Was Benny Binion an FBI Snitch?
Norm Clarke of the Las Vegas Review Journal has written a piece this week that Las Vegas gaming legend Benny Binion became an FBI informant shortly after leaving prison and retaking control of the Horseshoe casino.
“Blood Aces: The Wild Ride of Benny Binion, the Texas Gangster Who Created Vegas Poker” is the book authored by veteran Dallas reporter Doug J. Swanson that makes the assertion.
He told the Las Vegas Review Journal: “I’m not sure he gave the bureau much in the way of good information, but it’s a pretty stunning turnaround.”
Binion’s status with the Feds was officially changed in March of 1960.
“This case is being closed as to the Anti-Racketeering, Top Hoodlum investigation, and Binion is being converted to a Criminal Informant,” wrote Special Agent Leo Kuykendall of the Las Vegas office.Binion passed away in 1989 at the age of 85.
From the Las Vegas Review Journal:
Kuykendall reported to Hoover that Binion had behaved himself since being released from the U.S. Penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kan., in 1957, after serving 3½ years for tax evasion.
“Investigation up to the present time does not indicate that he has resumed his former type of racketeering tactics,” wrote Kuykendall. “He has become well respected and liked by many prominent people in Nevada.” Not only that, but Binion had “made numerous disparaging remarks regarding convicts who were in ... Leavenworth during the time he was there.”
- Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com
