As a result of outdoing the competition he received death threats, although eventually casinos raised their limits to keep up with him. He initially set a table limit of $500 for craps, ten times higher than the limit at his competitors of the time. 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. In 1949 he opened the Westerner Gambling House and Saloon, but he soon sold out after conflicts with his casino partners. In Las Vegas, Binion became a partner of the Las Vegas Club casino, but left after a year due to licensing problems. Casino years īenny Binion with his youngest daughter Becky (eventual owner of Binion's Horseshoe) in front of the famous $1 million display (c. īinion lost his Nevada gaming license in 1951, and was sentenced to a five-year term in 1953 at Leavenworth federal penitentiary for tax evasion. In August 1951, as Noble drove up to his mailbox, a bomb exploded nearby, killing him instantly. 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. In November 1949 his wife was killed in a car bombing intended for him. Noble survived numerous murder attempts, sometimes narrowly escaping with gunshot wounds. Binion posted a reward on Noble's life, which eventually reached $25,000 and control of a Dallas crap game. 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. 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. The local mob boss of that city, Lewis Tindell, was murdered shortly afterwards. 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. By the end of 1936, Binion had gained control of most gambling operations in Dallas, with protection from a powerful local politician. This came to be known as the Southland Syndicate. 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. Binion was never indicted for this murder, and charges were dropped against his associates. Two years later, Binion and associates allegedly killed Sam Murray, another of his competitors in the gambling rackets. Binion was indicted, but the indictment was later dismissed on the grounds that Binion had acted in self-defense. Binion then allegedly shot himself in the shoulder and turned himself in to police, claiming that Frieden had shot him first. In 1936, Binion and an associate killed a numbers operator and competitor, Ben Frieden, emptying their pistols into him. He received a two-year suspended sentence. In 1931, Binion was convicted of shooting and killing an African American rum-runner, Frank Bolding, "cowboy style." This was the origin of Binion's "Cowboy" nickname. In addition to his moonshining, in 1928, Binion opened up an even more lucrative numbers game. A year later Binion moved to Dallas and continued moonshining, for which he was twice convicted. At age 18 he moved to El Paso, where he began moonshining during the Prohibition Era. Criminal history īinion's FBI file reveals a criminal history dating back to 1924. 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. While the outdoor life restored his health, Binion never had any formal education. His father, a horse trader, let him accompany him on trips. His parents initially kept him out of school due to poor health. He would later relocate to Nevada, where gambling was legal, and open the successful Binion's Horseshoe casino in downtown Las Vegas.īenny Binion was born and raised in Pilot Grove, Texas, north of Dallas. Lester Ben Binion (Novem– December 25, 1989), better known as Benny Binion, was an American gambling icon, career criminal, and convicted murderer who established illegal gambling operations in the Dallas- Fort Worth, Texas, area.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |