skills, with that institutional knowledge, it makes the country less safe. >> brian mason, thank you very much. and for folks who are watching, if you look familiar, it's his twin brother is jeff mason, who's a great white house reporter here in washington. thank you very much for being here. >> thank you, jonathan. >> and that'll do it for me. thanks for watching. tune in tomorrow to the sunday show. when congresswoman susan delbene of washington, chair of the democratic congressional campaign committee, joins us to discuss her party's response to trump's imperialistic power grabs. plus, i'll talk to kelly robinson, president of the human rights campaign, who will talk about trump's attacks on lgbtq americans. that's tomorrow, 6 americans. that's tomorrow, 6 p.m. [music playing] it was horrible to find someone that you love, not knowing if they're dead or alive. the fire department discovered mr. ted binion on the floor. the authorities thought ted died of a drug overdose. simple as that? no evidence of foul play.

ted was a charismatic figure. he was a binion, a family that built a dynasty. ted's sister did not want sandy to get a dime of the binion money. did he know that sandy was going out with somebody else? i don't know how much he knew. they had something to do with the death of my brother. i wanted it to be treated as a homicide. have you seen the video of sandy surreptitiously grabs the wine glass and puts it in her purse? we believe that that glass was used to give ted binion the lethal cocktail. keith morrison: death in las vegas, a beautiful young woman, a stash of silver, mob figures everywhere, i mean, good lord. you couldn't help to follow it. keith morrison: what are the odds it was murder? did you kill ted binion? no way. so here i was driving along pacific coast highway

on a sunny california day. a black sports car roars past and then slows down. and there's a woman inside, blonde and tanned and waving me over. so i followed directions. and what do you know, a woman i first met in a jail cell, a 20-something surfer girl caught up with the vegas mob and buried treasure and maybe murder. she was sentenced to life in prison then. so there she was, the traffic whizzing by, telling me the rest of her crazy story that never really added up, until maybe now. so where to begin? well, of course, the event they called the night of the silver heist.

it was the middle of the night when the cops saw it, a big backhoe, just like this one, grinding away in a vacant lot smack dab in the middle of a tiny one-casino burg called pahrump, nevada. cop checked the time, 2:00 am. this didn't seem right. so i drove over here to see what they were doing. keith morrison: former deputy sergeant ed howard had just gotten off shift, but this was too weird to ignore. why here in the middle of town in the middle of the night? i'm sitting there for a while and one of the gentlemen walked over to me and he asked me what i was doing there basically and was kind of snotty. so i said, nothing. what are you doing? and he goes, we're removing ordnance off the property, keith morrison: meaning by the sound of it, explosives, bombs. in other words, beat it. [radio dispatch] instead, howard got on his radio and called deputy dean pennock for backup.

we just felt like when he said ordinances that he thought that we would like back up a little bit and say, ok, not investigating anymore. keith morrison: but the deputies were not going anywhere. and so the crew boss, a guy named rick tabish, came over and told them a whole new story. tabish said he and a couple of guys were really there to haul away old concrete debris in advance of the lot being put up for sale. that's why he brought along a giant gravel trailer, called a belly dump, which to the deputies looked like it was loaded to the point of bursting. kind of giving it a little bit of a banana look. you know, like there's-- it could have broke if they would have drove it, maybe. there was that much in there. we asked him what was in it, and he just said there was some concrete in there. so i go, do you mind if we jump up there and take a look inside? and he goes, no, go right ahead. so pennock walks over there. and i go, dean, jump up there and take a look. so then i climbed up the back ladder. and as i lifted back the cover to the trailer,

he asked me what i saw. i was shocked. i said, there's a [bleep] load of silver in here. there's bags. they look like money bags, all sorts of bars and stuff. one looked like it was the size of a parking curb that looked like it was silver. you walked up to the side of the truck thinking you were going to see concrete, and you saw that. what was that like? it was amazing. i was shocked myself, and i wasn't even thinking of those guys at that point. i was looking and going, wow, look at all this money in the bottom of this truck. i wonder how much there's there. keith morrison: literally, 24 tons of silver, it turned out. pennock was staring at a treasure worth close to $20 million in 2022 dollars. the kind of money people will kill for. suddenly, pennock was aware of the darkness all around them. you're looking at the mountainside, and you don't know if there's somebody out there, a possible sniper. keith morrison: a fearful intensity gripped pennock and howard as they searched this tabish guy's pickup truck. but instead of guns, they found even more

silver, rare coins this time. coins from like the 1800s. and there was a thousand silver dollars in each box, and there was 86 boxes in the back of the truck. keith morrison: that's when tabish told a third story, the strangest one yet. he said he'd dug up the silver from an underground vault right there on the vacant lot. what's more, he said he had permission from the guy who owned the silver, a guy named ted binion. because he didn't want his wife to get it or the irs to get it or something like that. did you buy this story? no, because i definitely would have had a wells fargo truck there and been doing it at a different time with some guards and stuff. that's when we said, so you guys stealing this? and he's like, oh, no. the sheriff knows i'm here. keith morrison: by way of proof, tabish held out his cell phone. you could scan right through and see a bunch of calls to the number for the sheriff, and they were timed.

some were a few minutes, and some were a long time. so that kind of made us go, hmm, this is a little different. more complex than we initially thought? yeah, because you thought, oh, this is just some guys screwing around up here, then they're lying to you. and then they steal they're stealing the money, but now they're saying they have permission. keith morrison: so the sheriff was summoned to the dig site to help sort things out. the sheriff was really upset and nervous, and that's when he ended up calling tabish a liar. you're a liar. i don't know anything about this. i didn't give you permission to do this. keith morrison: clearly, more questions to ask. so they hauled tabish and his crew to the station, followed by a deputy driving the belly dump, which pennock said was so close to busting a gut it had to be offloaded by hand. because there was so much in there, we couldn't get the belly dump open of the truck because it was bending. so people had to climb in and toss money out until we got enough where we could get it open. keith morrison: as the silver was unloaded, tabish continued to insist on tape that he told the sheriff he was going to dig up binion's vault

that night. get the silver. get the silver. >> i mean, my god of course, there was really only one way to find out for sure, call the owner of the silver, this ted binion fella, and ask him, did he really tell tabish to dig it up? except that wasn't possible because ted binion, well known heir to a casino fortune, wasn't talking, wasn't breathing either. coming up, what happened to ted binion? and who is that young surfer girl? i fell in love with teddy. i have the bad-boy syndrome. he was a fun and kind of rough and tough. keith morrison: what did she know, and would she spill it? who did kill ted binion.

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reporters had so many questions that police held an impromptu presser in ted's front yard. at about 4:00 or 5:00 this afternoon, we received a 911 call of a male not breathing. the fire department and paramedics arrived and discovered mr. ted binion on the floor in one of the rooms. keith morrison: the news gripped the whole town because ted binion wasn't just rich and famous. he was bigger than life, maybe the last vestige of a las vegas that doesn't exist anymore. oh, sure. it's still a gaudy strip of pavement lined with money and wishful thinking and lies. but there was a time, good or bad, when, so they say, the mob ran this town and casinos were owned by characters like binion's on fremont street, family owned since the '50s. and sandy murphy, she was ted binion's live-in girlfriend. people didn't quite know what to make of her

or the story she told. it was horrible. i don't think that anyone could possibly understand what it's like to come home and to find someone that you love not breathing and not knowing if they're dead or alive. keith morrison: as you can probably tell, sandy was incarcerated when i interviewed her two decades ago. life sentence for reasons-- well, she had her own idea about the reasons. there was a driving force that ultimately wanted some-- keith morrison: someone to pay? --someone to pay the price for teddy's death. who did kill ted binion? can i answer that, john? the young woman sitting with me in the jail that long ago day was clearly bright, very charming. she leapt easily from tears to laughter to indignation

and back again. she was either candid as she told her story or a very good liar. when you come home and you find someone that you love dying, you want to do everything you can to help them. i tried to perform cpr. i tried to do everything i could to help him before that ambulance came that day. keith morrison: before sandy murphy was the girlfriend of a recently deceased casino magnate and a prime suspect, she was, by her own account, a california cliché, a surfer girl. my dad was a surfer. so when we were kids, he used to take us to watch him surf. he taught you how? no, he didn't teach me how. keith morrison: did it yourself? yeah. keith morrison: her life is carefree as can be. until late teens, it became really anything but. well, when i was in high school, i fell in love with a significantly older man. keith morrison: short story, they moved in together.

we had real-life issues. you know, we had a house payment and car payments and, you know, real life. keith morrison: it was a bad idea from the start. here she was, barely out of high school, all tied down. she needed a break, she said. i think it was just a time for me to let loose and to be a kid and to just have fun and anything goes and it'd be ok. keith morrison: in the winter of 1995, at the age of 23, sandy scraped together all the cash she could, and with a friend in tow, headed for las vegas. how long did you intend to be in vegas? two weeks. so what happened when you got here? we went gambling and lost. we? who's we? just a friend of mine, a girlfriend. one day, you lost all your money? yeah, one day. keith morrison: you might think that would be the time to pack up and slink home, but sandy and her friend

weren't done with vegas just yet. so my girlfriend designs clothes and costumes for dancers, exotic dancers. and we ended up at a local nightclub here called cheetahs. the cheetahs association continues to bother sandy. she was always known in the press as the stripper girlfriend of binion, but she maintains she never did that. she and her friend were at cheetah's just having fun, she said, selling costumes to the strippers to make money. so that was a way to get money? oh, absolutely but you'd only been here a couple of days when this was happening. absolutely. but it was still-- i mean, we had a great time. it didn't-- it didn't hinder our vacation at all. actually, i think it enhanced it. it might have been good luck we lost the money. keith morrison: because one night, just hanging out at cheetah's, sandy met ted binion. the first night that i met him was on a friday night,

and he was sitting with a character by the name of herbie blitzstein. keith morrison: this is him, "fat herbie" blitzstein, everybody called him. he was, no getting around it, a mobster. remember that name. it's going to come up later. we ended up sitting and drinking. and they were a lot of fun, and they had great stories. and we were there to have a good time. and we hit it off, and they invited us to come out the next night. keith morrison: and the next night and the next night and the one after that. and when sandy's two weeks were up and it was time to return to california, she realized ted binion meant more to her than just the chump who picked up the check. true? watch carefully. i fell in love with teddy. he was great. fell in love with him? absolutely. what was it about him you loved? he's very charming in his own way. and he's kind of a tough guy, which there comes a lot of sex appeal with tough guys.

i have this terrible ability to always fall in love with-- let's say i have the bad-boy syndrome. hmm. he was fun and exciting and intelligent and kind of rough and tough and, you know, just a real man's man. what was it about him that made him rough and tough and a bad boy? you know, we just rode around in a beat up pickup truck with red interior and, you know, had long hair and he was kind of rebellious. and he ran around in levi's and, you know, dirty shirts, and he didn't care. and he just kind of had this, what i call, command presence. and to me, command presence is a very sexy thing in a man. and teddy has that. keith morrison: ted's i'll do what i want attitude went beyond the truck he drove and the whiskey he drank. it went to the use of drugs. in his case, heroin.

he told me that in the past that he had had a problem with heroin. keith morrison: but that didn't stop sandy from moving into ted's place. when i met teddy, you know, he-- you would never dream that he was-- had the money that he did. keith morrison: ted's wealth became very real though the day he handed sandy a credit card with her name on it. and he says, here, this credit card has like a $10,000 a month allowance on it. keith morrison: whether sandy knew it or not, 10 grand was a rounding error. ted was worth a lot more, like $70 million more. money that can make life very easy or very, very complicated. coming up, one complication, a suspicion that ted's father had links to the mob. they got as much attention as dean and frank and the others. and they had the same kind of adulation from the average member of the public.

keith morrison: and rumors that benny binion was a killer. he didn't shy away from stories about that. whether they were true or not, i don't know. keith morrison: when dateline continues. they're dry, uncomfortable, looking for extra hydration. now there's blink nutrition. it works differently than drops. blink nutrition is a once daily supplement clinically proven to hydrate from within, helping your eyes produce more of their own tears to promote lasting, continuous relief. you'll feel day after day. try blink nutrition. here's a different nutrition. here's a different way to ever feel like a spectator in your own life with chronic migraine? 15 or more headache days a month, each lasting 4 hours or more. botox® prevents headaches in adults with chronic migraine. in a survey, 91% of users wish they'd started sooner. so why wait?

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second trump presidency. stay second trump presidency. stay with msnbc ted binion was a man of contradictions, a good old boy who liked to hunt, but also collected art, who drank whiskey straight up, but at times smoked heroin, who drove a battered old pickup truck, but gave sandy a shiny new mercedes, who had tens of millions in the bank, but was widely known to keep piles of cash in his home, not to mention the silver he stashed at the casino or buried out in the desert like some sort of swashbuckling pirate. and while he was most comfortable in a work shirt and wranglers, ted wanted sandy to dress in a way that men would notice, telling her-- i want you to be able to go buy beautiful clothes, and beautiful clothes are expensive. i want you to be able to go to dinner when you want so that you have money whenever you want. and you don't have to ask me because i don't want my woman to work. he had his role, and i had mine.

and my role was to be the woman of the house and to take care of him. and look good. not really to look good, but i wanted to be attractive for my man. keith morrison: a man old enough to be her father, but wealthy enough for her to pretend he wasn't. at least, that's how ted's sister, becky binion, viewed it, pretend. and i thought maybe she was just going to be a passing fancy. i thought that it would be something that would just be something that would come into his life and go on, and then there'd be someone else. but i was wrong. keith morrison: sandy said she knew ted's sister didn't like her, but she didn't care, given what she said ted told her about the binion family. i don't think anyone in the family really likes anyone, to be honest with you. i mean, teddy doesn't get along with his sister. his sister doesn't get along with him. keith morrison: and there were certain periods in the binion family history of which sandy, at first, was quite ignorant.

for instance-- my father was in illegal gambling in texas. keith morrison: yes, the big man, ted and becky's dad, benny binion. an article in "texas monthly" magazine back in the '90s was titled, forget the sopranos, meet the binion's, which kind of tells you something. benny got his start in the gaming business running underground gambling halls in dallas during the depression, a racket he ruthlessly protected. benny was convicted of killing one rival, arrested for killing a second, and suspected of killing a third. in the binion origin story, dad hightailed it out of texas after things got hot with a competing gang in fort worth. january of 1947, just about the time bugsy siegel opened the flamingo, we got in the car and came to las vegas. keith morrison: benny built from scratch one of las vegas's first major league casinos, and then put his name up on it in lights.

binion's, known the world over as the golden horseshoe, home to the world series of poker. built in a time when the mob was las vegas. meyer lansky, tony spilotro, joey cusumano-- keith morrison: all reputed mafiosos, as well as clients of attorney and former las vegas mayor oscar goodman. what can i tell you? these fellas needed me. i was maybe the only thing or person who kept them from the electric chair or the gas chamber or a life sentence. keith morrison: goodman said it was a time when members of the mafia were just as famous as any member of the rat pack. they got as much attention as dean and frank and the others, and they had the same kind of adulation from the average member of the public. they say there's little this, there's wingy that, there's hoppy this with all their nicknames.

keith morrison: benny binion, a friend of goodman's, was known as "the cowboy." i had the privilege of eating lunch with him just about every day with some other fellas over at the horseshoe. and he was a great storyteller. keith morrison: and according to goodman, benny would always order the same country lunch. squirrel stew. and well, no-- there's no such thing as squirrel stew. come on. i'll tell you. when you saw that little head poke itself-- keith morrison: seriously? --its way out of the bowl - i'm dead serious - with the little glassy eyes and the teeth just smiling at you-- it was squirrel stew, and he had it every single day. keith morrison: a tall tale? maybe, maybe not. like many stories told about benny, some about killing people, some benny even told himself. he didn't shy away from stories about that. whether they were true or not, i don't know.

one story that was very much true-- at the time, ted binion, who was 25 at the time, was the target of a kidnapping plot. this was back in the '60s when gangsters did things like that. and then one of the kidnappers got cold feet, ratted out his pals to benny. and days later, the ringleader of the scheme was executed gangland style. so rumors swept las vegas that benny binion ordered that hit, but there was never any proof. anyway, no daddy issues for young teddy. he wanted to be just like his old man. dad, i love you. keith morrison: in a video tribute made one year for benny's birthday, he said-- but the truth of the matter is he don't worry about anything, win or lose. if he's broke, he goes to sleep just the same as if he's rich. keith morrison: and maybe teddy was describing himself too. teddy was unique. teddy was as smart a fellow as i'd ever met.

he was street smart. i think they would call it "grift smart." you like teddy, huh? oh, i like teddy very much. i liked all the binion's. other people's attitudes about ted, did they see him as a kind of a dilettante or princeling or was he-- did he have more substance in people's view? oh, this guy had a lot of substance. he certainly didn't go around saying, i'm teddy binion, and i'm the youngest of the binion boys. he wasn't that kind of guy. he never bragged. keith morrison: according to his sister becky, ted worked hard, helped manage the family casino. ted was excellent on the casino floor. he was just a natural when it came to dealing with customers and handling numbers and handling the games. he was just a natural. keith morrison: ted was almost a mini-benny, even in his friendships with underworld types. in ted's case, it was "fat herbie" blitzstein. they called him "fat herbie," but he wasn't fat.

he was all muscle. he was a friend and associate of tony spilotro, one of my clients, and i went places with him almost in the nature of a bodyguard or a protector. keith morrison: and "fat herbie" went places with ted binion too, until january 7th, 1997, when herbie made headlines. and not in a good way. i was at the crime scene. when herbie blitzstein was killed, i was-- i was at the murder scene. yes, i was. keith morrison: coming up-- it looked like a classic mob hit, three bullet holes in the back of his head. keith morrison: --would ted be next? he was feeling not only alone, but a bit paranoid. keith morrison: when "dateline" continues. (♪♪) a single touch can say a thousand words.

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>> hi, i'm richard lui with the news update. >> a fourth hostage. >> prisoner exchange between israel and hamas was completed. saturday after three israeli. >> hostages and. >> 183 palestinian prisoners were released, 18 hostages and 583 palestinians have been set free. since exchanges began late last. >> month, and president donald trump. >> announcing on his social media platform he ordered a precision military airstrike on the, quote, senior isis attack planner and other terrorists he recruited and led in somalia. for now, trump saying no civilians were harmed. now back civilians were harmed. now back to dateline. he had been ted binion's pal, and therefore sandy's friend too. but he was no more. herbie blitzstein, mobster, was dead, murdered in his living room. and veteran crime reporter cathy scott said it didn't look like any murder scene

she'd ever covered before. there were a lot of suits walking around, you know, a lot of men in dark suits. and it's like, what are the feds doing here? keith morrison: scott checked with then las vegas metro police department homicide lieutenant wayne peterson, who confirmed the men in black were indeed fbi agents there because of "fat herbie's" mob connections. and when i went into the scene, it looked like a classic mob hit. herbie was kneeling in front of a recliner and three bullet holes in the back of his head. keith morrison: well, at the murder scene, peterson got a disturbing tip from one of the fbi agents, a friend of his. and he said, well, you know, we had herbie under surveillance when he was killed. the feds had him under surveillance and didn't do anything to stop the murder? well, they couldn't know that the two people that went in his condo were there to kill him.

the thing was, as peterson found out, the feds were watching all the mobsters, vegas to la. operation thin crust, they called it. it was huge. it went on for years, as the fbi tried to muscle the mob out of vegas for good. and at one point, the fbi warned ted, by way of a local homicide cop, that some of the wiseguys were talking about killing him to get to his silver. and what do you know, five months after that warning, somebody blasted ted's house with a shotgun. right though his front window, big, big, wide window. keith morrison: while ted and sandy were at home. they were quite scared after that. keith morrison: quite reasonable, given what kathy was hearing, that the same wiseguys who killed "fat herbie" blitzstein might also be after ted.

he was feeling not only alone, but a bit paranoid. keith morrison: which is the state of mind ted was apparently in when he had a chance meeting at a restaurant called piero's. you may have heard of it. everybody goes into piero's. keith morrison: this is the guy ted met. you can go in there in your jeans or you can go in a tuxedo. it's a fantastic restaurant. keith morrison: the guy's name is rick tabish. sound familiar? the guy who got arrested while digging up ted's silver. he was also in jail when we talked to him back in 2001. we're at the urinal, and teddy looks over at me. and he takes his right hand, obviously, he's right handed, how are you doing? ted binion-- right then and there, you're like, you know, i like this guy. he's in jeans, his shirts untucked, and we started visiting. he asked me where i was from, and i said, montana. and right from there, i mean, it was click. keith morrison: ted's girlfriend, sandy, though, well, she was another story.

sandy and i didn't have a real good relationship at first. sandy was very protective of teddy. you know, she'd seen a lot in that house. everybody that comes over wants 100 bucks, 200 bucks, 100,000 bucks. he got exploited a lot. keith morrison: but as rick would find out soon enough, ted was in a world of trouble. his wiseguy buddy was dead. his own house had been shot up by somebody, and he was increasingly depressed. then within weeks of rick and ted's meet cute in the men's room at piero's, ted's world came undone. the gaming commission, citing his suspected drug use and his alleged mob connections, revoked ted's gaming license, putting him out of the casino business for life. i think when he lost his gaming license, that he lost hope. and i think that he wanted something to ease the pain.

and that's when he scored his first score of heroin, so to speak, in quite a long period of time. and he always told me once he started that he could never stop. what would that do to him or for him? well, it depends. i can say that it makes him consistently inconsistent, his personality and all of his actions. and you never knew what was going to happen next. keith morrison: no telling what ted might do or what someone might do to him. coming up-- teddy was a little eccentric, and he liked to do things like bury things. keith morrison: --ted binion moves his silver. but was he also moving on from sandy? i knew that a blowup was coming. ted had indicated to me that he definitely was getting rid of sandy. the end was here. keith morrison: when "dateline" continues.

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to help you feel better. six digestive symptoms. the power of nature. iberogast. the power of nature. there was a new boss at the horseshoe. when ted was stripped of his gaming license, it brought to a head a bitter family fight for control of the casino, a fight which becky won. for ted, the loss was total catastrophic. not just the loss of control, not just the loss of his share of the horseshoe, he wasn't even allowed to step inside the place now that his gaming license was revoked, which meant ted had to find a place to put his 24 tons of silver, the stuff he had stashed in the casino's basement vault. so he called his buddy, rick tabish, who just happened to own a whole fleet of trucks.

but where oh where do you put 24 tons of silver? we called every place, and there was no place that you could put the silver, no place he trusted. keith morrison: then why not just bury it, ted said. did it make sense, do you think, to put it out in the desert? no. dumb idea? i thought it was a really dumb idea. keith morrison: but he liked what he liked. and around town, ted's penchant for dreaming up bizarre ways to hide his treasure was no secret. i think that teddy was a little eccentric, and he was a little western. and he liked to do things like bury things and do things i guess that eccentric cowboys do that are from what we call the old school las vegas. and he says, you know what? i'm going to set it in right downtown pahrump. i'm like, you've got to be kidding me. why would you do that? why don't you put it out at the ranch? he says, who'd be dumb enough to go right down to the center of town and steal all this silver?

i started thinking about it. and, you know, as goofy of thinking as it was, he was absolutely right. so i guess he did it the binion way. keith morrison: the binion way, eccentric, old-school las vegas. so rick tabish had a giant concrete safe built and then buried it on ted's vacant lot in pahrump, worked 24 hours straight moving ted's 24 tons of silver from the casino to the desert. it was a real novelty to go deal with this silver. it was something-- it was hard work, but when do you ever have the chance to do it again? keith morrison: but according to sandy, even with his silver problem now solved, ted's heroin use only got worse. he didn't inject it, by the way. no. ted had a deep-rooted fear of needles. instead, he used a knife. he would smear the gooey heroin onto a piece of tinfoil, then heat it from below while inhaling the smoke through a pipe, a practice

called "chasing the dragon." it was bad, said sandy. when he didn't get dope in time, he would get sick. physically ill? very sick. he would throw up. he would lay on the bathroom floor for hours and not be able to move. he couldn't comb his hair. i mean, he would go to the bathroom on himself. keith morrison: in the three years they'd lived together, sandy said, she'd never seen ted get this dope sick before. and as he got worse, sandy leaned on ted's friend, rick. and i became really kind of dependent on his friendship and his support, and i think teddy did too. keith morrison: sandy admitted she had complicated feelings for ted and for rick. i was attracted to him. there's no doubt about it. but i loved teddy with all my heart, and i had a lot of time invested in our relationship. and it's really hard to be in a position with someone

that you love and watch them deteriorate on a daily basis. why don't you walk out on him? you know, everybody always asks me that question, and it's really tough to answer. but all i can tell you is that when you love somebody and they're sick, where i come from, you don't quit. my dad always used to tell me that tough times never last and tough people do. and if teddy is what you want, then stand by his side and you'll get through it. keith morrison: sandy might have been willing to stick it out, but ted's sister, becky, said her brother wasn't. according to her, ted's passing fancy was over. he was through with sandy. because i had been speaking to ted all week, and i knew that a blow up was coming. ted had indicated to me that he definitely was getting rid of sandy. the end was here. keith morrison: the end, sadly, was close at hand, though perhaps not as ted

had imagined it. coming up-- i couldn't believe what i heard and got in my car and went over there. keith morrison: --ted was dead. overdose? he was lying on the floor on a mattress. keith morrison: suicide? ultimately, he didn't want to be here anymore. keith morrison: or murder? i felt that there was foul play involved. i wanted it to be treated as a homicide. keith morrison: when "dateline" continues. icy hot. ice works fast. ♪♪ heat makes it last. feel the power of contrast therapy. ♪♪ so you can rise from pain. icy hot. the thompsons' new front door looks sharp, right? did we need to wave her down so yto tell her that?pain. no. no.

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too late for that, of course. now there are only questions. reporter: was he lying down, or-- yeah, he was lying on the floor on a mattress. reporter: he was discovered by his girlfriend? yes. keith morrison: and given ted's friendship with a murdered mobster, the assembled media naturally wondered, was that the reason he was dead? no, said the police. rather definitive here. we have not seen any signs of foul play regarding his death or any-- involving any of his prior associations. keith morrison: there were no wounds or bullet holes, just foils, a knife with the residue of black tar heroin on it, and an empty bottle of xanax, pills it turned out ted's doctor had prescribed to help him stop using heroin. but given who it was and given all the attention, the detective in charge at ted's house called homicide lieutenant wayne peterson to give

him a heads up anyway. he says teddy's found on a mattress in his den, some drug paraphernalia around, what looked to him at the scene like was an obvious drug overdose. and knowing teddy's background, like everyone in town-- so you were not shocked by this news that you receive from your guy at the scene? no, not at all. keith morrison: no. and yet that quick assessment, drug overdose, oh, what trouble that would cause for one simple reason. there was no preserving the crime scene. keith morrison: as far as police saw it, that day anyway, there was no crime. so no scene to preserve. people going in and out. everybody and their brother were walking through the house, his friends and stuff. keith morrison: ted's old friend, oscar goodman, felt the need to see it all for himself.

i couldn't believe what i heard and got in my car and went over there. there were police there, tv cameras, newspaper reporters. no. all i say is that he was one of the best guys i ever met. that's it. thank you. keith morrison: ted's newest friend showed up too. reporter: could you spell your name? tabish, t-a-b-i-s-h. reporter: and you're a family friend of mr binion? i'm just a personal friend of ted's. keith morrison: rick tabish told the reporters he couldn't believe it. reporter: what were your first thoughts? what a tragedy. i mean, i know that he was trying real hard to straighten himself out. keith morrison: it's a hard road to get straight. sandy told me she thought maybe ted didn't really want to. there's a lot of things that happened in the summer of '98 that led me to believe that ultimately he didn't want to be here anymore. keith morrison: but ted's sister, becky, she smelled a rat, and she wasn't happy about the way police were treating his demise.

it's very easy when you have a drug user to just say, you know, he od'd and sweep it under the carpet. i felt that there was foul play involved, and i wanted it to be treated as a homicide. keith morrison: the morning after ted died, becky took her theory to las vegas newspaperman jeff german. the veteran reporter would himself be murdered years later. but on this day, he listened to becky's story. by 11:00 am, she was in the "las vegas sun" saying her brother's death was murder and that ted and sandy had been fighting all week. the implication was pretty obvious. i know for sure becky binion and sandy murphy never got along. and her distrust of sandy murphy, it was natural for her to raise the specter of foul play in his death. keith morrison: so when sandy returned to the house she shared with ted, maybe it shouldn't have been a surprise that she found her way blocked by a lawyer sent

by ted's family. he slams the door in my face. keith morrison: the lawyer, a guy named james brown, told sandy he'd have security call the cops if she tried to go in. i'm thinking, what a great idea. let's call the police. i mean, i have no idea what's going on. i call the police. he lies to the police officer and tells him i'm a resident of california, that i don't live in the house. keith morrison: but sandy's driver's license said this was where she lived, her home. so the cop told brown he had to go. and brown went downtown to talk to a judge, while sandy went inside, i was told by the security guard that they were loading-- hauling stuff up out of the house. keith morrison: meaning people working for the binion's were taking things away without her permission. she was upset, she said. how dare they. so sandy called rick tabish. i get the phone call from her. she's concerned about what's going on in her house. hair on my neck raises up. she's my friend. where i come from, this doesn't happen.

i guess if i was in las vegas, you mind your own business. you don't worry about everybody else's backyard. maybe that's what i should have done. keith morrison: maybe he should have. because what happened next would create a big problem for both of them. coming up, sandy documented on video what was happening at the house. i want everything shown. i don't want anything missing. her exact words when she called us were, they're stealing from teddy. keith morrison: who was-- ted always said, when i die, they come out like vultures. keith morrison: when "dateline" continues. power e*trade's award-winning trading app makes trading easier. with its customizable options chain, easy-to-use tools and paper trading to help sharpen your skills, you can stay on top of the market from wherever you are. e*trade from morgan stanley. power e*trade's easy-to-use tools make complex trading less complicated. custom scans can help you find new trading opportunities,

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of everything. keith morrison (voiceover): but rick didn't stick around. he had somewhere else he needed to be, he said. so sandy's attorney took the camera and shot this video as sandy went on a tour of the house. attorney (on video): nothing of real consequence. keith morrison (voiceover): james brown, the other attorney, the one representing ted's huge estate, had returned by that time with a judge's permission to be there. this is the recreation room. keith morrison (voiceover): so he went along. the only thing i could think of is that they're here looting. keith morrison (voiceover): by which she meant looting from her, sandy, because ted had written a will stipulating that if he died, she was supposed to get $300,000 plus the house and everything in it. remember, ted had certain habits with money. some people said he had millions squirreled away in that house in safes, but also in odd, unlikely places, like under the cowl of a motorboat engine.

so sandy might have a lot to lose. no, i want everyone to see everything. ok. i want everything shown. i don't want anything missing. keith morrison (voiceover): and she wanted to make sure james brown knew that she knew exactly what she was entitled to. sandy murphy: and the security guard out front who works for you guys is telling me you unloaded [bleep] out of the house. that's illegal. keith morrison (voiceover): for a little more than 20 minutes, sandy murphy went through the house she had shared with ted binion, opening and closing drawers. sandy murphy: there's guns missing and everything. keith morrison (voiceover): it's a glimpse into their lives together of expensive things. sandy murphy: ok, these are all my clothes in the laundry bin-- $4,000 suit. keith morrison (voiceover): works of art. sandy murphy: i'm gonna leave the lothar-gunther, but i'm gonna take the vargas, because i don't trust it. and if it's gone, i'm screwed. narrator: in here was evidence, too, of ted's struggle with heroin. sandy murphy: i found his heroin deal behind here. attorney: so here we go. keith morrison (voiceover): it was perfectly obvious this was not a friendly little ramble around the house.

sandy murphy: that's my purse, jimmy. please stay out of it. jimmy: did you just bring it in here? sandy murphy: yes, i did. please stay out of it. keith morrison (voiceover): an angry sandy who believed the binions were stealing from her, a family equally sure she was just a greedy gold digger entitled to nothing. pleasant it wasn't. meanwhile, rick tabish was on the move, conducting a second bit of business that police would find very interesting. he told us he got the idea when sandy called him all upset. her exact words when she called is "they're stealing from teddy. she wasn't even selfish enough to say, 'they're taking my things.'" keith morrison (voiceover): anyway, said rick, it reminded him of something ted told him when they were moving his silver out to pahrump a few months prior. ted always said, when i die, they'll come out like vultures. keith morrison (voiceover): by "they," tabish said, ted meant people related to him. and all of a sudden, said rick, he felt an urgent need to protect

ted's most prized possession. that is why he took his crew and that belly dump truck and drove out to pahrump that very night, he said, where, as you no doubt remember, he got arrested. rick was charged with grand larceny. bail was set at $100,000. so let's review the betting. ted binion dies suddenly. 24 hours later, sandy is captured on video, vehemently laying claim to expensive things in his house. and just hours after that, rick is captured for real with tons and tons of ted's silver. and though both insisted they were doing just what ted wanted them to do, a casual observer might just get the impression sandy and rick were trying to cash in on ted's death, at the very least. keith morrison (voiceover): and this didn't help them either-- how rick tabish made his $100,000 bail.

someone put up sandy's black mercedes and lots of diamonds as collateral. that someone was sandy herself. coming up, binion's lawyer told detectives his marching orders. take sandy out of the will. keith morrison (voiceover): and sandy caught on the tape she recorded. it didn't look good. she surreptitiously grabs the wine glass and puts it in her purse. what was that glass used for? keith morrison (voiceover): when "dateline" continues. type 2 diabetes? discover the ozempic® tri-zone. i got the power of 3. i lowered my a1c, cv risk, and lost some weight. in studies, the majority of people reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it. i'm under 7. ozempic® lowers the risk of major cardiovascular events such as stroke, heart attack, or death

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>> you found. >> someone special. yeah. is that. >> dog food in the fridge? >> it's not dog food. >> it's fresh cut. >> real meat. >> real veggies for peter. that's peter. >> i should. >> have known. >> you do make a pretty cute >> you do make a pretty cute couple. keith morrison (voiceover): ted binion's funeral was a las vegas event. hundreds crowded christ the king catholic church. someone brought cowboy boots, and a hat and lariat for the casket. the press came. important people came-- mayors, senators. ted's friend oscar goodman accompanied sandy. oscar goodman: she was grieving. she loved the person whose funeral she was attending. the one thing about archie, he'll still be the king of the-- keith morrison (voiceover): ted's sister becky was not inclined to believe that. what did becky do after ted's death? becky binion hired a former homicide cop to do an investigation. keith morrison (voiceover): becky hired a private investigator, a former police

officer who still had a lot of pull at vegas pd. and the homicide cops just said, ok, and he took over the investigation. you ever heard a thing like that before? i've never heard of it happening, ever. it was quite an unusual step. it caused quite a lot of whisperings going around town at the time. keith morrison (voiceover): but was it even a homicide? the medical examiner announced ted died of a lethal overdose of heroin and xanax-- not a surprise. but there was this one unusual thing. the autopsy found heroin residue in ted's stomach. that's a big piece of evidence. you know, if teddy would have overdosed on heroin, he would have done it by smoking it. he would never ingest it. at least not that you know of. well, ask any heroin user. it's a waste of good heroin. unless you happen to have millions

of dollars at your disposal to use any way you wish. i still-- teddy would never have that amount of heroin in his stomach on his own volition. keith morrison (voiceover): so there was a nugget to work with. and here was another. when the cops searched the house, why didn't they find any of ted's rumored stash? no gold, no silver, no cash? all they came up with was one single dime at the bottom of a safe. we don't know how much was in that safe. it was a big safe. so it can hold a lot of money in silver. the idea that that safe would have been kept empty, given the way he lived-- not a chance. no. teddy wouldn't have an empty safe in his house. like i said, he was known for walking around with thousands of dollars in his pocket.

keith morrison (voiceover): if loot was missing from the house, well, that seemed to imply an inside job by someone who had ted's keys and combinations. sandy murphy: well, there's $20,000 in the house, and it's not here now. keith morrison (voiceover): well, in that video shot by her lawyer, sandy murphy complained that money was missing, though. who took it? the binions, the mob, or sandy herself? four days after ted died, binion lawyer james brown met with homicide detectives to say it must have been sandy, sandy with a motive as obvious, said brown, as the neon on the strip. brown said he talked to ted day before he died and got the following instruction, six little words-- take sandy out of the will. keith morrison (voiceover): the day ted died, sandy seemed so distraught she'd been hauled off to the hospital, where she could barely speak to the detective who went to see her.

listen carefully. as the detective talks with sandy. the cops sure did. she's so overwrought she really doesn't have anything to add to the investigation. well, then ask yourself. does this sound like a grief-stricken woman or a woman who is trying to sound grief-stricken? know, i don't know what. my god. know, i don't know what. my god. >> how long keith morrison (voiceover): police compared sandy at the hospital with sandy in the video taken at the house just a day later. don't worry, they'll steal anything they can get their hands on. keith morrison (voiceover): they believe the real sandy came out on day two, and they took particular interest in what happened here. look closely as sandy passes by the kitchen counter. attorney: ok, can i have some more light here? and she surreptitiously grabs the wine glass

and puts it in her purse. it's like, why did she do that? what was that glass used for? keith morrison (voiceover): the house, as you'll recall, wasn't treated like a crime scene. nobody collected or tested that wine glass. and now, of course, it was gone. so the binion pi and the police conducted more interviews. ted's housekeeper told them that sandy called her that day, told her, stay home. ted's gardener said he was at the house that day and remembered something unusual. all the blinds were closed that day, and they usually never were closed-- another circumstance that just added to the suspicion. keith morrison (voiceover): suspicion that behind closed curtains-- they can be seen closed the next day on the video shot by sandy's attorney-- sandy and rick might have used that wine glass to slip ted a lethal combination of drugs before he

could change his will and before he found out about them. police found records to show that just a few days before ted died, sandy came here to california for a romantic getaway. she even called ahead to the hotel to order roses and wine for the room to surprise her husband-- except sandy wasn't married. and she wasn't here with ted. oh, no. keith morrison (voiceover): sandy signed the register as sm tabish-- as in rick tabish, who was there with her. sex and money-- classic motives for murder, but not enough for an arrest. bailiff: do you solemnly swear-- keith morrison (voiceover): so ted's family tried to juice the investigation and hauled sandy and rick into probate court to get answers under oath about what happened to ted. easier said than done. upon advice of counsel, i respectfully

decline to answer based on my rights under the fifth amendment. keith morrison (voiceover): more than 200 times, sandy pleaded the fifth. plus every night-- keith morrison (voiceover): the lawyers heard the same response from rick 98 times. on my rights supported by the fifth and 14th amendments-- keith morrison (voiceover): oscar goodman was sandy's lawyer at the time and said she had a perfect right to take the fifth. they wanted to make it into a big investigation here, and i wasn't about to play that game. soon, the actual investigators found an old friend of rick's who told them that before ted died, rick asked him to help kill a wealthy casino owner. and they found a manicurist who told police sandy spoke of her rich boyfriend dying from a drug overdose one week before he actually did. the evidence was piling up. keith morrison (voiceover): and in late june 1999, nine months after ted died, rick and sandy were grocery shopping when police surprised

them with handcuffs. the charges were grand theft, conspiracy, and the murder of ted binion. coming up-- he was wealthy, a big entertainment guy in ireland, quite well known. keith morrison (voiceover): --sandy has a new man in her life. he saw the pickle she was in, and she couldn't afford a good defense. he footed the bill on everything. many whispers about that, i'm thinking. there are people, of course she's having an affair with him. keith morrison (voiceover): when "dateline" continues. (tony hawk) i still love to surf, snowboard, and of course, skate, so i take qunol magnesium to support my muscle and bone health. qunol's high-absorption magnesium glycinate helps me get the full benefits of magnesium. qunol. the brand i trust.

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>> gives you early. access and ad free listening to rachel maddow chart topping series, msnbc original podcasts, exclusive bonus content, and all of your favorite. msnbc shows. now ad free. subscribe on apple now ad free. subscribe on apple podcasts. keith morrison (voiceover): they'd be tried together, it was decided-- sandy and rick tried for grand theft and conspiracy and murder in the first degree. but before the trial, young sandy and her plight caught the eye of a gentleman of a certain age, a man named bill fuller-- he was wealthy, a big entertainment guy in ireland, quite well known. keith morrison (voiceover): --who now lived and worked in las vegas and, as an irish expat, it pained fuller to see a colleen named murphy in chains for crimes he felt she couldn't possibly have committed. fuller started visiting sandy in jail. woman: are you gonna get a chance to visit her? later. woman: later today? later.

sandy has a really sweet demeanor. you know, she comes across as a kind of a caring person and sort of a soft manner about her. and they took a liking to each other and became friends. and he saw the pickle she was in, and she couldn't afford a good defense. keith morrison (voiceover): but fuller could. so for a start, he posted sandy's bail. he set her up in an apartment of her own, hired a team of top defense attorneys. he footed the bill on everything. many whispers about that, i'm thinking. oh, there are people-- of course she's having an affair with him. but he was a nice man. and he just saw that justice wasn't being served, she was being dealt a bad hand, and he wanted to help her. and he could afford to, and so he did. keith morrison (voiceover): which may explain why sandy's demeanor in court almost said, i got this.

she even painted the tracking bracelet on her ankle to match her outfit, which played into a now widely-held perception that she wasn't taking her arrest or the trial or even ted's death very seriously. then prosecutor david rogers said that's what came through in the videotape she made the day after ted died. she walked into the den where she had found, allegedly, the love of her life some 24 hours earlier, dead, and not even a tear. keith morrison (voiceover): listen to this, said the prosecutor. sandy murphy: the safe's empty. there's nothing in it. keith morrison (voiceover): that's sandy on the video shot by her attorney. "the safe is empty," she said. "there's nothing in there." but as you can see for yourself, the safe door is closed, which begs the question-- how did she know this safe was empty unless she took the items? keith morrison (voiceover): and after ted's death, fellow prosecutor david wall said rick tabish gave his brother-in-law rare silver coins in exchange for a loan.

and they were the same type of coins that were in ted binion's safe in his garage. keith morrison (voiceover): prosecutors told the jury the most incriminating part of the video was this-- the clip where sandy appears to be putting a wine glass in her purse. we believe that that glass was used to give ted binion the lethal cocktail. what makes you think that that was the glass that was used to administer the potion? both the medical examiners believed that if ted binion had taken 50 or 60 xanax pills, you would find particles within the stomach. they did not find any, which suggested to them that the xanax and the heroin had been liquefied. how did you propose that he could have been actually forced to drink this cocktail of heroin and xanax? i mean, how do you force somebody to drink a cocktail?

the same way you force a child to take their medicine when they don't want to. ted binion was restrained. there were marks on his wrist. perhaps they squeezed his nose. we don't know. but it's not impossible to do. keith morrison (voiceover): but, as they admitted, that was all just opinion. was there a drug cocktail at all, or did ted od by accident, or did he do it on purpose? who really knew? the prosecutor needed to prove murder. and that's where this witness came in, celebrity pathologist michael baden, who at the time was hosting the hbo show "autopsy." he died from some obstruction to his nose and mouth, couldn't breathe in, and pressure on his chest. keith morrison (voiceover): it was like a scene right out of his tv show. with his skills and training, baden said he saw things others obviously did not. he went to the coroner's office and reviewed tissue samples, took a closer look at the rest of the photographs taken by police crime scene

analysts, and determined that ted binion had been suffocated. in fact, baden revived a very old word to describe what may have happened, an 18th-century word, as a matter of fact, for a deadly technique called burking-- suffocation by sitting on the chest and starving the lungs of air. that, he said, is what happened to ted binion. he explained in detail why suffocation was one of the most difficult things for a medical examiner to interpret, because it's designed not to leave any marks. keith morrison (voiceover): except, said baden, in the autopsy photo, he could see on ted's chest the impression left by a shirt button pushed into the skin of a dying man, an impression intended to make an impression on the jury, as was this, and it was big-- ted's estate lawyer's story, the claim about what ted told

him a day before he died. take sandy out of the will, if she doesn't kill me tonight. keith morrison (voiceover): and then james brown testified ted said this. james brown: "if i'm dead, you'll know what happened." keith morrison (voiceover): coming up-- did you and rick tabish kill ted binion? i would never hurt teddy. i've never hurt anyone in my life. and that's the most ridiculous thing i've ever heard of. keith morrison (voiceover): would a jury agree? we, the jury, in the above entitled case, find the defendant, sandra renee murphy, as follows. keith morrison (voiceover): when "dateline" continues. (♪♪) a single touch can say a thousand words. it says... i see you. i feel you. i got you. and i'm never letting go.

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>> that it indicates there may have been a quick and sudden attempt by the plane to evade the collision. officials say they recovered a device from the military helicopter as well. in all, 67 people were killed and marco rubio is off to central america for his first international trip in office as the us secretary of state. he will be discussing president trump's top priority curbing illegal immigration, while bringing the message that the united states wants to regain control of the panama canal. for control of the panama canal. for now, back to dateline. teddy knew the score the first time he got high, and he knew the score the last time he was gonna get high when he ordered 12 balloons of tar heroin from the drug dealer and went over and got a script of xanax for 120 pills. he knew what the end result was gonna be, and he chose to do it anyway. keith morrison (voiceover): and that was the defense in a nutshell. ted binion died from his own actions while sandy was an innocent, sucked into an obscene las vegas multiverse of heroin, casinos, mobsters,

and treasure that was way beyond her comprehension, all capped off by being the one to discover ted's body. i rolled him over, and i plugged his nose, and i put his head back, and i performed cpr. keith morrison (voiceover): ted's addiction to heroin was well known to those who followed the news. it was one of the reasons ted lost his gaming license. and the fact ted died while using drugs? no surprise there. remember ted's attorney, james brown, the one who testified ted told him the night before he died to-- take sandy out of the will, if she doesn't kill me tonight. keith morrison (voiceover): but under cross-examination, brown admitted even he at first thought that ted's death was due to his drug use. my opinion was that he died of a heart attack. years of abusing his body had finally caught up to him, and he died of a heart attack. keith morrison (voiceover): having pried out that admission, the defense tore into the videotape sandy made the day after ted died.

but i am gonna take the vargas, because i don't trust it. and if it's gone, i'm screwed. keith morrison (voiceover): you bet she was angry, her defense attorney said-- had good reason to be angry because, according to ted's will, she was to inherit the house and everything inside. so why was ted's family cleaning the place out? ultimately, i never knew what was taken out of the house. i only knew what i took out of the house that day in fear that i was being robbed. that is the reason for my actions on the videotape. i mean, i don't know how else i can explain it. keith morrison (voiceover): she stuffed the wine glass in her purse, she told me, to hide the fact she'd been drinking-- didn't want people judging her for it. but in the trial, the prosecution slapped on a guilt interpretation, just as they did about the silver heist at pahrump, except the defense said that wasn't a heist at all. deputies dean pennock and ed howard both testified rick tabish did call

the sheriff before pulling the silver out of the ground. mr. tabish advised you that he had talked to the sheriff three times that day, correct? deputy: that's correct. you became aware that the sheriff had confirmed talking with mr. tabish, correct? deputy: that's correct. keith morrison (voiceover): next, the defense took on the prosecution's star witness, michael baden, who testified that ted binion was suffocated to death. the defense called its own star pathologist, cyril wecht-- have a seat, sir. thank you. keith morrison (voiceover): --who seemed to think baden's theory about burking was outlandish and wrong. i would consider the manner of death more likely than not to have been suicide. keith morrison (voiceover): suicide by drug overdose, just what sandy told me. and with that to consider, the jury was sent off to deliberate. and did they ever-- one day, two days, a week. rick's lawyer, louis palazzo. i felt like that we would have probably a hung jury.

here we are. keith morrison (voiceover): then, on the eighth day, they decided. rick and sandy both came to court as if dressed for a funeral. they were told to stand as the verdict was read. we, the jury, in the above entitled case, find the defendant, richard bennett tabish, as follows-- guilty of murder of the first degree. we, the jury, in the above entitled case, find the defendant, sandra renee murphy, as follows-- guilty of murder of the first degree. keith morrison (voiceover): guilty on all counts and sentenced to life in prison. there's a question i generally refrain from asking people accused of murder-- did you do it? after all, how could i expect someone who'd so vigorously defended his or her innocence in court to suddenly decide to confess on national television? but sandy had been convicted.

a jury said she did it. so for the record-- did you and rick tabish kill ted binion? no way. i would never hurt teddy. i've never hurt anyone in my life. and that's the most ridiculous thing i've ever heard of. when the jury reached its verdict, had you thought that you had a chance before they announced what the verdict was? no, i knew i lost. keith morrison (voiceover): because, she said, so many jurors were wearing sunglasses. sandy murphy: i said, everybody here is hiding. something went wrong back there. and that's why they have those sunglasses on. you knew they were gonna convict you? absolutely, without a doubt. and they didn't want you to see into their eyes? absolutely. are there some days when you say to yourself, good god, if i'd just not taken that vacation to las vegas? i'm not sorry for any of it. i had a great relationship with a man i loved,

and it's unfortunate that he's not here anymore and that he can't be with me. but i'm not sorry that i ever met him. and i'm grateful that i had the opportunity to love him and to know him as the man i did. and that's the way i'll always remember him. even if you never get out of jail? i don't believe that will ever happen. i believe in the truth, and god is on my side. and miracles happen every day. keith morrison (voiceover): naive, huh? seemed that way to me-- almost childlike as i watched her serenely go off to serve a life sentence for murder. but in las vegas, as everybody knows, your luck can always change. coming up-- this defendant was convicted in this case on the basis of insufficient evidence. keith morrison (voiceover): --sandy gets one more roll of the dice-- the evidence will demonstrate that sandy

couldn't kill anything. keith morrison (voiceover): --and another roller coaster ride. sandy murphy: it's just very scary. my freedom hangs in the balance of 12 people who don't know who i am and what i stand for. and that's the hardest part. complete loss of any control at all? i don't have any control over it. keith morrison (voiceover): when "dateline" continues. with dupixent, stay ahead of moderate-to-severe eczema. as you welcome the feeling of touch with clearer skin and less itch. the #1 prescribed biologic by dermatologists and allergists, helps heal your skin from within. severe allergic reactions can occur. get help right away for face, mouth, tongue or throat swelling, wheezing or trouble breathing. tell your doctor of new or worsening eye problems, like eye pain, vision changes, or blurred vision, joint aches and pain, or a parasitic infection. don't change or stop asthma or other medicines without talking to your doctor. ask your doctor about dupixent.

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if that is god's will, and i stay in prison for whatever reason or purpose he has in store for me, then so be it. keith morrison (voiceover): but sandy's benefactor, bill fuller, was not at peace. no. he was so darn angry he fired sandy's defense team and brought the famous alan dershowitz in to file an appeal. the first case on the court's calendar this morning is 36873, richard bennett tabish and sandra renee murphy, appellants, versus the state of nevada. keith morrison (voiceover): when the case was finally heard by the nevada state supreme court, dershowitz argued rick and sandy simply did not get a fair trial. --that this defendant was convicted in this case on the basis of insufficient evidence. keith morrison (voiceover): remember that testimony from ted's lawyer? take sandy out of the will, if she doesn't kill me tonight. keith morrison (voiceover): hearsay, said dershowitz. no way to prove ted actually said that. yet the jury heard it stated as fact.

and there was something else off about the trial. rick, but not sandy, was also charged and convicted of extortion with a deadly weapon, a completely separate case involving a former business partner. and it should have been a separate trial, too, said dershowitz. it had nothing whatever to do with sandy. yet how could a jury think otherwise? she was sitting right there in the courtroom. and the justices of the supreme court of nevada agreed. rick and sandy would get a new trial. and once again, sandy's benefactor, bill fuller, bailed her out of jail and this time hired a young unknown attorney to represent her. the evidence will demonstrate that sandy couldn't kill anything. keith morrison (voiceover): sandy's attorney, michael cristalli. when the first trial was going on, i was probably around 30 years old and had about five, six years under my belt. keith morrison (voiceover): rick tabish

went with an old-timer named tony serra, a brilliant social justice lawyer and courtroom showman. remember what the charges are. you got to keep your eye on that. boiling them down, it's stealing and killing. bailiff: [muffled speech] --will be the truth, the whole truth-- keith morrison (voiceover): once again, dr. michael baden was a key witness for the prosecution. and as before, he presented his burking theory. in my opinion, the findings here are indicative of burking type of suffocation. keith morrison (voiceover): baden came to that conclusion, you'll remember, after looking at autopsy photos, in one of which he believed he saw a button impression on ted binion's chest as if someone sat on him, pushed the button into his flesh. and that was like catnip to attorney serra. he went after baden hard. since the famous pathologist never actually examined ted's body or his shirt or that button, how could he possibly be so sure?

you'd like the shirt. you'd like to look at the buttons. you'd like to measure the buttons, wouldn't you? yes. you'd want to know how thick the button is, what the button's made of, how much pressure before a button would break. you'd want to experiment, wouldn't you, in a serious case? well, first of all, all cases are serious. all right. secondly, no, i wouldn't experiment. the interesting thing that we were able to do that they didn't do during the first trial is blow that button mark up. and once that button mark was blown up, you could see that it wasn't a button mark. it was a carcinoma. pustule marks-- keith morrison (voiceover): skin cancer. anyway, the heroin and xanax in ted binion's system were quite enough to kill him, according to the county medical examiner. when he ruled accidental overdose, found no signs of suffocation, no signs of strangulation-- keith morrison (voiceover): so far, so good for the defense.

and then, on the last day of the defense's case, tony serra called rick tabish to the stand. michael cristalli's heart sank. i was very nervous. being up over here. keith morrison (voiceover): after five years behind bars, rick tabish had been stripped of just about everything he had, except his confidence. bailiff: --the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you god? keith morrison (voiceover): so rick thought there was no better person than he to make his case to the jury. calling your attention to september 17th of 1998, did you have anything to do with the death of ted binion? absolutely and unequivocally not. i did not kill ted binion. i just started connecting with them. i was talking to those people. that's why i wanted to look in their eyes. keith morrison (voiceover): but maybe rick was a little overconfident in his ability to persuade a jury. remember, quite aside from the binion murder

was his extortion conviction involving a former business partner. that conviction was never overturned. the prosecutor pounced. and we should believe you even though you've been convicted of assault with a deadly weapon, correct? yes. and we should believe you, even though you've been convicted of false imprisonment with a deadly weapon? yes. judge, i have nothing else. thank you very much. rick had some problems because of some other events in his life that the prosecution bloodied him up with a bit. keith morrison (voiceover): but if defense attorney tony serra thought it was a mistake for rick to testify, he certainly didn't show it. in his closing, he summoned the theatrics he was famous for and seemed to blame all of las vegas and its culture of avarice for ted binion's death. it's the casinos. they rise high into the heavens. the neon lights are blinding. each casino is like an ancient palace.

keith morrison (voiceover): and the binions, serra said, their story was as old as ancient rome-- an entitled family out to avenge ted's death by laying their poisonous accusations at the feet of rick and sandy. mr. ted binion was a demigod. he lies fallen on his shield. hail, caesar, we will find an assailant. a head must be brought forth and placed on the stick by dusk. keith morrison (voiceover): and so for the second time, sandy and rick's fates were in the hands of a jury. i spoke with sandy while they deliberated. i was surprised she even showed up, she was shaking so. it's just very scary. you know, my freedom hangs in the balance of 12 people who don't know who i am and what i stand for.

and that's the hardest part. hmm. complete loss of any control at all? i don't have any control over it. keith morrison (voiceover): sandy insisted she was the victim of a wrongful prosecution pushed by the binion family. i don't know that i believe they ever believed that there was a murder. oh, sure. that's what this is all about. of course they believed it was a murder. i think it was about disinheritance. keith morrison: sandy, you'll remember, stood to inherit $300,000, ted's house, and all its contents. the amount you would receive would be peanuts to that family, because you weren't gonna get the casino. you weren't gonna get a huge, vast fortune, no matter what you did. so why would they go after you for basically pocket change? i think they wanted to disinherit me. is there any way you can tell me how you feel about that? well, teddy used to say you should never

have hate in your heart. and whatever the family has or hasn't done, they'll have to live with, not me. keith morrison: well, you might. with all due respect, you might have to live with that. can you ever see yourself accepting the version of events which has been portrayed? no. i don't know how anyone can accept something other than the truth. keith morrison (voiceover): four days after we recorded this interview, there was an announcement the jury had reached a verdict. coming up. all right, ms. foreperson, please read the verdicts aloud, starting from the very top in that order, please. mr. tabish, ms. murphy, i'd like you to stand up and face the jury. keith morrison (voiceover): the moment of truth. we, the jury, in the above entitled case, find the defendant, sandra renee murphy, as follows.

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>> calm. >> calm. >> download the free app now. keith morrison (voiceover): it had been six years since ted binion died. sandy, convicted of his murder, spent four of those years in prison, had endured two lengthy trials, and now, as if in some horror story on repeat, was living through her second judgment day. rick seemed upbeat as spectators

trickled into the gallery. but sandy stayed tucked into a corner of the courtroom and braced herself for a return to prison. time passed-- no sign of the judge or the jury. sandy began to vomit into a wastebasket. finally, the court was called to order, and she collected herself. all right, ms. foreperson, please read the verdicts aloud, starting from the very top in that order, please. mr. tabish, ms. murphy, i'd like you to stand up and face the jury. foreperson: we, the jury, in the above entitled case, find the defendant, sandra renee murphy, as follows. count one, conspiracy to commit murder and/or robbery, we find the defendant not guilty. count two, murder, open murder, we find the defendant not guilty. keith morrison (voiceover): not guilty of the murder of ted binion. same verdict for rick tabish.

there was a but, however, and it was a big one. rick and sandy were convicted again of stealing ted binion's silver. what with those other charges, rick would stay several more years in prison. but that was ok, he said. it's been six years, but i haven't become institutionalized. i've stayed busy enough in here. i believe i can do as well or better than i did the first time i was out. keith morrison (voiceover): sandy also received a one-to-five-year sentence for the silver theft, but she got credit for time served and was set free. couldn't get out of las vegas fast enough-- headed straight back to southern california and the boundless pacific ocean, where we met again. did you ever think about this particular place when you were in prison? well, after-- first you do. you try to go to places that are comforting to you, places that are familiar, where you feel safe. but after a while, then you think, did i really do that? because it doesn't even seem like a memory

which is possible-- something that's sort of impossible, unattainable. keith morrison: and maybe a little painful to think about? yes. and here you are. who would have thought? here i am. i'm happy to be home. grateful to be home. keith morrison (voiceover): the end of the story? not quite. there's an epilogue of sorts-- two, actually. with rick and sandy's acquittals, ted binion's death, in a way, remains a mystery. sandy's lawyer from her first trial told us way back in 2001 he heard that the same mobsters who killed binion's mafioso friend, fat herbie blitzstein, also planned to kill ted. what's more, we've learned one of herbie blitzstein's killers told the fbi after his arrest that he and two cronies planned on killing binion by first paralyzing him with a taser and then giving him an overdose of heroin. as we were doing the reporting on this story, i talked on the phone with a guy who used to be

a member of the la mafia. then he went into the witness protection program, and he didn't want the call recorded. but he told me that when he was in vegas in the late '90s, having meetings with fellow mobsters, some of them talked about killing ted-- same scumbags who killed herbie blitzstein, he said. and they all knew that ted had silver buried everywhere. and then he said, so when ted died, i thought, these guys did it. keith morrison (voiceover): sandy's lawyer, michael cristalli, said he doesn't believe a word of it or even that ted's death was a murder. there's no evidence to suggest in this case that the mob was involved in his death. didn't ted pass on, you know, rumors that he had heard that somebody was coming after him? and there was a shot-- somebody took a shot through his house? i mean, the guy was worried. face it.

yeah, that's true. there were threats made to ted. there was a shot fired at his house. but there's no evidence to suggest that it was related. keith morrison (voiceover): ted's good friend and former vegas mayor oscar goodman never believed the mob or sandy or even ted intentionally caused his death. oscar goodman: i don't see any reason why anybody would want to kill teddy. whatever happened to him, in my opinion, had to have been accidental. i just don't see him doing harm to himself. keith morrison (voiceover): so the tale of the mobsters, true or not, that's the first epilogue. the second is about second chances. rick tabish got out of prison in 2010. he returned to montana, got into the oil services business, and, by his own account, made a bundle. after time served for digging up silver bullion with a backhoe, he started a business building server farms to mine cryptocurrency. talk about old-school versus new. as for sandy, she never got a dime from ted binion's estate,

but she's done well-- settled down, got married, had two children, and, with her husband, opened an art gallery not far from where we recorded this interview. there's no waves today. too bad. keith morrison (voiceover): and not far from where she stopped me that day on the highway, eager to tell me about her new life, finally the life she dreamed of, far, far from las vegas. [music playing] helthe workers thoughting, anit was a mannequin.." her last hours on earth were not pleasant. andrea canning: young women murdered or missing, families in anguish. i would text her and she would text right back.