is carol lynn benson kendall still alive

Harry Hitchcock, second from right, patriarch of the Benson family and founder of the Lancaster Leaf Tobacco Co., with his daughter Janet Murphy in a hallway of the Florida courthouse during the trial their family member, Steven Benson. Her father, she says, was broken up by the entire affair. 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. The mangled Benson family 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. It was a journey, and every day we learned something new and awful., E. Richard Cirace, a Boston attorney who advised Kendall during the trial, said the case was compelling due to its colorful cast of characters.. And Steven usually drove when we were together. Carol Lynn Kendall testifies during the trial of her brother, Steven Benson, during his 1986 trial. I knew it was no accident, said Young, now 75, of Naples. Puncture wound of right temple made by a sharpened instrument ('shank')," the report states. Dwight Brock was an assistant state attorney in Florida, specializing in white collar crime, when Steven Benson was arrested. Also Read : . "Sharp force head trauma. Murphy s nephew, Steven Benson, was the only one to. Indeed, Margaret Benson did change her will, but in a terribly ironic touch, the only change was to cut out Wayne Kerr as executor. Joyce Quinn, Margaret Benson's quiet and polite young secretary who'd lasted but three months in the job before realizing there had to be saner employment, testified that Margaret "paid for everything for Scott" -- his cars (among them two Lotuses, a sports car that costs $45,000 to $50,000) his van, his Cigarette speedboat, his apartment and furniture, repairs, his tennis lessons, his clothes and his gas credit cards. Benson's death was reported soon after it happened on July 3. It was just a tragic story. The attorney said, I want you to meet Steven Benson, she recalled. He was born in 1951 in Baltimore. It was full of surprises. Once Benson was in custody, investigators questioned him until he invoked his right to call an attorney. Carol Lynn Benson Kendall. 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. Her daughter, Carol Lynn Benson Kendall, was injured. After his initial outburst, Benson became stoic and unemotional as the evidence was presented against him. Benson wanted to kill his mother and siblings so he could be sole heir to the familys $10 million estate, police believed. Then you had Scott as an aspiring tennis player, but ordering nitrous oxide to be delivered to the house like some people get milk, he said, so he could carry on with his girlfriend, who was a stripper.. She is shown here in a photo shoot at. Steven Wayne Benson was an American double murderer of his mother, tobacco heiress Margaret Benson, and his brother, tennis player Scott Benson. The next day, Wayne Kerr, at whose wedding Steven Benson had been the best man, took the stand. Carol Lynn Benson Kendall is 42 years old. The case still resonates three decades later. Janet Murphy, Steven Bensons maternal aunt, said no one in the family ever patched things up with him, and he has never as much as admitted to the crime. Reached Friday about her brother's death, she. I can see what money can do when people get so tied up in self, he says. Carl Westman, a Naples attorney named to represent Margaret Benson's estate, usually sat with Cirace. He was calm as a cucumber, he said. Related story: Naples pipe bomb killer Steven Benson dies in prison. He cried so much, she says. Then the witness surprised the judge by asking if he could make a "statement." Once, Benson wanted his mother to loan him the down payment for a factory building in Lancaster. 3600 New York Avenue NE, Washington, DC 20002, Biden migrant surge sets all-time record for most arrests at southern border, With its social media biz under siege, Facebook looks to build a new metaverse empire, Youngkin goes solo, McAuliffe leans on surrogates in home stretch of Va. governors race. In the second half of 2015, there were close to 200 inmate deaths in Florida's prisons. He worked in the laundry. Benson crying on the first day of his trial. Hes had no contact at all.. [4] Kendall survived but was badly burned; Margaret and Scott died instantly from the bomb blast. Only Carol Lynn Benson survived in this tragic blast. "), Near the end of his testimony, he said he had finally told Margaret Benson, "You have to stop being a bank for your children." Steven Benson blew up his family in the driveway of their Florida home in July 1985. The judge made the sentences consecutive, in accordance with Bensons sisters wishes. An investigator said later they probably didnt have a chance to move.. File photo. Well, he thought he knew everything and he was brilliant in many ways, Sands says, but there was a lot of things that didnt make any sense.. 'My brother has been convicted of murdering my family,' Kendall said. [11] Washington was charged with murder for killing Benson, but was acquitted. In the spring and summer of 1985, she asked Wayne Kerr, a young lawyer from Philadelphia, to come down to Naples. As for Carol Lynn, she too waited in Florida for the verdict. 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. US fails miserably against Russia at the crucial UN Vote. In July 1985, Margaret, 63, her 41-year-old daughter, Carolyn Benson Kendall, her 33-year-old son Steven Benson, and her 21-year-old adopted son, Scott Benson, all got into a vehicle to go check out a plot of land in the city, where Margaret was planning to build another home for the family. Most recently, he was assigned as a houseman, performing maintenance and cleaning duties. I heard a lot of cursing and swearing.. Benson was sentenced to life in prison. Stating that he could not give money to one of the children and not the other, Judge Hayes then awarded $244,000 to Carol Lynn Kendall, who also had legal bills. His deposition in that case reads like pulp fiction of old: "My mother (meaning Margaret Benson) who had 38 years of marriage to my father, a greatly respected man of the highest character both in business and his personal life, is herself a religious person of high integrity and moral values. 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. Police later learned that Scott. [8], Benson died at Taylor Correctional Institution in Perry, Florida of a stab wound to the right side of the head with a homemade knife on July 3, 2015. Bennett heard how the bombs were assembled, with nails and tacks put inside them so they would do the most damage. (AP Photo). Also Read:Mariannette Miller-Meeks : Role during Iowa elections. Steven Benson turned gray behind bars and died, to little fanfare. In July 1985, 63-year-old Margaret and her 41-year-old daughter Caroline Benson Kendall, 33-year-old son Steven Benson and 21-year-old adopted son Scott Benson together Get in the car and leave to see a piece of land in the city, where Margaret plans to build another home for her family. Moments later there was a loud explosion. He was talking to one of his associates - the phrase How much did we take in yesterday? sticks in my head. 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. Her niece, Kendall, also has stayed out of the limelight. Final arguments took place yesterday and the jury began its deliberations, 13 months after the killings of Margaret and Scott Benson. I still get recognized, said Michael McDonnell, Bensons defense attorney, who at 74 still practices in Naples and Fort Myers. Trending. -- Scott Benson's natural mother and Margaret Benson's daughter -- got along better with her mother. He had retained Naples attorney Michael McDonnell. ", When they got back to Naples, Margaret told Steven she wanted to meet with him and Kerr that evening and "talk business." 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. I dont know if it will ever go away or not., Information from: LNP, https://lancasteronline.com. In addition, the Benson Family murder case was the subject of The Serpent's Tooth, a 1987 book by Christopher Andersen. He is also charged with the attempted murder of his sister, Carol Lynn. And then, at the last minute, he went back into the house, supposedly because he had forgotten a tape measure. Steven Wayne Benson was an American double murderer of his mother, tobacco heiress Margaret Benson, and his brother, tennis player Scott Benson. ", After almost four hours of final argument, and another hour of his carefully read instructions, Judge Hayes gave the case to the jury at 2:06 yesterday afternoon. Shocked by the attack, she says that since then, her siblings have been completely uninterested in her physical and emotional well-being. Benson told his family members where to sit in the Suburban. He was stabbed in the neck in 1991 by a prisoner who was later sent to a mental hospital. Steven Benson blew up his mother and brother, and tried to kill his sister, to get a $10 million fortune. Hed claimed he had no money to pay his attorneys, so he claimed indigency -- and Judge Hayes approved the claim. But everyone agreed that she had done so well, it might be unwise to risk a second appearance. Benson, now 53, is serving two life sentences in a Florida prison for killing his mother and brother, and trying to kill his sister. He was born in 1951 in Baltimore. Steven Bensons late father didnt think he was capable of doing anything, Cirace said, an assessment that apparently was correct as Benson, who grew up and lived in Lancaster most of his life, left behind a series of failed business ventures. 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 continued to prosper, and eventually both families had what some people call "real money," and what others disdain as "nouveau. The Money. It r [13] He looked, said one of the many reporters who cover the trial every day, "brain-dead." Young said, I knew he did it immediately.. His second wife Debra was not in the courtroom, or even in Florida. . Inmates told investigators that Washington planned to extort $1,000 from Benson within days after arriving at Taylor Correctional Institution. (AP Photo) (Photo: Anonymous). My relationship with Tracy was always a very turbulent one. Florida authorities have charged Steven Benson, Mrs. Kendall's 34-year-old natural brother, with setting the blast outside . Steven Benson was taken into police custody on August 22, 1985, after being accused of blowing up his family in a Chevy Suburban in the driveway of their Naples, Fla., home on July 9 of the same year. Nothing was heard from him at all during the trial, she said. . Moments later, a second bomb, this one planted in the rear of the vehicle, exploded. 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. 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. Debra divorced Steven shortly after his August 22, 1985, arrest. 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. You can also browse other available content for Carol Lynn Benson Kendall on IMDb such as filmography, trivia, personal details, etc. Even though he had a fancy car" -- the Lotus -- "he didn't like to drive. He knew how to make tube bombs and fiddled with explosives. Benson wasnt much more popular in the penitentiary: At one point, he was stabbed by another prisoner and had to be transferred to a different facility for his own safety. 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. Scott tried to start the vehicle, she testified, "and immediately after that I was surrounded by this orange thing.". Had she not left the rear door of the unairconditioned Chevy Suburban wagon open on that miserably hot July morning 13 months ago in Naples, Fla., she, like her mother and her 21-year-old adopted "brother" Scott, would also be dead. Young had several reasons to suspect Benson. 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. ), I think the attention it got was because it was a rich family, and there was money and greed and love of money, said Harold Young, a retired Collier County Sheriffs Office lieutenant who was the lead investigator on the case. It was very weird. Benson, they learned, had been pressuring his mother for money. My memorys getting pretty hazy. Its still fresh in my memory, he said. Benson, then 33, was running out of it and wanted to inherit his mother's. The siblings did not return phone messages Friday. She also said that Steven was gone so long for coffee that she kidded he "could have gone all the way to Fort Myers. he asked. Steven Bensons children - Elizabeth Benson, 5; Christopher Logan Benson, 5; and Natalie Nichole Benson, 4 - are entitled to inherit from their grandmothers estate, the judge said. Another daily attendee was a lawyer representing the trust funds left by Harry Hitchcock's late wife. Investigators also found on Bensons pants a single particle of zinc, which they said fell off the galvanized pipe while he was making the bombs that would later kill his mother and sister. The Prosecution. But the Florida Department of Corrections has been tight lipped about the cause and circumstances. Carol Lynn Benson Kendall, 2719 Hollywood Blvd., Suite 164, Hollywood, disbarred effective immediately, following a September 22 court order. The phrase how much did we take in yesterday Florida for the verdict his right to an! S nephew, Steven Benson, she testified, `` and immediately after that i was surrounded this! A fancy car '' -- the Lotus -- `` he did it immediately.. second!.. 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Place yesterday and the jury began its deliberations, 13 months after the killings Margaret... Related story: Naples pipe bomb killer Steven Benson, was running out of Serpent... Asked Wayne Kerr, at whose wedding Steven Benson blew up his mother and siblings so he claimed --. Man, took the stand was injured $ 10 million estate, police believed her niece, Kendall, Hollywood...

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