Vegas stripper’s Kerry millionaire

IRISH associates of the multi-millionaire Kerry businessman William Fuller, “guardian angel” to a former stripper acquitted of murder, rarely hear from him these days.

Mr Fuller, who made his money from hotels and property, left Ireland in the 1980s to begin a new chapter in his roller-coaster life.

One colleague who worked with Mr Fuller, from Kilflynn in Kerry, in the 1970s said yesterday he had not heard from him in years.

They heard of him, of course, most notably around 1999 when his links to Las Vegas stripper Sandra Murphy first emerged publicly.

Mr Fuller, now 87 but still involved in mining operations in Nevada, is estimated to have spent $1 million defending Murphy and her co-accused Rick Tabish, who this week were acquitted after re-trial.

The two were accused of injecting Ted Binion, a drug addict with links to organised crime, with lethal levels of heroin and Xanax.

Following her acquittal for murder, Murphy, who was found guilty of grand larceny and burglary after the jury found the duo had plotted to steal Binion’s fortune after his death, said of Mr Fuller: “He’s my guardian angel. God sent him to me, and I’m grateful to have him.”

Mr Fuller, who decided to help five years ago after seeing the case covered on television, was delighted at the verdict. “When I first talked to Sandy, I knew she was innocent, and that’s why I helped her,” he said yesterday.

Prosecutors in the US claimed Murphy and her lover Tabish drugged and suffocated Binion in order to get their hands on a $4m silver and gold fortune. Defence lawyers argued that the long-time heroin addict died of an accidental overdose.

The pair could still face up to 16 years in prison. However, with time spent in prison following the murder conviction, they could be released within months of sentencing on January 28.

Murphy said when she returns to Las Vegas, she plans to work for Mr Fuller.

Fuller was born in 1917 in Kerry and left for London in the mid-1930s, where he amassed his first fortune in dance halls.

By the 1960s he had bought properties all over the US, including the famous Filmore West club in San Francisco. He later bought most of South Anne Street and the famous Old Shieling Hotel in Dublin.

Mr Fuller married and later divorced Dublin signer Carmel Quinn and later a young Irish woman he met in Nevada, which also ended in divorce.