The real life Billy Bob and his partner opened Billy Bob's in the early 80's. He was a friend and admirer of Benny's. The statue was unveiled at Billy Bob's in 84/85. The placed closed in early 1988 (tough times here in Texas with Savings and Loan fiasco then) and the statue was shipped to the Horseshoe then, the year before Benny died. One of the articles noted the statue had stood behind the Horseshoe for "two decades, until in 2008, the decision was made to move it to South Point." That should smooth out the time line.

Somewhere on the Billy Bob's website there was a note that "one night the statue disappeared." I highly doubt that it just disappeared and magically appeared in Las Vegas. Three new partners bought Billy Bob's, reopened in late 1988 and it has been going strong ever since.

I remember Michael Gaughan telling the story about all the issues they had getting the thing into the building when they moved it to South Point.

Hope some of this helps.