He got down from his ladder, and walked toward the tennis courts, where he found Steven holding what appeared to be a remote control device. 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. 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. After his initial outburst, Benson became stoic and unemotional as the evidence was presented against him. He just kept a straight face.. Release Calendar Browse Movies by Genre Top Box Office Showtimes & Tickets Movie News India Movie Spotlight. Benson told his family members where to sit in the Suburban. He became known for writing grievances against both inmates and correctional officers, complaining about anything from the amount of sales tax charged at commissary to the Spanish programs playing in the television room. 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. Carol Lynn testified that she thought Scott's being there was a "silly request. The Wait. Most recently, he was assigned as a houseman, performing maintenance and cleaning duties. But Kendall, who was injured. I did most of the talking.. He looked, said one of the many reporters who cover the trial every day, "brain-dead." 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. I just cant imagine. Yesterday, a jury began deliberations on those charges after weeks of riveting testimony involving enormous amounts of money and a tangled family web. On the morning of the explosion, the entire family agreed to inspect the land at Stevens suggestion. He was a strange fellow, says Sands, who worked as a landscaper for Bensons late grandfather, Hitchcock. ", She said that Steven had called her the night before the bombing to make sure that both she and Scott would be coming along in the morning when he planned to stake the dimensions of his mother's new lot. The prosecution's evidence is entirely circumstantial. Tracking money - that was my forte, said Dwight Brock, who is now 61 and works as the Collier County Clerk of Courts in Florida. But in reality she had been alone with her thoughts -- the memory of that "malevolent orange thing," and her recollection of the day she took the stand and referred, for the first time in public, and in front of all those strangers, to the late Scott Benson as "my son.". 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. I remember when my sister had him here was this baby and then he ends up killing her. Moments later, a second bomb, this one planted in the rear of the vehicle, exploded. You know, he wouldnt say yes or no or nothing. He was talking to one of his associates - the phrase How much did we take in yesterday? sticks in my head. Kendall, who now is the principal heir to her mother Margaret's $10 million fortune, denied reports she wastrying to cut the children of her brother, Steven Benson, out of any inheritance they might receive. Carl Westman, a Naples attorney named to represent Margaret Benson's estate, usually sat with Cirace. But everyone agreed that she had done so well, it might be unwise to risk a second appearance. He had been driving it all that time, he said. Steven Benson denied all requests for media interviews. September 1, 1989. Naples Daily News 0:00 1:22 Steven Benson is led into the Collier County jail complex on the day of his arrest in 1985. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. How people were crooked. 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. Mail Address: Law Offices of Carol Lynn B Kendall, Esq 2719 Hollywood Blvd Ste 164 Hollywood, FL 33020-4821. Required fields are marked *. Maybe it was the money, the power and the greed, they say. . Investigators said Steven Benson had embezzled up to $2 million from his mother and had recently learned he may be cut out of her will. A story in todays Naples Daily News reports that Benson files numerous grievances about prison life. The murder of Margaret and Scott Benson in 1985 drew national crime coverage never seen before and rarely since to Naples. And what Benson was doing was spending the money, lots of it, for all kinds of things, including a house in Fort Myers and a car. 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. Is Carol Lynn Benson Kendall still alive? He doesnt know for sure why Benson has stuck with the public, and with him, all these years. And he is an arbitrator within the family when things go wrong., Steven started to cry. Not just Steven, but the whole family was just ugly. Then the bombs went off. Did Ukraine use innocent civilians as human shield against Russia in the name of evacuation? At the urging of Hitchcock, Sands tried to talk to Benson about religion, about accepting Jesus as his savior, but Benson did not want to talk about that. Benson was convicted of killing his mother and nephew and injuring his sister with a car-bomb on July 9, 1985. This orange thing was all around me. It was obvious he was spending his mothers money on himself and his family, Brock said. Electronics. Hollywood's Carol Lynn Benson Kendall (University of Richmond School of Law, admitted to the Florida Bar 2002) got disbarred, the final step after her suspension in February and a. Carol Lynn Kendall testifies during the trial of her brother, Steven Benson, during his 1986 trial. Our prayers and thoughts are with the family and loved ones of Carol. How it wasnt run correctly. Mrs. Kendalls attorney, E. Richard Cirace of Boston, confirmed the report. . In the second half of 2015, there were close to 200 inmate deaths in Florida's prisons. (Admitted to practice: 2002) Further, Kendall shall pay restitution of $1,075 to one client. Under Florida law, Steven Benson is precluded from receiving proceeds of the estate of the person he murdered, Hayes said. ), After a brief rebuttal by the prosecution, Judge Hayes let the jury go. Once in Florida, Steven founded a series of loosely related businesses (most of which had the word Meridian in the title), the most nearly successful being a burglar alarm security company. Its like the story that keeps on giving. Also on the public record is a 3-year-old paternity suit filed by Scott's former live-in girl. 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. Benson calmly talking on the phone about his burglar alarm companys profits when investigators arrived at the home where the shattered bodies of his mother, Margaret, 63, and his brother, Scott, 21, still lay outside on the driveway. File photo. Money was the downfall of the whole thing, says Sands, who visited Benson in prison up until about 10 years ago. Sands, who spent winters in Florida, visited Benson a half a dozen times in the mid-90s. Bensons grandfather, the family patriarch and the Lancaster Leaf Tobacco magnate, the late Harry Hitchcock, was a congenial-looking, white-haired Christian businessman known for his tulip gardens in School Lane Hills. That she was once a beauty contest winner is easy to see. I have a strong feeling Steven Benson also knew, Cirace said. Bennett heard about the money battles that were going in within the family, how Margaret Benson used money to control her children, how they fought among themselves and with her to gain access to the fortune, how Margaret Benson asked a secretary to inform and spy on Steven. You can also browse other available content for Carol Lynn Benson Kendall on IMDb such as filmography, trivia, personal details, etc. On the morning of the blast, prosecutors said, Benson drove the vehicle shortly before the explosion, allegedly to get doughnuts at a nearby convenience store. That she is now horribly scarred is obvious; large red subdermal slashes streak her face. To my knowledge, Scott never confronted his mother with the question. She was crying. Benson tried and failed at a succession of businesses. He was stabbed in the neck in 1991 by a prisoner who was later sent to a mental hospital. Attorney (s) appearing for the Case Those involved with the case say they are surprised at how it still resonates in peoples minds, and their own lives. In the Know: Is that Benson guy still in prison? His face got really red. Simpson trial before the O.J. 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. They had a heckuva fight out of it, he says. He just ignored it.. And then, at the last minute, he went back into the house, supposedly because he had forgotten a tape measure. Some who knew him werent really surprised. Once Benson was in custody, investigators questioned him until he invoked his right to call an attorney. Margaret Benson and her adopted son, Scott, were killed in the 1985 blast at their Naples home. Connect with the definitive source for global and local news. He seldom looked at Steven.The defendant watched his grandfather enter the courtroom, but after that he never looked at him. Something is wrong with Daddy. Success! It r He is a good brother. He never looked at anybody, says Murphy, who sat right behind Benson during the trial. ", Carol Lynn told investigators, in a statement taken after she was released from the hospital where she had been treated for severe burns and had begun the long process of reconstructive surgery, that while her mother was scared of Scott, Margaret Benson felt that Steven was the only one who would actually harm her for her money: "She wouldn't put it past Steven to do away with her. The Lancaster Township woman was playing golf on a July day at the Lancaster Country Club when she was asked to come in off the course. It all came back to him.. But what is apparently harder is that she has to face the death of Scott Benson, who died at the age of 21 without ever knowing that the woman he thought was his much older sister, by adoption, was in fact his own natural mother. he asked. Steven Benson blew up his family in the driveway of their Florida home in July 1985. She was afraid her brother would come after her and her children if he ever got free. 'It's hard for me to even put into words the devastation emotionally that this has caused me and my children,' Kendall told reporters at Logan International Airport after flying home from Florida. Copyright 2023 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. You could see a hateful heart in Steven then. Cirace said Scott was born in 1965 in a Baltimore hospital and later adopted by Mrs. Kendalls mother, Margaret Benson of Pennsylvania, heiress to the Lancaster Leaf Tobacco Co. fortune. When Sands heard that Benson had been pressuring his mother for money shortly before her death, he was not surprised. Scott had canisters of nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, to which he was addicted, delivered to the house on a monthly basis, defense witnesses said. Office: 954-789-0834. In July 1985, 63-year-old Margaret, her 41-year-old daughter Caroline Benson Kendall, her 33-year-old son Stephen Benson, and her 21-year-old adopted son Scott Benson got into the car to drive away to check a piece of land in the city where Margaret planned to build another house for the family. To him, sadly, its not a shocker, the terrible things people do to each other, the terrible things they do for money. ", As for the positioning of the vehicle's occupants, "I thought it was awfully strange that Scott was driving. After nearly three decades behind bars, Benson died July 3 at 63, the same age his mother, Margaret Hitchcock Benson, was when she was killed by a pipe bomb he planted in her Chevrolet Suburban in the familys North Naples driveway in 1985. Real estate. Later he approved a partial distribution from Margaret Benson's estate. 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. I walk into a restaurant and people say, Didnt you do the Benson case? 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. But a witness for the defense, Steven's secretary, testifed Steven never left the office during the times when the pipe and end caps were purchased. When the police questioned him about the trip, he said he was delayed when he ran into some people he knew; but Steven was unable to provide the police with their names. . Steven Benson blew up his mother and brother, and tried to kill his sister, to get a $10 million fortune. Also Read:Mustang used by Steve Mcqueen in Bullitt auctioned, Your email address will not be published. Harold Young, the lead Collier County sheriff's detective who pegged Benson as his primary suspect the day of the killings, said he is more surprised by the length of the investigation than the way Benson died. In a rare moment of emotion during his trial, Steven Benson cries in the Florida courtroom where a jury convicted him in 1986 of blowing up his family in a Chevy Suburban in the driveway of their Naples, Fla., home on July 9, 1985. Carol Lynn Benson Kendall. My memorys getting pretty hazy. Lets go with disastrous hate. Carol Lynn Benson Kendall is 42 years old. The first thing he said was, Well, Steve done it, you know that. He thought that right away, Sands, now 81, remembered today. No mental problems, he was just evil., The case garnered national attention, and four authors later wrote books about it. Carol Lynn Benson Kendall Obituary - Death, Cause Of Death, Funeral: Friends and others affected mourn the death of Carol Lynn Benson Kendall, has suddenly passed away.click to read and leave tributes. He cried so much, she says. Brocks brother, Jerry, the lead prosecutor in the case, asked him to help with the financial issues in the case as it was going to trial. Benson has had his share of problems behind bars. (AP Photo) (Photo: Anonymous). Cirace said the rumors were never confirmed until Steven Bensons lawyers questioned Mrs. Kendall about it, to test her credibility. Copyright 2023 The Washington Times, LLC. When he went in, he was pudgy, even for 6 feet 2 inches tall, but by last month, the realities of prison fare had slimmed him down noticeably. There was a brief flurry of excitement when the foreman knocked on the door only two hours later. The 63-year-old Pennsylvania tobacco heiress died when two pipe bombs ripped apart her car apart on July 9, 1985, in front of her North Naples home. Eventually the second will was ruled valid, but before that happened, Steve Benson was arrested. He just wouldnt respond to it, Sands says. 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. Carol Lynn Kendall testifies during the trial of her brother, Steven Benson, during his 1986 trial. Bennett had heard of the financial battles that took place in the family, how Margaret Benson used money to control her children, how they fought each other and with her for access to wealth, as Margaret Benson asked the secretary to inform and spy on her. Benson is also featured in an episode of the New Detectives entitled "Short Fuse" (Season 2, Episode 3) and an episode of Florida Man Murders entitled "Killer Succession" (Season 1, Episode 3). -- Scott Benson's natural mother and Margaret Benson's daughter -- got along better with her mother. She had hoped he would get the death penalty. Young said, I knew he did it immediately.. Scott tried to start the vehicle, she testified, "and immediately after that I was surrounded by this orange thing.". 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. 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