Tuesday, November 23, 2004

BINIONS ALLEGED KILLERS DRAW TO GUT-SHOT STRAIGHT: Readers of James McManus's compelling Positively Fifth Street (an instant classic of gambling folklore, along with A. Alvarez's Biggest Game in Town and some of the older editions of Edwin Silberstang's Winner's Guide to Casino Gambling; honorable mention to the first 100 pages or so of Mario Puzo's fictional Fools Die) know the story about how Sandy Murphy and Rick Tabish allegedly murdered Vegas royalty and Binions Horseshoe heir Ted Binion. You know, the story that involved a best pal, a shitload of heroin and Xanax, a backhoe digging up buried silver, all kinds of wildly conflicted lawyers, and somebody being (allegedly) suffocated by an ex-stripper's mud flaps? The story ends with a pair of acquittals. Um, I guess we'll never know what happened to Teddy Binion in the hours before his wife and buddy hustled out to the desert to dig up his buried treasure. Given the legend of patriarch Benny Binion's itchy trigger finger, I guess you could just say that one bad beat deserves another.

By the way, if any of this arouses your prurient interest, or might possibly do so for your Chrismukkah-needy loved ones, I do highly recommend Positively Fifth Street. Anybody have any suggestions for other book gifts, and descriptions of the target demographic? This one's already on the list.

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