Mugshots: Sandy Murphy - Death of a Casino King | Forensic Files

[Music] this casino is owned by Ted bignan his father built it the Horseshoe catered to
the public and that's where everybody went it was cheap in there I mean when I moved on
here you know beer was 50 cents drinks were 50 cents it was just catered to all the locals it's just the hangout the
legend is they've got money they've got uh they'll take any kind of action at the casino he was colorful he laughed a
lot he had a good time he was a fiend for Action he like to shoot a lot of craps uh you can turn
a little money into to a lot of money like he used to say I like to turn a toothpick into a lumber yard on
September 17th 1998 Ted bion's life ended nobody betting that night had any idea what had happened a Las Vegas
Police telephone operator got the call not emergency my husband's not breathing I need someone to come out the
house away right hello she hung up she said her hband wasn't breathing the hysterical voice of the colar belongs to
Ban's girlfriend Sandy Murphy she discovered the body at first police called his death an accidental death an
overdose of drugs but 9 months later they said Sandy Murphy's tearful 911 call was a lie they arrested and charged
her with murder I don't think s Murphy is is a bad person you know she she was one of those people who come to Las
Vegas and they hang out or do whatever it is they do at the strip clubs and she would come in from California and um I
think she's a nice girl from a nice family she was led astray um she had an affair with a guy I don't believe she
killed Ted Bion what follows is the story of the mysterious death and outrageous life of Ted bignan
[Music] Ted bignan lived in a sprawling Mansion worked downtown and partied with high
and low rollers one of his favorite spots for drinks was cheetah a local topless
Club he'd sit at the end the bar pointed the girl and say this is the girl I want
and she'd basically get paid to just sit there and talk to her careless [Music] love Ted was selective as he got older I
guess cuz when I heard he was young he was real wild and messed around with every woman he
could he came here he he felt unthreatened he could come to a topless bar have someone to talk to and all the
people all the managers bartenders you know they were friendly with him so he' enjoyed that in February of 95 Ted
walked into cheetah he spotted a 21-year-old fresh-faced Southern California girl Sandy Murphy we were
very very good friends in the beginning great friends we were inseparable and then eventually we
started dating and it became something more and um we fell in love when bignan started dating Sandy Murphy he'd been
banned from the family casino by the Nevada Gaming Commission because of drug use and associations with organized
crime figures he was appealing that decision when Sandy came into his life he drove me downtown to the Horseshoe
and his pickup truck and his 501s and his boots and um we were walking up and down uh what is Fremont experience now
um I think at that time it was just Fremont Street and uh he said uh you know you always call me bunan and my
name's ban I own this joint Ted's troubles with the gaming commission forced his family to keep him off the
sight that situation often led to embarrassment and I said oh Teddy you know I love you you don't have to tell
me that stuff to impress me and he says well come on you know go over there and ask that security guard if I'm not Ted B
and I don't own this joint and I said well why don't we just go inside cuz I didn't want to embarrass them and he
says well I can't go inside and I said you mean to tell me that you're Ted Binion whoever you know you're this
casino owner Ted Binion that's your name on the side of the building but you can't go in and he says oh that's
correct it's a long story I'll tell you about it some other time so he's insistent that I I go over and speak to
the security guard so I go over to the security guard and I ask him I say this guy says he's Ted Pion he owns this
joint he says I've never seen that guy before in my life and that's not Ted Bion at the time Ted Bion was worth more
than $70 million a fact Sandy Murphy said she wasn't aware of and shortly thereafter when I moved in um he had a
secretary call me up one morning on the telephone and to verify that he was Ted Bion and that he owned Bion
sorso being a Bion meant Ted was the son of Benny Bion these home movies show the
bions in Texas where Ben ran illegal gambling clubs in Dallas the money was good but the legal gambling approved by
the state of Nevada seemed even better so Ben went West with his wife two sons and three daughters and his famous lucky
horseshoe it started off in Dallas and uh he was a gambler and at that time gaming was illegal in in Texas I mean
it's amazing because now it's on the stock exchange but at that time it was illegal and and there was a political
change in the climate in Dallas so he had to come to Las Vegas and we thought we were just going to be here for a
short period of time so here we all get in the car and make the track out west and we came here in January of 1947 the
month that they opened the Flamingo and it was just a Dusty town with maybe 18,000 people but my father fell in love
with it he loved Las Vegas and uh and so we ended up we never went back to Dallas
the thing about Benny Bion is he's a perfectly honest man Benny bignan doesn't care whether it sounds
particularly good or whether it's what you want to hear he doesn't care whether it's good news or bad news he's giving
you but if you if you got the gumption and The Moxy to ask him a question you're damn well going to get an answer
bion's Horseshoe Casino and Hotel was an immediate hit Benny put Las Vegas on another Echelon that they weren't on
when he came here and uh uh he brought a certain professionalism into gaming and
with it uh the the Homespun philosophy of uh of uh caring for people and uh eventually those people the
gaming customers uh uh made his business a success and continued to make it a success yeah vyan horseshoe is one of
what they call the old money of Vegas it's like one of the last family oriented companies and uh so you knew
the Horseshoe horseshoe catered to the public and that's where everybody went it was
cheap in there I mean when I moved down here you know beer was 50 cents drinks were 50s it was just catered to all the
locals it's just the hangout the legend is they've got money they've got uh they'll take any kind of action at the
casino this guy last summer called up and he says uh I brought 260,000 out there to bet it and I couldn't bet it
and uh he says uh I'm disgusted because my father told me I could bet any amount
of money with you and Dad says well you've never really talked to me till now he says how much would you like to
bet and the guy says I'd like to bet a million so Dad says bring it in cash and you can bet it so dad's still up the
ranch the guy shows up in September and so he he steps up and he he wins the bet
you know so I called that and I said well Dad you win the bet and he says oh damn but the truth of the matter is he
don't worry about anything of win or lose if he's broke he goes to sleep just the same as if he's rich
[Music] [Applause] [Music] Ted bignan loved to spend nights with his dad watching customers consume Giant
staks in the Penthouse restaurant or totaling the Wagers in the one of aind chalk and Blackboard Sports beding
parlor on the main floor but most of all Ted got to bask in the celebrity light of his dad's annual million dooll poker
tournament [Music] welcome to the 1998 World Series of Poker from vyan Horseshoe Casino in Las
Vegas Champions and celebrities from more than 30 countries have gathered to stake their claims to the coveted title
of world champion and the fabulous first prize of $1 million in cash my father started this over 30
years ago and it started out just to Gathering of friends and turn into this huge Affair that is worldwide and
National known this took it out of the back room and it took away the the CD element of Poker it gave it
legitimacy movie stars like Matt Damon and Ed Norton showed up one night to play and promote their movie Rounders it
was an absolute Adrenaline Rush yeah it something I'll never forget it was great
it was great I knew I was going to lose the question was how and so to lose to Doyle I I had pocket kings he had pocket
aces so I I I went after him with my final 6,200 bucks and and and and he took it from me so it was a good I'm
going home with a story when you're playing with these guys there there may be luck on any given hand but over over
time the the really terrific players will crush you it's like it's like and when you're playing with people at that
level it's like hitting with Avon lendel or something you you are just totally outmatched and you can feel
it Ted vinion was on top of the world when his father died he would inherit the action along with the rest of the
family if he wanted to do drugs he would when he had to pass a state drug test his sister said he'd figure out a way to
do it one day I'm sitting in a restaurant and this man comes in and he has a c a
baseball cap on and he takes it off and there's no hair and I say I know that man and it was Ted he completely shaved
his body I mean every hair on his body because uh he was angry because he had had done a great deal of research on
hair tests for drugs and uh he had completely disproved that they're not accurate so he
completely shaved every hair off his body so they couldn't take a a hair test he was a crap shooter a let it all
ride take all risk style player according to his nephew Ben he was colorful he laughed a lot he had a good
time he was a fiend for Action he liked to shoot a lot of craps uh you turn a little money into a lot of money like he
used to say I like to turn a toothpick into a lumber yard coming up we'll meet the woman police
claim snuffed out the life of Ted Bion heir to the Bion Fortune Sandy Murphy has the kind of
ankle men like to Adorn with bracelets at the time of the preliminary hearing the one she wore was bought by the state
of Nevada it was an electronic beeper that monitored her whereabouts she was under house arrest for murder only able
to leave to visit her [Music] lawyer Sandy grew up near Los Angeles as a kid she surfed the Pacific and walked
the Santa Monica Pier I grew up in Southern California um a small town kind of like
Vegas but not so big and isn't growing nearly as fast as we are here um but it's a lovely place to raise a
[Music] family she was a high school dropout lived with an older man not far from the
Pacific Ocean I'm just a normal girl like everybody else I come from a middle class family and um uh I spend most of
my days here at the law office with John um because of the current situation and
the way that it is um I don't have a whole lot of options I spend uh I would say 90% of my time at the office and the
time I don't spend here I spend at home with Sadie my kitty cat she came to Vegas in 1995 with her life savings and
headed to the blackjack tables Casinos gambling 21 years of age it's kind of like a I
think the thing to do when you're a young person is to at least experien Vegas once in your life and this was my
first time visiting first time gambling first time everything stories about winning and
losing in Vegas are as common as a Hawaiian shirt on the Strip so there's a dispute over what happened when she
started playing and losing at Blackjack she lost Maybe $113,000 uh uh at Caesar's Palace lost all her
money and had to find a way to earn her money back she says she lost over $10,000 and ended up selling costumes
inside cheetahs others say she danced topless to survive a friend suggested they go to to
cheetahs and sell help and sell costumes to the dancers expensive uh designer costumes and she agreed to do that but
soon found that she she could make more money actually dancing than selling the costumes it was a lot easier and quicker
it appears to me that there's been you know publicity with a purpose here because they keep on revisiting this and
saying that Miss Murphy is some type of a topless dancer when in fact she never was
[Music] meanwhile Ted bignan was having troubles of his own a 15-year marriage had fallen
apart the day that his wife left and she wrote him a note saying goodbye Ted goes to the nearest topless
place which was cheetah's and the first girl he meets is Sandy Murphy at first Murphy is good news for Ted Bion since
his father died in 1989 his life had been filled with with trouble the gaming commission accused him of consorting
with Herby blitstein who was identified as a known racketeer blitzin was a top Lieutenant
of slain Chicago mob Kingpin Anthony spalatro who in his Heyday was involved in the uh the mob's hidden influence on
on several strip casinos so blitzin though spalatro had been murdered several years earlier still was somewhat
of a prominent figure in the Underworld and once that came to the attention of regulators it was basically history for
tit bions on again off again use of drugs distanced him from other members of his family who feared Ted's
recklessness might ultimately harm the estate at that time it was even to Mr Ban's best interest not to be in
communication with other members of his own family because of the embroiled situation now exiled from the Horseshoe
and shunned by by his family Ted Bion retreated to 2408 Palamino Lane they' get partied up on Wednesday night and I
get there Thursday and then he'd call me in the house he'd either send a maid out
to get me or else he'd say you know he'd come out and say Tom I need to talk to you and I would go in and he go Tom he
says I got to quit drinking he says I just beat the crap out of Sandy last night and I says oh and he goes well
she's a pretty good girl she puts up pretty good fight and then he would show me his arms where she he was scratched
or he's bruised and so this went on quite a bit Ted's problems with the state of Nevada reached an all-time low
when the gaming commission banned him permanently from operating a casino his license was revoked I believe in March
of 1998 and he was bounced from the industry that was his life he just he wanted to come back to the Horseshoe and
when he lost his license it was like it was so devastating to him friends of teds would later testify that he was
growing paranoid that he was about to be murdered he always would say you know they're out to get me but he would never
say who but he always he always had a gun with him he go down to the 7-Eleven he take a gun with him he come outside
to talk to me he had a gun with him I go in the house he always had a gun sitting
on a nightstand by him he just always had a pistol with him just two months before Ted Ban's death Rick tavish a
friend claims that bignan had him bury $4 million in silver coins on his rant in the desert according to tavish bignan
left instructions on what was to happen in the event of his death how the coins were to be recovered and who was to get
them you got to remember he's a Lot Like a Pirate he was a real hoarder he liked
to hoard things and stuff like that he was always constantly um saving things hiding things he was a
real collector so to speak and I think he was from the old school where he really didn't trust a bank he called me
in the house one day and he says Tommy says I've got to get all the silver out of out of the Horseshoe and I go what
silver and he goes all he says I just got tons of silver Tom he says my sister's taking it over and I don't
trust her bignan told his lawyer the day before he died to cut Sandy Murphy out of his will because he didn't trust her
then he purchased an enormous amount of heroin and locked himself in his house he scored 12 balloons of tar
heroin the night before he died when Ted bignan turned up dead it was not surprising that the first announcements
from police and the medical examiner office listed his death as accidental the whole town reacted as calmly as Rick
tavish who showed up at the house that day what were your first thoughts uh what a tragedy I mean I know that he was
trying real hard to straighten himself out and uh and just get every off his back so he could live his life I know he
wanted to go you know start fishing going up north fishing and spend more time at his Ranch and prump and and uh
Advance his relationship with his uh girlfriend and so it's it's a tragedy I don't know the specifics that's why I'm
here guys I just I come over to come in talk to somebody and find out what happened to them I mean that's that's my
first thing so that's about all I have to say tabish turns out to be more than just casual friend reporters soon
realize he's a main player in the drama about to unfold the next day tabish was discovered in the desert digging up
Ted's secret coin treasure for months the bignan family and estate questioned the official
account of what happened to Ted they offered a reward hired a private detective the former homicide
investigator Tom Dillard Dillard worked to town like a rattlesnake in the sand and 6 months later the cops were talking
murder one and pointing at tabish and Murphy the sight of this Japanese four-wheeler driving through Suburban
Las Vegas announces the arrival of Dillard Tom Dillard a former homicide detective he has worked Vegas as a Beat
for over 20 years I became involved in this case in late September of 1998 when uh the
special administrator for the estate of uh Ted bignan came to see me at my office uh and requested uh that my
office conduct an investigation into the facts and circumstances surrounding Mr Ban's death
uh he said the family members uh in particularly Jack ban the the executive of his estate were not comfortable with
with uh accidental overdose or or a suicide and they felt that there was uh more evidence to be gleaned from an
investigation Dillard began his probe by examining and reexamining the words of Rick tabish Dillard wanted to know if
tabish was telling the truth when he told reporters he had no idea what happened inside the Mansion the day Ted
bignan died I just got here I just drove up just a minute ago what were your first thoughts uh what a tragedy what
were your first what a tragedy Dillard also listened and relistened to Sandy Murphy's 911
call emergeny my husband's not breathing and needs someone to come out of the house
away right hello H up she said her husband wasn't breathing it's one of those situations where you've been to
many crime scenes as I have I was I'm a former homicide detective and it just didn't pass the smell test
for months Dillard talked to people who knew Ted bignan and Sandy Murphy he went
to Ted's Ranch in pump Nevada where Ted had buried a treasure of more than $4 million in silver coins Dillard wanted
to know why tabish was digging up the treasure before Ted was buried police Sergeant Steve Huggins told Dillard he'd
gotten an odd call from Ted just before he died and Ted had told Sergeant Huggins that if anything should ever
happen to him he should get out there to that location and make sure that uh that
silver was protected because uh if he was dead then somebody was coming after the silver so when Sergeant Huggins who
was off duty on that particular day uh heard that Ted Bion had died he called a sergeant another sergeants uh uh who was
on duty and asked him to drive by and take a look and see what was going on well the the duty Sergeant went over to
the location and uh they were just loading up and getting ready to leave when he encountered Rick tabish Michael
Milo and David Matson They concluded that these individuals were committing a grand larsy and they they were
ultimately arrested meanwhile the Vegas district attorney hired the nationally renowned medical examiner Michael Boden
boten after examining the evidence disagreed with the original autopsy f findings in my experience um the amount
of drug that uh that Mr bignan had in his system could cause death but the great
majority of people who had that amount would not die Boden described bruises at the side
of Ted Ban's mouth and on his chest now the da had a new theory on how bignan died it was Murder By
Suffocation the marks around the the mouth would uh indicate some kind of pressure in the mouth nose
area um which would lead to my opinion that Suffocation was the cause of death it was a easy assumption to make uh that
a a person who used heroin as extensively as Ted B was known to do could have overdosed on drugs it's a
logical thing that a logical conclusion that someone could make but you had to look a little deeper and when you looked
a little deeper you saw that that was not the case and then there was this videotape a
home recording Sandy Murphy made at the Bion Mansion the day after she had discovered Ted's
body make sure you get a pile of this all this stuff when I left my house was in the garage and it's all been taken
out the shelves were full and they've all been moved Okay sandy was making a video inventory
of her possessions you can hear her talking to her cameraman at times making fun of bignan family members that she
believed had been there before her and were taking out objects I'll open my piano drawer I got music in there I got
another pistol in there I bet they forgot about that one cuz they weren't smart enough to look here you
go the police and Detective Tom Dillard studied this tape over and over again they believe it shows Sandy removing a
glass from the table and placing it into her purse could this be key evidence is
she hiding the murder weapon this tape was very interesting she appears to take a wine glass from a countertop in a
kitchen and slip it into her purse while she's explaining all the things that are in
the kitchen and she's kind of quietly she's talking to one side and quietly taking this
appears to be taking this glass and slipping in her purse and investigators believe that glass somehow though she
denies it was used in in Ted Binion's death the Vegas district attorney accused tabish and Murphy of forcing a
lethal dose of drugs down Ban's throat while sitting on his chest with their hands over his
mouth coming up next Dillard's eyewitnesses testify about drugs sex and guns Las Vegas
[Music] style Las Vegas bookmakers were hedging their bets as to Sandy Murphy's guilt or
innocence at times M Murphy seemed at ease and confident as she moved in and out of the
courtroom but when the da presented damaging Witnesses during the preliminary hearing Miss Murphy showed
the pain of her situation he said you know I figured out uh my net worth He said I didn't know I was worth this much
he says I'm worth $73 million I said I said well I had no idea you were worth that either you know I
said I figured you were probably worth 40 or 50 but what difference does it make you you've got all the money that
you'll ever need he said take Sandy out of the will if she doesn't kill me tonight if I'm dead you'll know what
happened I said all right when he directed you to take Sandra Murphy out of his will did he vacillate at all
during that conversation no he was he was direct a circumstantial case was being
constructed Dena Perry a manicure testified that while having her nails painted Sandy Murphy described Ted Bion
as a drug addict who was going to die soon and when he died she was going to be rich she said that he was he had a
drug problem and he was going to on heroin and after that she was going to be with her boyfriend police claim
Murphy's boyfriend was Rick tabish Leo Casey a business associate of tabish testified that he had bragged about
being sand Murphy's lover and was scheming to steal bion's buried treasure Rick had talked about that he was going
to going to get the silver from uh from benion he said that benion had a lot of rare
coins and that uh he you know was going to get his hands on it and did he tell you what type of relationship he had
with Sandra Murphy Oh yes he he said that uh uh benan was you know drunk and knocked out with
drugs most of the time and uh he couldn't really perform so I his direct words were excuse me your honor he was
Sandra Murphy all the time and she was really loving it [Music] when Ben bignan brought his son West he
raised him to believe in Limitless skies and opportunity the bions Ben told his children were going to make history by
remaking the Western landscape the bions were winners Ben told them how profoundly unhappy would old man Bion
have been listening to the description of his son Ted as a pathetic paranoid drug
addict but Ben bignan would have rallied the family not withstanding Ted's weaknesses and so the task of writing
this particular history fell to Ted's sister well I to my interpretation Ted would seem very knowledgeable about
drugs because I expressed concern of his drug use because being his sister I I didn't want anything to happen to him
and he explained to me that the way he used heroin by smelling or ingesting it through smoke
that he could not overdose I know Ted was very concerned about you could not mix Xanax and heroin Ted talked about
Xanax and what A Dangerous Drug it was he was at my house one day and he walked in and poured some Xanax out and flushed
them down the toilet and came out and told me see this don't ever forget it it begins with an X it ends with an x x
it's called Xanax and it killed he named this friend of ours who it killed so he
new xenx was a very dangerous drug the home videotape made originally at the crime scene by Sandy Murphy was
introduced as States evidence against her because the da believes it shows M Murphy hiding a wine glass a wine glass
the state believes may have contained the Fatal combination of heroin and zanx the combination consumed by Ted
bignan this uh segment shows a lady in a kitchen is that right yes did you see her pick up
something with her left hand yes I did were you able to freeze frame the object which was picked up in the left hand
where the tape comes to a stop and holds for like 10 seconds that is the object that's in her left hand you can see the
glit glitter from it what is your opinion sir my opinion is it looks similar to the wine glasses that are on
the previous tape about 10 seconds past that point and did you see what she did uh with the wine glass in her left hand
it disappeared another potentially embarrassing piece of video was recorded in the courtroom but not played back by
the da this moment captured during the preliminary hearing has become a part of the whispered history of this case was
Sandy Murphy flirting with tabish does that smile signify a secret love [Music] affair Las Vegas loves stars and
celebrities at the time of the trial Sandy Murphy was the hot ticket the courthouse became a tourist attraction
luring visitors away from the slots temporarily testimony about secret buried treasure in plots to kill one of
the richest men in town was the buzzz for months Attorney John mammit orchestrated some of the hype he
surprised a lot of locals when he let a television network interview his client permitting a local station at the very
same time to tape that recording his client was captured close up crying as she recalled her life with Ted bignan
you were living with Ted Bion for 3 years did you love him of course I did um he was my
man do you miss him very much and how does that make you feel when you love him you
miss him and you hear what everybody is saying I know that Teddy knows and I really want to stop this okay
over the course of several on andof camera interviews both Mr mmed and M Murphy attacked the state's case and the
bions instead of a normal investigation by the Metropolitan Police Department uh
what you have here is uh special administrators appointed they take immediate possession of the premises on
Palamino uh they virtually shove this young lady out and uh the Bion money machine takes over
when you lose someone you love you go through um a certain grieving process or period and it's really hard to get over
that when you have to be scrutinized on a daily basis at trial John mamit used the videotape entered into the case by
the district attorney as a key element of Murphy's defense they were not at all shaken by what the video showed in fact
mamit and Miss Murphy rejected the allegation that she'd been recorded hiding evidence instead mam claimed the
video of Sandy Murphy showed how the crime scene was contaminated oh I want everyone to see everything okay I want
everything shown I don't want anything missing the camera followed Miss Murphy walking from room to room this was the
day after Ted bignan was found dead there were no police present to stop her I don't want any stealing I want to make
sure I don't trust anybody anymore I only could trust one person while man and he's not around to protect me
anymore no part of the house was marked off as a crime scene according to the defense little or no evidence was
preserved mammad hoped to use the government's exhibit against the government uh get a picture of the keys
there and the Box being opened and the money missing there's money in there well there was $220,000 in the house and
it's not here now it was Mam's strategy to challenge the testimony of Tom Dillard Mohammed believed Dillard was an
agent of the state claiming that he was part of a multi-million dollar effort by
the powerful Bion estate to crush Sandy Murphy he along with others uh go through this house uh at will and then
ultimately their findings their reports their data all during this six-month period of time is laid on the doorstep
of Metro and finally the Metropolitan Police Department declares that a homicide in March of 19 1999 some six
months thereafter mamm's case it appeared was going to rely on an appeal to the jury that portrayed Sandy Murphy
as the real victim a young innocent woman hounded by a powerful Vegas family motivated to preserve its fortune and
reputation [Music] the Bion have aggressively argued that Ted Bion was at first romanced and then
abused by Sandy Murphy while her lover Rick tabish was trying to get at Ted's money Sandy Murphy claimed her life with
Ted Bion was never about money she says he was charming and she couldn't help herself one day
uh about 700 a.m. on April 17th of 1995 he showed up on my doorstep um he knocked on the door and I answered it
and he threw his arms around me and he said I don't ever want to not know where you are again and um proceeded to go
into the house and load up my things in the car and and move me in and that was that um it was uh it was pretty exciting
and you know a little overwhelming but um we were in love and uh I think that any normal woman would have admired that
in her man next a young woman's romantic Notions become an all too real Horror Story as Sandy Murphy and Rick tabish
face their ultimate Destiny before a Las Vegas jury and the bions [Music] it All Began in the strip club cheetah
and so what happened there became a key part of the trial for John mamit cheetahs was the first big lie of the
story despite lurid headlines about Sandy Murphy dancing topless she claims she never did that the story was
fabricated to discredit her and make it easier for her to be convicted she was there I think for two weekends where she
sold costumes and I think on the first weekend uh some Patron started to bother her and management immediately came over
and suggested that you go to a different area and uh assuring her that she would
be protected and no one would bother her this area was a table where Mr ban was sitting at and that's how they met he
offered her a drink she really didn't want to have a drink and a conversation commenced from there despite attorney
mmmit's claim prosecutor David Roger Focus during the trial was not on how they met but on how Ted bignan died that
someone sat on his chest there thereby not allowing the lungs to expand and perhaps because of this pressure on the
chest and the buttons on Ted bion's shirt it caused these marks to add around the time of death and he said
that the hand or pillow over the mouth would have caused this redness around his mouth well in in
hindsight I guess that's not necessarily the way I would have envisioned him dying I would Envision him dying you
know in a hail of gunfire and a shootout protecting his you know riding gunshot on a while you know protecting his
silver or something or other possessions that um it really is not a a a colorful way
to [Music] die in the end the rugged Vegas natives on the jury look beyond the wasted life
of a legend and study the evidence around his corpse was Ted Bion suffocated or did he die in his own
desperation and disgust drugged out and wasted I'll remember him as a person who could have really been
something really great but lost it in a cesspool of Narcotics and bad decisions wasted
Talent is Sandy Murphy a liar and a killer what really happened in cheetas on the strip and finally inside the gun
and drug filled mansion Sandy Murphy was convicted of murder along with uh Rick Rick tabish her
ex-boyfriend I don't think Sandy Murphy is is a bad person you know she she was some one of those people who come to Las
Vegas and they hang out or do whatever it is they do at the strip clubs and she would come in from California and um I
think she's a nice girl from a nice family she was led astray um she had an affair with a guy I don't believe she
killed Ted Bion they were granted a new trial based upon the technicality the Nevada Supreme Court uh granted her a
new trial and rck tabish they got that trial and in 2005 they were found not guilty of of murder and there was
another case having to do with burglary Sandy was still found guilty on that that charge as was Rook tabish her
sentence was time served on that so she was released from prison um so she she was in prison for four years Rick tabish
is still in prison it appears as if he should should be released with good time probably sometime in
[Music] 2010 I've met with Sandy Murphy twice since she's been a free woman the first
time was just a few months after she'd been released and nobody knew where she was at this point uh but she had moved
back to Southern California she invited me to come to her condominium in a um fashionable suburb of South Orange
County and I had of course read all the stories about her dancing topless for Ted bignan when she first met him but
she met me in uh a very conservative outfit just jeans and a very loose top not much makeup uh her hair had not been
colored just been out of uh prison of course and uh she was very businesslike she has so sold her uh house in in Las
Vegas and um she had bought that with the Money Man Who provided her uh defense you know he paid for her defense
and she is living in Los Angeles and is working and is um past it and um is a free woman and um is living her life and
working [Music] I think everybody loses there's not a winner there's there's no winners and no
happy ending in the story everybody's a loser [Music]

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Brief Summary

Ted Binion's life, death, and the murder trial of Sandy Murphy and Rick Tabish are examined in detail.

Key points

The Mysterious Death. Ted Bignan's death was initially ruled accidental, but suspicions arose leading to murder charges.
The Colorful Life of Ted Bignan. Ted Bignan was a vibrant figure in Las Vegas, known for his love of action and gambling.
The Mysterious Death of Ted Bion. Ted Bion's death leads to a complex investigation involving drugs and possible foul play.
Sandy Murphy's Emotional Testimony. Sandy Murphy expresses her love for Ted Bion amidst the trial's scrutiny.
A Tragic Conclusion. The case ends with no clear winners, highlighting the losses on all sides.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I like to turn a toothpick into a lumber yard.

Ted Bignan's gambling philosophy.

1:02WatchJul 28, 2014

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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