WAYWARD HEIR'S DEATH A HOMICIDE

LAS VEGAS (AP) The wayward heir to a casino fortune who died in
September after burying $4 million in silver bars and coins was killed
with a heroin and prescription drug overdose administered by someone
else, the coroner said.

Family and friends of Ted Binion had been saying for months that the
55-year-old man who had lost his gambling license because of a drug
problem would not have taken an overdose himself or committed suicide.

Investigators would not say how the drugs were administered or whether
they had a suspect, only that Binion was killed by someone else.

"There are numerous scenarios," Clark County Coroner Ron Flud said
Tuesday. "We're not to the point we're going to comment on any of the
scenarios."

However, lawyers for Binion's girlfriend, 27-year-old former topless
dancer Sandy Murphy, said they think their client may be a suspect.

"She hasn't been designated a target," David Chesnoff said Tuesday.
"But I would be an incompetent lawyer if I didn't think she was the
target of law enforcement interests."

Binion's sister, Becky Behnen, owner of the family's Horseshoe
hotel-casino, had been pushing police to treat the Sept. 17 death as a
homicide. Binion's brother, Jack Binion, executor of his estate,
increased a reward for the killer from $25,000 to $100,000 after
Monday's ruling.

The homicide ruling comes just days before three men are to appear in
court on charges they removed $4 million in silver bars and coins
Binion had buried in a vault just a few feet from a heavily traveled
road in Pahrump, about 65 miles west of Las Vegas.

Richard Tabish, Michael David Milot and David Lee Mattsen were
arrested as they loaded the silver onto a truck before daybreak on
Sept. 19, two days after Binion's death.

The three are due in court for a preliminary hearing Friday on charges
of burglary, larceny and conspiracy. They have refused to answer questions.

Binion, whose father, Benny Binion, came here from Texas to fulfill
his dream of owning a casino, had an estate valued at $30 million.

Ms. Murphy has said she found her boyfriend dead in front of his
television, a comforter draped about him. The coroner found a lethal
dose of heroin and Xanax in Binion's stomach.

According to Binion's lawyer, Richard Wright, Binion thought Ms.
Murphy was having an affair with Tabish. Wright said Binion called him
two days before his death and asked that Ms. Murphy be removed from
his will. A judge refused to acknowledge the change because Binion was
not present when it was made.

Wright said Binion expressed fear for his life at the time he changed
the will.

Since the death, Ms. Murphy has been involved in a legal battle with
Binion's family over what she says is her share of his estate,
including a $900,000 house and $300,000 in cash.

Ms. Murphy refused to answer some 200 questions posed to her in the
civil case last month, citing her Fifth Amendment right against
self-incrimination.