March 3, 2025

Sandy Murphy and Ted Binion - Part 1

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Ted Binion was Las Vegas royalty—the heir to a casino empire with wealth, power, and a dangerous lifestyle. But when he was found dead in 1998, the city buzzed with speculation. Was it suicide? An accidental overdose? A mob hit? Or something even more sinister?

His girlfriend, Sandy Murphy, was devastated—or was she? While she claimed heartbreak, others saw deception. Was she a grieving lover or a scheming opportunist? And what really happened in Ted’s final hours?

Join us as we unravel the twists, betrayals, and shocking revelations behind the mysterious death of Ted Binion. Was justice served, or did someone get away with murder?

Join us on Patreon to hear part 2 today!

Today’s snacks: UK snack extravaganza (thanks Samantha!) Twiglets, Hobnobs, Mr. Porky Scratchings, Jaffa Cakes, Penguins and Jelly Babies.

Sources:

WEBVTT

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Hi, I'm Rich and I'm Tina.

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And if there's one thing we've learned in over twenty

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years of marriage.

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Some days you'll feel like killing your.

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Husband, and some days you'll feel like killing your wife.

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Welcome to love, Mary.

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Kill, Hey Tina, Hey Rich?

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How are you?

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I'm good? How are you?

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I'm good? Did you forget our opening that we've done

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two hundred times?

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Ah?

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Yes I did. Well, you're cutting into my nap time.

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It is a rainy, overcast day here in Michigan. Yeah,

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our weather has been all over the place.

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It is a good afternoon for a nap, right.

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So that's all I'm saying is I'm a little sleepy.

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Well, I've got a great case for you. Today. We

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are going to Las Vegas. So that is going to

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be a Vegas baby. Yeah. How do you feel about

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Vegas people? Either, lover?

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I never went when I was really young, and I

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think i've been twice. And the two times I went

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once when your sister got married there and that was

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a nice trip. But we had Emma. Emma was just

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a she was always her birthday, her first birthday. Yeah,

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she spent in Vegas. And the other time we went

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when we were going to the Grand Canyon. Yeah, and

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we were on so I feel like I don't I

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haven't experienced Vegas. I don't know if I even gambled

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when I was at Vegas. I think we were at

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the airport and I put like like a dollar in

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the slot machine at the airport because I was like, oh,

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I didn't gamble at all. Yeah, but I think it's

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a it's a fun place. I think if you have

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a lot of money, it can be really fun.

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Yeah, there's no place like it. I have a love

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hate relationship with it.

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I thought you really loved it.

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I mean I love it, but only in small doses.

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Like I've been there a lot, but for work, usually

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other than the trip we made for my sister's wedding.

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And you know, sometimes I'll stay in extra day or

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gamble or whatever. But after like two or three days

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in Vegas, I'm just like I have to get here.

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In researching this case, I thought that I should go

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to Vegas to help with my research. I remember to

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get I don't know why we couldn't find it in

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the Love Mary Kill budget. For me to do that,

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I think it would have made a much better episode.

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But I will do the best I can.

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All right, thank you.

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Well, before we get to the story, I have a

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super exciting snack for you today. Our listener Samantha sent

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us this box from She.

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Has to be the kindest person in the United Kingdom.

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Yes, so she sent it all the way from the UK,

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and I opened it yesterday to see what was inside.

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And there is so much in here, Like Samantha went

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way over and above the call of duty, and I'm

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really excited to try everything. Yeah, there's a lot. So

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I'm gonna maybe we'll try three things now, and then

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we'll try three things after our break, and then we'll

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try more in part two, so we'll get through it all.

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But awesome, Yeah, thank you so much, Samantha. They were

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so so kind and generous of.

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You, extremely generous. All right, I am going to pull

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out the first three things that I chose.

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Here.

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We have some twiglets, which are I really have no

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idea what they are. They're high in fiber, they're oven

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baked and not fried. And then we've got mister Porky

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original scratchings. I'm guessing these are like yeah, I'm sure.

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And then I've got jelly babies. Oh wow, awesome so

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let's give them a try. Okay, what did you think?

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It's so fun to try international snaps. I love it.

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The packaging, everything is just it's just really cool. The

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first thing I tried was were the twiglets, which are

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like pretzel sticks here. I love the texture. The texture

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is so good and just crunchy. I didn't love the flavors.

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They're really different, like they're.

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Very I don't know that flavor. Yeah, I don't mommy

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type flavor the mister porky scratchings. So I'm embarrassed to

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say this, but I did the Keto diet at one point,

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and the Keto diet you can have all the all

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the pork rinds you want. You could like dip the

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pork rinds into like cheese, and it's just so. I

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have a hard time with pork rinds because of that.

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But these are actually really they're really interesting and tasty.

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Oh.

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I actually really liked them, even though I kind of

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have decided never to eat pork rinds again in this lifetime.

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And the jelly babies, I'm not sure what I was

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eating there, Like is it a bit like a little

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like a gummy bear, But it's a baby.

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I don't Yeah, I'm not sure. I was expecting it

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to be more like a jelly bean, but it's more

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like a a gummy like a yeah, like a juju bee.

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They were really different too, Like the texture is kind

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of like a gummy bear, but softer.

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Yeah.

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But yeah, really really, it felt a little weird eating

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a baby. But yeah, they were all really fun and interesting.

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Thank you so much.

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Yeah, thanks again, Samantha. Are you ready to get to

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the case?

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I sure am.

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The desert town of Perump, Nevada was the kind of

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place where nothing generally happened two in the morning, A

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single stoplight blinked idly in the dark, and most of

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the town's six thousand residents were fast asleep. But at

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two am on September nineteenth, nineteen ninety eight, as Deputy

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Sergeant Ed Howard was sitting in his car behind the

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town's only casino talking to a couple other cops, he

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heard some noise that drew his attention. He followed the

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noise to the vacant lot between the casino and the

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Burger King, where he was surprised to see a heavy

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duty excavator digging furiously under the cover of darkness. Nearby

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was a belly dump trailer. This is a trailer used

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in the construction industry for hauling heavy items like sand, dirt,

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and gravel. Howard pulled his police cruiser into the lot

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to check it out. Before he could step out, a

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man strode up to his car and said, we'll be

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out of here in a few minutes. Howard asked what

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they were doing. The answer came quick, almost rehearsed. We're

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removing ordnance from the property. Ordnance meaning explosives or artillery.

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A warning maybe, or a not so subtle way of

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saying get l lost. But Howard didn't leave. Instead, he

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called for backup. What authorities uncovered that night wasn't explosives.

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It was something far more shocking. Twenty four tons of

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silver hidden beneath the Nevada Desert, worth twenty five million

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dollars in today's money, and it belonged to one man.

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A man who had built his fortune in the shadows

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of Las Vegas, a man who had spent his life

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winning and losing millions, A man who just two days

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earlier had been found dead. His name Ted Binion. Ted's girlfriend,

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Sandy Murphy, had come home to their sprawling Vegas estate

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on the afternoon of September seventeenth, to find him lying

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on the floor of the den, an empty Xanax bottle

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beside him, nearby the tools of his heroin addiction, crumpled foyle,

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a pipe, a lighter. Police found no signs of foul

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play an overdose. They assumed a tragic but unsurprising end

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for a man who had spiraled ever since losing his

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gaming license. Outside reporters swarmed as Sandy, overwhelmed with grief,

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was wheeled out on a stretcher, sobbing uncontrollably. At a

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press conference, police assured the public no crime had been committed,

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but in the Nevada desert beneath the cover of night

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men were digging and the truth about Ted Binyon's death

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while that was just beginning to surface.

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How old was Ted?

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Ted was fifty four. Ted Binyon's story had all the

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makings of a classic Las Vegas tragedy, money power, addiction

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and betrayal. His death was a sad end for a

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man who was practically Vegas royalty. You see, Ted wasn't

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just any casino boss. He was the heir to Beny Binyon,

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a legend in the gambling world. Benny was the man

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behind Binyon's Horseshoe, the iconic downtown casino, and the founder

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of the World Series of Poker. When he started the

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tournament in nineteen seventy, it was just six guys playing cards. Today,

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over ten thousand people compete for millions in prize money.

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But long before he was a Vegas kingpin, Beny Binyon

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was a hustler. He got his start as an eight

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teen year old moonshiner in El Paso during Prohibition. From

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there he moved to Dallas, where he built an underground

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gambling empire during the Great Depression. And let's be clear,

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Benny was not just some smooth talking businessman. He was ruthless.

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His motto do your enemies before they can do you,

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and he lived by that. Benny personally killed at least

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two men, maybe more. In nineteen thirty one, he was

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convicted of one of those murders. But get this, he

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only got a two year suspended sentence. Why while the

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man he killed was a black bootlegger and in the

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eyes of the law back then, his life didn't seem

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to count for much.

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So he got a two year suspended sentence for murdering

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someone meeting he didn't serve any time.

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Yeah, isn't it shocking?

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It's horrible.

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Then in nineteen thirty six, Benny and an associate ambushed

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a competitor and unloaded their pistols into him. Afterward, Benny

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shot himself in the shoulder and claimed self defense. Those

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charges were dropped, so that's essentially two murders that be

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Binyon got away with Scott free. By the late forties, though,

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things were getting dicey in Dallas. Binyon was in a

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feud with a gambling boss named Herbert the Cat Noble,

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who was refusing to pay the forty percent take that

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Benny demanded on his earnings. Noble survived several attempts on

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his life until one day Noble's wife, Mildred, was killed

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instantly by a car bomb that had been meant for Herbert.

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In retaliation, Herbert the Cat got hold of a small airplane,

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fitted it with bomb racks, acquired a couple of bombs,

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and mapped out the flight path to the home where

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Benny Binyon lived with his wife and five kids. R

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that look on your face, I know these guys didn't

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mess around.

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Get a hold of a small plane and arm it

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with a couple of bombs.

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Yeah, it's pretty pretty wild. That plot was actually thwarted

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by the police before the plane got off the ground,

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and Herbert the Cat's Nine Lives ran out a couple

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of years later when he was killed by a bomb

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as he pulled up to his mailbox. Whoa Not only

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was Binyon running into increasing competition, a new sheriff, one

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who wasn't on Benny's payroll, was making life difficult for him,

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and Arrival was gunning for his territory. So Benny made

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the smart move. He skipped town. And what better place

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for a high stakes gambler to start fresh than Las Vegas.

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So when did Las Vegas become the Las Vegas that

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we visualize today.

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Well, I think when Benny showed up in Las Vegas,

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it was like late forties, early fifties, and I think

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at that point the city was still in its early days,

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but really starting to grow. And this all came about

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because the mobster Bugsy Siegel. There's a movie called Bugsy

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and His Boss Meyer Lanski. They had these big dreams

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of turning the Nevada desert into a gambling paradise. So

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Benny got there right kind of on the ground floor

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if that was just starting to take off. So Benny

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packed up his wife, his five kids, and two million

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in cash stuffed into a suitcase as one does, and

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he headed for Vegas.

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I just did a quick google, and two million dollars

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in nineteen fifty is worth over twenty six million dollars today.

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Wow, he with twenty six million in a suitcase. That's

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hard to imagine. Once he got to Vegas, he established

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Binyon's Horseshoe, the first high stakes casino in downtown Vegas,

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also known as Glitter Gulch, and if you were a

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big time gambler, the Horseshoe was the place to be.

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Benny's philosophy was simple, treat the player's right and let

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them wager what they wanted to. A perfect example was

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William Lee Bergstrom. In nineteen eighty. Bergstrom walked into Binyons

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carrying two suitcases, one full of cash seven hundred and

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seventy seven thousand dollars to be exact, which is over

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three million dollars today, and the other suitcase was completely empty.

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He put the seven hundred and seventy seven thousand dollars

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on a single bet at the crab Staple, and he won.

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A few minutes later he walked out both suitcases stuffed

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with cash. Beny Binyon himself helped him load up, but

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like a lot of gamblers, Bergstrom couldn't quit while he

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was ahead. He came back. A few years late he

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did something similar He won again, but then in nineteen

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eighty four he placed a million dollar bet and he lost.

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He never recovered from that, and a few months later

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he took his own life. Of course, Benny was tight

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with the mob. You couldn't run a Vegas casino back

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then without getting your hands dirty. He ended up doing

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prison time for tax evasion in the fifties, losing his

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gaming license in the process, but that didn't mean that

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he was out of the game. His wife, Teddy Jane

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took over the casino's operations, and his sons Jack and

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Ted stepped in Jack as president, Ted as casino manager.

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The Binion boys had been raised in the world of

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high stakes gambling. They knew the horseshoe inside and oe.

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When Benny died on Christmas Day nineteen eighty nine, his

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friend slim Preston said quote he was either the gentlest

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bad guy or the baddest good guy you'd ever seen.

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When Benny's widow, Teddy Jane died a few years later

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in nineteen ninety four, the family empire didn't just pass

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smoothly to the next generations. Darked a war. Not a

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mob war with guns and car bombs. This was a

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family war fought in the courtrooms, and at the center

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of it all Ted Binyon.

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While all of Benny Binyon's kids inherited a share of

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ownership in the casino, the real question was who would

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take over the family empire and run the show. Most

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people assumed the natural successor would be Ted Binyon. He

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had the swagger, the connections, and the personality to run

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the place. His older brother Jack was smart and steady,

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a great accountant, but he didn't have the flare or

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charisma that made Binyon's horseshoe and icon. As for the

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Benyon sisters, Barbara, the eldest, had died by suicide in

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nineteen eighty three at age thirty nine after a heroin overdose.

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Despite Benny making it clear that any dealer selling dope

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to Barbara would be a dead man, she still found

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a source for the drug. The second daughter, Brenda, had

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no interest in the casino. Her passion was rodeo and

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she lived far off from Vegas and air Amarillo. Becky

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the Youngest had run a casino briefly in the late

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nineteen seventies, but her husband, Nick Bainen, had a history

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of illegal gambling, making her a controversial figure in the

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family business. But Ted seemed to be Benny's carbon copy,

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right down to the cowboy boots, the ever present pistol

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tucked at his jeans, and his deep ties to the mob.

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Ted was close with guys like fat Herbie Blitstein, a

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top lieutenant for a notorious mob boss, Tony the aunt Spilatro,

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the real life inspiration for Joe Peshi's character in the

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movie Casino. Ted knew how to work with the underworld,

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just like his father, but he wasn't Benny's carbon copy.

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A gambling historian Peter Ruschman wrote, quote Ted possessed all

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of his father Benny's bravado and none of his insight

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and good sense. Among Ted's vices were drinking, drugs and showgirls.

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His drug of choice was heroin, but he was terrified

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of needles, so instead of injecting it, he smoked in

294
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a process called chasing the dragon, spreading the heroin on

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a piece of foil with a knife, melting it with

296
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a lighter, and inhaling the fumes through a glass pipe.

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It was wasteful, but when you have unlimited money, who cares?

298
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Why was it wasteful? Just the way that the drug.

299
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Yeah, I think when you're trying to do it. I

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have no experience here, so I don't know for sure,

301
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but I think when you're trying to smoke it, like

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a lot of it just gets lost in the air,

303
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so it's not as efficient as injecting it.

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For a while, Ten managed to keep it together. He

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had a lavish six seven hundred square foot ranch where

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he lived with his wife, Doris and their daughter, Bonnie.

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But heroin has a way of taking over. As his

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addiction grew, so did the cracks in his life. In

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nineteen eighty three, after twenty six years of marriage, Doris

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had enough. She packed up Bonnie and left. She later said, quote,

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I told him he had problems. I told him he

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was ruining his life and others. He said he would

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shoot himself if I didn't come home, He promised he'd

314
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quit if we came back. She gave him more than

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one chance, but it became painfully clear Ted Binyon wasn't

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going to change, and things only got worse. In nineteen

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eighty six, Ted was arrested on drug trafficking charges. His

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connections to organized crime were no secret, and by nineteen

319
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ninety six, the Nevada Gaming Control Board had seen enough

320
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they banned him from the casino business all together. Think

321
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about that, the Benyon name was synonymous with Vegas, and

322
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now Ted Binyon, the man expected to carry on his

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father's legacy, wasn't even allowed to set foot in his

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own casino, or any casino in Vegas for that matter.

325
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It was a devastating blow. Meanwhile, the fight for control

326
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of Binyon's Horseshoe turned ugly. Becky and Jack were at war,

327
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suing each other over millions of dollars. Ted and Brenda

328
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cashed out selling their shares, and Becky eventually took control,

329
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but under her management, the casino spiraled into debt. By

330
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two thousand and four, she was forced to sell to

331
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Harri's Entertainment, and just like that, the Binyon Era and

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Vegas was over. But before that, in nineteen ninety five,

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Ted met someone new, Sandy Murphy, and that's when Ted's

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downward spiral started accelerating. We'll be back after a break.

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Sandy Murphy was the classic California beach girl, blonde, tan,

336
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and carefree. Born in nineteen seventy two, she grew up

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in southeast Los Angeles County, where life was simple. Her

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dad was a repoman, her mom a homemaker, and by

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Sandy's own account, she had the kind of wholesome, all

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00:17:38.240 --> 00:17:42.720
American upbringing most kids could only dream of. She later said, quote,

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my parents were the epitome of what good parents should be.

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My mom was home every day after school. She was

343
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always involving me in extracurricular activities. She was on the PTA.

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My dad went to work every day. Everything was about family.

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Her dad was a surfer, and Sandy followed in his footsteps,

346
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spending her days in the waves in the California sun.

347
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In high school, she was described by classmates as an eyecatcher,

348
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a head turner. She was popular with people. She hung

349
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with the athletes, and her boyfriend was the star running back.

350
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She was still in high school when she met and

351
00:18:17.680 --> 00:18:20.519
fell in love with a much older man. The romance

352
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was intense, her grades in school took a nosedive, and

353
00:18:24.200 --> 00:18:27.400
soon she dropped out, moved in with him, and together

354
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they started an automotive accessories business with a friend. Sandy

355
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had her first brush with a law at twenty one,

356
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when she was arrested for driving on a suspended license

357
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and impersonating someone else to a police officer. Her stepmother

358
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bailed her out, but soon after she wrote to a

359
00:18:43.160 --> 00:18:46.799
judge saying, quote, since that time, I am not convinced

360
00:18:46.799 --> 00:18:50.119
that she will appear at all over court appearances. She

361
00:18:50.240 --> 00:18:52.880
asked the bail bondsman to revoke Sandy's bail.

362
00:18:52.960 --> 00:18:55.599
That's pretty bad when your stepmom is asking the judge

363
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to reford your base.

364
00:18:56.759 --> 00:18:56.960
Yeah.

365
00:18:57.079 --> 00:18:58.440
Who was she impersonating?

366
00:18:58.720 --> 00:19:00.559
Don't I don't know any detail around that.

367
00:19:00.599 --> 00:19:02.480
I assumed she didn't want to get in trouble so

368
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she gave them.

369
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Yeah, or maybe she had a fake ID or something,

370
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but yeah, either way, not not a good idea.

371
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A year later, Sandy got arrested for driving under the influence,

372
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netting her forty five days in jail and a breathalyzer

373
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lock on her Lexus. Around the same time, Sandy's relationship

374
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fell apart. The stress of running a business, the pressures

375
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of adulthood, Sandy's legal problems, it all became too much. Now,

376
00:19:25.240 --> 00:19:27.839
twenty three year old Sandy was ready for a fresh start,

377
00:19:28.240 --> 00:19:31.839
and what place better to reinvent yourself than Las Vegas.

378
00:19:32.359 --> 00:19:34.960
Was close to fifteen thousand dollars saved up, she and

379
00:19:35.000 --> 00:19:37.440
her friend packed their bags and headed for what was

380
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supposed to be a two week adventure in Sin City.

381
00:19:40.920 --> 00:19:43.119
But Vegas has a way of chewing people up and

382
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spitting them out. Within an hour of stepping into a casino,

383
00:19:47.319 --> 00:19:49.319
Sandy lost every penny.

384
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Can you imagine that?

385
00:19:51.200 --> 00:19:52.960
I can't imagine that I have never.

386
00:19:52.839 --> 00:19:55.519
Brought more than like three hundred dollars to gamble with,

387
00:19:55.680 --> 00:19:58.319
and even that I like, I may make that last

388
00:19:58.400 --> 00:20:00.759
as long as I could. I just can't imagine spending

389
00:20:00.839 --> 00:20:01.279
that much.

390
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Broke, But unwilling to cut their trip short, Sandy and

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00:20:04.240 --> 00:20:07.440
her friend had to think fast. Her friend had brought

392
00:20:07.480 --> 00:20:10.440
along some costumes and lingerie she had made, so they

393
00:20:10.480 --> 00:20:12.599
came up with a plan. They'd sell them to the

394
00:20:12.680 --> 00:20:15.319
dancers at a strip club, and that's how they ended

395
00:20:15.359 --> 00:20:17.920
up at Cheetahs, one of the most infamous strip clubs

396
00:20:17.960 --> 00:20:21.160
in Vegas, made even more famous by the cold classic

397
00:20:21.200 --> 00:20:24.200
film Showgirls. I've never seen Showgirls.

398
00:20:24.279 --> 00:20:25.279
I've never seen it either.

399
00:20:25.640 --> 00:20:28.039
Sandy approached the bouncer and asked if they could come

400
00:20:28.079 --> 00:20:31.279
inside and sell their wares to the dancers. Now this

401
00:20:31.319 --> 00:20:34.480
is where things get murky. Some reports say that Sandy

402
00:20:34.559 --> 00:20:37.599
ended up dancing at Cheetahs. Sandy says she was just

403
00:20:37.640 --> 00:20:41.640
hanging out selling costumes, soaking in the wild Vegas nightlife.

404
00:20:41.759 --> 00:20:44.079
But what we do know is that one night, while

405
00:20:44.119 --> 00:20:46.839
she was there, Ted Binyon walked through the doors of

406
00:20:46.920 --> 00:20:51.519
Cheetahs and everything changed. Ted wasn't alone. He was there

407
00:20:51.559 --> 00:20:55.279
with his mobster pail Herbie fat Herbie Blitzstein, and the

408
00:20:55.319 --> 00:20:58.839
two were doing what they did best, drinking, telling stories

409
00:20:58.960 --> 00:21:03.519
and throwing their money. And then Ted saw Sandy Murphy.

410
00:21:03.720 --> 00:21:06.559
She later claimed she was dancing for him, dressed in

411
00:21:06.599 --> 00:21:10.480
a Dallas cowboy's cheerleader outfit, while later she insisted that

412
00:21:10.559 --> 00:21:13.880
she wasn't a dancer at all. Honestly, doesn't really matter.

413
00:21:14.039 --> 00:21:17.880
What matters is that night Ted Binyon met Sandy Murphy

414
00:21:18.160 --> 00:21:21.039
and he was instantly hooked. He came back the next

415
00:21:21.119 --> 00:21:24.599
night and the night after that, and soon Sandy just

416
00:21:24.720 --> 00:21:28.119
wasn't some girl at Cheetah's. She was Ted Binyon's girl.

417
00:21:29.240 --> 00:21:32.000
Sandy Murphy would later say that it wasn't quite love

418
00:21:32.039 --> 00:21:35.119
at first sight. The love came later, but lust that

419
00:21:35.319 --> 00:21:39.759
was instant. Ted Binyon was magnetic. He was charismatic, rebellious,

420
00:21:39.799 --> 00:21:42.799
and a little dangerous, driving around Las Vegas in a

421
00:21:42.799 --> 00:21:45.680
beat up pickup truck, looking every bit the bad boy.

422
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And if there was one thing that Sandy couldn't resist,

423
00:21:48.359 --> 00:21:51.079
it was a bad boy. Ted had a presence, the

424
00:21:51.200 --> 00:21:54.119
kind that commanded attention the moment he walked into a room.

425
00:21:54.680 --> 00:21:57.640
So when Sandy's two week Vegas adventure came to an end,

426
00:21:57.960 --> 00:22:00.799
she wasn't ready to leave, and Ted Ted wasn't ready

427
00:22:00.839 --> 00:22:03.039
to let her go. She had to go back to

428
00:22:03.079 --> 00:22:06.240
California to face her DUI charges, but as soon as

429
00:22:06.279 --> 00:22:09.039
her day in court was done, she was back in Vegas,

430
00:22:09.359 --> 00:22:12.160
dialing the number that Ted had scribbled on a bar napkin.

431
00:22:12.559 --> 00:22:15.559
By April nineteen ninety five, Sandy was living in Ted's

432
00:22:15.640 --> 00:22:19.079
lavish home on Palomino Lane. Now Ted was the kind

433
00:22:19.079 --> 00:22:22.880
of guy who kept it simple. Jeans, flannel shirts, cowboy boots,

434
00:22:23.279 --> 00:22:26.160
But Sandy, he wanted her to look like a million bucks.

435
00:22:26.480 --> 00:22:28.960
He spoiled her rotten, a ten thousand dollars a month

436
00:22:28.960 --> 00:22:31.720
allowance on a credit card in her name, a brand

437
00:22:31.720 --> 00:22:35.759
new Mercedes, dinners at the finest restaurants in town. And

438
00:22:35.799 --> 00:22:38.200
one thing was clear. Ted didn't want her to work.

439
00:22:38.599 --> 00:22:41.279
She was his girl and that was her job. But

440
00:22:41.400 --> 00:22:44.920
behind the glitz and glamour, trouble was already brewing. Ted

441
00:22:44.960 --> 00:22:48.240
could be violent. One time, a friend noticed bruises on

442
00:22:48.319 --> 00:22:51.960
her face and a clump of hair missing. Sandy admitted

443
00:22:51.960 --> 00:22:55.160
that Ted had beaten her, and yet she stayed and

444
00:22:55.240 --> 00:22:58.279
told friends that it was just her punishment, as if

445
00:22:58.319 --> 00:23:00.680
that were part of the deal. I had always made

446
00:23:00.680 --> 00:23:02.799
it up to her, a new piece of jewelry, a

447
00:23:02.839 --> 00:23:06.079
shopping spree, a lavish gift. It was a cycle, a

448
00:23:06.200 --> 00:23:10.000
dangerous one, and still Sandy insisted that she loved Ted.

449
00:23:10.359 --> 00:23:12.799
This sounds so much like the movie Casino.

450
00:23:12.960 --> 00:23:15.680
Yeah, there are definitely a lot of similarities to Casino.

451
00:23:16.400 --> 00:23:19.319
Ted's now fifteen year old daughter, Bonnie lived with him

452
00:23:19.359 --> 00:23:21.920
for six months out of the year. She and Sandy

453
00:23:21.960 --> 00:23:25.160
didn't get along at all. She later told investigators that

454
00:23:25.240 --> 00:23:29.000
Sandy threatened to hit her several times. Bonnie said, quote,

455
00:23:29.200 --> 00:23:32.079
she just wasn't that mentally stable. I actually told my

456
00:23:32.200 --> 00:23:34.799
dad she would have to change her behavior and the

457
00:23:34.799 --> 00:23:37.559
way she dressed and acted, because I wasn't going to

458
00:23:37.599 --> 00:23:40.920
have basically a whore living at our house. One night,

459
00:23:41.000 --> 00:23:45.240
Bonnie swiped Sandy's nine thousand dollars Versace pants suit and

460
00:23:45.279 --> 00:23:47.720
along with her boyfriend, took off for a joy ride

461
00:23:47.759 --> 00:23:51.279
in Sandy's Mercedes SL five hundred, going one hundred and

462
00:23:51.319 --> 00:23:53.599
twenty miles per hour down the freeway. They rolled the

463
00:23:53.680 --> 00:23:56.960
car seven times. It was a miracle that Bonnie and

464
00:23:56.960 --> 00:24:00.440
her boyfriend survived. Bonnie said that when Sandy he saw

465
00:24:00.440 --> 00:24:02.799
her in the er, she tried to rip the Versace

466
00:24:02.920 --> 00:24:05.519
pants suit off of her and screamed at Ted that

467
00:24:05.559 --> 00:24:08.480
she needed a new car, which Ted, of course bought

468
00:24:08.480 --> 00:24:10.880
for her. So, if you think about Ted's life at

469
00:24:10.880 --> 00:24:13.640
this point, so he had recently lost both of his parents,

470
00:24:13.680 --> 00:24:16.440
who he had been very close to. He was estranged

471
00:24:16.480 --> 00:24:19.599
from his siblings, his wife had left him, his daughter

472
00:24:19.720 --> 00:24:22.400
was away at school, and now he was banned from

473
00:24:22.559 --> 00:24:25.640
being in the casino business or even entering a casino.

474
00:24:26.440 --> 00:24:28.839
The casino business band had cut him off from the

475
00:24:28.880 --> 00:24:32.640
one thing that had really defined his entire life. Without it,

476
00:24:32.680 --> 00:24:36.480
he was spiraling, sinking deeper and deeper into heroin. As

477
00:24:36.519 --> 00:24:39.839
his addiction consumed him, he stopped being a good companion.

478
00:24:40.359 --> 00:24:43.559
He and Sandy started sleeping in separate bedrooms, and the

479
00:24:43.640 --> 00:24:46.960
drugs left Ted incapable of being intimate, which only made

480
00:24:46.960 --> 00:24:51.400
Sandy feel lonelier and more frustrated. The relationship was unraveling.

481
00:24:51.880 --> 00:24:53.759
I don't think you've ever bought me a nine thousand

482
00:24:53.839 --> 00:24:57.160
dollars versace pantsuit. I don't think you've ever bought me

483
00:24:57.240 --> 00:24:57.880
in cant suit.

484
00:24:57.960 --> 00:25:00.559
I don't think I had about that.

485
00:25:01.160 --> 00:25:04.000
Ted doesn't have any money coming in anymore, right because

486
00:25:04.039 --> 00:25:05.279
of his business.

487
00:25:05.279 --> 00:25:06.759
Nothing mad.

488
00:25:07.039 --> 00:25:08.519
Maybe he had some side Yeah.

489
00:25:08.359 --> 00:25:10.400
It's very possibly he had some side businesses, but he

490
00:25:10.440 --> 00:25:11.359
had a lot of money.

491
00:25:11.720 --> 00:25:14.880
He's not worried about buying nine thousand dollars pantsuits and

492
00:25:15.200 --> 00:25:16.599
a Nu Mercedes every month.

493
00:25:16.759 --> 00:25:20.200
No, Ted was doing pretty well for himself. Ted Binyon's

494
00:25:20.200 --> 00:25:23.839
downward spiral wasn't just about losing his gaming license. There

495
00:25:23.880 --> 00:25:28.079
was something else, something darker, weighing on him. On January seventh,

496
00:25:28.160 --> 00:25:32.279
nineteen ninety seven, his old friend fat Herbie Blitztein was murdered,

497
00:25:32.559 --> 00:25:34.960
and it wasn't just any murder. Herbie was found in

498
00:25:35.039 --> 00:25:38.200
his home kneeling in front of a recliner, three bullets

499
00:25:38.240 --> 00:25:40.319
buried in the back of his head. It was a

500
00:25:40.319 --> 00:25:44.839
classic mob hit, and the whispers started almost immediately. If

501
00:25:44.880 --> 00:25:47.839
they could take out Fat Herbie, could Ted Binyon be next.

502
00:25:48.160 --> 00:25:50.960
The rumor going around was that mobsters were coming for

503
00:25:51.039 --> 00:25:54.559
him and they were after his silver fortune. Then, not

504
00:25:54.720 --> 00:25:58.079
long after someone sent a very clear message, a drive

505
00:25:58.119 --> 00:26:02.039
by shooting. Bullets ripped through Ted's house, one piercing the

506
00:26:02.039 --> 00:26:05.960
front door, another hitting Ted's Ford Explorer parked in the driveway.

507
00:26:06.400 --> 00:26:08.880
Ted and Sandy were both inside when it happened, but

508
00:26:09.039 --> 00:26:11.880
neither of them was hit. The drive by shooting may

509
00:26:11.920 --> 00:26:15.079
have been organized crime related, but it just as easily

510
00:26:15.079 --> 00:26:18.039
could have been something more personal. One of the suspects

511
00:26:18.039 --> 00:26:21.559
at the time was his nephew, Benny Binyon Bainen That's

512
00:26:21.599 --> 00:26:24.119
a say that three times fast, the twenty year old

513
00:26:24.200 --> 00:26:27.880
son of Ted's sister Becky. Speculation was that he may

514
00:26:27.920 --> 00:26:30.720
have been responding to threats that his uncle made toward

515
00:26:30.759 --> 00:26:33.440
his mother during their war for control of the Benyon

516
00:26:33.480 --> 00:26:36.680
casino business. There had even been rumors that Ted had

517
00:26:36.759 --> 00:26:39.559
ordered a hit on his sister, but ended up canceling

518
00:26:39.599 --> 00:26:42.359
it before it could be carried out. Either way, the

519
00:26:42.400 --> 00:26:45.519
message was loud and clear. Someone wanted Ted Binyon to

520
00:26:45.559 --> 00:26:49.599
know he was a marked man. Sometime in nineteen ninety

521
00:26:49.599 --> 00:26:52.440
seven or early ninety eight, Ted Binyon made a new

522
00:26:52.480 --> 00:26:55.519
friend in the most random way imaginable. He was at

523
00:26:55.559 --> 00:26:58.880
Piero's Italian restaurant when he stepped into the restroom and

524
00:26:58.920 --> 00:27:01.440
while standing at the euroine, he glanced over the guy

525
00:27:01.519 --> 00:27:04.839
next to him, introduced himself and reached out for a handshake.

526
00:27:04.960 --> 00:27:07.440
Because apparently that's what Ted Binyon did.

527
00:27:07.680 --> 00:27:09.240
Do you think he washed his hands first?

528
00:27:09.400 --> 00:27:11.359
No, I think they were standing at the yarinal when

529
00:27:11.400 --> 00:27:13.799
he did this. According to what I read, which is

530
00:27:14.000 --> 00:27:17.640
very like, that is definitely a breach of restroom protocol.

531
00:27:18.519 --> 00:27:22.039
That guy was Rick Tabish, and somehow that bathroom encounter

532
00:27:22.119 --> 00:27:25.279
turned into a close friendship. Tabish was in his early

533
00:27:25.319 --> 00:27:28.319
thirties when he met Ted. He had grown up in Montana,

534
00:27:28.440 --> 00:27:31.880
which gave them an unexpected connection because Ted had spent

535
00:27:32.000 --> 00:27:34.839
much of his childhood on his father's one hundred thousand

536
00:27:34.920 --> 00:27:39.440
acre ranch there. Rick Tabish was handsome, charming, and ambitious,

537
00:27:39.519 --> 00:27:42.559
but he also had a troubled past. He had launched

538
00:27:42.559 --> 00:27:45.680
a few businesses in the nineties, but money problems followed

539
00:27:45.759 --> 00:27:48.799
him everywhere. He also had a habit of finding trouble

540
00:27:49.079 --> 00:27:52.839
DUI's bar fights, and then something a little more serious,

541
00:27:53.160 --> 00:27:56.920
art theft. He had stolen a seventeenth century painting worth

542
00:27:57.039 --> 00:28:01.039
six hundred thousand dollars from a prominent montana An attorney's home.

543
00:28:01.240 --> 00:28:04.359
When police caught up with him, he confessed and he

544
00:28:04.440 --> 00:28:07.440
got a three year suspended sentence. But that wasn't the

545
00:28:07.519 --> 00:28:10.039
end of it. There was a road rage incident that

546
00:28:10.119 --> 00:28:13.039
landed him in jail for forty one days, a twenty

547
00:28:13.039 --> 00:28:16.160
five hundred dollars theft that was quietly settled out of court,

548
00:28:16.519 --> 00:28:19.079
and then the big one. He was arrested for shipping

549
00:28:19.160 --> 00:28:22.640
a quarter pound of cocaine via fed X That got

550
00:28:22.720 --> 00:28:25.440
him a ten year sentence, but somehow he only ended

551
00:28:25.519 --> 00:28:26.920
up serving nine months.

552
00:28:26.960 --> 00:28:31.000
Oh my gosh, ever ever ship drugs.

553
00:28:30.559 --> 00:28:33.799
A quarter pound of cocaine via FedEx That just blew

554
00:28:33.839 --> 00:28:34.240
my mind.

555
00:28:35.039 --> 00:28:37.200
We must have gotten away with it. Several times.

556
00:28:37.519 --> 00:28:40.400
He claims it was his the first time he did it. Now,

557
00:28:40.799 --> 00:28:44.039
believe what you want, but he swears it was the

558
00:28:44.039 --> 00:28:46.880
first time that he actually did that. When his probation

559
00:28:47.039 --> 00:28:50.559
was up in nineteen ninety seven, Vegas was calling. He

560
00:28:50.599 --> 00:28:55.160
moved to town, determined to start over, and launched MRT Transportation,

561
00:28:55.640 --> 00:28:58.880
a trucking company that specialized in hauling materials to and

562
00:28:58.960 --> 00:29:03.480
from constructions. He and Ted started hanging out. At first,

563
00:29:03.640 --> 00:29:06.559
Sandy didn't care for him. She was protective of Ted,

564
00:29:06.640 --> 00:29:08.960
and she saw plenty of people coming around just to

565
00:29:09.039 --> 00:29:12.039
leech off of him. But Ted trusted Rick as much

566
00:29:12.079 --> 00:29:15.640
as he trusted anyone, and over time Sandy came around

567
00:29:15.720 --> 00:29:19.839
to Soon Ted started giving Rick odd jobs, and then

568
00:29:20.039 --> 00:29:23.039
one job that was bigger than all the rest. Ted

569
00:29:23.079 --> 00:29:26.799
had spent years collecting twenty four tons of silver, which

570
00:29:26.839 --> 00:29:29.839
he kept stored in the Binion's horseshoe vault. But now

571
00:29:29.880 --> 00:29:32.079
that he was banned from the casino, he needed a

572
00:29:32.119 --> 00:29:33.039
new hiding spot.

573
00:29:33.400 --> 00:29:34.799
Twenty four tons of silver.

574
00:29:35.000 --> 00:29:39.359
That's for eight thousand pounds of silver.

575
00:29:39.480 --> 00:29:42.480
Yeah, and in what form has he collected it?

576
00:29:42.920 --> 00:29:44.759
Yeah? A lot of it was like in bars, like

577
00:29:44.799 --> 00:29:47.400
you know, you've seen gold bars in like Fort Knox,

578
00:29:47.480 --> 00:29:49.160
a lot of it I think was in bars. Some

579
00:29:49.240 --> 00:29:51.920
of it was coins, like big coins, so I think

580
00:29:51.920 --> 00:29:53.559
it was a variety of things. I don't know where

581
00:29:53.559 --> 00:29:54.200
he got it all.

582
00:29:54.119 --> 00:29:56.759
From, or like silver and not gold.

583
00:29:56.839 --> 00:29:58.319
Yeah, I don't know. I guess it was just his

584
00:29:58.799 --> 00:30:02.000
just his thing, Okay. At first he moved the silver

585
00:30:02.079 --> 00:30:04.480
to the garage at his home, but that wasn't a

586
00:30:04.480 --> 00:30:08.079
long term solution. He didn't trust banks, so that was out.

587
00:30:08.480 --> 00:30:11.400
Finally he came up with an idea he would bury it.

588
00:30:11.799 --> 00:30:14.200
The spot he chose was a vacant lot that he

589
00:30:14.319 --> 00:30:15.359
owned in Perump.

590
00:30:15.640 --> 00:30:17.640
How far out of Vegas is Perump?

591
00:30:17.839 --> 00:30:20.319
I think it's about an hour west of Vegas. And

592
00:30:20.359 --> 00:30:22.240
you know, when you get outside of Vegas, it's pretty

593
00:30:22.279 --> 00:30:24.839
much there's not a lot there, so it's a small town.

594
00:30:25.319 --> 00:30:27.720
He had a ranch in Perump also, so I guess

595
00:30:27.839 --> 00:30:31.119
that was sort of a second home to him. Rick

596
00:30:31.240 --> 00:30:33.480
thought that it was a terrible plan to bury his

597
00:30:33.559 --> 00:30:36.599
silver in Perump. He thought, if you're going to bury treasure,

598
00:30:36.640 --> 00:30:39.400
why not somewhere remote, like out in the desert. But

599
00:30:39.519 --> 00:30:42.400
Ted had his own logic. He figured that a busier

600
00:30:42.480 --> 00:30:45.240
area was better because anyone trying to dig it up

601
00:30:45.279 --> 00:30:48.759
would attract attention that would actually turn out to be true,

602
00:30:48.880 --> 00:30:52.920
much to Rick Tavish's dismay. So in April nineteen ninety eight,

603
00:30:53.039 --> 00:30:56.400
Ted bought a vault, had it buried twelve feet underground,

604
00:30:56.440 --> 00:30:59.319
and in July, just two months before his death, he

605
00:30:59.440 --> 00:31:01.559
hired Rick Tavished to move the silver.

606
00:31:02.160 --> 00:31:06.599
So you're hiring people to you know, bury this vault

607
00:31:06.680 --> 00:31:09.359
and then hiring people to move the silver. So then

608
00:31:09.400 --> 00:31:12.279
it was people, Okay.

609
00:31:11.720 --> 00:31:13.640
Yeah, but I think the vault had like a you know,

610
00:31:13.720 --> 00:31:16.160
there was probably a combination lock or some sort of

611
00:31:16.200 --> 00:31:20.079
lock on it, and nobody knew the combination except for

612
00:31:20.240 --> 00:31:23.960
Ted and Rick. At one am, Rick and an associate

613
00:31:24.039 --> 00:31:27.440
loaded the silver onto a hauling trailer while Ted supervised.

614
00:31:27.480 --> 00:31:30.400
So if you're asking like about the silver, like how

615
00:31:30.480 --> 00:31:33.160
much it was, so think about like a big like

616
00:31:33.359 --> 00:31:37.039
gravel hauling trailer that attaches to like a semi truck

617
00:31:37.359 --> 00:31:39.960
that was like full of this silver. So it's a

618
00:31:40.160 --> 00:31:43.920
huge amount. The job took five hours. By the time

619
00:31:43.960 --> 00:31:47.720
the sun came up, Ted's fortune was officially underground. When

620
00:31:47.720 --> 00:31:50.200
it was all done, Rick made a suggestion, why not

621
00:31:50.400 --> 00:31:53.079
change the vault combination so that only Ted knew it?

622
00:31:53.359 --> 00:31:56.799
But Ted refused. He told Rick he trusted him, and

623
00:31:57.000 --> 00:31:59.079
just like that, the only two people who knew the

624
00:31:59.119 --> 00:32:02.920
combination to Ted Binyon's buried treasure were Ted Binyon and

625
00:32:03.039 --> 00:32:06.519
Rick Tavish. Just days later, Ted made a change to

626
00:32:06.599 --> 00:32:10.599
his will. Most of his fortune, worth anywhere from thirty

627
00:32:10.640 --> 00:32:13.640
million to seventy million dollars depending on who you asked,

628
00:32:14.000 --> 00:32:16.640
would go to his daughter Bonnie. But he made sure

629
00:32:16.640 --> 00:32:19.400
to take care of Sandy too. She would get three

630
00:32:19.480 --> 00:32:23.319
hundred thousand dollars in cash, the Palomino Lane mansion, which

631
00:32:23.400 --> 00:32:26.720
is worth around two point two million dollars today, and

632
00:32:26.920 --> 00:32:29.640
everything inside of it. And when I say everything inside

633
00:32:29.680 --> 00:32:32.400
of it, there was. He kept a lot of valuables

634
00:32:32.440 --> 00:32:35.279
in his house, like he kept cash. He kept silver

635
00:32:35.359 --> 00:32:39.279
in his house. He had like expensive artwork. So she

636
00:32:39.880 --> 00:32:43.319
actually stood to inherit quite a bit in Ted's death.

637
00:32:43.680 --> 00:32:46.839
With Ted's heroin addictions spiraling out of control, maybe it

638
00:32:46.920 --> 00:32:49.720
was inevitable that Sandy and Rick would be drawn to

639
00:32:49.799 --> 00:32:53.119
each other. I can't believe that, wreck I know they

640
00:32:53.119 --> 00:32:55.920
were closer in age, they were both attractive, and more

641
00:32:55.960 --> 00:32:59.880
than that, Ted almost encouraged it. Sometimes he'd ask Rick

642
00:32:59.880 --> 00:33:02.559
to tag along when Sandy went shopping just to keep

643
00:33:02.599 --> 00:33:05.240
an eye on her. It was an odd dynamic, and

644
00:33:05.359 --> 00:33:08.839
later Rick would reflect on how things unfolded, saying quote

645
00:33:09.240 --> 00:33:12.519
Ted became distant with her, shoving her away, and here

646
00:33:12.599 --> 00:33:16.000
I was I fell in love with her. Sandy, for

647
00:33:16.079 --> 00:33:18.920
her part, admitted that she was attracted to Rick, but

648
00:33:19.000 --> 00:33:21.960
she insisted that she didn't act on it, at least

649
00:33:22.039 --> 00:33:25.240
not until shortly before Ted's death. Just a couple of

650
00:33:25.319 --> 00:33:28.440
weeks before Ted died, Sandy and Rick snuck away together

651
00:33:28.519 --> 00:33:31.920
on a romantic getaway to California. They checked into a

652
00:33:32.000 --> 00:33:36.680
seaside hotel, registering as husband and wife. Sandy and Ted

653
00:33:36.880 --> 00:33:40.240
were never married, No, they were not. Sandy would later

654
00:33:40.279 --> 00:33:42.640
claim that this was the only time they ever slept

655
00:33:42.680 --> 00:33:46.319
together before Ted's death, but phone records, credit card receipts,

656
00:33:46.400 --> 00:33:49.559
and people in Ted in Sandy circle told a different story.

657
00:33:49.920 --> 00:33:52.759
Ted's master card's statement showed that a couple of months

658
00:33:52.759 --> 00:33:56.799
before his death, Sandy had charged some expensive designer shirts,

659
00:33:57.160 --> 00:34:01.960
Gucci jeans, hiking boots, and other clothing all in Rick's size.

660
00:34:02.319 --> 00:34:05.039
In July, Sandy called her cell phone company and made

661
00:34:05.079 --> 00:34:08.800
a request. She wanted them to stop providing detailed billing

662
00:34:08.960 --> 00:34:12.280
that listed every call made. Is that even an option?

663
00:34:12.639 --> 00:34:13.559
I guess it is.

664
00:34:13.920 --> 00:34:17.199
She also instructed them that no information about her account

665
00:34:17.280 --> 00:34:20.000
should be given to any one but her, not even

666
00:34:20.039 --> 00:34:23.320
her secretary. There was no doubt she didn't want anyone,

667
00:34:23.639 --> 00:34:27.599
especially Ted looking at her phone records. To top it off,

668
00:34:27.719 --> 00:34:31.320
several people later said that Tabish and Murphy had both

669
00:34:31.400 --> 00:34:34.920
bragged about the affair before Ted died, so for Sandy

670
00:34:34.960 --> 00:34:38.960
to claim otherwise just wasn't credible. Leading up to Thursday,

671
00:34:39.000 --> 00:34:42.559
September seventeenth, nineteen ninety eight, the day of Ted's death,

672
00:34:42.760 --> 00:34:45.039
there were some signs that he was looking forward to

673
00:34:45.039 --> 00:34:48.039
the future and was hoping to get his gaming license back.

674
00:34:48.599 --> 00:34:50.079
Was that even a possibility? You think?

675
00:34:50.280 --> 00:34:52.920
I think anything is a possibility if you have money

676
00:34:52.960 --> 00:34:54.679
and lawyers and all that.

677
00:34:54.960 --> 00:34:57.440
Ted had been speaking to has reeled her about purchasing

678
00:34:57.480 --> 00:35:01.800
some property near the Fiesta Hotel, possibly to build a nightclub.

679
00:35:02.360 --> 00:35:05.000
He called Mayor Jan Jones, an old friend who was

680
00:35:05.039 --> 00:35:07.760
running for governor of Nevada, and asked to meet up

681
00:35:07.800 --> 00:35:09.880
with her. He said he wanted to give her a

682
00:35:09.920 --> 00:35:13.719
campaign contribution, and she agreed to meet with him. On Wednesday,

683
00:35:13.840 --> 00:35:17.400
the sixteenth, Ted followed up by contacting his attorney to

684
00:35:17.440 --> 00:35:19.559
get together the funds he was going to donate to

685
00:35:19.679 --> 00:35:24.320
Jan's campaign forty thousand dollars in cash. If Jones got

686
00:35:24.320 --> 00:35:27.639
elected as governor, that forty thousand dollars might just be

687
00:35:27.800 --> 00:35:30.440
enough to get his gaming license and his life back.

688
00:35:30.880 --> 00:35:33.320
His lawyer brought that money over to Ted's house on

689
00:35:33.519 --> 00:35:35.480
either Monday or Tuesday of that week.

690
00:35:35.639 --> 00:35:39.239
I think it's funny getting a glimpse into how campaign

691
00:35:39.320 --> 00:35:43.480
donations work with really wealthy people like I'm just going

692
00:35:43.519 --> 00:35:46.679
to give you forty thousand dollars in cash in a suitcase.

693
00:35:47.519 --> 00:35:50.960
On Tuesday the fifteenth, Ted called a local banker who

694
00:35:51.000 --> 00:35:53.440
he asked to come over so he could establish an

695
00:35:53.519 --> 00:35:56.280
investment account. He wrote a check for one million dollars

696
00:35:56.320 --> 00:35:58.679
and gave it to the banker to establish the account.

697
00:35:59.280 --> 00:36:01.840
He also wrote a second check to the bank for

698
00:36:01.840 --> 00:36:04.760
forty thousand dollars and asked him to cash it and

699
00:36:04.800 --> 00:36:07.719
bring him back the forty thousand dollars in cash. The

700
00:36:07.760 --> 00:36:11.039
banker did this, so now Ted had the forty thousand

701
00:36:11.039 --> 00:36:15.519
dollars per Jan Jones, plus another forty thousand dollars in cash.

702
00:36:15.599 --> 00:36:18.800
It's not clear exactly what Ted need is this extra

703
00:36:18.880 --> 00:36:22.599
forty thousand dollars for. On the morning of Wednesday the sixteenth,

704
00:36:22.679 --> 00:36:25.679
Ted spoke with his neighbor who was a doctor. He

705
00:36:25.760 --> 00:36:28.199
told the neighbor that he wanted to get clean, so

706
00:36:28.280 --> 00:36:31.760
the neighbor wrote him a prescription for xanax one hundred

707
00:36:31.760 --> 00:36:36.159
and twenty tablets point five milligrams each to help wean

708
00:36:36.239 --> 00:36:40.039
him from heroin. That's a thirty day supply for tablets

709
00:36:40.079 --> 00:36:43.159
a day. At some point that day Ted went and

710
00:36:43.199 --> 00:36:46.559
got the prescription filled. The doctor gave him xanax And

711
00:36:46.599 --> 00:36:49.519
it sounds like kind of a lot of pills for

712
00:36:49.760 --> 00:36:53.800
heroin addiction, but xanax itself is also highly addictive.

713
00:36:54.199 --> 00:36:57.800
Yeah, exactly. It's an anti anxiety medication and it can

714
00:36:57.880 --> 00:37:01.360
help you get better rest, and so it could potentially

715
00:37:01.719 --> 00:37:04.079
help you not crave heroin as much. But at the

716
00:37:04.119 --> 00:37:06.960
same time, you're just substituting one drug for another that

717
00:37:07.079 --> 00:37:10.079
is also potentially addictive. And in Ted's case, I'm not

718
00:37:10.239 --> 00:37:11.960
so sure he I don't know if.

719
00:37:11.760 --> 00:37:14.159
He tended to get clean. He just yeah, I.

720
00:37:14.119 --> 00:37:16.480
Think maybe he wanted to get clean, but you know,

721
00:37:16.519 --> 00:37:18.039
it's easier said than done.

722
00:37:18.239 --> 00:37:21.280
Around nine thirty am, Ted's maid showed up. Ted told

723
00:37:21.280 --> 00:37:23.320
her that the mayor was coming over and asked her

724
00:37:23.360 --> 00:37:25.440
if she could hurry up and clean the house and

725
00:37:25.480 --> 00:37:28.719
he would be very grateful. Tanya Kropp, a new secretary

726
00:37:28.760 --> 00:37:31.840
that Ted had hired, came over while the maid was cleaning.

727
00:37:32.159 --> 00:37:34.159
Ted said, we have a lot of work to do,

728
00:37:34.719 --> 00:37:37.000
but I've got this mayor coming over in a bit.

729
00:37:37.119 --> 00:37:39.039
Why don't you come back in a couple of hours

730
00:37:39.119 --> 00:37:42.079
and we'll get started. Then at ten am, Mayor Jan

731
00:37:42.199 --> 00:37:45.679
Jones showed up. She later described Ted's demeanor as upbeat

732
00:37:45.719 --> 00:37:49.559
and optimistic. They talked about family, old Las Vegas, and

733
00:37:49.599 --> 00:37:52.880
the possibility of Ted getting his gaming license back. She

734
00:37:52.960 --> 00:37:55.400
felt like he was a man looking to the future.

735
00:37:55.800 --> 00:37:58.400
She took the forty thousand dollars in cash and left.

736
00:37:58.719 --> 00:38:01.960
His new secretary returned earned and they talked about investments

737
00:38:02.000 --> 00:38:04.920
that he wanted to make. She said he seemed enthusiastic

738
00:38:04.960 --> 00:38:07.639
about the future. At one point, she said that he

739
00:38:07.679 --> 00:38:10.559
pulled her aside and asked if Sandy was having an affair.

740
00:38:11.000 --> 00:38:14.320
He asked this because Tanya knew Sandy. Tanya said no,

741
00:38:14.559 --> 00:38:18.199
but I think she intends to have an affair. After

742
00:38:18.199 --> 00:38:21.599
speaking with Tanya about her suspicions. Ted called his friend

743
00:38:21.639 --> 00:38:23.239
and attorney James Brown.

744
00:38:23.440 --> 00:38:25.840
Not the same James Brown that you're probably thinking of.

745
00:38:26.280 --> 00:38:29.639
According to Brown, Ted instructed him to quote, take Sandy

746
00:38:29.679 --> 00:38:31.840
out of the will if she doesn't kill me tonight.

747
00:38:32.119 --> 00:38:34.719
If I'm dead in the morning, you'll know what happened.

748
00:38:35.079 --> 00:38:37.719
Brown drafted the new will the next morning, but by

749
00:38:37.760 --> 00:38:41.719
then it was too late. Around two thirty that afternoon,

750
00:38:42.039 --> 00:38:44.800
Rick Taviash came over to the house. The maid was

751
00:38:44.840 --> 00:38:48.079
at this point cleaning Sandy's bedroom. According to the maid,

752
00:38:48.199 --> 00:38:50.800
Sandy came in and said, I don't trust you. I

753
00:38:50.840 --> 00:38:53.639
want you to leave now. The maid didn't understand what

754
00:38:53.719 --> 00:38:56.079
was going on, but she said okay. She went to

755
00:38:56.119 --> 00:38:58.119
the living room and told Ted she was leaving and

756
00:38:58.159 --> 00:39:00.840
that she would see him the next day. Round eight

757
00:39:00.960 --> 00:39:03.280
or nine p m. Ted's drug dealers showed up to

758
00:39:03.320 --> 00:39:06.519
deliver some heroin after Ted had called him. Sandy led

759
00:39:06.559 --> 00:39:10.599
him in and he gave Ted twelve balloons of tar heroine,

760
00:39:10.960 --> 00:39:14.519
each containing almost a quarter gram. This was more than

761
00:39:14.519 --> 00:39:18.800
Ted's usual order. He generally ordered four balloons at a time,

762
00:39:19.000 --> 00:39:21.800
usually a couple of times a week. In exchange for

763
00:39:21.880 --> 00:39:24.800
the heroine, Ted gave his dealer one hundred and forty

764
00:39:24.800 --> 00:39:28.360
dollars in cash and thirty Zanax pills, plus a one

765
00:39:28.440 --> 00:39:31.559
hundred dollar tip. The dealer leader said he saw no

766
00:39:31.719 --> 00:39:35.559
signs that Ted was despondent or suicidal. In fact, he

767
00:39:35.679 --> 00:39:38.239
talked about his plans to go horseback riding on his

768
00:39:38.360 --> 00:39:41.800
ranch in Perump in the coming days. That was why

769
00:39:41.840 --> 00:39:44.400
he had ordered more heroin than usual. He was going

770
00:39:44.440 --> 00:39:46.800
to be staying in Perump for several days and wanted

771
00:39:46.920 --> 00:39:50.239
enough to get him through. A few other people spoke

772
00:39:50.280 --> 00:39:52.880
of Ted on the phone that evening. No one reported

773
00:39:52.920 --> 00:39:56.599
that he seemed despondent or suicidal. We'll be back after

774
00:39:56.639 --> 00:39:57.039
a break.

775
00:40:06.079 --> 00:40:08.920
While we were taking a break, we had part two

776
00:40:09.239 --> 00:40:12.559
of our Lovely Snack from our listener, Samantha from England.

777
00:40:12.840 --> 00:40:16.159
So for this round we had a bunch of mcvittie's mcvity's.

778
00:40:16.159 --> 00:40:18.480
I don't know how it's pronounced, but they're all kind

779
00:40:18.519 --> 00:40:23.519
of treats McVitie's penguins, And then we had hobnobs and

780
00:40:23.599 --> 00:40:24.400
Jaffa cakes.

781
00:40:25.119 --> 00:40:28.079
Oh the penguin I want those in the US. That

782
00:40:28.239 --> 00:40:31.159
was so good, really really good, kind of like a

783
00:40:31.239 --> 00:40:32.039
kit cap but better.

784
00:40:32.159 --> 00:40:34.280
Reminded me of Timtams from Australia.

785
00:40:34.760 --> 00:40:36.800
Okay, it's been a while since I've had those, but yeah,

786
00:40:36.840 --> 00:40:39.920
really good. And then the hobnob you love a hob knob.

787
00:40:40.280 --> 00:40:42.440
Yeah, I went on the hobnob kick a while ago.

788
00:40:42.599 --> 00:40:42.920
I love.

789
00:40:43.000 --> 00:40:46.480
Yeah, that was really good. And the Jaffa is it

790
00:40:46.519 --> 00:40:46.960
chaffa cake?

791
00:40:47.079 --> 00:40:48.039
Jaffa cakes? I guess yeah.

792
00:40:48.039 --> 00:40:50.840
I think I've heard of those like on books I've read,

793
00:40:51.000 --> 00:40:53.480
like Bridget Jones and things like that. It was good.

794
00:40:53.480 --> 00:40:54.519
I didn't I didn't love it.

795
00:40:54.599 --> 00:40:55.400
Yeah, I didn't love that.

796
00:40:55.400 --> 00:40:57.440
That was the original flavor. I kind of liked the

797
00:40:57.440 --> 00:40:58.920
texture with the flavor was a little Yeah.

798
00:40:58.960 --> 00:41:02.159
We also have another raspberry flavor. We'll try that when

799
00:41:02.159 --> 00:41:02.840
we get to part two.

800
00:41:03.000 --> 00:41:05.639
All right, Well, thank you again, Samantha. It's always fun

801
00:41:05.880 --> 00:41:07.840
when we get to the internationals next too, because the

802
00:41:07.840 --> 00:41:10.719
whole family tries them, our kids, our kids love to

803
00:41:10.719 --> 00:41:13.280
try them too, So thank you again, so much so.

804
00:41:13.320 --> 00:41:16.599
We left off on the evening of September sixteenth, nineteen

805
00:41:16.679 --> 00:41:20.440
ninety eight. The next morning, around five am on the seventeenth,

806
00:41:20.480 --> 00:41:22.400
Ted went to the seven to eleven and picked up

807
00:41:22.440 --> 00:41:25.159
a pack of cigarettes, still dressed in the same clothes

808
00:41:25.199 --> 00:41:28.119
that he was seen wearing the evening before. Ted did

809
00:41:28.199 --> 00:41:31.079
often stay up all night and slept sometimes during the day,

810
00:41:31.559 --> 00:41:34.679
so this wasn't unusual. The clerk said that Ted seemed

811
00:41:34.719 --> 00:41:38.840
a little angry, but otherwise noticed nothing unusual about his demeanor.

812
00:41:39.480 --> 00:41:42.199
At five thirty am, the next door neighbor's maid was

813
00:41:42.239 --> 00:41:45.199
showing up and saw Ted outside of his house. She

814
00:41:45.320 --> 00:41:48.280
handed him the newspaper and said good morning. She didn't

815
00:41:48.360 --> 00:41:52.280
note anything unusual about Ted's behavior. Ted then went into

816
00:41:52.280 --> 00:41:56.039
his house. Around nine am, Sandy called their housekeeper and

817
00:41:56.079 --> 00:41:58.559
told her that Ted wasn't feeling well and that she

818
00:41:58.599 --> 00:42:01.760
shouldn't come to the house and that day. She instead

819
00:42:01.840 --> 00:42:04.440
asked the housekeeper to go to Ted's other residence and

820
00:42:04.480 --> 00:42:08.440
clean there. Around nine thirty am, the gardener, who came

821
00:42:08.480 --> 00:42:13.599
every Thursday morning arrived. He noted a few unusual things. First,

822
00:42:13.760 --> 00:42:16.480
Sandy's Mercedes was parked on the side of the house.

823
00:42:16.800 --> 00:42:19.760
Normally it was parked in the garage. He also noticed

824
00:42:19.760 --> 00:42:21.840
as he went to the backyard that the living room

825
00:42:21.920 --> 00:42:25.639
drapes were closed. These were large floor to ceiling drapes

826
00:42:25.679 --> 00:42:28.239
in the living room window that looked out on the backyard.

827
00:42:28.840 --> 00:42:31.199
The gardener later said that he had never seen those

828
00:42:31.280 --> 00:42:35.360
drapes closed before. This is important because looking through those

829
00:42:35.400 --> 00:42:38.199
windows one would be able to see into the den

830
00:42:38.239 --> 00:42:42.320
of the house, which is where Ted's body was eventually found. Also,

831
00:42:42.440 --> 00:42:46.519
the gardener noticed that the dogs were acting strangely that day. Normally,

832
00:42:46.559 --> 00:42:48.880
the dogs would follow him around while he went about

833
00:42:48.880 --> 00:42:51.559
his work, but today they just sat by the back door,

834
00:42:51.840 --> 00:42:54.199
as if they wanted to get into the house. The

835
00:42:54.239 --> 00:42:57.239
gardener worked in the yard from nine thirty until about

836
00:42:57.239 --> 00:43:00.960
one thirty that afternoon. When he left, Andy's vehicle was

837
00:43:01.000 --> 00:43:04.559
still parked beside the house. At twelve oh four, Ted's

838
00:43:04.599 --> 00:43:07.079
realtor called to remind him of a meeting the next

839
00:43:07.199 --> 00:43:09.920
day and to ask if Ted would mind meeting and

840
00:43:10.000 --> 00:43:12.960
giving advice to some clients of hers. We're thinking of

841
00:43:13.000 --> 00:43:16.559
buying a casino. Here's what the realtor later said about

842
00:43:16.559 --> 00:43:17.039
that call.

843
00:43:18.360 --> 00:43:21.480
I said, hello, Sandy, how are you. It's Ted there,

844
00:43:22.519 --> 00:43:25.199
She said, BARBARAE. He's out of it. I said, may

845
00:43:25.239 --> 00:43:26.920
I speak with him? She said, he is out of it.

846
00:43:27.039 --> 00:43:30.119
He can't talk right now. I said, what do you mean.

847
00:43:30.239 --> 00:43:33.239
She said, he's just out of it. Nobody knows what

848
00:43:33.280 --> 00:43:36.239
it's been like living with a drug addict. And this

849
00:43:36.320 --> 00:43:40.360
mess in this bathroom and I've got to clean this mess.

850
00:43:40.400 --> 00:43:42.280
And I said, what's the matter and she said, he

851
00:43:42.719 --> 00:43:45.360
got some pills from a doctor and this mess. And

852
00:43:45.400 --> 00:43:48.719
she just kept crying about this mess. And I offered

853
00:43:48.719 --> 00:43:50.440
to come over. I said, would you like me to

854
00:43:50.440 --> 00:43:52.599
come over? Do you need any help? And she said,

855
00:43:52.840 --> 00:43:56.000
don't come over here. He wouldn't like that. He doesn't

856
00:43:56.000 --> 00:43:58.280
want anybody to see him. He's lost so much weight.

857
00:43:58.840 --> 00:44:00.400
So I said, well, why don't I just come over

858
00:44:00.480 --> 00:44:02.559
and maybe we can go out and talk or have coffee.

859
00:44:02.599 --> 00:44:03.920
She was very distraught.

860
00:44:04.599 --> 00:44:07.039
She said, no, if I go out, when I come back,

861
00:44:07.079 --> 00:44:09.599
interrogates me. It's not worth it.

862
00:44:09.599 --> 00:44:10.760
It's just not worth it.

863
00:44:10.840 --> 00:44:13.960
And I said oh, and then she reiterated the part

864
00:44:13.960 --> 00:44:17.159
about him losing so much weight he didn't want anyone

865
00:44:17.199 --> 00:44:20.000
to see him. And I said, well, that's funny. We

866
00:44:20.079 --> 00:44:23.360
have an appointment tomorrow at one o'clock. And she said, well,

867
00:44:23.400 --> 00:44:25.719
you better call back later because I don't think he

868
00:44:25.760 --> 00:44:28.639
can make it. And I said really, I said, well,

869
00:44:28.719 --> 00:44:30.400
do you want me to come over there tonight? Weren't

870
00:44:30.400 --> 00:44:32.119
going to come over and we'll all just go around

871
00:44:32.159 --> 00:44:35.320
the corner to Chinese food and Is there anything I

872
00:44:35.360 --> 00:44:37.840
can do? And she said, whatever you do, don't bring

873
00:44:37.880 --> 00:44:40.119
anyone over here with you. He's not going to like that,

874
00:44:40.320 --> 00:44:43.719
and don't come and she was clearly crying enough that

875
00:44:43.760 --> 00:44:45.400
the people across the desk could hear.

876
00:44:47.159 --> 00:44:50.159
Around two thirty that afternoon, Sandy went to the Binyon

877
00:44:50.280 --> 00:44:54.000
Gaming office and demanded to see the Binion's executive assistant,

878
00:44:54.119 --> 00:44:56.519
Kathy Rose, who took care of a lot of the

879
00:44:56.519 --> 00:45:00.159
family's financial affairs. Sandy was told that Rose was in

880
00:45:00.199 --> 00:45:02.960
an important meeting, but she insisted that she needed to

881
00:45:03.000 --> 00:45:06.079
see her. When Rose finally came out, Sandy gave her

882
00:45:06.079 --> 00:45:08.760
a check for one hundred and twenty five dollars and

883
00:45:08.800 --> 00:45:12.159
asked her to deposit it into Ted's account. Catherine was

884
00:45:12.199 --> 00:45:15.480
surprised because Ted normally did his own deposits or he

885
00:45:15.599 --> 00:45:18.199
had his housekeeper do them, and why was this one

886
00:45:18.239 --> 00:45:21.880
hundred and twenty five dollars check so important. Sandy went

887
00:45:21.920 --> 00:45:24.079
on to tell Catherine that she had been up all

888
00:45:24.159 --> 00:45:26.119
night with Ted and that she was going to grab

889
00:45:26.159 --> 00:45:29.159
a bite to eat. Now. Again, Catherine wondered, why are

890
00:45:29.159 --> 00:45:32.320
you telling me this? We don't know exactly what time

891
00:45:32.440 --> 00:45:35.960
Sandy arrived back home, but at three forty seven pm,

892
00:45:36.280 --> 00:45:39.440
Rick Tabish called Sandy Murphy's cell phone from his own.

893
00:45:40.079 --> 00:45:43.440
That call lasted for three minutes. Just three minutes after

894
00:45:43.480 --> 00:45:46.639
that call ended, at three point fifty three, Sandy called

895
00:45:46.719 --> 00:45:50.159
nine one one in hysterics. She was so overwrought she

896
00:45:50.199 --> 00:45:53.400
could only get a few words out before hanging UPO,

897
00:45:59.199 --> 00:46:01.480
that's pretty much the colleague. There was a little bit

898
00:46:01.480 --> 00:46:03.679
more that got cut off in the recording that I found,

899
00:46:03.760 --> 00:46:05.119
but there really wasn't much to.

900
00:46:05.119 --> 00:46:07.480
It, she said, husband, Yeah she did.

901
00:46:08.000 --> 00:46:10.960
When the paramedics arrived four minutes later, they found Ted

902
00:46:11.159 --> 00:46:13.159
lying on a mat on the floor of the den,

903
00:46:13.480 --> 00:46:16.480
head on a pillow partly covered by a blanket. His

904
00:46:16.599 --> 00:46:18.960
shirt was pulled up, his pants were off, and he

905
00:46:19.119 --> 00:46:22.159
was lying face up, arms at his side in what

906
00:46:22.280 --> 00:46:26.360
was described as almost a mortuary pose. As paramedics did

907
00:46:26.400 --> 00:46:29.280
their initial check of Ted, they noted that his pupils

908
00:46:29.280 --> 00:46:32.239
were fixed and dilated, and that rigor mortis had set

909
00:46:32.280 --> 00:46:36.360
in around his jaw. Nearby were an empty bottle of xanax,

910
00:46:36.559 --> 00:46:39.800
a piece of scorched aluminum foil, a knife with black

911
00:46:39.840 --> 00:46:42.800
tar heroines smeared on it, a pack of cigarettes, and

912
00:46:42.840 --> 00:46:46.360
an ashtray. A remote control, his pants, and a pair

913
00:46:46.400 --> 00:46:50.960
of loafers. There was also a handwritten note nearby, quote Teddy,

914
00:46:51.079 --> 00:46:53.400
I went to the gym. I couldn't sleep this morning,

915
00:46:53.559 --> 00:46:56.920
Love you, Sandy. They turned Ted over and saw that

916
00:46:57.000 --> 00:46:59.880
lividity had formed on his right side and his back.

917
00:47:00.320 --> 00:47:02.880
Walking around the outside of the house, the police noted

918
00:47:02.920 --> 00:47:06.079
a couple of unusual things. First, on the front porch

919
00:47:06.199 --> 00:47:10.079
was a Halloween decoration. Remember it was September seventeenth, so

920
00:47:10.440 --> 00:47:13.159
maybe a bit early for Halloween decorations to be out.

921
00:47:13.679 --> 00:47:15.960
It was a goblin or a skeleton of some sort

922
00:47:16.079 --> 00:47:19.280
with the letters rip rest in peace underneath it.

923
00:47:19.880 --> 00:47:22.280
Thank you for explaining that to us, You're welcome.

924
00:47:22.760 --> 00:47:25.280
The other unusual thing was that all of the doors

925
00:47:25.280 --> 00:47:28.199
and windows around the house were secured except for one.

926
00:47:28.599 --> 00:47:32.519
The window to Sandy's bathroom was unlocked, and underneath the

927
00:47:32.559 --> 00:47:34.920
window on the outside of the house was a chair.

928
00:47:35.480 --> 00:47:38.119
Sandy later told police that she had gotten locked out

929
00:47:38.159 --> 00:47:40.119
of the house and that Ted was asleep and not

930
00:47:40.239 --> 00:47:43.400
answering the door, so she used the chair to climb in.

931
00:47:44.119 --> 00:47:47.039
The media quickly got word of Ted's death, and several

932
00:47:47.119 --> 00:47:50.280
reporters showed up just in time to see Sandy Murphy

933
00:47:50.519 --> 00:47:54.199
being wheeled out of the house on a gurney, sobbing uncontrollably.

934
00:47:54.960 --> 00:47:57.719
The officer in charge decided to speak to the reporters

935
00:47:57.760 --> 00:48:00.000
in front of the house in sort of an imprompt

936
00:48:00.119 --> 00:48:04.320
to press conference. The immediate speculation from reporters was that

937
00:48:04.360 --> 00:48:07.719
Ted's death had something to do with his organized crime connections,

938
00:48:08.119 --> 00:48:10.960
but the police spokesperson said no, there were no signs

939
00:48:10.960 --> 00:48:14.559
of foul play, no gunshot wounds, just an empty bottle

940
00:48:14.559 --> 00:48:18.320
of xanax and some signs of heroin use. Sergeant Young

941
00:48:18.400 --> 00:48:21.880
told the press quote, preliminary results indicate he may have

942
00:48:21.960 --> 00:48:26.559
made an ingestion error in regards to medication. While it's suspicious,

943
00:48:26.679 --> 00:48:29.039
it's not suspicious to the point where we are talking

944
00:48:29.039 --> 00:48:32.039
about criminal activity. It seems odd to me that the

945
00:48:32.079 --> 00:48:35.840
police would talk to reporters this quickly after a death

946
00:48:35.960 --> 00:48:38.920
and that quickly tell reporters that, oh, it doesn't look

947
00:48:38.920 --> 00:48:41.280
suspicious at all. There's nothing criminal.

948
00:48:40.920 --> 00:48:42.239
Here, yeah, for sure.

949
00:48:43.039 --> 00:48:46.119
Although the police did call a homicide investigator to take

950
00:48:46.159 --> 00:48:48.719
a look at the scene, they quickly decided that Ted's

951
00:48:48.719 --> 00:48:52.639
death must have been a drug overdose, either accidental or intentional.

952
00:48:53.320 --> 00:48:55.920
That meant that the scene was not preserved once they

953
00:48:55.920 --> 00:48:59.079
were done with their work the next morning. Soon several

954
00:48:59.079 --> 00:49:02.320
people including friends and family would be trapesing through the house,

955
00:49:02.679 --> 00:49:06.239
making it basically useless for any further examination that the

956
00:49:06.239 --> 00:49:07.519
police might want to do.

957
00:49:08.199 --> 00:49:10.760
So you said that there was a homicide investigator there,

958
00:49:10.760 --> 00:49:12.480
but they didn't do a thorough job.

959
00:49:12.760 --> 00:49:13.800
It doesn't sound like.

960
00:49:13.719 --> 00:49:16.960
It didn't take forensic samples and photos.

961
00:49:17.000 --> 00:49:19.400
And I'm sure they took photos, but it sounds like

962
00:49:19.480 --> 00:49:22.559
it was pretty much a quick walkthrough and like, yeah,

963
00:49:22.559 --> 00:49:25.400
this looks like an overdose, so probably not a whole

964
00:49:25.400 --> 00:49:26.280
lot was done.

965
00:49:26.679 --> 00:49:29.159
During her interview with the police later that afternoon in

966
00:49:29.159 --> 00:49:32.199
the hospital, Sandy was still having a hard time composing

967
00:49:32.239 --> 00:49:36.440
herself through her grief, which made her almost incoherent. Here's

968
00:49:36.480 --> 00:49:37.920
a quick example.

969
00:49:38.440 --> 00:49:40.519
Sandy, do you remember that time you found him? When

970
00:49:40.559 --> 00:49:48.239
you came back home? How long were you gone from

971
00:49:48.239 --> 00:49:48.639
the house?

972
00:49:53.599 --> 00:49:55.280
Hard? Do you understand the word?

973
00:49:55.480 --> 00:49:58.679
Yeah? Why was she hospitalized just because she was?

974
00:49:58.920 --> 00:50:01.800
I think she was hyper vent and just couldn't you

975
00:50:02.039 --> 00:50:03.400
just couldn't calm herself down.

976
00:50:04.199 --> 00:50:06.119
They did get a few things out of her, though.

977
00:50:06.239 --> 00:50:08.960
She told police that Ted had started using heroin again

978
00:50:09.039 --> 00:50:12.159
in March after his gaming license had been revoked. She

979
00:50:12.199 --> 00:50:15.480
said that he had been suicidal recently, putting a gun

980
00:50:15.519 --> 00:50:19.519
in his mouth. Regarding the timeline of the past several hours,

981
00:50:19.920 --> 00:50:23.079
Sandy wasn't much help. She said that sometime in the

982
00:50:23.119 --> 00:50:26.000
middle of the night, she didn't know what time Ted

983
00:50:26.079 --> 00:50:28.400
woke her up. He said he was worried that he

984
00:50:28.480 --> 00:50:30.760
might be sick or that he might have a seizure,

985
00:50:31.079 --> 00:50:33.519
and wanted her to keep an eye on him. She

986
00:50:33.599 --> 00:50:35.960
said she laid with him and eventually fell back to

987
00:50:36.039 --> 00:50:38.440
sleep for a while. She then left the house in

988
00:50:38.480 --> 00:50:40.760
the morning, saying that Ted was sleeping at that time

989
00:50:40.840 --> 00:50:43.679
and he seemed fine. She couldn't say what time she

990
00:50:43.760 --> 00:50:45.840
left the house or how long she had been gone,

991
00:50:46.480 --> 00:50:49.400
quote for a few hours. I don't know. Well, she

992
00:50:49.480 --> 00:50:51.000
left a note saying she was going to go to

993
00:50:51.039 --> 00:50:51.440
the gym.

994
00:50:51.719 --> 00:50:54.199
Yes, we just don't know what time that was that

995
00:50:54.280 --> 00:50:56.559
she went, if she went to the gym, and what

996
00:50:56.679 --> 00:50:59.119
time that was. In this interview with the police, I

997
00:50:59.159 --> 00:51:01.800
wish I could have found a transcript. All I found

998
00:51:01.840 --> 00:51:04.400
was that little clip that I played, So I don't

999
00:51:04.440 --> 00:51:06.599
know exactly, Like I don't even know if she told

1000
00:51:06.639 --> 00:51:09.039
them where she went when she left the part that

1001
00:51:09.159 --> 00:51:11.960
I read. She didn't give any details at all of

1002
00:51:12.000 --> 00:51:16.039
what time, where she went anything. So at some point,

1003
00:51:16.239 --> 00:51:18.559
apparently in the morning she said she went out, and

1004
00:51:18.599 --> 00:51:20.840
that's probably when she went to the gym. But remember

1005
00:51:20.920 --> 00:51:23.199
that the gardener saw her car by the side of

1006
00:51:23.199 --> 00:51:25.679
the house when he arrived at nine thirty am, and

1007
00:51:25.719 --> 00:51:27.360
he saw it in the same place when he left

1008
00:51:27.400 --> 00:51:30.400
at one thirty pm, So maybe she went out while

1009
00:51:30.400 --> 00:51:32.639
he was there. But it seems like she was home

1010
00:51:33.320 --> 00:51:34.440
most of the morning.

1011
00:51:34.480 --> 00:51:35.679
And no one saw her at the gym.

1012
00:51:35.719 --> 00:51:39.239
I'm guessing I never read anything about anybody seeing her

1013
00:51:39.239 --> 00:51:40.119
at the gym.

1014
00:51:40.320 --> 00:51:42.719
Sandy said when she got back home that he was

1015
00:51:42.760 --> 00:51:45.079
sleeping and she laid on the sofa because she was

1016
00:51:45.119 --> 00:51:47.880
tired from being up the night before. She said she

1017
00:51:47.920 --> 00:51:50.000
watched him sleep for a bit, then went to the

1018
00:51:50.039 --> 00:51:53.239
Binion gaming office to see Kathy Rose. She went to

1019
00:51:53.239 --> 00:51:55.519
get a bite to eat, and then she came home

1020
00:51:56.039 --> 00:51:59.360
and that's when she found him unresponsive. She didn't think

1021
00:51:59.400 --> 00:52:02.239
any fall play was involved, but if there was, then

1022
00:52:02.320 --> 00:52:05.280
she felt that Ted's sister Becky and her husband Nick

1023
00:52:05.519 --> 00:52:09.000
were the likeliest suspects. She told the detective that Ted

1024
00:52:09.159 --> 00:52:12.239
hated his sister and the rest of the family as well.

1025
00:52:12.840 --> 00:52:16.199
She said that the whole family, but especially Becky, were

1026
00:52:16.320 --> 00:52:21.119
treacherous and low lifes. Becky issued a statement to the press, quote,

1027
00:52:21.280 --> 00:52:24.639
my brother's untimely death is just so sad and tragic.

1028
00:52:24.840 --> 00:52:27.639
Through all of his trials and tribulations, Ted was a

1029
00:52:27.719 --> 00:52:30.440
caring man, even though it was a brother and sister.

1030
00:52:30.519 --> 00:52:33.360
We had our sibling differences, as any family will have,

1031
00:52:33.840 --> 00:52:36.119
but through it all I loved my brother and I

1032
00:52:36.199 --> 00:52:39.880
admired his keen intellect, his sense of humor, and the

1033
00:52:40.000 --> 00:52:42.159
many little things that he would do to help a

1034
00:52:42.199 --> 00:52:44.480
lot of friends without anyone's knowledge.

1035
00:52:44.840 --> 00:52:47.280
I love that she talks about like, oh, brothers and siblings.

1036
00:52:47.360 --> 00:52:50.880
You know, sisters, siblings always have differences. It's like, yeah,

1037
00:52:50.920 --> 00:52:52.880
but this is a whole other level where he apparently

1038
00:52:53.000 --> 00:52:55.400
hired someone to kill her and she may have tried

1039
00:52:55.400 --> 00:52:56.039
to kill him.

1040
00:52:56.599 --> 00:53:01.039
But anyway, that is true. When someone with a lot

1041
00:53:01.079 --> 00:53:03.480
of money dies, especially someone who keeps a lot of

1042
00:53:03.559 --> 00:53:06.880
valuables in their house, things can get ugly really fast,

1043
00:53:07.199 --> 00:53:09.719
and that's exactly what happened in the case of Ted Binyon.

1044
00:53:10.159 --> 00:53:14.159
James Brown, Ted's friend and attorney, we mentioned earlier knew

1045
00:53:14.199 --> 00:53:15.960
that there was a lot of money in Ted's house

1046
00:53:16.039 --> 00:53:20.159
in the form of cash, silver, art, jewelry, and so on.

1047
00:53:20.480 --> 00:53:23.400
He also knew that Ted wanted Sandy out of the will.

1048
00:53:24.079 --> 00:53:26.039
Once the police were done with the house, He and

1049
00:53:26.079 --> 00:53:29.039
another lawyer hired security to ensure that no one could

1050
00:53:29.079 --> 00:53:32.079
get into Ted's house until things with the estate could

1051
00:53:32.079 --> 00:53:35.199
get sorted On the afternoon of the eighteenth, the day

1052
00:53:35.239 --> 00:53:38.880
after Ted died, his daughter Bonnie, arrived home from college.

1053
00:53:39.320 --> 00:53:41.360
She talked to James Brown about going to the house

1054
00:53:41.400 --> 00:53:43.679
to gather some photos and clothing for her dad for

1055
00:53:43.719 --> 00:53:46.480
the funeral. Brown met her at Ted's house around two

1056
00:53:46.519 --> 00:53:49.639
pm that afternoon. While Brown waited in the living room

1057
00:53:49.639 --> 00:53:51.679
for Bonnie, there was a knock on the front door.

1058
00:53:52.079 --> 00:53:54.639
It was Sandy. She tried to come into the house,

1059
00:53:54.760 --> 00:53:58.320
but Brown stopped her. Sandy left, but soon returned with

1060
00:53:58.440 --> 00:54:02.360
her lawyer and a police officer. A debate ensued over

1061
00:54:02.400 --> 00:54:04.480
whether Sandy should be allowed into the house or not.

1062
00:54:05.000 --> 00:54:07.480
She showed the officer her driver's license to prove that

1063
00:54:07.599 --> 00:54:10.760
she lived in the house on Palomino Lane. James Brown

1064
00:54:10.960 --> 00:54:14.440
argued that until the estate was sorted out, that only

1065
00:54:14.559 --> 00:54:17.719
Jack Binyon could decide who could come and go. The

1066
00:54:17.760 --> 00:54:21.239
officer said, sorry, Sandy lives here and she's proven it.

1067
00:54:21.440 --> 00:54:25.360
You need to turn the house over to her. Brown said, okay,

1068
00:54:25.360 --> 00:54:27.039
I'm going to go see a judge right now and

1069
00:54:27.079 --> 00:54:29.079
see if I can get a court order to protect

1070
00:54:29.119 --> 00:54:32.519
the house, and he left. It didn't take Brown long

1071
00:54:32.639 --> 00:54:35.440
to get his order. He returned ninety minutes later with

1072
00:54:35.519 --> 00:54:39.320
the order, which appointed him as special administrator of the estate.

1073
00:54:39.920 --> 00:54:43.079
This gave him sole possession of Ted's residence and everything

1074
00:54:43.119 --> 00:54:45.960
in it, at least until a probate court could sort

1075
00:54:46.000 --> 00:54:49.400
things out. Sandy came out of the house, screaming, why

1076
00:54:49.440 --> 00:54:51.719
are you doing this? I thought you were my friend.

1077
00:54:52.320 --> 00:54:55.679
Brent Brown responded, I'll tell you exactly why I'm doing this,

1078
00:54:55.719 --> 00:54:58.239
because Ted called me yesterday and told me to take

1079
00:54:58.320 --> 00:55:01.519
you out of the will if you did kill him first.

1080
00:55:01.960 --> 00:55:05.440
Sandy screamed at him, calling a liar, and marched right back

1081
00:55:05.480 --> 00:55:08.440
into the house. Brown huddled up with Sandy's lawyer and

1082
00:55:08.480 --> 00:55:11.760
came to an agreement. Sandy would leave the residence, but

1083
00:55:11.960 --> 00:55:14.920
first she wanted to create a video that showed everything

1084
00:55:14.960 --> 00:55:17.920
that was there. Brown agreed, as long as he would

1085
00:55:17.960 --> 00:55:20.920
get a copy of the video as well. So Sandy

1086
00:55:20.960 --> 00:55:23.559
walked around the house, her attorney following her with a

1087
00:55:23.639 --> 00:55:27.000
video camera and James Brown following as well. There's a

1088
00:55:27.039 --> 00:55:29.719
short clip from that video, and the first part we

1089
00:55:29.800 --> 00:55:33.360
hear Sandy talking to James Brown referring to him as Jimmy.

1090
00:55:33.880 --> 00:55:36.400
Then in the second part she talks about some art

1091
00:55:36.480 --> 00:55:37.639
that she's planning to take.

1092
00:55:38.599 --> 00:55:40.679
I'm sorry, Tommy, I thought you're my friendly. I don't

1093
00:55:40.719 --> 00:55:42.679
know if wold to turn with you. You live in

1094
00:55:42.719 --> 00:55:44.639
the cop and call him the revenue of California.

1095
00:55:45.559 --> 00:55:46.920
You come in here and tell me that you guy

1096
00:55:46.960 --> 00:55:48.679
around here and good terms in your insert load.

1097
00:55:48.800 --> 00:55:51.159
No my fucking shit to take, gets it yours.

1098
00:55:52.559 --> 00:55:54.800
I'm gonna take my market down mind un for Gunther.

1099
00:55:54.960 --> 00:55:57.280
And I've already taken my other piece of art that

1100
00:55:57.400 --> 00:55:59.800
was in here, and I'm gonna leave them for Golther.

1101
00:56:00.239 --> 00:56:02.719
But I'm going to take the argust because I will

1102
00:56:02.760 --> 00:56:04.360
trust it and if it's gone homes Ruth.

1103
00:56:04.800 --> 00:56:07.760
Sandy went room by room through the entire house and garage,

1104
00:56:07.800 --> 00:56:09.960
pointing out things that she claimed were taken by the

1105
00:56:10.000 --> 00:56:13.280
family before she got access to the house. For example,

1106
00:56:13.360 --> 00:56:16.639
she points to a safe that is empty. However, she

1107
00:56:16.840 --> 00:56:19.960
was in the house without supervision for at least ninety minutes,

1108
00:56:20.039 --> 00:56:22.480
so it's just as likely that she took anything that

1109
00:56:22.559 --> 00:56:25.880
was missing. In fact, she brought a bag of silver

1110
00:56:26.000 --> 00:56:29.000
to lawyer Oscar Goodman's office a couple of days later

1111
00:56:29.039 --> 00:56:32.599
as a retainer for his services, silver that must have

1112
00:56:32.679 --> 00:56:36.559
come from Ted's house. This video would end up making

1113
00:56:36.639 --> 00:56:41.320
Sandy look bad. Far from the sobbing, inconsolable girlfriend from

1114
00:56:41.360 --> 00:56:43.960
the previous day, here was a woman on a mission

1115
00:56:44.039 --> 00:56:47.159
to claim what was hers. From her point of view,

1116
00:56:47.199 --> 00:56:50.079
though she remembered that Ted had once told her when

1117
00:56:50.079 --> 00:56:53.960
I die, they'll come out like vultures. The question is

1118
00:56:53.960 --> 00:56:56.679
were the vultures Ted's family, Sandy or both.

1119
00:56:57.400 --> 00:56:58.880
I'm going to go out on a limb and say

1120
00:56:58.920 --> 00:56:59.519
it was both.

1121
00:57:00.360 --> 00:57:02.199
Money brings out the absolute worst in.

1122
00:57:02.239 --> 00:57:05.599
Peace, It really does. Meanwhile, Rick Tabish was on a

1123
00:57:05.639 --> 00:57:08.320
mission of his own. He got two guys and drove

1124
00:57:08.400 --> 00:57:11.599
what's known as a belly dump trailer basically a trailer

1125
00:57:11.679 --> 00:57:15.440
for hauling heavy duty materials like dirt or concrete, out

1126
00:57:15.440 --> 00:57:19.400
to Proumpt for a little midnight excavation project. When Sergeant

1127
00:57:19.559 --> 00:57:23.000
ed Howard happened upon the vacant lot excavation. At two am,

1128
00:57:23.119 --> 00:57:26.559
the job was nearly done. One of Tabash's workers told

1129
00:57:26.639 --> 00:57:30.239
him they were removing ordinance from the property, meaning explosives

1130
00:57:30.320 --> 00:57:33.239
or ammunition of some sort. Then he dropped Wade li

1131
00:57:33.360 --> 00:57:36.599
Ski's name, the sheriff of Nye County. The man said

1132
00:57:36.599 --> 00:57:38.599
that Wade knew what they were up to, so it

1133
00:57:38.719 --> 00:57:42.800
was all fine. That didn't deter Sergeant Howard. He stayed put,

1134
00:57:42.840 --> 00:57:46.159
and moments later Rick Tabish came over. He told Howard

1135
00:57:46.159 --> 00:57:48.840
a different story. He said that they were hauling away

1136
00:57:48.880 --> 00:57:52.320
concrete debris in advance of the lot being sold, and

1137
00:57:52.360 --> 00:57:55.239
that they would be gone soon. Tabish also said that

1138
00:57:55.320 --> 00:57:57.480
he had talked to Sheriff li Seki and that he

1139
00:57:57.519 --> 00:58:00.480
was aware of everything. But now Howard had been told

1140
00:58:00.519 --> 00:58:03.119
two different stories, and he wasn't sure that he was

1141
00:58:03.159 --> 00:58:06.800
buying either one. He decided to call for backup. He

1142
00:58:06.880 --> 00:58:09.920
and the other officers who showed up were immediately on edge.

1143
00:58:10.400 --> 00:58:13.280
They suspected something shady was going on and wondered if

1144
00:58:13.320 --> 00:58:15.480
there could be a sniper out in the desert, ready

1145
00:58:15.519 --> 00:58:18.679
to take them out. Sergeant Howard walked over toward the

1146
00:58:18.719 --> 00:58:22.079
trailer and Tabish followed him. Howard asked what was in

1147
00:58:22.119 --> 00:58:26.239
the trailer, and Tabish said nothing. Howard looked up, saw

1148
00:58:26.360 --> 00:58:29.119
canvas roll top cover on the trailer and asked if

1149
00:58:29.199 --> 00:58:31.800
Tabish could roll it back so that he could look inside,

1150
00:58:32.079 --> 00:58:34.880
but Tabish said the crank was broken. It would later

1151
00:58:34.920 --> 00:58:38.320
be revealed that it was not in fact broken. Howard

1152
00:58:38.360 --> 00:58:40.280
saw that there was a ladder on the other side

1153
00:58:40.280 --> 00:58:42.840
of the trailer and asked Tabish if they could climb

1154
00:58:42.960 --> 00:58:45.840
up and peek inside. Sensing that the jig was up,

1155
00:58:45.920 --> 00:58:49.159
Tabish said go ahead. One of the officers on the

1156
00:58:49.159 --> 00:58:51.679
scene climbed up and took a look inside the trailer.

1157
00:58:52.159 --> 00:58:54.559
He called down from the top of the ladder, there's

1158
00:58:54.559 --> 00:58:58.519
a shitload of silver in here, twenty four tons of silver.

1159
00:58:58.639 --> 00:59:01.920
As it would turn out, Tabish turned to Sergeant Howard

1160
00:59:01.960 --> 00:59:05.920
and admitted, okay, I lied. He went on to explain

1161
00:59:06.039 --> 00:59:08.719
that he was getting the silver on behalf of its owner,

1162
00:59:08.800 --> 00:59:11.880
Ted Binyon. He said that Binyon had made him promise,

1163
00:59:12.159 --> 00:59:14.400
in the event of his death, to collect the silver

1164
00:59:14.880 --> 00:59:16.760
and use it to set up a trust for his

1165
00:59:16.880 --> 00:59:20.440
daughter Bonnie before his greedy siblings were able to steal it.

1166
00:59:21.039 --> 00:59:24.119
Did he have any paperwork or official documents showing that

1167
00:59:24.199 --> 00:59:27.719
he was doing this at Binyon's behest. No had he

1168
00:59:27.760 --> 00:59:30.519
spoken with Bonnie or her mom Doris about doing it,

1169
00:59:30.920 --> 00:59:34.519
of course not. The cops weren't buying his story, but

1170
00:59:34.599 --> 00:59:37.880
he did have one thing going for him. Tabish insisted

1171
00:59:37.920 --> 00:59:40.880
that he had spoken with Sheriff Liseki, and that the

1172
00:59:40.920 --> 00:59:43.840
sheriff knew exactly what they were up to. He showed

1173
00:59:43.840 --> 00:59:46.559
the officers his phone, and sure enough they saw three

1174
00:59:46.559 --> 00:59:50.000
calls to the Sheriff's number from the afternoon before. They

1175
00:59:50.039 --> 00:59:53.119
summoned the sheriff, who soon arrived at the scene. The

1176
00:59:53.159 --> 00:59:57.000
sheriff confirmed that he had indeed spoken to Tabish. According

1177
00:59:57.000 --> 00:59:59.320
to the sheriff, Tabish had told him that he was

1178
00:59:59.360 --> 01:00:02.199
a business part partner of Ted Binyons and was coming

1179
01:00:02.199 --> 01:00:05.360
to Perumpt to obtain some property that belonged to both

1180
01:00:05.440 --> 01:00:08.480
him and mister Binyon. It was close to the truth,

1181
01:00:08.760 --> 01:00:11.920
but Taviish wasn't actually a business partner of Ted's and

1182
01:00:12.039 --> 01:00:14.679
the property in question did not belong to both of them.

1183
01:00:14.920 --> 01:00:18.719
It was all Ted's, and Tabish had conveniently left out

1184
01:00:18.760 --> 01:00:21.159
the fact that the property he was picking up was

1185
01:00:21.280 --> 01:00:24.760
millions of dollars worth of silver. The police took Tabish

1186
01:00:24.800 --> 01:00:27.960
and his crew in, charging them with grand theft, but

1187
01:00:28.039 --> 01:00:31.000
guess who was there to bail them out. Sandy Murphy

1188
01:00:31.000 --> 01:00:33.880
put up her Mercedes and her diamonds as collateral to

1189
01:00:33.920 --> 01:00:37.039
bail out Rick and his crew. Along with the video

1190
01:00:37.119 --> 01:00:39.119
that we talked about a little bit ago. This ended

1191
01:00:39.199 --> 01:00:43.519
up turning public opinion against Sandy Murphy. Whereas people were

1192
01:00:43.559 --> 01:00:47.320
initially thinking that Ted's death was mafia related, then an

1193
01:00:47.320 --> 01:00:50.599
accidental overdose. Now the word on the street was that

1194
01:00:50.639 --> 01:00:53.559
Sandy and Rick killed Ted so that they could steal

1195
01:00:53.559 --> 01:00:56.440
his silver and be together. And I'm afraid that is

1196
01:00:56.480 --> 01:00:58.119
where we are going to have to end things for

1197
01:00:58.199 --> 01:00:58.679
part one.

1198
01:00:59.400 --> 01:01:01.519
How long were you head and Sandy together, do you know?

1199
01:01:01.880 --> 01:01:05.880
I think about three years, maybe four years something like that.

1200
01:01:05.760 --> 01:01:09.679
Okay, and they weren't married, so she really wasn't entitled

1201
01:01:09.679 --> 01:01:12.599
to much more than you know, three hundred thousand dollars, right,

1202
01:01:12.639 --> 01:01:14.159
That seems pretty fair to me.

1203
01:01:14.480 --> 01:01:16.960
Yeah. Same here in the house, like I said, is

1204
01:01:17.000 --> 01:01:20.119
worth like two point two million dollars today. That's actually

1205
01:01:20.159 --> 01:01:22.159
really and all the stuff in it. So yeah, that

1206
01:01:22.239 --> 01:01:23.159
was very generous.

1207
01:01:23.199 --> 01:01:26.880
I think these people like there's never enough money. I

1208
01:01:26.920 --> 01:01:29.559
don't get it. I know, I'm like, I like things,

1209
01:01:29.639 --> 01:01:32.639
I like having a nice house, but it's just, yeah,

1210
01:01:32.679 --> 01:01:35.599
I don't. I really don't understand excessive greed.

1211
01:01:35.760 --> 01:01:37.719
I don't really either. Once you have enough money where

1212
01:01:37.719 --> 01:01:41.760
you can live comfortably and not worry about anything, like, yeah,

1213
01:01:41.760 --> 01:01:44.159
I don't know why what keeps you going early on that?

1214
01:01:44.280 --> 01:01:46.599
I kid you, but I really don't need a nine

1215
01:01:46.599 --> 01:01:49.840
thousand dollar jumpsuit. Yeah, five thousand dollars jumpsuit would be

1216
01:01:50.320 --> 01:01:51.000
just fine.

1217
01:01:51.960 --> 01:01:53.599
I'll keep that in mind. So I have a very

1218
01:01:53.599 --> 01:01:56.400
important question for you. Okay, if you had twenty four

1219
01:01:56.440 --> 01:01:59.719
tons of silver, where would you hide it?

1220
01:02:02.840 --> 01:02:06.840
That's a really good question. I think the desert is

1221
01:02:07.159 --> 01:02:08.440
always the answer, right.

1222
01:02:08.760 --> 01:02:10.480
If I buried it in the desert, I would lose it.

1223
01:02:10.559 --> 01:02:12.000
I would be like, oh yeah.

1224
01:02:12.039 --> 01:02:13.559
You would have to call me and I'd be like,

1225
01:02:14.119 --> 01:02:16.920
oh my god, it's right there. It's to the right

1226
01:02:17.000 --> 01:02:21.840
of the milk. Because I think every woman that's listening,

1227
01:02:21.960 --> 01:02:25.360
like your husband, really genuinely can't find things.

1228
01:02:25.440 --> 01:02:28.719
Yeah, for sure, I think it'd be fun to go

1229
01:02:28.760 --> 01:02:30.800
out in the desert, Like, there's got to be money

1230
01:02:30.800 --> 01:02:33.440
buried all over in the desert outside of Las Vegas.

1231
01:02:33.480 --> 01:02:34.360
I would think, like.

1232
01:02:34.559 --> 01:02:36.719
That's one trip I'll send you on on your own.

1233
01:02:38.000 --> 01:02:41.320
Yeah, probably not very fruitful, but it's really funny. You

1234
01:02:41.400 --> 01:02:41.800
never know.

1235
01:02:42.239 --> 01:02:44.840
I shouldn't give this away to everyone, but I always

1236
01:02:44.840 --> 01:02:46.760
think if you have something to hide, the best way

1237
01:02:46.800 --> 01:02:49.320
to hide it is to And I don't really do this,

1238
01:02:49.360 --> 01:02:50.920
but my mom used to all the time, Like you

1239
01:02:50.960 --> 01:02:53.840
would take ground beef and you would buy this big

1240
01:02:53.880 --> 01:02:56.800
package and then she would like wrap it in freezer wrap.

1241
01:02:56.840 --> 01:02:59.760
I would like, you should put whatever jewels or whatever

1242
01:03:00.320 --> 01:03:02.079
in the middle of ground beef, put it in your

1243
01:03:02.159 --> 01:03:06.000
deep freezer, and then police won't like have to to

1244
01:03:06.079 --> 01:03:08.079
thaw all your meat out to find your jewel.

1245
01:03:08.400 --> 01:03:10.880
Are you saying that your mom would hide expensive things

1246
01:03:10.960 --> 01:03:12.039
in hamburger?

1247
01:03:12.239 --> 01:03:14.039
You know, I'm just saying that's what I always thought

1248
01:03:14.079 --> 01:03:16.920
would be a good idea or to like, you know,

1249
01:03:17.000 --> 01:03:19.320
like a zippered cush I've thought about this a lot,

1250
01:03:19.639 --> 01:03:22.039
you know how like your couch cushions on zip and

1251
01:03:22.079 --> 01:03:25.199
then you just make a little slid in the the

1252
01:03:25.320 --> 01:03:27.239
what do you call it? The do you call the.

1253
01:03:27.239 --> 01:03:29.079
Couch cushion the slip cover?

1254
01:03:29.519 --> 01:03:32.199
No, but the foam just you know, I just I

1255
01:03:32.239 --> 01:03:34.800
don't know. I think about things like that a lot obviously,

1256
01:03:34.880 --> 01:03:37.280
twenty four tons of silver, I mean that would be

1257
01:03:37.440 --> 01:03:39.480
a lot of ground beef. That would be a lot

1258
01:03:39.480 --> 01:03:42.440
of ground beef. But yeah, or a box of cereal.

1259
01:03:42.719 --> 01:03:45.079
You know you can put it in then and you

1260
01:03:45.079 --> 01:03:47.079
can reseal it and make it look like it was

1261
01:03:47.119 --> 01:03:47.719
never opened.

1262
01:03:47.800 --> 01:03:50.440
Yeah, all kinds of great ideas come to you when

1263
01:03:50.480 --> 01:03:50.760
I have.

1264
01:03:50.760 --> 01:03:53.320
Some loot tide, I hope you have some loot dhide.

1265
01:03:59.360 --> 01:04:02.800
So is obviously very central to this case for the

1266
01:04:02.880 --> 01:04:06.679
Binions World Series of Poker. You and I used to

1267
01:04:06.719 --> 01:04:08.239
play poker quite a bit.

1268
01:04:08.480 --> 01:04:10.480
That might surprise people. Yeah, I actually really like to

1269
01:04:10.480 --> 01:04:11.000
play poker.

1270
01:04:11.119 --> 01:04:13.320
Yeah, it's really actually we used to do that a lot.

1271
01:04:13.360 --> 01:04:14.960
We need to do that again. But I got like

1272
01:04:15.119 --> 01:04:18.360
into poker big time. Yeah, you made some money a

1273
01:04:18.360 --> 01:04:20.559
little bit, I mean not a lot, but didn't you

1274
01:04:20.639 --> 01:04:23.800
make honestly, like several thousand dollars? Yes, when it was

1275
01:04:23.880 --> 01:04:27.480
legal in Michigan. Yeah, with online gambling was it was

1276
01:04:27.480 --> 01:04:29.280
never quite legal. It was always like a little bit

1277
01:04:29.280 --> 01:04:32.280
of a grade area. But in two thousand and three,

1278
01:04:32.400 --> 01:04:36.000
what happened was a guy named Chris Moneymaker won the

1279
01:04:36.039 --> 01:04:39.519
World Series of Poker and he had qualified to get

1280
01:04:39.559 --> 01:04:43.079
into the World Series of Poker through an online poker tournament,

1281
01:04:43.320 --> 01:04:46.480
and that started this craze of like online poker, myself included,

1282
01:04:46.599 --> 01:04:49.320
got really into it, and I read books about it.

1283
01:04:49.360 --> 01:04:51.679
I was like studying hands and things like that. And

1284
01:04:51.719 --> 01:04:55.880
I deposited twenty dollars into an online poker account and

1285
01:04:55.960 --> 01:04:58.719
I played two little tournaments. I won them both, and

1286
01:04:58.800 --> 01:05:01.639
I never deposited another dollar. And a few years later

1287
01:05:01.679 --> 01:05:04.480
I withdrew I think like five thousand dollars or something

1288
01:05:04.519 --> 01:05:07.599
like that, which was nice, But the amount of time

1289
01:05:07.639 --> 01:05:09.800
I spent on it, it was it probably paid.

1290
01:05:09.840 --> 01:05:12.079
Like it wasn't that you were doing it to make money.

1291
01:05:12.119 --> 01:05:14.519
You were just doing it fun. Maybe you enjoyed it.

1292
01:05:14.519 --> 01:05:15.840
It was fun, but it got to be a little

1293
01:05:15.840 --> 01:05:16.800
bit of an obsession.

1294
01:05:17.079 --> 01:05:18.960
And I played, but I just played for fun. I

1295
01:05:19.000 --> 01:05:21.480
never played for money because I you're.

1296
01:05:21.320 --> 01:05:24.920
A really good bluffer. You when you and I play,

1297
01:05:25.039 --> 01:05:27.880
I have no idea when you're bluffing or not, and

1298
01:05:27.920 --> 01:05:30.800
you're totally like in my head like I can't.

1299
01:05:30.840 --> 01:05:32.400
I think I can only do that to you though

1300
01:05:32.880 --> 01:05:33.599
as your wife.

1301
01:05:34.480 --> 01:05:37.559
Yeah, probably true. Yeah, I have a little quiz for

1302
01:05:37.599 --> 01:05:41.320
you about poker. So I have ten questions. I'm going

1303
01:05:41.360 --> 01:05:44.440
to grade you on poker terminology.

1304
01:05:44.000 --> 01:05:44.400
Like I should.

1305
01:05:44.400 --> 01:05:46.639
We should be doing the reverse, but okay, I'll do

1306
01:05:46.719 --> 01:05:47.320
my best.

1307
01:05:47.119 --> 01:05:47.440
All right.

1308
01:05:47.480 --> 01:05:50.320
So Texas Hold Them is the game that we normally play.

1309
01:05:50.360 --> 01:05:52.719
When you play Texas Hold Them, you start out with

1310
01:05:52.760 --> 01:05:55.400
two cards, which are called your whole cards. So if

1311
01:05:55.440 --> 01:05:57.840
you look at your whole cards and you see Ace King,

1312
01:05:58.519 --> 01:06:01.920
what is that hand? Call the nickname for that hand?

1313
01:06:02.079 --> 01:06:04.199
I do not know, don't big Daddy.

1314
01:06:04.280 --> 01:06:07.800
I thought this was going to be the easy Oh no, okay,

1315
01:06:07.960 --> 01:06:09.039
that's called big Slick.

1316
01:06:09.519 --> 01:06:12.840
That's right, Okay, I mean it's been years since we've played.

1317
01:06:13.119 --> 01:06:19.039
Really, I would have also accepted Anna Khornikova, Korean Airlines, Kalashnikov,

1318
01:06:19.199 --> 01:06:23.159
or King Arthur, But Big Slick is the main thing

1319
01:06:23.239 --> 01:06:24.000
that that's known by.

1320
01:06:24.119 --> 01:06:26.480
Okay, gotcha? I know two queens?

1321
01:06:26.920 --> 01:06:27.199
Do you?

1322
01:06:27.519 --> 01:06:27.760
Yeah?

1323
01:06:27.840 --> 01:06:29.920
Okay, I didn't ask that on the quiz, but you

1324
01:06:29.960 --> 01:06:33.320
can go ahead and share, right, yes, exactly? All right?

1325
01:06:33.400 --> 01:06:36.559
What if you see six' nine in your whole?

1326
01:06:36.599 --> 01:06:38.199
CARDS i don't.

1327
01:06:38.440 --> 01:06:40.840
Know we're going to get a little. Crude this is

1328
01:06:40.880 --> 01:06:45.320
just showing the level of like most poker players, Mentality.

1329
01:06:44.920 --> 01:06:46.639
Are they suited or unsuited doesn't.

1330
01:06:46.679 --> 01:06:49.000
Matter. Okay if you have a six nine that is

1331
01:06:49.039 --> 01:06:50.719
called not big slick.

1332
01:06:50.559 --> 01:06:52.519
Big, okay, YES i don't think you need to say.

1333
01:06:52.559 --> 01:06:54.480
IT i think everyone rhymes with.

1334
01:06:54.559 --> 01:06:56.440
Slick, yes it rhymes with. Slick that's.

1335
01:06:56.480 --> 01:06:57.559
RIGHT i did know, That, yes.

1336
01:06:57.800 --> 01:06:59.920
Okay, well how about what whole cards do you? Have

1337
01:07:00.119 --> 01:07:02.039
if you have, cowboys.

1338
01:07:03.199 --> 01:07:05.440
Two, jacks good.

1339
01:07:05.239 --> 01:07:06.239
Guess but no two?

1340
01:07:06.320 --> 01:07:08.440
Kings oh, okay all.

1341
01:07:08.519 --> 01:07:11.760
Right if someone says that you have the, nuts what

1342
01:07:11.840 --> 01:07:12.119
does that?

1343
01:07:12.199 --> 01:07:14.039
Mean you, know if you would have asked me all

1344
01:07:14.039 --> 01:07:17.400
this ten years, AGO i would HAVE i don't.

1345
01:07:17.440 --> 01:07:20.559
Remember the nuts means that you have the best possible

1346
01:07:20.599 --> 01:07:22.840
hand given, like given the cards that are on the,

1347
01:07:22.880 --> 01:07:25.320
board you have the best hand that's. Possible all. Right next,

1348
01:07:25.440 --> 01:07:28.159
question what is it called when you have nine and?

1349
01:07:28.360 --> 01:07:30.079
Five dolly?

1350
01:07:30.119 --> 01:07:33.599
Parton exactly A Dolly? Parton and what does it mean

1351
01:07:33.679 --> 01:07:36.119
if you have a boat a full?

1352
01:07:36.119 --> 01:07:37.079
HOUSE a full?

1353
01:07:37.119 --> 01:07:38.000
House that's exactly.

1354
01:07:38.119 --> 01:07:41.440
Right it's also called A noah's. ARK i didn't made that.

1355
01:07:41.559 --> 01:07:44.239
Up you can make stuff.

1356
01:07:44.320 --> 01:07:44.480
UP i.

1357
01:07:44.519 --> 01:07:46.039
Can we can both make Stuff.

1358
01:07:45.880 --> 01:07:47.719
You could totally make stuff up when you're at a poker.

1359
01:07:47.719 --> 01:07:50.639
Table it's actually fun to make stuff, Up like if you, fold,

1360
01:07:50.679 --> 01:07:52.159
like what did you? Have and you just make up

1361
01:07:52.199 --> 01:07:55.119
a term and nobody. Knows all? Right how about what

1362
01:07:55.239 --> 01:07:59.119
is the hand that is called a motown a motown.

1363
01:07:58.760 --> 01:08:02.679
Hand to go out on a? Limb here is it five?

1364
01:08:03.639 --> 01:08:08.400
Jacks jackson? Five AND i realize there are not five

1365
01:08:08.519 --> 01:08:09.440
jacks in a.

1366
01:08:09.599 --> 01:08:13.760
Deck you're so, close, really jack's and. Five's? Oh if

1367
01:08:13.840 --> 01:08:16.039
you have a jack and a five or two jackson two,

1368
01:08:16.159 --> 01:08:18.880
fives that's a that's a motown. Hand all, right HERE'S

1369
01:08:18.880 --> 01:08:20.560
i think you're gonna get this one. Too. Okay if

1370
01:08:20.600 --> 01:08:24.239
someone SAYS i had dogs BUT i folded, them what

1371
01:08:24.319 --> 01:08:25.079
cards did they?

1372
01:08:25.119 --> 01:08:25.279
Have?

1373
01:08:26.079 --> 01:08:28.439
Canine king and kings and?

1374
01:08:28.600 --> 01:08:29.640
NINE a king and a?

1375
01:08:29.760 --> 01:08:30.840
Nine that isn't?

1376
01:08:30.920 --> 01:08:33.039
Okay that's like a great hand, THOUGH i mean it's.

1377
01:08:33.039 --> 01:08:35.239
Okay, no that's why you would fold, it all. Right

1378
01:08:35.479 --> 01:08:38.840
two questions. Left if you have a marriage for your starting,

1379
01:08:38.880 --> 01:08:40.600
hand what do you call? It a king and a

1380
01:08:40.640 --> 01:08:41.479
queen exactly?

1381
01:08:41.600 --> 01:08:44.479
Right or two kings or two? Queens because it's twenty twenty?

1382
01:08:44.479 --> 01:08:45.039
Five all?

1383
01:08:45.119 --> 01:08:47.880
Right last? Question if someone tells you that there is

1384
01:08:47.920 --> 01:08:50.159
a fish at the, table what are they?

1385
01:08:50.199 --> 01:08:55.039
SAYING i don't, know give me a.

1386
01:08:55.119 --> 01:08:58.159
Hint fish is? It it's a nickname for a type

1387
01:08:58.159 --> 01:08:59.880
of poker, player not a.

1388
01:09:00.119 --> 01:09:02.920
Hand WELL i thought, that BUT i don't.

1389
01:09:02.960 --> 01:09:06.520
Know it is someone who's really bad at. Poker oh easy.

1390
01:09:06.560 --> 01:09:09.000
Money oh. Okay you want to see a fish at the,

1391
01:09:09.000 --> 01:09:11.239
table and if you don't know who the fish is

1392
01:09:11.279 --> 01:09:12.560
at the, table it's probably.

1393
01:09:12.600 --> 01:09:14.239
YOU i was hoping you were going to ask me

1394
01:09:14.520 --> 01:09:16.560
what the worst starting hand, is BECAUSE i know.

1395
01:09:16.680 --> 01:09:18.479
That oh, okay what is the worst starting?

1396
01:09:18.479 --> 01:09:21.359
Hands to? Seven off? Suit very, good which is really

1397
01:09:21.439 --> 01:09:24.600
important to know because if you have two, seven you

1398
01:09:24.640 --> 01:09:27.000
have no chance of a. Straight two is. Low seven

1399
01:09:27.119 --> 01:09:28.479
is relatively were not going to get a?

1400
01:09:28.479 --> 01:09:28.840
Flush?

1401
01:09:29.159 --> 01:09:32.560
Yeah, yeah your best starting hand two, aces yes for.

1402
01:09:32.640 --> 01:09:35.720
Sure, Okay, well you didn't do quite as good AS

1403
01:09:35.760 --> 01:09:38.000
i thought you would. DO i know it's we did.

1404
01:09:38.079 --> 01:09:41.319
Awesome you did. Great you tried really hard and you

1405
01:09:41.359 --> 01:09:42.119
did really.

1406
01:09:42.159 --> 01:09:47.000
Good you used to go To Las vegas almost Every,

1407
01:09:47.079 --> 01:09:50.000
march and it always seemed to happen Around march, madness

1408
01:09:50.039 --> 01:09:52.560
and you would place. Bets, yeah and then when you were,

1409
01:09:52.560 --> 01:09:55.640
there you would place other. Bets do you remember any

1410
01:09:55.680 --> 01:09:57.640
of the crazy bets that you've placed over the.

1411
01:09:57.720 --> 01:10:00.560
YEARS i wouldn't call them crazy, bets but usually WHAT

1412
01:10:00.600 --> 01:10:02.720
i would them. Crazy usually WHAT i would do is

1413
01:10:02.760 --> 01:10:05.319
place a bet on either The tigers to win The

1414
01:10:05.359 --> 01:10:07.800
World series or The lions to win The Super, bowl, which,

1415
01:10:07.880 --> 01:10:10.119
YEAH i guess maybe you could say those were crazy

1416
01:10:10.159 --> 01:10:11.359
bets in those in those.

1417
01:10:11.479 --> 01:10:13.600
Years but how much could you potentially have?

1418
01:10:13.680 --> 01:10:16.600
Won, oh not that. MUCH i am so. Cheap LIKE

1419
01:10:16.640 --> 01:10:19.560
i would bet maybe ten dollars and maybe maybe that

1420
01:10:19.600 --> 01:10:23.800
would win you one hundred. Dollars oh, nothing nothing, dramatic.

1421
01:10:24.079 --> 01:10:24.520
Gotcha.

1422
01:10:25.000 --> 01:10:26.640
YEAH i used to work for a company that had

1423
01:10:26.680 --> 01:10:29.159
a conference there every year that time of, year AND i.

1424
01:10:29.159 --> 01:10:30.760
CAN'T i kind of miss. It it was nice to

1425
01:10:30.960 --> 01:10:32.680
go there once in a, while BUT i haven't been

1426
01:10:32.680 --> 01:10:34.680
To vegas IN i don't know five.

1427
01:10:34.760 --> 01:10:37.359
Years oh, really you would always come to me be, like,

1428
01:10:37.439 --> 01:10:40.279
YEAH i GOT i gotta go To vegas And march

1429
01:10:40.359 --> 01:10:44.039
and be like and then you you every year you

1430
01:10:44.079 --> 01:10:46.560
would say, Yeah i'm probably not gonna have any time to,

1431
01:10:46.640 --> 01:10:48.880
gamble and THAT i would talk to you. Deeply i'm

1432
01:10:48.880 --> 01:10:50.279
Gonna i'm gonna go hit the tables for a.

1433
01:10:50.279 --> 01:10:53.600
While so it's, funny always able to find some.

1434
01:10:53.680 --> 01:10:55.159
Time but you're not a slot machine.

1435
01:10:55.159 --> 01:10:58.600
Guy you're a oh, no poker or, blackjack.

1436
01:10:58.640 --> 01:11:02.039
So Binyon's horseshoe is, like there's Two. Vegas is kind of.

1437
01:11:02.119 --> 01:11:03.279
Right there's like old Town.

1438
01:11:03.359 --> 01:11:05.039
Vegas, Yeah Downtown vegas and The.

1439
01:11:05.079 --> 01:11:09.239
Strip, okay and they were in Obviously downtown Ve is

1440
01:11:09.279 --> 01:11:09.640
it still.

1441
01:11:09.640 --> 01:11:11.039
There, yeah it's still.

1442
01:11:11.039 --> 01:11:13.560
There the casino is still. There it's still Called. Binions

1443
01:11:13.560 --> 01:11:17.720
it's just under different ownership. Now but, Yeah Downtown vegas

1444
01:11:17.760 --> 01:11:20.880
is still got that old school feel to, it you,

1445
01:11:20.920 --> 01:11:23.479
know not all the glitz and glamour of The. Strip

1446
01:11:23.560 --> 01:11:28.560
BUT i always like Downtown. Vegas it just feels more, authentic. Authentic,

1447
01:11:28.640 --> 01:11:29.000
yeah that's.

1448
01:11:29.079 --> 01:11:32.520
Right or Since spotify added the feature of the comment,

1449
01:11:32.600 --> 01:11:35.880
FEATURE i really love when you guys leave us, Comments

1450
01:11:35.960 --> 01:11:39.239
so please continue to do. That we really appreciate. Those

1451
01:11:39.279 --> 01:11:42.119
it's fun to have that. Interaction if you talk to

1452
01:11:42.239 --> 01:11:46.960
us on email Or instagram Or, facebook you're usually talking to,

1453
01:11:47.000 --> 01:11:48.720
me but you handle The spotify.

1454
01:11:48.760 --> 01:11:51.439
Comments, yeah AND i try to reply to most of

1455
01:11:51.479 --> 01:11:53.479
them IF i, can BUT i really love seeing the

1456
01:11:53.479 --> 01:11:54.000
comments as.

1457
01:11:54.000 --> 01:11:55.840
Well so, yeah so thank you so much for. Those

1458
01:11:55.880 --> 01:11:59.359
thank you always for your. Support we really appreciate. It

1459
01:11:59.680 --> 01:12:01.760
if you want to listen to the conclusion of this,

1460
01:12:01.840 --> 01:12:06.039
episode join us On patreon dot. Com Slash lovemrykill five

1461
01:12:06.119 --> 01:12:09.000
dollars a month for early ad free episodes and a

1462
01:12:09.039 --> 01:12:13.920
month monthly bonus. Episode please, rate, review follow and, Subscribe

1463
01:12:14.000 --> 01:12:16.359
find us on social, media or send us an email

1464
01:12:16.399 --> 01:12:18.760
at lovemarykillat gmail dot.

1465
01:12:18.760 --> 01:12:21.039
Com and if you'd like to send us a, snack

1466
01:12:21.119 --> 01:12:25.319
you can send it to lmkpod pobox one one one

1467
01:12:25.359 --> 01:12:29.079
Dexter michigan for eight one three zero just let us

1468
01:12:29.119 --> 01:12:31.119
know send us an email if you do send, something,

1469
01:12:31.159 --> 01:12:34.760
though because we don't check it every. Day thanks again for,

1470
01:12:34.800 --> 01:12:37.239
listening and until next, time don't kill your husband and

1471
01:12:37.279 --> 01:13:12.840
don't kill your. Wife companion to

1472
01:13:16.399 --> 01:13:16.439
The