Millions are thought to be buried on a Nevada ranch. A man was arrested trying to dig it up
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Authorities in rural Nevada say a man has been arrested in a break-in and possible attempt to dig buried treasure at a rural Nevada ranch once owned by a Las Vegas casino heir who died 20 years ago.
Nye County sheriff's Lt. David Boruchowitz said Wednesday that 56-year-old Richard Cleaves was arrested Friday on warrant charges of burglary, conspiracy and destruction of property.
Cleaves is identified as a former manager of Ted Binion's property in Pahrump, where sheriff's officials found holes dug after Cleaves and two unidentified men with shovels were seen on surveillance cameras March 30.
Binion is believed to have buried millions of dollars' worth of silver before he died at age 55.
Binion's stripper girlfriend and her lover were eventually acquitted of murder in his death.
Sensational trial follows 1998 death
Binion was one of five children of Las Vegas casino magnate Benny Binion, founder and owner of the Horseshoe. Rick Tabish and co-defendant Sandra Murphy, Ted Binion's live-in girlfriend, were convicted of murdering Ted at his Las Vegas home in 1998 and stealing from his vault.
The 2000 murder trial wove together tales of greed, drugs, sex, money and casino lore.
Murphy, a former stripper, was Binion's girlfriend. Tabish, Murphy's secret lover, was a contractor who helped Binion build an underground vault in the desert town of Pahrump to store his $7 million silver fortune.
Prosecutors alleged that Murphy and Tabish forced Binion to ingest lethal levels of heroin and the antidepressant Xanax before suffocating him.
David Mattsen and Michael Milot were arrested with Tabish in 1998, two days after Binion was found dead. The three had dug up the silver with heavy equipment in Pahrump.
Tabish and Murphy were later acquitted of the murder charges in 2004 after the Nevada Supreme Court granted a new trial. The second jury convicted them of charges related to silver theft.
More:The stories behind Northern Nevada's notorious crimes and disasters
Rumors persist of buried silver
Though it's believed all of the silver buried at the rach in Pahrump had been recovered, rumors persist of a still-buried fortune at Binion's Pahrump and Las Vegas properties.
Landscapers in 2001 found a large, freshly dug hole in the backyard of his vacant $1.5 million Las Vegas home on the day after the third anniversary of Binion's death.
"Somebody went on a treasure hunt," said James J. Brown, Binion's longtime friend and estate lawyer. Binion was known to have a penchant for burying things valuable to him.
Brown told the Las Vegas Sun that the landscapers discovered a 4-foot-by-5-foot-by-4-foot hole near a playhouse Binion had built for his daughter years ago.
During the Binion murder investigation, Brown said, the estate received an anonymous tip that suggested Binion had buried valuables under the playhouse, which sits on a concrete slab. But the estate decided against digging up the yard at the time.
"If you don't know what you're looking for, you could dig forever," Brown said. But he said that from the looks of the hole, the intruders had a pretty good idea what might have been buried there. Some of the dirt unearthed was under the concrete slab.