans, flannel shirts, cowboy boots, But Sandy, he wanted her to look like a million bucks. He spoiled her rotten, a ten thousand dollars a month allowance on a credit card in her name, a brand new Mercedes, dinners at the finest restaurants in town. And one thing was clear. Ted didn't want her to work.

22:38 She was his girl and that was her job. But behind the glitz and glamour, trouble was already brewing. Ted could be violent. One time, a friend noticed bruises on her face and a clump of hair missing. Sandy admitted that Ted had beaten her, and yet she stayed and told friends that it was just her punishment, as if that were part of the deal. I had always made it up to her, a new piece of jewelry, a shopping spree, a lavish gift. It was a cycle, a dangerous one, and still Sandy insisted that she loved Ted. This sounds so much like the movie Casino. Yeah, there are definitely a lot of similarities to Casino. Ted's now fifteen year old daughter, Bonnie lived with him for six months out of the year. She and Sandy didn't get along at all. She later told investigators that Sandy threatened to hit her several times. Bonnie said, quote, she just wasn't that mentally stable. I actually told my dad she would have to change her behavior and the way she dressed and acted, because I wasn't going to have basically a whore living at our house. One night, Bonnie swiped Sandy's nine thousand dollars Versace pants suit and along with her boyfriend, took off for a joy ride in Sandy's Mercedes SL five hundred, going one hundred and twenty miles per hour down the freeway. They rolled the car seven times. It was a miracle that Bonnie and her boyfriend survived. Bonnie said that when Sandy he saw her in the er, she tried to rip the Versace pants suit off of her and screamed at Ted that she needed a new car, which Ted, of course bought for her. So, if you think about Ted's life at

24:10 this point, so he had recently lost both of his parents, who he had been very close to. He was estranged from his siblings, his wife had left him, his daughter was away at school, and now he was banned from being in the casino business or even entering a casino. The casino business band had cut him off from the one thing that had really defined his entire life. Without it, he was spiraling, sinking deeper and deeper into heroin. As his addiction consumed him, he stopped being a good companion. He and Sandy started sleeping in separate bedrooms, and the drugs left Ted incapable of being intimate, which only made Sandy feel lonelier and more frustrated. The relationship was unraveling.

24:51 I don't think you've ever bought me a nine thousand dollars versace pantsuit. I don't think you've ever bought me in cant suit. I don't think I had about that. Ted doesn't have any money coming in anymore, right because of his business. Nothing mad. Maybe he had some side Yeah. It's very possibly he had some side businesses, but he had a lot of money. He's not worried about buying nine thousand dollars pantsuits and a Nu Mercedes every month. No, Ted was doing pretty well for himself. Ted Binyon's downward spiral wasn't just about losing his gaming license. There was something else, something darker, weighing on him. On January seventh, nineteen ninety seven, his old friend fat Herbie Blitztein was murdered, and it wasn't just any murder. Herbie was found in his home kneeling in front of a recliner, three bullets buried in the back of his head. It was a classic mob hit, and the whispers started almost immediately. If they could take out Fat Herbie, could Ted Binyon be next.

25:48 The rumor going around was that mobsters were coming for him and they were after his silver fortune. Then, not long after someone sent a very clear message, a drive by shooting. Bullets ripped through Ted's house, one piercing the front door, another hitting Ted's Ford Explorer parked in the driveway. Ted and Sandy were both inside when it happened, but neither of them was hit. The drive by shooting may have been organized crime related, but it just as easily could have been something more personal. One of the suspects at the time was his nephew, Benny Binyon Bainen That's a say that three times fast, the twenty year old son of Ted's sister Becky. Speculation was that he may have been responding to threats that his uncle made toward his mother during their war for control of the Benyon casino business. There had even been rumors that Ted had ordered a hit on his sister, but ended up canceling it before it could be carried out. Either way, the message was loud and clear. Someone wanted Ted Binyon to know he was a marked man. Sometime in nineteen ninety seven or early ninety eight, Ted Binyon made a new friend in the most random way imaginable. He was at Piero's Italian restaurant when he stepped into the restroom and while standing at the euroine, he glanced over the guy next to him, introduced himself and reached out for a handshake.

27:04 Because apparently that's what Ted Binyon did. Do you think he washed his hands first? No, I think they were standing at the yarinal when he did this. According to what I read, which is very like, that is definitely a breach of restroom protocol. That guy was Rick Tabish, and somehow that bathroom encounter turned into a close friendship. Tabish was in his early thirties when he met Ted. He had grown up in Montana, which gave them an unexpected connection because Ted had spent much of his childhood on his father's one hundred thousand acre ranch there. Rick Tabish was handsome, charming, and ambitious, but he also had a troubled past. He had launched a few businesses in the nineties, but money problems followed him everywhere. He also had a habit of finding trouble DUI's bar fights, and then something a little more serious, art theft. He had stolen a seventeenth century painting worth six hundred thousand dollars from a prominent montana An attorney's home.

28:01 When police caught up with him, he confessed and he got a three year suspended sentence. But that wasn't the end of it. There was a road rage incident that landed him in jail for forty one days, a twenty five hundred dollars theft that was quietly settled out of court, and then the big one. He was arrested for shipping a quarter pound of cocaine via fed X That got him a ten year sentence, but somehow he only ended up serving nine months. Oh my gosh, ever ever ship drugs. A quarter pound of cocaine via FedEx That just blew my mind. We must have gotten away with it. Several times. He claims it was his the first time he did it. Now, believe what you want, but he swears it was the first time that he actually did that. When his probation was up in nineteen ninety seven, Vegas was calling. He moved to town, determined to start over, and launched MRT Transportation, a trucking company that specialized in hauling materials to and from constructions. He and Ted started hanging out. At first, Sandy didn't care for him. She was protective of Ted, and she saw plenty of people coming around just to leech off of him. But Ted trusted Rick as much as he trusted anyone, and over time Sandy came around to Soon Ted started giving Rick odd jobs, and then one job that was bigger than all the rest. Ted had spent years collecting twenty four tons of silver, which he kept stored in the Binion's horseshoe vault. But now that he was banned from the casino, he needed a

29:32 new hiding spot. Twenty four tons of silver. That's for eight thousand pounds of silver. Yeah, and in what form has he collected it? Yeah? A lot of it was like in bars, like you know, you've seen gold bars in like Fort Knox, a lot of it I think was in bars. Some of it was coins, like big coins, so I think it was a variety of things. I don't know where he got it all. From, or like silver and not gold. Yeah, I don't know. I guess it was just his just his thing, Okay. At first he moved the silver to the garage at his home, but that wasn't a long term solution. He didn't trust banks, so that was out. Finally he came up with an idea he would bury it. The spot he chose was a vacant lot that he owned in Perump.

30:15 How far out of Vegas is Perump? I think it's about an hour west of Vegas. And you know, when you get outside of Vegas, it's pretty much there's not a lot there, so it's a small town. He had a ranch in Perump also, so I guess that was sort of a second home to him. Rick thought that it was a terrible plan to bury his silver in Perump. He thought, if you're going to bury treasure, why not somewhere remote, like out in the desert. But Ted had his own logic. He figured that a busier area was better because anyone trying to dig it up would attract attention that would actually turn out to be true, much to Rick Tavish's dismay. So in April nineteen ninety eight, Ted bought a vault, had it buried twelve feet underground, and in July, just two months before his death, he hired Rick Tavished to move the silver.

31:02 So you're hiring people to you know, bury this vault and then hiring people to move the silver. So then it was people, Okay. Yeah, but I think the vault had like a you know, there was probably a combination lock or some sort of lock on it, and nobody knew the combination except for Ted and Rick. At one am, Rick and an associate loaded the silver onto a hauling trailer while Ted supervised. So if you're asking like about the silver, like how much it was, so think about like a big like gravel hauling trailer that attaches to like a semi truck that was like full of this silver. So it's a huge amount. The job took five hours. By the time the sun came up, Ted's fortune was officially underground. When it was all done, Rick made a suggestion, why not change the vault combination so that only Ted knew it?

31:53 But Ted refused. He told Rick he trusted him, and just like that, the only two people who knew the combination to Ted Binyon's buried treasure were Ted Binyon and Rick Tavish. Just days later, Ted made a change to his will. Most of his fortune, worth anywhere from thirty million to seventy million dollars depending on who you asked, would go to his daughter Bonnie. But he made sure to take care of Sandy too. She would get three hundred thousand dollars in cash, the Palomino Lane mansion, which is worth around two point two million dollars today, and everything inside of it. And when I say everything inside of it, there was. He kept a lot of valuables in his house, like he kept cash. He kept silver in his house. He had like expensive artwork. So she actually stood to inherit quite a bit in Ted's death.

32:43 With Ted's heroin addictions spiraling out of control, maybe it was inevitable that Sandy and Rick would be drawn to each other. I can't believe that, wreck I know they were closer in age, they were both attractive, and more than that, Ted almost encouraged it. Sometimes he'd ask Rick to tag along when Sandy went shopping just to keep an eye on her. It was an odd dynamic, and later Rick would reflect on how things unfolded, saying quote Ted became distant with her, shoving her away, and here I was I fell in love with her. Sandy, for her part, admitted that she was attracted to Rick, but she insisted that she didn't act on it, at least not until shortly before Ted's death. Just a couple of weeks before Ted died, Sandy and Rick snuck away together on a romantic getaway to California. They checked into a seaside hotel, registering as husband and wife. Sandy and Ted were never married, No, they were not. Sandy would later claim that this was the only time they ever slept together before Ted's death, but phone records, credit card receipts, and people in Ted in Sandy circle told a different story.

33:49 Ted's master card's statement showed that a couple of months before his death, Sandy had charged some expensive designer shirts, Gucci jeans, hiking boots, and other clothing all in Rick's size. In July, Sandy called her cell phone company and made a request. She wanted them to stop providing detailed billing that listed every call made. Is that even an option? I guess it is. She also instructed them that no information about her account should be given to any one but her, not even her secretary. There was no doubt she didn't want anyone, especially Ted looking at her phone records. To top it off, several people later said that Tabish and Murphy had both bragged about the affair before Ted died, so for Sandy to claim otherwise just wasn't credible. Leading up to Thursday, September seventeenth, nineteen ninety eight, the day of Ted's death, there were some signs that he was looking forward to the future and was hoping to get his gaming license back.

34:48 Was that even a possibility? You think? I think anything is a possibility if you have money and lawyers and all that. Ted had been speaking to has reeled her about purchasing some property near the Fiesta Hotel, possibly to build a nightclub. He called Mayor Jan Jones, an old friend who was running for governor of Nevada, and asked to meet up with her. He said he wanted to give her a campaign contribution, and she agreed to meet with him. On Wednesday, the sixteenth, Ted followed up by contacting his attorney to get together the funds he was going to donate to Jan's campaign forty thousand dollars in cash. If Jones got elected as governor, that forty thousand dollars might just be enough to get his gaming license and his life back.

35:30 His lawyer brought that money over to Ted's house on either Monday or Tuesday of that week. I think it's funny getting a glimpse into how campaign donations work with really wealthy people like I'm just going to give you forty thousand dollars in cash in a suitcase. On Tuesday the fifteenth, Ted called a local banker who he asked to come over so he could establish an investment account. He wrote a check for one million dollars and gave it to the banker to establish the account. He also wrote a second check to the bank for forty thousand dollars and asked him to cash it and bring him back the forty thousand dollars in cash. The banker did this, so now Ted had the forty thousand dollars per Jan Jones, plus another forty thousand dollars in cash.

36:15 It's not clear exactly what Ted need is this extra forty thousand dollars for. On the morning of Wednesday the sixteenth, Ted spoke with his neighbor who was a doctor. He told the neighbor that he wanted to get clean, so the neighbor wrote him a prescription for xanax one hundred and twenty tablets point five milligrams each to help wean him from heroin. That's a thirty day supply for tablets a day. At some point that day Ted went and got the prescription filled. The doctor gave him xanax And it sounds like kind of a lot of pills for heroin addiction, but xanax itself is also highly addictive. Yeah, exactly. It's an anti anxiety medication and it can help you get better rest, and so it could potentially help you not crave heroin as much. But at the same time, you're just substituting one drug for another that is also potentially addictive. And in Ted's case, I'm not so sure he I don't know if.

37:11 He tended to get clean. He just yeah, I. Think maybe he wanted to get clean, but you know, it's easier said than done. Around nine thirty am, Ted's maid showed up. Ted told her that the mayor was coming over and asked her if she could hurry up and clean the house and he would be very grateful. Tanya Kropp, a new secretary that Ted had hired, came over while the maid was cleaning. Ted said, we have a lot of work to do, but I've got this mayor coming over in a bit. Why don't you come back in a couple of hours and we'll get started. Then at ten am, Mayor Jan Jones showed up. She later described Ted's demeanor as upbeat and optimistic. They talked about family, old Las Vegas, and the possibility of Ted getting his gaming license back. She felt like he was a man looking to the future.

37:55 She took the forty thousand dollars in cash and left. His new secretary returned earned and they talked about investments that he wanted to make. She said he seemed enthusiastic about the future. At one point, she said that he pulled her aside and asked if Sandy was having an affair. He asked this because Tanya knew Sandy. Tanya said no, but I think she intends to have an affair. After speaking with Tanya about her suspicions. Ted called his friend and attorney James Brown. Not the same James Brown that you're probably thinking of. According to Brown, Ted instructed him to quote, take Sandy out of the will if she doesn't kill me tonight. If I'm dead in the morning, you'll know what happened. Brown drafted the new will the next morning, but by then it was too late. Around two thirty that afternoon, Rick Taviash came over to the house. The maid was at this point cleaning Sandy's bedroom. According to the maid, Sandy came in and said, I don't trust you. I want you to leave now. The maid didn't understand what was going on, but she said okay. She went to the living room and told Ted she was leaving and that she would see him the next day. Round eight or nine p m. Ted's drug dealers showed up to deliver some heroin after Ted had called him. Sandy led him in and he gave Ted twelve balloons of tar heroine, each containing almost a quarter gram. This was more than Ted's usual order. He generally ordered four balloons at a time, usually a couple of times a week. In exchange for the heroine, Ted gave his dealer one hundred and forty dollars in cash and thirty Zanax pills, plus a one

39:28 hundred dollar tip. The dealer leader said he saw no signs that Ted was despondent or suicidal. In fact, he talked about his plans to go horseback riding on his ranch in Perump in the coming days. That was why he had ordered more heroin than usual. He was going to be staying in Perump for several days and wanted enough to get him through. A few other people spoke of Ted on the phone that evening. No one reported that he seemed despondent or suicidal. We'll be back after a break. While we were taking a break, we had part two of our Lovely Snack from our listener, Samantha from England.

40:12 So for this round we had a bunch of mcvittie's mcvity's. I don't know how it's pronounced, but they're all kind of treats McVitie's penguins, And then we had hobnobs and Jaffa cakes. Oh the penguin I want those in the US. That was so good, really really good, kind of like a kit cap but better. Reminded me of Timtams from Australia. Okay, it's been a while since I've had those, but yeah, really good. And then the hobnob you love a hob knob. Yeah, I went on the hobnob kick a while ago. I love. Yeah, that was really good. And the Jaffa is it chaffa cake? Jaffa cakes? I guess yeah. I think I've heard of those like on books I've read, like Bridget Jones and things like that. It was good.

40:53 I didn't I didn't love it. Yeah, I didn't love that. That was the original flavor. I kind of liked the texture with the flavor was a little Yeah. We also have another raspberry flavor. We'll try that when we get to part two. All right, Well, thank you again, Samantha. It's always fun when we get to the internationals next too, because the whole family tries them, our kids, our kids love to try them too, So thank you again, so much so. We left off on the evening of September sixteenth, nineteen ninety eight. The next morning, around five am on the seventeenth, Ted went to the seven to eleven and picked up a pack of cigarettes, still dressed in the same clothes that he was seen wearing the evening before. Ted did often stay up all night and slept sometimes during the day, so this wasn't unusual. The clerk said that Ted seemed a little angry, but otherwise noticed nothing unusual about his demeanor.

41:39 At five thirty am, the next door neighbor's maid was showing up and saw Ted outside of his house. She handed him the newspaper and said good morning. She didn't note anything unusual about Ted's behavior. Ted then went into his house. Around nine am, Sandy called their housekeeper and told her that Ted wasn't feeling well and that she shouldn't come to the house and that day. She instead asked the housekeeper to go to Ted's other residence and clean there. Around nine thirty am, the gardener, who came every Thursday morning arrived. He noted a few unusual things. First, Sandy's Mercedes was parked on the side of the house. Normally it was parked in the garage. He also noticed as he went to the backyard that the living room drapes were closed. These were large floor to ceiling drapes in the living room window that looked out on the backyard.

42:28 The gardener later said that he had never seen those drapes closed before. This is important because looking through those windows one would be able to see into the den of the house, which is where Ted's body was eventually found. Also, the gardener noticed that the dogs were acting strangely that day. Normally, the dogs would follow him around while he went about his work, but today they just sat by the back door, as if they wanted to get into the house. The gardener worked in the yard from nine thirty until about one thirty that afternoon. When he left, Andy's vehicle was still parked beside the house. At twelve oh four, Ted's realtor called to remind him of a meeting the next day and to ask if Ted would mind meeting and giving advice to some clients of hers. We're thinking of buying a casino. Here's what the realtor later said about that call.

43:18 I said, hello, Sandy, how are you. It's Ted there, She said, BARBARAE. He's out of it. I said, may I speak with him? She said, he is out of it. He can't talk right now. I said, what do you mean. She said, he's just out of it. Nobody knows what it's been like living with a drug addict. And this mess in this bathroom and I've got to clean this mess. And I said, what's the matter and she said, he got some pills from a doctor and this mess. And she just kept crying about this mess. And I offered to come over. I said, would you like me to come over? Do you need any help? And she said, don't come over here. He wouldn't like that. He doesn't want anybody to see him. He's lost so much weight.

43:58 So I said, well, why don't I just come over and maybe we can go out and talk or have coffee. She was very distraught. She said, no, if I go out, when I come back, interrogates me. It's not worth it. It's just not worth it. And I said oh, and then she reiterated the part about him losing so much weight he didn't want anyone to see him. And I said, well, that's funny. We have an appointment tomorrow at one o'clock. And she said, well, you better call back later because I don't think he can make it. And I said really, I said, well, do you want me to come over there tonight? Weren't going to come over and we'll all just go around the corner to Chinese food and Is there anything I can do? And she said, whatever you do, don't bring anyone over here with you. He's not going to like that, and don't come and she was clearly crying enough that the people across the desk could hear.

44:47 Around two thirty that afternoon, Sandy went to the Binyon Gaming office and demanded to see the Binion's executive assistant, Kathy Rose, who took care of a lot of the family's financial affairs. Sandy was told that Rose was in an important meeting, but she insisted that she needed to see her. When Rose finally came out, Sandy gave her a check for one hundred and twenty five dollars and asked her to deposit it into Ted's account. Catherine was surprised because Ted normally did his own deposits or he had his housekeeper do them, and why was this one hundred and twenty five dollars check so important. Sandy went on to tell Catherine that she had been up all night with Ted and that she was going to grab a bite to eat. Now. Again, Catherine wondered, why are you telling me this? We don't know exactly what time Sandy arrived back home, but at three forty seven pm, Rick Tabish called Sandy Murphy's cell phone from his own.

45:40 That call lasted for three minutes. Just three minutes after that call ended, at three point fifty three, Sandy called nine one one in hysterics. She was so overwrought she could only get a few words out before hanging UPO, that's pretty much the colleague. There was a little bit more that got cut off in the recording that I found, but there really wasn't much to. It, she said, husband, Yeah she did. When the paramedics arrived four minutes later, they found Ted lying on a mat on the floor of the den, head on a pillow partly covered by a blanket. His shirt was pulled up, his pants were off, and he was lying face up, arms at his side in what was described as almost a mortuary pose. As paramedics did their initial check of Ted, they noted that his pupils were fixed and dilated, and that rigor mortis had set in around his jaw. Nearby were an empty bottle of xanax, a piece of scorched aluminum foil, a knife with black tar heroines smeared on it, a pack of cigarettes, and an ashtray. A remote control, his pants, and a pair of loafers. There was also a handwritten note nearby, quote Teddy, I went to the gym. I couldn't sleep this morning, Love you, Sandy. They turned Ted over and saw that lividity had formed on his right side and his back.

47:00 Walking around the outside of the house, the police noted a couple of unusual things. First, on the front porch was a Halloween decoration. Remember it was September seventeenth, so maybe a bit early for Halloween decorations to be out. It was a goblin or a skeleton of some sort with the letters rip rest in peace underneath it. Thank you for explaining that to us, You're welcome. The other unusual thing was that all of the doors and windows around the house were secured except for one. The window to Sandy's bathroom was unlocked, and underneath the window on the outside of the house was a chair. Sandy later told police that she had gotten locked out of the house and that Ted was asleep and not answering the door, so she used the chair to climb in.

47:44 The media quickly got word of Ted's death, and several reporters showed up just in time to see Sandy Murphy being wheeled out of the house on a gurney, sobbing uncontrollably. The officer in charge decided to speak to the reporters in front of the house in sort of an imprompt to press conference. The immediate speculation from reporters was that Ted's death had something to do with his organized crime connections, but the police spokesperson said no, there were no signs of foul play, no gunshot wounds, just an empty bottle of xanax and some signs of heroin use. Sergeant Young told the press quote, preliminary results indicate he may have made an ingestion error in regards to medication. While it's suspicious, it's not suspicious to the point where we are talking about criminal activity. It seems odd to me that the police would talk to reporters this quickly after a death and that quickly tell reporters that, oh, it doesn't look suspicious at all. There's nothing criminal.

48:40 Here, yeah, for sure. Although the police did call a homicide investigator to take a look at the scene, they quickly decided that Ted's death must have been a drug overdose, either accidental or intentional. That meant that the scene was not preserved once they were done with their work the next morning. Soon several people including friends and family would be trapesing through the house, making it basically useless for any further examination that the police might want to do. So you said that there was a homicide investigator there, but they didn't do a thorough job. It doesn't sound like. It didn't take forensic samples and photos. And I'm sure they took photos, but it sounds like it was pretty much a quick walkthrough and like, yeah, this looks like an overdose, so probably not a whole lot was done.

49:26 During her interview with the police later that afternoon in the hospital, Sandy was still having a hard time composing herself through her grief, which made her almost incoherent. Here's a quick example. Sandy, do you remember that time you found him? When you came back home? How long were you gone from the house? Hard? Do you understand the word? Yeah? Why was she hospitalized just because she was? I think she was hyper vent and just couldn't you just couldn't calm herself down. They did get a few things out of her, though. She told police that Ted had started using heroin again in March after his gaming license had been revoked. She said that he had been suicidal recently, putting a gun in his mouth. Regarding the timeline of the past several hours, Sandy wasn't much help. She said that sometime in the middle of the night, she didn't know what time Ted woke her up. He said he was worried that he might be sick or that he might have a seizure, and wanted her to keep an eye on him. She said she laid with him and eventually fell back to sleep for a while. She then left the house in the morning, saying that Ted was sleeping at that time and he seemed fine. She couldn't say what time she left the house or how long she had been gone, quote for a few hours. I don't know. Well, she left a note saying she was going to go to the gym.

50:51 Yes, we just don't know what time that was that she went, if she went to the gym, and what time that was. In this interview with the police, I wish I could have found a transcript. All I found was that little clip that I played, So I don't know exactly, Like I don't even know if she told them where she went when she left the part that I read. She didn't give any details at all of what time, where she went anything. So at some point, apparently in the morning she said she went out, and that's probably when she went to the gym. But remember that the gardener saw her car by the side of the house when he arrived at nine thirty am, and he saw it in the same place when he left at one thirty pm, So maybe she went out while he was there. But it seems like she was home most of the morning.

51:34 And no one saw her at the gym. I'm guessing I never read anything about anybody seeing her at the gym. Sandy said when she got back home that he was sleeping and she laid on the sofa because she was tired from being up the night before. She said she watched him sleep for a bit, then went to the Binion gaming office to see Kathy Rose. She went to get a bite to eat, and then she came home and that's when she found him unresponsive. She didn't think any fall play was involved, but if there was, then she felt that Ted's sister Becky and her husband Nick were the likeliest suspects. She told the detective that Ted hated his sister and the rest of the family as well. She said that the whole family, but especially Becky, were treacherous and low lifes. Becky issued a statement to the press, quote, my brother's untimely death is just so sad and tragic.

52:24 Through all of his trials and tribulations, Ted was a caring man, even though it was a brother and sister. We had our sibling differences, as any family will have, but through it all I loved my brother and I admired his keen intellect, his sense of humor, and the many little things that he would do to help a lot of friends without anyone's knowledge. I love that she talks about like, oh, brothers and siblings. You know, sisters, siblings always have differences. It's like, yeah, but this is a whole other level where he apparently hired someone to kill her and she may have tried to kill him. But anyway, that is true. When someone with a lot of money dies, especially someone who keeps a lot of valuables in their house, things can get ugly really fast, and that's exactly what happened in the case of Ted Binyon.

53:10 James Brown, Ted's friend and attorney, we mentioned earlier knew that there was a lot of money in Ted's house in the form of cash, silver, art, jewelry, and so on. He also knew that Ted wanted Sandy out of the will. Once the police were done with the house, He and another lawyer hired security to ensure that no one could get into Ted's house until things with the estate could get sorted On the afternoon of the eighteenth, the day after Ted died, his daughter Bonnie, arrived home from college. She talked to James Brown about going to the house to gather some photos and clothing for her dad for the funeral. Brown met her at Ted's house around two pm that afternoon. While Brown waited in the living room for Bonnie, there was a knock on the front door.

53:52 It was Sandy. She tried to come into the house, but Brown stopped her. Sandy left, but soon returned with her lawyer and a police officer. A debate ensued over whether Sandy should be allowed into the house or not. She showed the officer her driver's license to prove that she lived in the house on Palomino Lane. James Brown argued that until the estate was sorted out, that only Jack Binyon could decide who could come and go. The officer said, sorry, Sandy lives here and she's proven it. You need to turn the house over to her. Brown said, okay, I'm going to go see a judge right now and see if I can get a court order to protect the house, and he left. It didn't take Brown long to get his order. He returned ninety minutes later with the order, which appointed him as special administrator of the estate.

54:39 This gave him sole possession of Ted's residence and everything in it, at least until a probate court could sort things out. Sandy came out of the house, screaming, why are you doing this? I thought you were my friend. Brent Brown responded, I'll tell you exactly why I'm doing this, because Ted called me yesterday and told me to take you out of the will if you did kill him first. Sandy screamed at him, calling a liar, and marched right back into the house. Brown huddled up with Sandy's lawyer and came to an agreement. Sandy would leave the residence, but first she wanted to create a video that showed everything that was there. Brown agreed, as long as he would get a copy of the video as well. So Sandy walked around the house, her attorney following her with a video camera and James Brown following as well. There's a short clip from that video, and the first part we hear Sandy talking to James Brown referring to him as Jimmy.

55:33 Then in the second part she talks about some art that she's planning to take. I'm sorry, Tommy, I thought you're my friendly. I don't know if wold to turn with you. You live in the cop and call him the revenue of California. You come in here and tell me that you guy around here and good terms in your insert load. No my fucking shit to take, gets it yours. I'm gonna take my market down mind un for Gunther. And I've already taken my other piece of art that was in here, and I'm gonna leave them for Golther. But I'm going to take the argust because I will trust it and if it's gone homes Ruth. Sandy went room by room through the entire house and garage, pointing out things that she claimed were taken by the family before she got access to the house. For example, she points to a safe that is empty. However, she was in the house without supervision for at least ninety minutes, so it's just as likely that she took anything that was missing. In fact, she brought a bag of silver to lawyer Oscar Goodman's office a couple of days later as a retainer for his services, silver that must have come from Ted's house. This video would end up making Sandy look bad. Far from the sobbing, inconsolable girlfriend from the previous day, here was a woman on a mission to claim what was hers. From her point of view, though she remembered that Ted had once told her when I die, they'll come out like vultures. The question is were the vultures Ted's family, Sandy or both.

56:57 I'm going to go out on a limb and say it was both. Money brings out the absolute worst in. Peace, It really does. Meanwhile, Rick Tabish was on a mission of his own. He got two guys and drove what's known as a belly dump trailer basically a trailer for hauling heavy duty materials like dirt or concrete, out to Proumpt for a little midnight excavation project. When Sergeant ed Howard happened upon the vacant lot excavation. At two am, the job was nearly done. One of Tabash's workers told him they were removing ordinance from the property, meaning explosives or ammunition of some sort. Then he dropped Wade li Ski's name, the sheriff of Nye County. The man said that Wade knew what they were up to, so it was all fine. That didn't deter Sergeant Howard. He stayed put, and moments later Rick Tabish came over. He told Howard a different story. He said that they were hauling away concrete debris in advance of the lot being sold, and that they would be gone soon. Tabish also said that he had talked to Sheriff li Seki and that he was aware of everything. But now Howard had been told two different stories, and he wasn't sure that he was buying either one. He decided to call for backup. He and the other officers who showed up were immediately on edge.

58:10 They suspected something shady was going on and wondered if there could be a sniper out in the desert, ready to take them out. Sergeant Howard walked over toward the trailer and Tabish followed him. Howard asked what was in the trailer, and Tabish said nothing. Howard looked up, saw canvas roll top cover on the trailer and asked if Tabish could roll it back so that he could look inside, but Tabish said the crank was broken. It would later be revealed that it was not in fact broken. Howard saw that there was a ladder on the other side of the trailer and asked Tabish if they could climb up and peek inside. Sensing that the jig was up, Tabish said go ahead. One of the officers on the scene climbed up and took a look inside the trailer.

58:52 He called down from the top of the ladder, there's a shitload of silver in here, twenty four tons of silver. As it would turn out, Tabish turned to Sergeant Howard and admitted, okay, I lied. He went on to explain that he was getting the silver on behalf of its owner, Ted Binyon. He said that Binyon had made him promise, in the event of his death, to collect the silver and use it to set up a trust for his daughter Bonnie before his greedy siblings were able to steal it. Did he have any paperwork or official documents showing that he was doing this at Binyon's behest. No had he spoken with Bonnie or her mom Doris about doing it, of course not. The cops weren't buying his story, but he did have one thing going for him. Tabish insisted that he had spoken with Sheriff Liseki, and that the sheriff knew exactly what they were up to. He showed the officers his phone, and sure enough they saw three calls to the Sheriff's number from the afternoon before. They summoned the sheriff, who soon arrived at the scene. The sheriff confirmed that he had indeed spoken to Tabish. According to the sheriff, Tabish had told him that he was a business part partner of Ted Binyons and was coming to Perumpt to obtain some property that belonged to both him and mister Binyon. It was close to the truth, but Taviish wasn't actually a business partner of Ted's and the property in question did not belong to both of them.

1:00:14 It was all Ted's, and Tabish had conveniently left out the fact that the property he was picking up was millions of dollars worth of silver. The police took Tabish and his crew in, charging them with grand theft, but guess who was there to bail them out. Sandy Murphy put up her Mercedes and her diamonds as collateral to bail out Rick and his crew. Along with the video that we talked about a little bit ago. This ended up turning public opinion against Sandy Murphy. Whereas people were initially thinking that Ted's death was mafia related, then an accidental overdose. Now the word on the street was that Sandy and Rick killed Ted so that they could steal his silver and be together. And I'm afraid that is where we are going to have to end things for part one.

1:00:59 How long were you head and Sandy together, do you know? I think about three years, maybe four years something like that. Okay, and they weren't married, so she really wasn't entitled to much more than you know, three hundred thousand dollars, right, That seems pretty fair to me. Yeah. Same here in the house, like I said, is worth like two point two million dollars today. That's actually really and all the stuff in it. So yeah, that was very generous. I think these people like there's never enough money. I don't get it. I know, I'm like, I like things, I like having a nice house, but it's just, yeah, I don't. I really don't understand excessive greed. I don't really either. Once you have enough money where you can live comfortably and not worry about anything, like, yeah, I don't know why what keeps you going early on that?

1:01:44 I kid you, but I really don't need a nine thousand dollar jumpsuit. Yeah, five thousand dollars jumpsuit would be just fine. I'll keep that in mind. So I have a very important question for you. Okay, if you had twenty four tons of silver, where would you hide it? That's a really good question. I think the desert is always the answer, right. If I buried it in the desert, I would lose it. I would be like, oh yeah. You would have to call me and I'd be like, oh my god, it's right there. It's to the right of the milk. Because I think every woman that's listening, like your husband, really genuinely can't find things.

1:02:25 Yeah, for sure, I think it'd be fun to go out in the desert, Like, there's got to be money buried all over in the desert outside of Las Vegas. I would think, like. That's one trip I'll send you on on your own. Yeah, probably not very fruitful, but it's really funny. You never know. I shouldn't give this away to everyone, but I always think if you have something to hide, the best way to hide it is to And I don't really do this, but my mom used to all the time, Like you would take ground beef and you would buy this big package and then she would like wrap it in freezer wrap. I would like, you should put whatever jewels or whatever in the middle of ground beef, put it in your deep freezer, and then police won't like have to to thaw all your meat out to find your jewel.

1:03:08 Are you saying that your mom would hide expensive things in hamburger? You know, I'm just saying that's what I always thought would be a good idea or to like, you know, like a zippered cush I've thought about this a lot, you know how like your couch cushions on zip and then you just make a little slid in the the what do you call it? The do you call the. Couch cushion the slip cover? No, but the foam just you know, I just I don't know. I think about things like that a lot obviously, twenty four tons of silver, I mean that would be a lot of ground beef. That would be a lot of ground beef. But yeah, or a box of cereal. You know you can put it in then and you can reseal it and make it look like it was never opened. Yeah, all kinds of great ideas come to you when I have.

1:03:50 Some loot tide, I hope you have some loot dhide. So is obviously very central to this case for the Binions World Series of Poker. You and I used to play poker quite a bit. That might surprise people. Yeah, I actually really like to play poker. Yeah, it's really actually we used to do that a lot. We need to do that again. But I got like into poker big time. Yeah, you made some money a little bit, I mean not a lot, but didn't you make honestly, like several thousand dollars? Yes, when it was legal in Michigan. Yeah, with online gambling was it was never quite legal. It was always like a little bit of a grade area. But in two thousand and three, what happened was a guy named Chris Moneymaker won the World Series of Poker and he had qualified to get into the World Series of Poker through an online poker tournament, and that started this craze of like online poker, myself included, got really into it, and I read books about it.

1:04:49 I was like studying hands and things like that. And I deposited twenty dollars into an online poker account and I played two little tournaments. I won them both, and I never deposited another dollar. And a few years later I withdrew I think like five thousand dollars or something like that, which was nice, But the amount of time I spent on it, it was it probably paid. Like it wasn't that you were doing it to make money. You were just doing it fun. Maybe you enjoyed it. It was fun, but it got to be a little bit of an obsession. And I played, but I just played for fun. I never played for money because I you're. A really good bluffer. You when you and I play, I have no idea when you're bluffing or not, and you're totally like in my head like I can't.

1:05:30 I think I can only do that to you though as your wife. Yeah, probably true. Yeah, I have a little quiz for you about poker. So I have ten questions. I'm going to grade you on poker terminology. Like I should. We should be doing the reverse, but okay, I'll do my best. All right. So Texas Hold Them is the game that we normally play. When you play Texas Hold Them, you start out with two cards, which are called your whole cards. So if you look at your whole cards and you see Ace King, what is that hand? Call the nickname for that hand? I do not know, don't big Daddy. I thought this was going to be the easy Oh no, okay, that's called big Slick. That's right, Okay, I mean it's been years since we've played.

1:06:13 Really, I would have also accepted Anna Khornikova, Korean Airlines, Kalashnikov, or King Arthur, But Big Slick is the main thing that that's known by. Okay, gotcha? I know two queens? Do you? Yeah? Okay, I didn't ask that on the quiz, but you can go ahead and share, right, yes, exactly? All right? What if you see six' nine in your whole? CARDS i don't. Know we're going to get a little. Crude this is just showing the level of like most poker players, Mentality. Are they suited or unsuited doesn't. Matter. Okay if you have a six nine that is called not big slick. Big, okay, YES i don't think you need to say. IT i think everyone rhymes with.

1:06:54 Slick, yes it rhymes with. Slick that's. RIGHT i did know, That, yes. Okay, well how about what whole cards do you? Have if you have, cowboys. Two, jacks good. Guess but no two? Kings oh, okay all. Right if someone says that you have the, nuts what does that? Mean you, know if you would have asked me all this ten years, AGO i would HAVE i don't. Remember the nuts means that you have the best possible hand given, like given the cards that are on the, board you have the best hand that's. Possible all. Right next, question what is it called when you have nine and? Five dolly? Parton exactly A Dolly? Parton and what does it mean if you have a boat a full?

1:07:36 HOUSE a full? House that's exactly. Right it's also called A noah's. ARK i didn't made that. Up you can make stuff. UP i. Can we can both make Stuff. You could totally make stuff up when you're at a poker. Table it's actually fun to make stuff, Up like if you, fold, like what did you? Have and you just make up a term and nobody. Knows all? Right how about what is the hand that is called a motown a motown. Hand to go out on a? Limb here is it five? Jacks jackson? Five AND i realize there are not five jacks in a. Deck you're so, close, really jack's and. Five's? Oh if you have a jack and a five or two jackson two, fives that's a that's a motown. Hand all, right HERE'S i think you're gonna get this one. Too. Okay if someone SAYS i had dogs BUT i folded, them what cards did they?

1:08:25 Have? Canine king and kings and? NINE a king and a? Nine that isn't? Okay that's like a great hand, THOUGH i mean it's. Okay, no that's why you would fold, it all. Right two questions. Left if you have a marriage for your starting, hand what do you call? It a king and a queen exactly? Right or two kings or two? Queens because it's twenty twenty? Five all? Right last? Question if someone tells you that there is a fish at the, table what are they? SAYING i don't, know give me a. Hint fish is? It it's a nickname for a type of poker, player not a. Hand WELL i thought, that BUT i don't. Know it is someone who's really bad at. Poker oh easy.

1:09:06 Money oh. Okay you want to see a fish at the, table and if you don't know who the fish is at the, table it's probably. YOU i was hoping you were going to ask me what the worst starting hand, is BECAUSE i know. That oh, okay what is the worst starting? Hands to? Seven off? Suit very, good which is really important to know because if you have two, seven you have no chance of a. Straight two is. Low seven is relatively were not going to get a? Flush? Yeah, yeah your best starting hand two, aces yes for. Sure, Okay, well you didn't do quite as good AS i thought you would. DO i know it's we did. Awesome you did. Great you tried really hard and you did really. Good you used to go To Las vegas almost Every, march and it always seemed to happen Around march, madness and you would place. Bets, yeah and then when you were, there you would place other. Bets do you remember any of the crazy bets that you've placed over the.

1:09:57 YEARS i wouldn't call them crazy, bets but usually WHAT i would them. Crazy usually WHAT i would do is place a bet on either The tigers to win The World series or The lions to win The Super, bowl, which, YEAH i guess maybe you could say those were crazy bets in those in those. Years but how much could you potentially have? Won, oh not that. MUCH i am so. Cheap LIKE i would bet maybe ten dollars and maybe maybe that would win you one hundred. Dollars oh, nothing nothing, dramatic. Gotcha. YEAH i used to work for a company that had a conference there every year that time of, year AND i. CAN'T i kind of miss. It it was nice to go there once in a, while BUT i haven't been To vegas IN i don't know five. Years oh, really you would always come to me be, like, YEAH i GOT i gotta go To vegas And march and be like and then you you every year you would say, Yeah i'm probably not gonna have any time to, gamble and THAT i would talk to you. Deeply i'm Gonna i'm gonna go hit the tables for a.

1:10:50 While so it's, funny always able to find some. Time but you're not a slot machine. Guy you're a oh, no poker or, blackjack. So Binyon's horseshoe is, like there's Two. Vegas is kind of. Right there's like old Town. Vegas, Yeah Downtown vegas and The. Strip, okay and they were in Obviously downtown Ve is it still. There, yeah it's still. There the casino is still. There it's still Called. Binions it's just under different ownership. Now but, Yeah Downtown vegas is still got that old school feel to, it you, know not all the glitz and glamour of The. Strip BUT i always like Downtown. Vegas it just feels more, authentic. Authentic, yeah that's. Right or Since spotify added the feature of the comment, FEATURE i really love when you guys leave us, Comments so please continue to do. That we really appreciate. Those it's fun to have that. Interaction if you talk to us on email Or instagram Or, facebook you're usually talking to, me but you handle The spotify.

1:11:48 Comments, yeah AND i try to reply to most of them IF i, can BUT i really love seeing the comments as. Well so, yeah so thank you so much for. Those thank you always for your. Support we really appreciate. It if you want to listen to the conclusion of this, episode join us On patreon dot. Com Slash lovemrykill five dollars a month for early ad free episodes and a month monthly bonus. Episode please, rate, review follow and, Subscribe find us on social, media or send us an email at lovemarykillat gmail dot. Com and if you'd like to send us a, snack you can send it to lmkpod pobox one one one Dexter michigan for eight one three zero just let us know send us an email if you do send, something, though because we don't check it every. Day thanks again for, listening and until next, time don't kill your husband and don't kill your. Wife companion to The