Jos R. Ralat is Texas Monthlys taco editor, writing about tacos and Mexican food. He had a lot of his grandpa in him, attorney David Chesnoff says. After the final hand, and losing millions of dollars, Dandalos uttered one of the most famous poker quotes of all time: "Mr. Moss, I have to let you go." Wikimedia CommonsBinions Horseshoe in 1974. Decker wanted some character run out of town, he called Benny. On Christmas Eve, less than a month after Mildred Nobles death, the 31-year-old Lois Green, the depraved gunman who liked to bury his victims alive, walked out of the Sky-Vue Club in West Dallas and was ripped apart by the blast of a shotgun. Binion never held a gambling license again after going to prison, but he remained on the casinos payroll as a consultant.. Rightly or wrongly, he believed that the bomb that killed his wife was planted by Benny Binions gang, and revenge became his solitary obsession. Benny Binion was always listed on the payroll as a consultant but he never regained his gambling license. He settled down. Benny apparently was under the misapprehension that U.S. district judge Ben Rice was prepared to give him probation in exchange for a gift of $100,000. Benny Binion moved to Vegas in 1946 with two suitcases loaded with cash earned from the decades he operated illegal gambling rackets throughout Dallas. A Texas jury convicted Binion of tax evasion. Everyone in the rackets was making big money by this time. Meet Benny Binion, The Murderous Texas Gangster Who Turned Las Vegas Into Sin City. A former light heavyweight boxer, my dad was still physically imposing, even at 70 years old, but he was slimmer after his most recent stint inside. Forrest Wilder writes about politics and the outdoors. Thomas Foley and his brother Roger Foley, Jr., eventually became judges themselves, as did Bennys other chief lawyer, Harry Claiborne. The case will be tried starting October 8 in the court of U.S. district judge Philip M. Pro. The sale closed on Mar. At Christmas the Binion gang passed out turkeys to regular customers. Unlike later casinos, the Horseshoe didnt offer entertainment or fancy decor. back to Texas.. One was a federal judgeship for Bennys friend and lawyer Harry Claiborne, the second was an exemption from interstate trucking regulations for a business acquaintance in Oklahoma, and the third was a pardon for himself. The reform administration in Dallas kept an eye out for Binion even after he moved to Vegas. Jack took his show to Mississippi and Louisiana and has been hitting home runs "out of the park" ever since . Dallas County sheriff Bill Decker, the longtime deputy who had replaced the hapless Steve Guthrie in 1950, summed up his official take on Herbert the Cat this way: He was folks. Even during the Depression, the policies netted hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. Wikimedia CommonsFremont Street, the site of Binions casino, in 1952. Not long before Benny died, some aging Dallas blacks, in Las Vegas for a class reunion, stopped by the Horseshoe to pay their respects to the Cowboy. Born in Pilot Point in Grayson County in 1904, the son of a layabout who drank up the family inheritance, Benny left home at fifteen, bumming around El Paso and the DallasFort Worth area, punching cattle, trading horses, gambling, bootlegging, getting in a little trouble but nothing he couldnt handle. [7] In retaliation, Noble planned to fly his private plane to Las Vegas to bomb Binion's house, but was restrained by local law enforcement before he could execute his plan. This story is from Texas Monthlys archives. He even had an airmens map of Las Vegas, pinpointing the Binion home on Bonanza Road. If you fill out the first name, last name, or agree to terms fields, you will NOT be added to the newsletter list. (Associated Press) It's a good thing. In 1928 Benny expanded his business to include the numbers racket, also known as the policy business. The Southland, owned by Galveston mob boss Sam Maceo, became the headquarters for Binions gang, known as the Southland Hotel Group. In all, Noble escaped at least 11 known attempts on his life. Mildreds body was found one hundred feet from the twisted, blackened frame, her face crushed and one foot blown off. On a hot August day in 1951 a land bomb, planted two feet from the mailbox and directly under the spot where a driver stopping to pick up his mail would sit, blew Herbert Noble into an almost infinite number of pieces. Additionally, the Horseshoe would allow a bet of any size from a player as long as the bet was no larger than the player's initial bet. Jack Binion's career began at an early. He started moonshining and was convicted twice. At that point Noble crumpled to the ground, blubbering like a baby and sobbing that Benny got all the breaks, that nobody gave a damn what happened to poor Herbert Noble. Cheating was a way of life for the gamblers and gangsters whom Binion soon befriended. Can College Sports Get More Absurd Than SMU Joining the Pac-12? In 1970, after years of arranging heads-up matches between high-stakes players, Binion invited six players to compete in a tournament. He was 55. Noble was a city boy, raised in West Dallas, which also spawned such infamous outlaws as Clyde Barrow, Bonnie Parker, and Raymond Hamilton. This is just business.. Becky bought out her brother Jack 's share in the Horseshoe Club a few years ago. Like all the previous attempts, number eleven failed; but the Cat must have known he was living on borrowed time. Rather than bribing individual cops, Binion and other gamblers cheerfully paid regular fines. Generous to his friends, hospitable to his customers and dangerous to his enemies, Johnny Hughes remembers Binion through his own words. His parents initially kept him out of school due to poor health. Binion's Horseshoe opened with craps limits at $500 while the city's standard was $50. As usual, Bennys timing was perfect. On Fremont Street, the Glitter Gulch housed the rowdiest casinos in Vegas. Ted Binion's House (Former) Ted Binion was a wealthy U.S. gambling executive and one of the sons of famed Las Vegas casino magnate Lester Ben "Benny" Binion, owner of Binion's Horseshoe. Like us on Facebook. After the Cowboy suffered two major heart attacks and surrendered even a pretense of control, the rough stuff got out of hand. And if you happen to live as fast as Fechser, it never hurts to pray for a timely blossom. But he also knew the value of charity. He still loved to talkGod how he loved to talk!and he held court every afternoon at a corner booth at the Horseshoe, telling old war stories. He would take the subject for a ride in the country, march him to a pre-dug grave, strip him naked, shoot him in the guts with a double-barreled shotgun, kick him into the hole, cover him with quicklime, and bury him while he was still alive, screaming for mercy. 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003. Benny Binion's dice game. By 1951 the Kefauver Senate Crime Committee was holding hearings in Los Angeles, and Benny was on the committees list of witnesses wanted but not (yet) found. Meanwhile, back in Dallas, Benny had been charged with operating a policy wheel and income tax evasion and was fighting extradition. Benny Binion, the founder and owner of Binion's Horseshoe Casino in downtown Las Vegas from 1946 until his death in 1989, was known for being an affable Texan with a reputation for taking care of his family as well as his employees. Ten years ago today, a Las Vegas landmark was forcibly shut down. Sept. 19, 1998: Rick Tabish was caught at 2 A.M. digging up Binion's buried treasure, estimated to be worth $7 million. His face was gentler and rounder, his blue eyes cloudy and not so hard, his waist and hips going to fat, his voice husky but good-humored. He lived here, and it takes all kinds of people to make a city.. Wade warned him to stay out of Texas or face additional prison time, but a few months later the Cowboy was riding in the Fat Stock Show parade in downtown Fort Worth, as sassy as ever. Binion didn't consider himself to be very good at poker, nor did he participate much in competition or private cash games, preferring to organize them. One of the assailants is reported to be 23 year old Benny Behnen, the grandson of Horseshoe founder Benny Binion and the son of current Horseshoe owners Becky and Nick Behnen. In May 1948, as Noble drove through the entrance gate of his ranch home, gunmen riddled the car with bullets. In November 1949 his wife was killed in a car bombing intended for him. If anything the meeting only escalated the violence. 1969. Life in the fast lane wasnt all that different from life anywhere else, was it? It remains a unique home with its rustic "Old West" ranch style incorporating native stone and log construction and sweeping veranda. He has a Christian religion. The Players 2 - Doyle Brunson Perhaps the most enduring player of the World Series of Poker is Doyle Brunson. [11] By the end of 1936, Binion had gained control of most gambling operations in Dallas, with protection from a powerful local politician. Copyright 2019 Las Vegas Review-Journal, Inc. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Service, Wahlbergs $14.5M bungalow leads 2022 new home luxury, You can tell they love football: Raiders make big impression on young QB, 3 women linked to robbery before police shooting, Convicted Las Vegas killer overdosed on meth, coroner rules, Nevada neighborhoods make list of best places for post-pandemic office space, Woman killed in single-vehicle crash in central Las Vegas, What are they hiding? He died on September 17, 1998. [20], In 1951, Binion purchased the Eldorado Club and the Apache Hotel, opening them as Binion's Horseshoe, which immediately became popular because of the high limits on bets. Benny and Francis "Teddy" Jane Binion had five children. [18], In Las Vegas, Binion became a partner of the Las Vegas Club casino, but left after a year due to licensing problems. Binion responded, Great, they can sleep in your place and gamble in mine.. He thought he was going to take a beating for sure. An outraged Wade pushed for a harsher sentence. Though gambling was technically illegal, the systematic revenues it generated helped sustain city government and, in a curious way, helped forestall corruption. Noble accepted his partners death as a business omen and promptly shut down his policy wheels. Toward the end of World War I, Benny settled in Dallas, apprenticing himself to Warren Diamond. However, in 1990 he was inducted posthumously into the Poker Hall of Fame for his contributions to the game.[29]. (This narrative is disputed as fact and is most likely a myth. Blood Aces had been set for a film adaptation in 2015, but that fell through, so we are now looking at a . The true unit of exchange wasnt money but information and influence. Ted's live-in girlfriend, Sandra Murphy, and her lover, Rick Tabish, were charged and convicted of his murder, but the verdict was later overturned. State senator E. L. Nores, who appeared before the commission as a character witness for Binion, claimed that Bennys only limitation was his unbounded generosity. He was a former Nevada assemblyman, prominent attorney and former president of the Nevada State Bar Association. The bullet-riddled bodies of policy runners were found from time to time beside railroad tracks or in fields of weeds near the Trinity River bottom, but the lawmen didnt bother to investigate. Pros flocked to the tournament, along with wealthy amateurs who didnt mind losing the money. And You Thought Feral Hogs Were Bad. He was able to retain the craps game at the Airmens Club, however, when he agreed to give Benny his usual 25 percent cut. He negotiated Middle East peace, or tried. After reading about Benny Binion, learn about other famous gangsters of the 1920s. [23], Binion was in the vanguard of Las Vegas casino innovation. We report on vital issues from politics to education and are the indispensable authority on the Texas scene, covering everything from music to cultural events with insightful recommendations. In Binions casino, anyone who could afford the $10,000 buy-in could enter the challenge. He wasnt much of a gambler himself, but he became, in the idiom of the trade, a square craps fader, square meaning honest and fader being the one who covers the crapshooters bet. Fremont Street, the site of Binions casino, in 1952. [33] However, by 2006, the tournament's main event (not including all of the other events) would have 8,773 entrants. Politicians, judges, cops, entertainers, rodeo cowboys, robbers, and pistoleros from Dallas to Vegas owed him debts of gratitude, and sometimes debts of hard cash, which Benny was inclined to forget, rationalizing that if somebody owed him money it was his own damn fault. In 1946, a rival shot him in the back. In age order: Barbara, Jack, Brenda, Lonnie "Ted," and Becky. Benny Binion (left) on horseback (c. 1960s). Since Nick couldn't get a license on his own from the Nevada Gaming Board (no further comment), he was prohibited from making any management decisions on property. Ted Binion had a net worth of $10 million at the time of his death. [36] Poker great "Amarillo Slim" Preston suggested as an epitaph, "He was either the gentlest bad guy or the baddest good guy you'd ever seen. Benny was born in Texas in 1909; he was very ill as a child, and as a result, his horse-trading parents decided to keep him out of school. Religion is too strong a mystery to doubt, he said. Allen Public Library Presents : Jim Gatewood, author of Benny Binion: The Legend of Benny Binion, Dallas Gambler and Mob Boss, provides a colorful descriptio. The rule was, Do your enemies before they can do you, and Benny often found it necessary to arbitrate business differences with a .45 automatic. [9] Two years later, Binion and associates allegedly killed Sam Murray, another of his competitors in the gambling rackets. Latest Entries Winners. Pretty soon two cars were careening down country roads at speeds of ninety miles an hour, exchanging gunfire. Benny wanted a rival shut down, he called Sheriff R. A. Benny wanted two things: a pardon, and a federal . Though he now lived 1,500 miles away, he continued to control the policy racket, and he got a share from all craps games. From a Texas backwater, Binion rose to prominence on a . Benny Binion died on Christmas Day, 1989, of heart failure. By the 1970s, Binion found a new way for his casino to make money: promoting the World Series of Poker. Although Binion had a controversial and oftentimes violent life story, he is remembered as something of a legend in both Las Vegas and Texas. The king of racketeering in Dallas, Binion moved to Vegas in the 1940s and opened his own casino. Keys fogged memory improved; of course he remembered. Eyewitnesses collaborate the police report though Piero's owner Freddie Glusman later denied the incident occurred. Benny Binion and Chill Wills pose in front of Will's wheels (c. 1960s). The Cat was away that night. Don't miss the big stories. Thomas "Amarillo Slim" Preston once said about his long-term mentor: "He was either the gentlest bad guy or the baddest good guy you've ever seen.". Benny Binion was born in Grayson County, Texas in November 1904 and passed away in December 1989. Benny Binion, the infamous gangster cowboy who created the World Series of Poker tournament, is now getting his story told in the form of a scripted series. He was the son of Benny Binion, owner of Binion's Horseshoe. The Senate ratified the treaties; Benny never made public which vote he delivered. 102 Years Later, She Died Of COVID-19, What Stephen Hawking Thinks Threatens Humankind The Most, 27 Raw Images Of When Punk Ruled New York, Join The All That's Interesting Weekly Dispatch. The Horseshoe is also believed to be the first major casino to offer 100-times-odds at craps (a patron with a bet on the pass or don't-pass lines could take or lay up to 100 times their bet in odds). He was something of a ladies man too, and fairly well educated, at least by Bennys standards. The nickname came from Nobles luck he seemed to have nine lives. Brunson was in the first WSOP in 1970 and retired at the 49 th WSOP in 2018. This time Noble was saved by the armored plating of his bulletproof car. The serious gamblers flocked to the Horseshoe. Someone was just saying that if they opened up his body theyd say, We cant use these organs. But the last 10 years or so he really behaved himself. The Top 50 Texas BBQ Joints: 2021 Edition. [13][14] Shortly afterward a long-running feud between Binion and Herbert Noble, a small-time Dallas gambler, boiled over when Noble refused to increase his payoff to Binion from 25 to 40 percent. First, the casino catered to hard-eyed, no-nonsense gamblers. Key Fechser, the grandson of Benny Binion, died Jan. 28 of an apparent heart attack while visiting his son, T.J. Fechser, in Santa Fe, N.M., family members inform me. Big rains and snowfall since late last year have freed half of California from drought, but low groundwater levels remain a problem, officials said. During a break in the trial, she approached chief deputy attorney general John Redlein, who was prosecuting the case. "People want good whiskey, cheap, good food . Binion spent 42 months behind bars for income tax evasion and state charges of operating an illegal policy wheel. World War II was over, troops were coming home, people dared again talk about the future. Everyone assumed that Green was done in by Nobles number one hitter, a gunsel known as the Groceryman. In February 1951, Noble attacked an associate of the late Lois Green outside a West Dallas grocery store and got his earlobe bitten off. There had always been a dispute over how many bullets were fired from Bennys .45. Benny did not cut his ties with Dallas, however. In April 1990, Fescher, his uncle Ted Binion, and six guards were indicted on federal charges of conspiring to kidnap, beat, and rob customers of the Horseshoeparticularly blacks and other people considered undesirable by the Binions. Binion pleaded guilty and paid his fine on the spot in cash. Years before the Vegas Strip drew in millions of visitors, Binion opened his own casino, Binions Horseshoe. [16][17], Binion lost his Nevada gaming license in 1951, and was sentenced to a five-year term in 1953 at Leavenworth federal penitentiary for tax evasion. [10], In the same year as the murder of Frieden, Binion established a network of private dice games at several Dallas hotels, including the Southland Hotel in downtown Dallas. They called him the Cowboy, for reasons that had to do with guns, not horses. Jack Binion (left), Benny, and US Senator Howard Cannon (c. 1960s). He also invented the now-famous World Series of Poker. I used to have lunch over at the Horseshoe fairly often, he replied, but I guess I wont be welcome after this, heh?, Not at all, honey, she told him. His father, a horse trader, let him accompany him on trips. Juries found Binion and his partner Harry Urban guilty of tax evasion. In June 1953 Benny had his chauffeur, a large black man who went by the name of Gold Dollar, drive him from Las Vegas to Dallas, where he surrendered to his old friend Bill Decker. A casino employee chased down a drunk who had thrown a brick through a window, calmly shot him to death on a street a few blocks from the police station, then strolled back to the Horseshoe as though nothing had happened. Benny Binion was a true pioneer who understood the makings of running a successful gambling casino by offering visitors and gamblers a better deal for their money: good food, fine whisky, lovely-looking women, private rooms, and beautiful central air suites to sleep in. back to Texas.. The network was a living thing, as solid as gold. [7] In August 1951, as Noble drove up to his mailbox, a bomb exploded nearby, killing him instantly. [30] It now operates as Binion's Gambling Hall and Hotel under the ownership of TLC Gaming Group. Bill Coulthard. When Benny Binion moved to Las Vegas, he found only a handful of casinos operating in Sin City. Noble managed to stop and flee on foot, but a slug caught him in the back as he escaped into the woods. But within a few years, Binion would change the casino game and put the so-called Glitter Gulch on the map. There is a larger-than-life statue of the Cowboy near the rear entrance of Binions Horseshoe Hotel and Casino, the no-limit, no-frills gambling joint in downtown Las Vegas that Benny opened in 1951 and his family still owns. Binion immediately began befriending judges, police chiefs, and politicians in Vegas. Daniel Vaughn is the countrys first barbecue editor, and he has eaten more barbecue than you have. For most of her history, in fact, Dallas was a wide-open town. Also found was a note . Herbert Noble, of course, was a problem still to be resolved. Binion operated the joint according to two rules: The Horseshoe was a place for serious gambling, and cheaters would have their arms and legs broken. Benny Binion lived the first half of his life in Texas and the last half in Las Vegas and became a legend in both places. He spent the first part of his nefarious life burning bridges and making enemies. The Cowboy was as generous with friends as he was malevolent with enemies. He was definitely marching to a different drummer. Hijackers loved to prey on poker and craps games because players probably had more pocket money than banks had deposits and were not inclined to report their losses. [2], Binion's FBI file reveals a criminal history dating back to 1924. Despite his many crimes, he never stayed behind bars for long. Noble might have pulled it off except that Dallas police lieutenant George Butler, who was on temporary assignment to the Kefauver committee, happened to drive up to the ranch just as Noble was doing his final checkout. Texas Estate That Was Notorious Gangster's Hideout Finds Buyer The 1,369-acre compound, the longtime hideaway of career criminal and convicted murderer Benny Binion, was sold for at least. [27] Binion was never allowed to hold a gaming license afterwards. But rather than issue a simple denial, Benny replied that, Tell them FBIs that . Frank Sutton, a detective sergeant with the Las Vegas metropolitan police department, says, The Horseshoe was the only casino in town that didnt believe in calling the police. According to one report, orders to get Benny Binion were issued the following summer from the Democratic National Convention. Her power daddies in the thirties and forties, particularly downtown bankers Bob Thornton and Fred Florence, not only tolerated vice, they competed with Fort Worth publisher Amon Carter to see which town could be the most wicked. In Dallas in the 1920s, Binion learned some top tricks from Warren Diamond, the king racketeer at the time. Benny posted a reward of $10,000 for Nobles scalp, the bumped it to $25,000, and then to $50,000, with a craps game thrown in as added incentive. He was a guy you could shake hands with, and feel you had met a real American character, said Howard Schwartz of Gamblers Book Club. It was necessary, therefore, to retain the services of freelance gunsels, the most dependable being Jim Clyde Thomas, Tincy Eggleston, and Lois Green. Bennys gang kept 80 percent of the take and paid out the other 20 percent to the lucky winners. In Dallas, police mostly ignored minor vices like gambling but they still raided periodically to keep gangsters on their toes. A few days later Noble found another bomb in another airplane. By the late thirties he was a bodyguard for Sam Murray. Las Vegas was just a wide spot on the map in December 1946there were only two casinos in town, the El Rancho and the Frontierbut was about to blossom into the gambling capital of the world. He was the inventor and the organizer of the growing poker festival and he seemed like an authentic figure in a world based on fraud and illusions. He was a very pure spirit. It is one of the few markets in Las Vegas food desert areas where there are limited options for affordable and nutritious food in lower-income neighborhoods. Jack and Ted took over as president and casino manager, respectively, in 1964. Binion died in Las Vegas in 1989.. He was also 37% owner of the property on which Binion's Horseshoe Casino stood. Rosary/Vigil will be said at 6:00 p.m., Monday, August 1, 2022, at Schooler Funeral Home in Amarillo. "[22][25] For many years the Horseshoe had a late night $2 steak special, with most of the meat for the steaks coming from cattle on Binion's ranches in Montana. He was the son of Benny Binion, the proprietor of Binion's Horseshoe in. Once thickset and muscular, Noble had lost at least fifty pounds and looked like a piece of overcooked bacon. When you look back, the majority of people were not conformists.. Murder was also technically illegal, but in the spirit of those times it was usually easier to beat a murder rap than to get exonerated for breaking and entering. [8] In 1936, Binion and an associate killed a numbers operator and competitor, Ben Frieden, emptying their pistols into him. It might have come off too, except Benny couldnt keep his famous mouth shut. With electrifying details and piquant . (Image: AP) Ted Binion Net Worth. Two men assumed to be cheating at blackjack were hauled into the security office, beaten, and robbed. The following December, he pleaded guilty to federal charges of income tax evasion and state charges of operating an illegal policy wheel. Benny Binion went to the White House and had lunch with President Jimmy Carter's secretary. The Binion family lived here from 1947 until Benny passed away in 1989. Meeting at a tourist court near Love Field (and speaking into a hidden microphone planted by the Dallas police) Shimley assured the Cat that no one was more grief-stricken by his wifes death than Benny Binion, that Benny had sworn on the lives of his own wife and five children that he had nothing to do with the bombing. Noble didnt buy Shimleys story. Leave them blank to get signed up. But the Cat ultimately died when a mailbox bomb blew him up in 1951. Until recently, the dealers wore jeans. And yet there was no question that the Cowboy had mellowed. Ted Binion died on September 17, 1998, at the age of just 54 years old. Binion resisted the trend of tacking a hotel onto a casino. Wikimedia CommonsA 1948 postcard advertising Las Vegas. His checkered history includes murders and a reputation for getting rid of anyone who got in the way of his business dealings. But in the end it was no match for the tenacity of Dallas post-war crusaders or their lust for vengeance. [22] As a result of outdoing the competition he received death threats, although eventually casinos raised their limits to keep up with him. That wasnt entirely true. Binion and his wife, Teddy Jane, had five children: two sons, Jack and Ted, and three daughters, Barbara, Brenda and Becky. This came to be known as the Southland Syndicate. After Murray was killed, Noble recruited one of Bennys most valued men, Ray Laudermilkhe was Binions steerman, the guy who steered clients off the street and up to room 226. A lot of gunsels sniffed at that proposition, and a lot of them ended up dead. [1] As he traveled with his father, the young man learned to gamble, a favorite pastime when horse traders met up with farmers and merchants during county fair trade days. Smoot Schmid or deputy sheriff Bill Decker, his longtime friend and the lawman who really ran Dallas for most of three decades. Nobody had to tell Benny Binion the party was over. She was a familiar sight on Fremont Avenue, this scrawny old lady with dyed hair and a cigarette between her nicotine-stained fingers, trudging from the casino to the bank with hundreds of thousands of dollars stuffed in the pockets of her trench coat. But while the judge in Dallas sent Urban to prison, Binions case was transferred to Nevada jurisdiction, and he got off with probation and a small fine. But instead of passing sentence, district judge Thomas Foley took it on himself to overturn the jury verdict, an action within the power of a Nevada judge. Benny often dispatched his grandson, Key Binion Fechser, to distribute what often was the only hot meal of the day for the African-American kids. [10] By the early 1940s he had become the reigning mob boss of Dallas, and was seeking to take over the gambling rackets in Fort Worth. The NFL says in a brief that the former Raiders coach agreed to arbitrate disputes when he signed his 10-year, $100 million contract with the team. When Benny loaned $30,000 to Clark County sheriff Ralph Lamb, for example, he didnt expect Lamb to repay the money, but he expected Lamb to be there for him when he needed a favor. Benny sent $15,000, and two days later his pardon was denied. Binion's Horseshoe, the crumbling ruin of a former empire and the final vestige of the Old West that had once transformed dusty Las Vegas into a neon-lit magnet of vice, shuddered its windows and padlocked its doors. And yet in the Cats grief-twisted brain a fantastic plot was fomenting. Benny Binion, who shifted his operations from Dallas to Las Vegas in the late '40s, was pictured on the steps of the federal courthouse in Waco in 1953. A month after the election, Benny packed two suitcases full of money and headed for Las Vegas. Left to right: Johnny Moss, Chill Wills, Amarillo Slim, Jack Binion, and Puggy Pearson in front of the casino (undated). He also was a witness in the murder trial of Sandy Murphy and Rick Tabish following the suspicious death of his uncle, the even more wild living Ted Binion. Even then it was nothing personal, just business. Binion's creation of the World Series helped popularize the game of poker, though he greatly underestimated how popular the World Series would become.

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