Benny Binion

Lester Ben Binion (November 20, 1904 – December 25, 1989), better known as Benny Binion, was an American career criminal who established illegal gambling operations in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Binion's FBI file reveals a criminal history dating back to 1924.

At age 18 he moved to El Paso, where he began moonshining during the Prohibition Era.

A year later Binion moved to Dallas and continued moonshining, for which he was twice convicted.

While moonshining, Binion came into contact with Warren Diamond and became a dice dealer for Diamond's St. George Hotel casino on Commerce Street in Dallas.

In addition to his moonshining, in 1928, Binion opened up an even more lucrative numbers game.

In 1931, Binion was convicted of shooting and killing a rum-runner, Frank Bolding.

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.

He received a two-year suspended sentence.

In 1936, Binion and an associate killed a numbers operator and competitor, Ben Frieden, emptying their pistols into him.

Binion then allegedly shot himself in the shoulder and turned himself in to police, claiming that Frieden had shot him first.

Binion was indicted, but the indictment was later dismissed on the grounds that Binion had acted in self-defense.

Two years later, Binion and associates allegedly killed Sam Murray, another of his competitors in the gambling rackets.

Binion was never indicted for this murder, and charges were dropped against his associates.

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.

This came to be known as the Southland Syndicate.

By the end of 1936, Binion had gained control of most gambling operations in Dallas, with protection from a powerful local politician.

He ran a famous casino known as the Top O' Hill Terrace in Arlington, as well as a horsetrack.

These venues, in addition to other smaller ones in Arlington, attracted celebrities from around the nation.

In the 1940s he relocated to Nevada, where gambling was legal, and opened the successful Binion's Horseshoe casino in downtown Las Vegas.

Benny Binion was born and raised in Pilot Grove, Texas, north of Dallas.

His parents initially kept him out of school due to poor health.

His father, a horse trader, let him accompany him on trips.

While the outdoor life restored his health, Binion never had any formal education.

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.

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.

The local mob boss of that city, Lewis Tindell, was murdered shortly afterwards.

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.

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.

Binion posted a reward on Noble's life, which eventually reached $25,000 and control of a Dallas crap game.

Noble survived numerous murder attempts, sometimes narrowly escaping with gunshot wounds.

In November 1949, his wife was killed in a car bombing intended for him.

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 1949, he opened the Westerner Gambling House and Saloon, but he soon sold out after conflicts with his casino partners.

In August 1951, as Noble drove up to his mailbox, a bomb exploded nearby, killing him instantly.

Binion 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 Las Vegas, Binion became a partner of the Las Vegas Club casino, but left after a year due to licensing problems.

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.

He initially set a table limit of $500 for craps.