Case
Updates
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The Nevada Supreme Court overturned the case against Sandy
Murphy and Rick Tabish, convicted in May 2000 of killing casino heir Ted
Binion. They were granted a new trial. Round two – the new trial – was
scheduled to begin in October 2004. In the meantime, Sandy was granted bail
and lived with her parents in southern California, while commuting to Las
Vegas to help her defense attorneys prepare the case, then to be in court
each day. Tabish and Murphy have hired a veritable dream team of attorneys:
Dick DeGuerin, a celebrity attorney who successfully defended Bobby Durst in
the murder of Durst's Galveston Bay neighbor; the renowned Harvard Law
professor Alan Dershowitz to handle the appellate case at the Nevada Supreme
Court (for which he won a new trial); and Tony Serra, the pony-tailed San
Francisco civil rights attorney who was the first to get a convicted man off
of Death Row. As the second trial was starting DeGuerin pulled out and Sandy hired a new attorney, Michael Cristolli. With Serra at end side of the defense table, representing Rick, and Cristolli at the other, with Sandy, they fought a valiant battle against the prosecution. In the end, in November 2004, three days before Thanksgiving, the jury acquitted both Sandy and Rick, finding them not guilty of murder. They were, however, found guilty of burglary relating to Binion’s silver. Sandy was given time served and Tabish, as of August 2006, remains in prison until he is eligible for parole in 2008. Both Serra and Dershowitz became even more famous after movies were released based on their law practices. The 1989 movie “True Believer” starring James Wood and Robert Downey Jr., was about Serra's practice. “Reversal of Fortune” (1990) depicted Dershowitz, played by Ron Silver, in his representation of Klaus von Bulow. Cathy Scott is writing a second edition of Death in the Desert: The Ted Binion Homicide Case, which will be released in late 2006 or early 2007. |
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In this expanded 2nd edition, Cathy Scott's raw, no-holds-barred account discloses new information, including exclusive photo evidence, about the unsolved murder of Tupac: the failed investigation, the rap wars, the killing of Biggie Smalls, the Bloods-Crips connection, and the many possible motives leading to the murder that rocked the Mafia of the hip hop world. No one symbolized the violence at the heart of gangsta rap more than Tupac, and he ultimately fell victim to that violence, gunned down in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas. |
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No, Biggie Smalls did not pay gang members to shoot Tupac Shakur. The much-disputed series of stories in the Los Angeles Times was based on unnamed sources. Biggie, who was born Christopher Wallace and rapped as Notorious B.I.G., was not in Las Vegas that weekend, as the L.A. Times reported on the sixth anniversary of Tupac's murder. Biggie's mother, Voletta Wallace, has filed a civil suit against the Los Angeles Police Department for not properly investigating her son's murder. Now, she vows to file one for pain and suffering, against the L.A. Times for its recent articles. Also, accusations that Tha Row (formerly known as Death Row Records) CEO Suge Knight had something to do with Biggie's murder, in retaliation for Tupac's, went nowhere fast. The one finger pointing toward Suge was former officer Russell Poole, no longer with the LAPD. Biggie's case, like the Tupac Shakur investigation, has been stalled for years. Tha Row offices were raided in November 2002 investigating murders of Tha Row associates. Suge has not been charged in connection and, I'm told, the recent investigations and searches of Suge's properties are not connected to the Tupac and Biggie murders. |
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Robert Durst, widely believed to be the killer of Susan Berman, was acquitted in October 2003 of murdering his elderly neighbor Morris Black. While police have called Durst -- who was Susan's best friend -- a prime suspect, they also have said they don't have enough evidence against Durst to charge him with Susan Berman's murder. However, sources within the investigation in L.A. and the New York investigation into Durst's missing wife say both cases are being reinvestigated and witnesses are being re-interviewed. They're also looking for new witnesses. The book, Murder of a Mafia Daughter, has never-before-seen information about Durst's whereabouts when Susan was killed. Susan, 55, was the daughter of Davie Berman, partners in the 1940s and '50s with Ben "Bugsy" Siegel. Davie helped run the Flamingo Hotel with Bugsy. Susan was shot to death in the back of her head -- Chicago execution-style -- on Christmas Eve 2000 in her Beverly Hills home. At first police thought it was a mob hit, because she was an author and screenwriter who wrote about the mob -- not to mention the daughter of a storied mobster. It soon became evident, however, that the killer was some Susan knew. Durst, heir to a Manhattan real estate fortune, was the target. Susan was scheduled to be interviewed by New York police about Durst's missing wife, Kathleen Durst. But before that could happen Susan was killed. |
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2000-2007 Cathy Scott, USA. All Rights Reserved. |
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Biggie Smalls Case
Susan Berman Case