is carol lynn benson kendall still alive

Posted: 14. 04. 2023 | Author: | Category: are spencer rattler's parents divorced

He was stabbed in the neck in 1991 by a prisoner who was later sent to a mental hospital. Margaret Benson Carol Lynn Kendall testifies during the trial of her brother, Steven Benson, during his 1986 trial. A Florida jury found Benson guilty Aug. 7 of exploding two car bombs in the family's station wagon on July 9, 1985, outside their Naples, Fla., home. Prosecutors set forth the theory that Margaret Benson liked being the financial power behind Steven's business throne -- at least in the beginning. Benson died earlier this month in a Florida prison, where he was serving two life sentences for the crimes. Benson never bothering to wash his mothers blood spatters from the side of his white van, which he had parked near the blown-apart Suburban, and which he was still driving on the day police showed up to arrest him for the killings, a month and a half later. To my knowledge, Scott never confronted his mother with the question. I think it was the dumbest murder I ever solved that had been planned. Theyre all dead.. The jury convicted him of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and arson of a dwelling in the killing of his mother and nephew and injuring of his sister with car-bomb in front of their Naples, Fla., home. She was not allowed to leave town, as there was the possibility that the state might put her back on the stand. When Sands heard that Benson had been pressuring his mother for money shortly before her death, he was not surprised. Electronics. In prison records, Benson listed the oldest of his three children, twins Victoria and Christopher, as his next of kin. But she didn't know its size, and she didn't know that Steven had made the down payment with a blank check she had signed and left behind for household expenses while she was on a cruise. Steven's defense case, which lasted from Saturday, July 26, to last Monday, was marred by fights over the late introduction of witnesses (at one point Judge Hayes told the defense that such a practice was "just damn bush") and frequent bench conferences that resulted in the jury's being excused for the day. I guess you'd call them bombs." He smiles with his attorneys on occasion when the jury is out, but the men he seems most comfortable with, the men he sometimes even kids with, are the huge-armed deputy sheriffs, his jailers. By July 8, the day before the bombing, Margaret had learned of Steven's new house in Fort Myers, according to testimony. Please enable JavaScript to properly view our site. Bennett heard Kendall, who was disfigured in the bombing, testify that after the first blast blew her out of the car, she was still conscious, and she yelled to her brother to help her. It was like . Tracking money - that was my forte, said Dwight Brock, who is now 61 and works as the Collier County Clerk of Courts in Florida. Copyright 2023 The Washington Times, LLC. The matricide was a huge point, she said. The Trustees have not presented reasonable grounds for attributing the settlors scheme to their section of the trustee exercised on November 27, 1985, following the death of Ms. Benson. That's a negative as far as the jury is concerned. Simpson trial before the O.J. And so he appears very much alone. Not just Steven, but the whole family was just ugly. Office: 954-789-0834. He thought he was better than everybody else.. Macron wont let go off Africa so easily, he is love sick, Canadas Debt Crisis: A Never-Ending Burden Passed On From Generation to Generation, Alcohol tax in Canada: Canadian government is taking a sip out of your beer. Twelve and a half hours later, almost to the minute, Harry Hitchcock's granddaughter made an equally dramatic, if brief, appearance in the courtroom. Collier Judge Hugh Hayes presided over the trial. TV show Monday features Benson family murders, one of Naples' notorious crimes, Lighthouse Project - History: Murderers, moonshiners, swindlers lead rogues gallery of SW Florida crooks, Naples pipe bomb killer Steven Benson dies in prison. The blast blew apart the Benson familys Chevrolet Suburban sometime between 9:17 and 9:20 a.m. on July 9, 1985, in the driveway of Margaret Bensons home, just off a golf course in an exclusive Naples, Fla., community. A juror examines a photo of the Chevy Suburban that Steven Benson exploded with a pipe-bomb in front of his family's Naples, Fla., home, killing his mother and nephew and injuring of his sister. Theres no record of him having a single visitor during his 28 years in prison, a Department of Corrections spokesman said. Carol Lynn Kendall, sister of Steven Benson, survived the car bomb that killed her son, Scott Benson, and mother, Margaret Benson, on July 9, 1985. (Admitted to practice: 2002) Further, Kendall shall pay . Steven Benson, convicted in 1986 of murdering his mother and adopted brother, died in July at Taylor Correctional Institution in northern Florida. Carol Lynn Benson Kendall is 42 years old. BOSTON -- Tobacco heiress Carol Lynn Benson Kendall said Wednesday she has no intention of cutting her brother's children out of the family fortune despite his conviction of murdering her mother and son. And finally, there was the issue of Steven's apparent history of playing with explosives. If they had objections they were to say, quietly, "May we approach the bench?" . At first, Murphy thought her niece, Carol Lynn Kendall, 40, also had died, but she found out that she was badly burned but had survived. Benson died earlier this month in a Florida prison, where he was serving two life sentences for the crimes. I just cant imagine. Did Ukraine use innocent civilians as human shield against Russia in the name of evacuation? This orange thing was all around me. Benson was arrested and ultimately convicted of planting two pipe bombs in the family's SUV, then coaxing everyone into the vehicle before blowing it up. Carol Lynn Benson Kendall Death, Obituary pending- Carol Lynn Benson Kendall has reportedly passed away unexpectedly and suddenly. Benson, he recalled, had a reputation as a wimp., He didnt fit in, Schelling said. After his first marriage also failed, Benson married a farm worker from his familys tobacco empire. US fails miserably against Russia at the crucial UN Vote. One youth remembered finding dry-cell batteries, wire and alligator clips in a closet and saying to himself, "Oh, this is Steve Benson's stuff . FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) _ The estate of murdered tobacco heiress Margaret Benson should be shared equally by the children of the son who killed her and by her daughter, a judge has ruled. Margaret and Scott died instantly, and Caroline was rushed to the hospital with severe burns. Police officers also testified their investigation indicated Steven had acted out of character in several respects that morning, first by insisting that Scott be awakened and included in the group, and then by having Scott drive. Collier Circuit Judge Hugh D. Hayes issued the ruling Monday. Many members of the family have disappeared from public view in the past 20 years. Attorneys representing Steven Benson, 36, and Margaret Benson's daughter, Carol Lynn Benson Kendall, 43, said they both probably will appeal Monday's ruling. I thought I was being electrocuted. Benson has had his share of problems behind bars. . He didnt say anything after prison. Bensons own sister, Carol Lynn Kendall, then 40, who survived the blast but was severely burned, wanting to make sure her brother was sentenced to life in prison for the killings. He was calm as a cucumber, he said. As trial testimony brought out, Steven had started yet another company, Meridian Marketing, which was located about 30 miles away in Fort Myers, where Steven had just bought a new (and very large) house. It was the O.J. FDLE spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger said the agency had no updated information as of Friday afternoon. Prosecutors linked Benson to the bomb explosion by producing a receipt, with Bensons palm print, for the purchase of pieces of pipe and end caps. Margaret Benson adopted her grandson as her son, to cover up the fact that her daughter, a former beauty queen, became pregnant with a water skier from Cypress Gardens, said Cirace, now 64. But that changed over the next three weeks, as witness after witness took the stand. Eyebrows were raised in the affluent Benson neighborhood, but Margaret prevailed and she raised the boy as her son. Also in the car were her two children, 21-year-old Scott, who died, and 41-year-old Carol Lynn, who was badly injured but survived. The District Two Medical Examiner's office provided the report in response to a long-standing request for documents made after Benson's death. A jury convicted him of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and arson of a dwelling in 1986, and he spent the rest of his life in jail. The Miami Herald gave the following account of a groundskeeper who worked on Margaret Benson's Pennsylvania estate: He recalled that one day in 1982 he looked down from his ladder to see Steven carrying three copper tubes with wires protruding from them. Carol Lynn Kendall, sister of Steven Benson, survived the car bomb that killed her son, Scott Benson, and mother, Margaret Benson, on July 9, 1985. Carol Lynn Benson Kendall came in to see her brother's jury be excused for the night. Her father, she says, was broken up by the entire affair. In the spring and summer of 1985, she asked Wayne Kerr, a young lawyer from Philadelphia, to come down to Naples. Prosecutors argued that Margaret Benson was apparently beginning to face the growing evidence that Steven was spending beyond the limits of her frequent loans and the $3,000 a month she paid him as a "consultant" to the Meridian businesses. However, according to a veteran Florida criminal attorney, "any time in a murder case when a defendant without a prior record fails to take the stand, it looks bad. It r He and his wife had two children, Margaret and Janet, and when Margaret married she chose a quiet accountant from Baltimore named Edward Benson, with whom she had two children, Carol Lynn and Steven. . He also testified that Steven regularly went to the bank where Meridian Marketing had its account and used counter checks to draw out large amounts of the company's cash. Shocked by the attack, she says that since then, her siblings have been completely uninterested in her physical and emotional well-being. Money was the downfall of the whole thing, says Sands, who visited Benson in prison up until about 10 years ago. Young said, I knew he did it immediately.. Required fields are marked *. While she was being helped by the golfer, Carol Lynn Benson Kendall's brother Steven stood and watched the carnage. In August 1986, Margaret Bensons son, Steven Wayne Benson, was convicted in the slaying of his mother and her adopted son, Scott R. Benson, 21. Some who knew him werent really surprised. Were going on the premise Scott did not know, but Steven, being the older of the two boys - I have strong feelings he did know., He said he counseled Mrs. Kendall to tell the truth about Scotts birth and answer any and all questions they ask, no matter how private or embarrassing.. You could see a hateful heart in Steven then. But the topic was always the same: problems in prison. . It was very weird. [citation needed], Dominick Dunne's Power, Privilege, and Justice, "Killer Succession" (Season 1, Episode 3), "Inmate Population Information Detail - Steven Benson", "In the Know: Is that Benson guy still in prison? But that same day, local attorney Guion DeLoach showed up with a second and more recent will, one that Margaret Benson had him draw up and that she signed Jan. 29, 1985. [13] A golfer who had run to her aid lost a portion of his nose as parts of that second bomb and the Chevy Suburban were blasted through the air. He is also charged with the attempted murder of his sister, Carol Lynn. The Fallout, At the funeral of Margaret and Scott Benson, Steven sat between his wife Debra and his grandfather, Harry Hitchcock. That she was once a beauty contest winner is easy to see. [citation needed] The case was featured in Great Crimes and Trials and Infamous Murders. When he returned, they said, he prepared to join his family to look at a piece of land his mother had bought. Its still fresh in my memory, he said. And trying to come to grips with the loss of her mother, with whom she had been close, at least from time to time, has been hard. It wasn't the prison pallor that surprised people who had known him; it was the grim and almost affectless bearing. Margaret's son, Steven Benson, was convicted of placing two pipe bombs inside the family's Suburban, which killed his mother and brother, and seriously injured his sister, Carol Benson Kendall. Murphys daughter, Brenda, was there that day. BOSTON (AP) _ Tobacco heiress Carol Lynn Benson Kendall, who survived a car bombing that killed her mother and adopted brother, has said under oath that the dead young man was actually her son, her attorney said today. Jul 23, 2015. District Court of Appeal of Florida, Second District. Oh no, she thought. Steven Wayne Benson was an American double murderer of his mother, tobacco heiress Margaret Benson, and his brother, tennis player Scott Benson. The problems, Sands says, were all Benson wanted to talk about during the visits. Minutes later the Suburban erupted into flames. Error! Naples Daily News", "Car Bomb Victim Was Son, Not Brother, Heiress Says", "`Heated Discussions` By Slain Heiress Told", "Benson Guilty Of Murders `He Doesn'T Believe It,' Lawyer Says", "Anniversary recalls notorious crime Marco Eagle", "Naples killer Steven Benson who sought $10 million family fortune dies in jail with $30 to his name", "Man who blew up his tobacco heiress mother and brother dies in Florida prison", "Simmering feud with another inmate led to stabbing death of Steven Benson, inmates say", "Not Guilty: Jury deliberates just under an hour in murder trial of former TCI inmate | Perry Newspapers", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Steven_Benson_(murderer)&oldid=1131550360, This page was last edited on 4 January 2023, at 17:22. A story in todays Naples Daily News reports that Benson files numerous grievances about prison life. Steven Benson's palm print was one of the major points in the prosecution's case against him, a case that ultimately convinced a jury to convict him of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and arson of a dwelling in the killing of his mother and nephew and injuring of his sister with car-bomb in front of their Naples, Fla., home. That day, she and Wayne Kerr drove to Fort Myers, and when she saw Steven's new house, and the new Datsun sports car parked in front, she was, as Kerr testified, "angry. Young had several reasons to suspect Benson. It was then that she had her personal secretary run a tab of what her children owed her. Albert Gleason, a federal explosives expert, testifies about the pipe-bomb Steven Benson used to kill his family members on July 9, 1985, in front of their Naples, Fla., home. I had never known anyone like this before. The Herald also reported that it was common knowledge among certain of Steven's childhood friends that he liked to make bombs. At the trial, the man with whom he'd spent that evening testified that Steven had not set up the meeting until 6:30 that same night. I still get recognized, said Michael McDonnell, Bensons defense attorney, who at 74 still practices in Naples and Fort Myers. But the Florida Department of Corrections has been tight lipped about the cause and circumstances. emains listed on the DOC website as an open investigation led by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. The judge made the sentences consecutive, in accordance with Bensons sisters wishes. Most recently, he was assigned as a houseman, performing maintenance and cleaning duties. She also said that Steven was gone so long for coffee that she kidded he "could have gone all the way to Fort Myers. The only survivor of the blast, Steven Benson's sister, Carol Lynn Benson Kendall, testifies about the explosion and injuries she sustained. . Attorneys, an investigator and a juror have never forgotten what Steven Benson did, and how it affected their lives in the years since he was convicted of killing his family in Naples, Florida. Steven Benson turned gray behind bars and died, to little fanfare. That trip, which should have taken about 10 minutes, took more than an hour, according to Carol Lynn's testimony, and 20 to 30 minutes according to Steven's statements to investigators. 'My brother has been convicted of murdering my family,' Kendall said. Your email address will not be published. Carol Lynn Benson Kendall, 2719 Hollywood Blvd., Suite 164, Hollywood, disbarred effective immediately, following a Sept. 22 court order. Steven Benson denied all requests for media interviews. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. As the trial date neared (there were several postponements before it finally began July 14) it became obvious that the large amounts of money involved meant that there would be a lot of lawyers on both sides of the courtroom trial. The Lancaster tobacco heir was convicted after a monthlong trial that was carried on Florida television, drew national headlines and spurred books and intense media coverage both here and in Florida. She said she will never forget that moment. Nervously at first, but then more calmly, she testified in response to the prosecutor's questions. Prosecutors argued his mother's funds were used as seed money -- or to bail out one or more of the companies in emergencies, of which there were many. , who at 74 still practices in Naples and Fort Myers of her brother 's jury excused. The Judge made the sentences consecutive, in accordance with Bensons sisters wishes watched the.. 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