Benny Behnen is an unlicensed executive at the Horseshoe. Mike Hall writes about criminals, musicians, the law, and barbecue. But he also knew the value of charity. Ten years ago today, a Las Vegas landmark was forcibly shut down. By the time Benny died in December 1989, he was worth at least $100 million. Bennys eldest child, Barbara Binion Fechser, was a drug addict and died from an overdose in 1983, an apparent suicide; and his youngest son, Ted Binion, pleaded guilty to a drug charge in 1987. World War II was over, troops were coming home, people dared again talk about the future. 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, By Jeffrey Collins and James Pollard The Associated Press, By Isabella OMalley The Associated Press, Stop The Crash Diets! Blood Aces had been set for a film adaptation in 2015, but that fell through, so we are now looking at a . In January 1988, Bennys grandson, 33-year-old Steve Binion Fechser, and two security guards were convicted of assaulting the two blackjack players. Wikimedia CommonsBenny Binion at the 1979 World Series of Poker. Key was especially good with young people, and he also had a unique ability to be friendly with all different kinds of people, from very sophisticated people to people who were down on their luck.. In 1951, Nevada Sen. E. L. Nores appeared as a character witness when Binion wanted his casino license. You dont know when good deeds will pay dividends, Binion says, so its better just to do them. If you fill out the first name, last name, or agree to terms fields, you will NOT be added to the newsletter list. Rather than bribing individual cops, Binion and other gamblers cheerfully paid regular fines. Smoot Schmid or deputy sheriff Bill Decker, his longtime friend and the lawman who really ran Dallas for most of three decades. Nobody ever found or even looked very hard for his killerthough gangland rumor had it that the shock waves of the explosion knocked Jim Clyde Thomas, one of the premier hitters of the time, out of a nearby tree and broke his arm. He was thrown into a cell jammed with fellow imbibers, angle-shooters, hustlers, and neer-do-wells of the sort that end up frequenting the local lockup after midnight. Teddy Jane (Benny's wife) and Benny at a . Killing Bolding was how Binion got his nickname; when the rumrunner charged at him with a knife, Benny tumbled backward from the crate where he had been sitting and came up shooting, cowboy style. [12], With the 1946 election of Steve Guthrie as sheriff of Dallas County, Binion lost his fix with the local government and fled to Las Vegas, Nevada. Noble and the police suspected Binion of ordering the hits. They say it was hard for anyone to dislike Benny Binion, unless, of course, Benny had his gun in that persons ear and was in the process of blowing that persons brains into West Dallas, which Benny was known to do when displeased. He had a very strong value system that he lived by, and he was as loyal a friend as anybody could ever want. So Binion felt right at home. 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. His office was a booth in the downstairs restaurant, and he knew many of his customers by name. Mafia hitman Jimmy the Weasel Fratianno had testified that Benny had hired him to kill a gambler named Russian Louie Strauss, which the FBI knew was not true. Binion was indicted, but the indictment was later dismissed on the grounds that Binion had acted in self-defense. Born on Nov. 20, 1904 in Pilot Grove, Texas, Binion spent his early years trading horses instead of going to school. West Texans Are Learning What It Means to Live in Bear Country. He was 55 years years old at the time of his death. The Horseshoe . In the old days such a perceived betrayal might have tempted the Cowboy to call Lois Green. Teddy Jane died in 1994, having survived Benny by five years. [15] Binion posted a reward on Noble's life, which eventually reached $25,000 and control of a Dallas crap game. 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. [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. By now his application for pardon had been denied four times, but Benny proposed a deal. A few years after playing waiter to the unwashed little ones, Key found himself a guest of the government after one of many long nights of partying. 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. Benny Binion moved to Vegas in 1946 with two suitcases loaded with cash earned from the decades he operated illegal gambling rackets throughout Dallas. 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. This is just business.. The true unit of exchange wasnt money but information and influence. By continuing to browse or by clicking I Accept Cookies you agree to the storing of first-party and third-party cookies on your device and consent to the disclosure of your personal information to our third party service providers or advertising partners to optimize your experience, analyze traffic and personalize content. After teaming up with the FBI, Wade found a judge who apparently vowed, Im gonna get that S.O.B. For most of her history, in fact, Dallas was a wide-open town. The business of Vegas was gambling, which meant that everyone could be more out-front. With Minyards murder Benny was on the spot, a former Dallas police captain explained later in an interview with the authors of The Green Felt Jungle, a book about Las Vegas. That same month, Bugsy Siegel opened his fabulous Flamingo Hotel and Casino. 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. Brenda Michael adored her dad, Benny Binion. He escaped with a bloody and mangled arm. By the mid-eighties, Las Vegas was trying to recast its image as a sort of adult Disneyland, and the Horseshoes vigilante tactics were an embarrassment. He lived life to the fullest, you might say. (Image: AP) Ted Binion Net Worth. 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. [22] Although comps were standard for high rollers, Binion gave them to all players. The K5, nicknamed M-Bot by M Resort staff, patrols can speak to patrons to greet or warn them but more importantly, it can see and hear while on patrol, providing a live feed to the security office and a record to go back to if needed. In 1951, Noble rigged an airplane with two bombs, which he planned to drop on Binions Las Vegas home. (Associated Press) It's a good thing. Juries found Binion and his partner Harry Urban guilty of tax evasion. He was 55. Born on Nov. 20, 1904 in Pilot Grove, Texas, Binion spent his early years trading horses instead of going to school. His checkered history includes murders and a reputation for getting rid of anyone who got in the way of his business dealings. 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. In 1973, he speculated that eventually the tournament might have fifty or so entrants. Binion didn't operate a casino until 1951 in Las Vegas.). 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. 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.". . Like us on Facebook. back to Texas.. When Benny, a gambler and racketeer with few peers in Texas or anyplace else, left Dallas in 1946 for the more forgiving atmosphere of Sin City, he couldn't have envisioned the. His sports coat hung loose on him, and his. Noble was in Fort Worth negotiating the purchase of an old Air Force training center called Hicks Field when the fifth attempt was made on his life. In November 1949 his wife was killed in a car bombing intended for him. Benny sent $15,000, and two days later his pardon was denied. During the boom brought on by World War II, Benny expanded his operation to Fort Worth and bought an interest in Top OHill Terrace, the notorious gambling hideaway just west of Arlington. Ted Binion was born in 1943 in Dallas, Texas, and grew up in Las Vegas, Nevada. When he died in 1989, Benny Binion was worth an estimated $100 million, but as a child in small-town Texas, he claimed he never learned to read. 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. It was an era that placed enormous value on individual initiative. Eyewitnesses collaborate the police report though Piero's owner Freddie Glusman later denied the incident occurred. He decided to make a new . Bettmann/Contributor/Getty ImagesBenny Binion at a Texas jail in 1953. Binion never held a gambling license again after going to prison, but he remained on the casinos payroll as a consultant.. H-E-Bs True Texas BBQ Restaurant Is Slipping. And yet there was no question that the Cowboy had mellowed. A young Benny Binion. Every year during the NFR there is a large rodeo stock auction called "Benny Binion's World Famous Bucking Horse and Bull Sale. The nickname came from Nobles luck he seemed to have nine lives. In 1948, Noble walked away from a shower of gunfire that left his car destroyed. During Ronald Reagans first term, Nevada senator Paul Laxalt suggested to Benny that a contribution to Reagans campaign treasury might help. The specialty of the house was (and still is) generous drinks and Bennys greasy, fiery chili, made not from Chill Wills recipe as advertised, but from Smoot Schmids old Dallas jailhouse recipe. He would later move to Nevada, where gambling was legal, and in downtown Las . 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. At the time, the casino game in Las Vegas was relegated to dives patronized by mobsters. In 1983 at age 49, she died of a drug overdose, an apparent suicide. Instead, his son Jack became the licensee, with Benny assuming the title of Director of Public Relations.[28]. 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. Bennys longest-running feud was with a gangster name Herbert the Cat Noble, so called because a dozen attempts were required to kill him. Attempt number eight came in June 1950, when an assailant hiding in a duck blind opened fire with a machine gun. Benny Binion - gambling legend and convicted criminal. Heres how to request public records, Knights new Stanley Cup-winning goalie has plenty to prove, Raiders leave Indianapolis with more clarity on draft plans, Strip land values push higher after plunging in recession. Linda Coffee Argued Roe v. Wade. 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. 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. Though he now lived 1,500 miles away, he continued to control the policy racket, and he got a share from all craps games. In the elections of November 1946, Bennys perennial choice as sheriff of Dallas County, the amiable old duffer Smoot Schmid, lost his job to a 33-year-old ex-GI named Steve Guthrie. He was raised in the family gambling business and in recent years spent part of his summers in Alaska. 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. He was everything Benny wasntsuave, debonair, a dashing figure who wildcatted in the oil patch and flew his own small fleet of airplanes.