Benny Binion - Criminal History

Criminal History

Binion's FBI file reveals a criminal history dating back to 1924, listing offenses such as theft, carrying concealed weapons, and two murder convictions. Binion moved to El Paso when he was 17. There, he began moonshining, for which he was twice convicted. In 1928, in fear of legal consequences, he gave up moonshining and opened a number of operations. While he was in El Paso, he also learned to gamble, a favorite pastime of the traders waiting on the campgrounds.

In 1931, Binion was convicted of murdering an African American rum-runner, Frank Bolding, "cowboy style." This was the origin of Binion's "Cowboy" nickname. Binion received a two-year suspended sentence. Binion would later kill Ben Frieden, a numbers operator in competition with Binion. By 1936, Binion had gained control of gambling operations in Dallas, with protection from a powerful local politician.

On September 12, 1936, Binion and a henchman reportedly stalked Frieden and emptied their .45s into the unarmed man. Binion then shot himself in the shoulder and turned himself in to police, claiming that Frieden had shot him first. Binion was indicted, but the indictments were later dismissed on the grounds that Binion had acted in self-defense. In 1938, Binion and his henchmen 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 henchmen.

By the early 1940s, Binion had become the reigning mob boss of Dallas. He then sought to take over the gambling rackets in Fort Worth. The local mob boss of that city, Lewis Tindell, was murdered shortly afterwards.

The Chicago Outfit made a successful move into Dallas after World War II. Binion lost his fix with the local government after the 1946 elections, and fled to Las Vegas.

While in Dallas, Binion had begun a long-running feud with Herb Noble, a small-time gambler in Dallas, which continued after Binion moved to Las Vegas. Binion demanded that Noble increase his payoff to Binion from 25 to 40 percent, which Noble refused to do. Binion posted a reward on Noble's scalp that eventually reached $25,000 and control of a Dallas crap game. Many tried to kill Noble, but he escaped or survived numerous attempts on his life, although sometimes with gunshot wounds. Eventually Noble's 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. Eventually, a car bomber succeeded in assassinating Noble.

Because of the nationwide publicity over the Binion/Noble feud, Binion was unpopular with national Mafia bosses, who felt that he was drawing unwanted attention to their operations in Las Vegas and Dallas. After one of Binion's bodyguards committed a murder in the men's room of Binion's Westerner Club in Las Vegas, the mobsters helped the federal government put Binion away. Binion lost his gambling license in 1951, and was sentenced to a five-year term in 1953 at Leavenworth federal penitentiary for tax evasion.