‘Dateline’ reexamines Las Vegas casino magnate Ted Binion’s mysterious death

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(NBC News) — Friday on “Dateline,” a chance encounter on the Pacific Coast Highway with a woman he first spoke to in a jail cell leads Keith Morrison to reexamine the mysterious death of Las Vegas casino magnate Ted Binion.

Here’s a preview of Morrison’s report:

Ted Binion was a man of contradictions — a good old boy who liked to hunt and also collected art.

Who drank whiskey straight up and at times, smoked heroin

Who drove a battered, old, pickup truck and gave sandy a shiny, new, Mercedes.

He had tens of millions in the bank and 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 —

SANDY MURPHY: “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 — and I had mine. And my role was to be the woman of the house and to take care of him.

KEITH MORRISON: And look good.

SANDY MURPHY: Not really to look good —

KEITH MORRISON: Yeah, well —

SANDY MURPHY: But I wanted to be attractive for my man.

A man old enough to be her father and wealthy enough for her to pretend he wasn’t.

At least, that’s how Ted’s sister Becky Behnen viewed it — pretend.

BECKY BEHNEN: 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.

Friday’s “Dateline,” features never before seen footage from interviews and insiders close to the case.

Watch “Dateline: What Happened in Vegas” at 9 p.m. on 22News.