Death in the Desert: The Ted Binion Homicide Case

The author is all over the place; she repeats herself; she uses the six degrees of Kevin Bacon to throw in some infamous names which have zero bearing on the subject; spelling and grammatical errors - as if a high school student wrote the book; I couldn’t make it halfway through before I literally threw it in the garbage.

Overall, this was a good read; however, I can't say "I couldn't put it down" for a few reasons. 1) At times it is repetitive and 2) The author seems convinced of the two defendants' innocence.It seems to me the author set out to create a historical documentation and analysis of the evidence in this case and to leave it at that, i.e. A journalistic account of the Ted Binion murder case.This book, the end result, does not quite meet the subtitle of this book. It's not necessarily in the account of the facts in the case (or only that) but in the way the author describes evidence and especially the events pertaining to Sandy Murphy and Rick Tabish, especially their actions/inactions in the time before and after Ted's death.I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the Binion family, recent Las Vegas history or any true-crime readers.

I bought this book after seeing Sandy Murphy's episode of Snapped on Oxygen. Ted Binion was a hard drinking, womanizing drug addict, but the catch was that he was part owner of Binion's Casino in Las Vegas. He meets Sandy one night in a strip club, where she is working as a dancer, and off they go. He is found dead on his living room floor one evening in what looks like a heroin overdose, but soon a bewildered Sandy Murphy is charged with his murder. Oh, and did I mention they found her boyfriend and Ted's friend Rick Tabish moving Ted's silver from the underground vault built especially for that purpose?The story is definitely fascinating enough to stand on its own, but the writing makes it difficult to not skim through to find the next important detail of the story. Scott goes off on the meaningless and inane tangents about minor players in Las Vegas. It seems like she is trying to set the scene and give the reader a fuller experience, but the effort falls flat. I found it very easy to put down and harder to pick back up and power through.

"They picked up the empty body of Xanax." page 128, paperback edition"But that was ever substantiated" page 149Just a few of the typos in this poorly constructed repetitive rendition of the Binion saga.

I took a class on crime scene forensics in Las Vegas recently and this book was recommended. I'm still trying to make sense of it. The subject matter is fascinating but I'm hoping to find another publication that is concise without endless repetition of facts...sometimes duplicating paragraphs back to back. I kept wondering how all these errors got past an editor....then I found that she published the book herself. No need for accountability there! Other less important errors include Ms. Scott giving Loretta Lynn credit for the success of the song "Stand By Your Man" when of course it was Tammy Wynette !! One wonders if she is so lax in fact finding....is the rest of the book factual? The book rambles incoherently and there is no continuity. I'm going to finish it. My curiosity outweighs the blatent literary errors.

If you bought any of the binion coins or coin sets you have got to buy two or more of these book. One for yourself and one for every buyer of a coin or coin set you resale. Put that extra touch on all your binion coin sells, the book brings a story behind the coins and will make a personal connection owning a piece of Las Vegas history in a class of it's own. The book is great, once you start reading it you won't want to put it down. Want to know what's in the book then you will have to buy it and one for every coin you plan to resaleBest,John Lilly

If you like facts than this book has the historical facts about the characters. But it was too dry and too much for me, in terms of too much dry information at the beginning. I may try to read it again so I can't say for certain if the pace picks up.

A Vegas newspaper reporter tackled this complex case and did an excellent job. Ms Scott follows the case from before the act to the appeals.When I started this book, I thought the wife and boyfriend did it. After finishing it, I believe that Binion money spurred this prosecution. When the facts are revealed, I now believe the case never should have been brought forward. I am glad the defendants prevailed in their appeals. The boyfriend was stupid and did try to steal the horde of silver, but I don't think he killed Binion. Read this and you will see why and how this prosecution went off the rails when closely examined by the appellate court.

As a frequent visitor to Las Vegas both before, during and after the Binion trial I recall the fervour that the story created at the time. The Binions were real life versions of the Ewings from tv's Dallas. Larger than life family with past family suicide, no limits gambling and alleged murky past of the patriarch, then The suspicious demise of Ted Binion.I have read many books on mysterious deaths of political or prominent persons and thought that this book would be a great catch up and refresher, especially as the book front cover boasts "updated and expanded".The book is actually quite awful and not concise in any way.First and foremost the grammar is terrible, there are dozens of sentences throughout the book when verbs have been used wrongly, such as "Ted meet Sandy", it should read "Ted met Sandy". I am by no means an expert on English grammar, however there are no smooth and easily read passages, it was hard work to keep track, re-reading certain paragraphs to ascertain what the author was actually trying to express. There was no flow to the book at all.Secondly, the chapters are a mish-mash of details and information, for example one subject that should have been included in a previous chapter popped up several chapters later in an altogether different subject area. Whether this is due to the "expanded" nature of the book proposed on the front cover I am not sure. It does appear that a lot of paragraphs and details have been grafted onto already existing subjects/chapters in an ad hoc manner which leaves the book disjointed.I was very disappointed to find just one paragraph was given over to each court appeal from the defendants (that occurred in later years, 2003,04,05). Given that the book is labelled as "updated" I felt it reasonable to assume that the updated book would include more details on subsequent appeals, this was not the case. I found a great deal more information from research on the web after reading the book.Several paragraphs in the book were repeated, sometimes identical, sometimes with one or two words altered. Spelling is also a problem, I found that many words are spelled incorrectly, simple words that you imagine someone who is writing a book, a journalist at that, would get right.Overall I was very disappointed with this book.In contrast, I have recently read 2 of Cyril Wecht's books on similar subjects (suspicious deaths) both of which were concise, informative and expertly put together.