BINION'S MYSTERIOUS SAFE STAYS SAFE WITH BINION

Only the Binion family could turn a chunk of cold steel into an intruguing mystery. So it is with the mystery of the Binion safe.

The safe was constructed by the Chicago Safe and Lock Co. around 1880 and was once owned by legendary Nevada antique collector and promoter Doby Doc before passing into the hands of the Binion family, where Ted Binion wound up with it.

With Binion's drug-related death last year, the safe went unclaimed and wound up being resold. It was sold for $30,000 at auction last week at the Tropicana to Nick Behnen, husband of current Horseshoe Club owner, Becky Binion Behnen, Ted's sister.

At one time, the safe contained a fortune in cash, jewels, gold, silver certificates and so forth. Where those riches disappeared to is bound to become an issue as Ted Binion's messy, multimillion-dollar estate is sorted out in the coming months.

Nick Behnen paid about three times what the safe was worth, one antique vault aficionado says. So, was it sentimental value that enticed the purchase or something more? A little of both, it turns out. "Nick wanted to surprise me" Becky Behnen says, "I was very close to Doby Doc. The safe belonged to my father Benny also "Behnen says she was, in fact, mentioned in Doc's will. One of the questions being asked around the auction and around Las Vegas: Did the safe feature a secret compartment containing diamonds? It's possible Becky Behnen says, "Daddy (Benny) had over a half million dollars in diamonds hid somewhere. Dad loved playing with them and often carried them in his pocket to show off, he'd throw them on the green felt tables where they'd sparkle under the halogen lights, mom knew it but didm't say where they might be until her death, when she told Becky to find them and the safe was one of the places she said they might be. Consider it yet another in a long line of mysteries associated with the Binion clan. Meanwhile the safe is scheduled to go on display at the Horseshoe. The safe story might be one of the many tales included in an upcoming book on patriarch Benny Binion, written by family friend and best-selling author William Hoffman. Speaking of Binion's, the annual World Series of Poker, all rumors to the contrary, is scheduled to go on as usual with satellite tournaments set to begin in March, starting with a memorial set for three time World Series winner Stu "the Kid" Unger, who died last December. (You can read my tribute to Stu in a recient article of mine)

-- Ken Pearlman, Las Vegas