The Binion name is well known in the poker community, particularly in Las Vegas, where the legacy of family patriarch Lester Ben "Benny" Binion lives on in the Horseshoe Casino and the World Series of Poker. In September of 1998, however, a new, darker chapter was added to the Binions' story when Benny's son, Lonnie Theodore "Ted" Binion, was found dead in his Las Vegas mansion, apparently of an overdose, ostensibly a suicide. As authorities investigated, however, and more facts became known, a story emerged that would captivate the imagination of the poker community and add another legend to Las Vegas lore.

Ted Binion was born on November 28, 1943 in Dallas, Texas. In 1947, father Benny Binion packed a suitcase with $2 million in cash and moved the family - by now including brother Jack and sisters Becky, Brenda and Barbara - to Las Vegas, where, in 1951, he opened Binion's Horseshoe Casino, forever tying the Binion name to Las Vegas' history.

Ted grew up in the casino industry, and it was only natural that he would follow in the footsteps of his father and older brother and enter the business himself. He started by working in the cashier's room at the Horseshoe, where he learned the inner workings of the casino and saw firsthand just how much money was to be made.

Las Vegas in the middle of the last century was a place frequented by mobsters and other unsavory characters, and the young scion couldn't avoid them forever. At the age of 24, Ted was the victim of a botched kidnapping attempt, which, while bringing no harm to its target, resulted in the shotgunning of a Vegas cabdriver - some said at the hands of Benny Binion.

As Ted grew, his responsibilities with the Horseshoe increased. In 1964, with Benny Binion having lost his license to operate a gaming venue, Jack and Ted Binion assumed control of the casino's operations. Jack became president, and Ted the casino manager, a position that required he be present on the Horseshoe's gambling floor much of the time. This had the effect of making Ted the most visible face of the new Binion empire, while also providing the side bonus of allowing him time to meet and glad-hand high rollers, and to develop both an addiction to marijuana and a reputation as a profligate.

In the early 1970s, the Binion family made their biggest contribution to the poker world when Benny Binion allowed his sons to take over a tournament being played at the Riverside Casino in Reno after its founder decided to divest himself of his gambling enterprises. The brothers moved the tournament to the Horseshoe and in 1970 hosted the first Las Vegas iteration of the World Series of Poker.

The Binions made changes to the games to increase the entertainment value, and the tournament took off, attracting big-name players and fueling a rise in poker's popularity that in turn helped increase the status of the tournament. In 1973 the now-familiar $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em tournament was added to the roster, and the WSOP has not looked back since.

By the 1980s, casino life had begun to wear on Ted. After his eldest sister, Barbara, committed suicide in 1983, Ted slipped into a serious heroin addiction, which reached a peak in 1986 when he was arrested under charges of trafficking the drug. The offense netted Binion a seven-year revocation of his gaming license, a suspension that was renewed in 1997 and made permanent in 1998 due to his continued addiction to heroin and his association with criminal elements.

The ban effectively ended Ted Binion's career in the gaming industry, and he was forced to sell his interest in the Horseshoe to his sister, Becky, after a protracted legal battle that left bitter feelings on both sides. His expansive (and very valuable) coin and silver collection still in the Horseshoe's vault, Ted hired a young man named Rick Tabish to build him a safe and move the collection to the desert town of Pahrump, Nevada. Only Binion and the young man he'd hired knew the combination.

Unbeknownst to the casino scion, Rick Tabish was by this time in a relationship with Binion's 23-year-old girlfriend, a topless dancer named Sandy Murphy who had moved in with Binion in March of 1995. As Binion's career disintegrated and his chemical addictions increased, Murphy's feelings towards the man she called her husband grew increasingly more hostile.

By the summer of 1998 the relationship had reached a breaking point, with Binion confessing to his attorney that he feared for his life. On September 17, 1998, those fears proved justified, as Ted Binion was found dead on the living room floor of his Las Vegas mansion, overdosed on tar heroin and prescription drugs.

Police originally ruled Ted Binion's death a suicide, but after Rick Tabish was arrested trying to remove Ted Binion's silver from the vault he helped construct, and a six-month private investigation paid for by Becky Binion was concluded, the case was reclassified a homicide. Rick Tabish and Sandy Murphy were charged with the murder of Ted Binion, and on May 19, 2000, were found guilty on all counts.

In the summer of 2003, Sandy Murphy and Rick Tabish were awarded new trials after Murphy claimed to have evidence that the mafia had killed Ted Binion. While no members of the mob have ever been found culpable in Binion's death, on November 23, 2004, both Murphy and Tabish were acquitted of the murder charges but saw their convictions on lesser charges, including conspiracy to commit burglary, burglary and grand larceny, upheld. Murphy and Tabish have announced plans to appeal those convictions in the state Supreme Court, thus ensuring that the mystery and controversy surrounding the death of a Las Vegas legend will continue to grab headlines for years to come.