Murphys nephew, Steven Benson, was the only one to escape the fiery blast that day. 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.. Benson, he recalled, had a reputation as a wimp., He didnt fit in, Schelling said. All but 30 remain open investigations. "I don't really know how to comment on it. Those involved with the case say they are surprised at how it still resonates in peoples minds, and their own lives. Even though her grandfather and her aunt opposed Steven's release on bail, she apparently still fights the conclusion that Steven did it. Required fields are marked *. Kendall's mother and son, Scott, were killed in the blast and Kendall, a resident of suburban Chestnut Hill, was seriously injured. ", 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. 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. Theres no record of him having a single visitor during his 28 years in prison, a Department of Corrections spokesman said. Benson was also charged with the attempted first-degree murder of his sister, Carol Lynn Benson Kendall. Apparently, the idea was to cut down on speeches to the jury, and to speed things along. 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. 20 years later, friends and family still try to make sense of Benson murders: 'It still seems unreal', By opting into newsletters you are agreeing to our. The killings, prosecutors said, were sparked by one motive. Then the witness surprised the judge by asking if he could make a "statement." As beautiful as she looked, her most noticeable feature was her facial scarring. . Lets go with disastrous hate. Florida law allows cameras in the courtroom, and much of this trial was televised live. Carol Lynn Benson Kendall, 42, of Brookline, Mass. Dad was very religious, she said. Her daughter, Kendall, was. 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. He is a good brother. On Aug. 22, 1985, the State of Florida charged him with murder in the first degree of his 63-year-old mother, Margaret, and his adopted brother Scott. In the spring and summer of 1985, she asked Wayne Kerr, a young lawyer from Philadelphia, to come down to Naples. The 12 members of the jury listen to arguments in the Florida courtroom where they convicted Steven Benson in 1986 of blowing up his family in a Chevy Suburban in the driveway of their Naples, Fla., home on July 9, 1985. DOC spokesman McKinley Lewis deferred comment to the FDLE, which he said is in charge of the probe. 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. Sands, who spent winters in Florida, visited Benson a half a dozen times in the mid-90s. Please enable JavaScript to properly view our site. The star of the show by far was Carol Lynn Benson Kendall. 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. Attorneys representing Steven Benson, 36, and Margaret Benson's daughter, Carol Lynn Benson Kendall, 43, said they both probably will appeal Monday's ruling. And he complained. PHOTOS: Looking back at the Benson murder trial, The Bensons: Lancaster family ripped apart by greed and murder 30 years ago, Danger and loneliness: Steven Benson's life in prison after he killed his family members, Notorious Lancaster County killer Steven Benson allegedly murdered in prison inmate's revenge scheme. I dont know if it will ever go away or not., Information from: LNP, https://lancasteronline.com. We learned about the passing of Carol Lynn Benson Kendall on May 23, 2022. -- Scott Benson's natural mother and Margaret Benson's daughter -- got along better with her mother. By July 8, the day before the bombing, Margaret had learned of Steven's new house in Fort Myers, according to testimony. Carol Lynn Benson Kendall, 2719 Hollywood Blvd., Suite 164, Hollywood, disbarred effective immediately, following a Sept. 22 court order. Later he approved a partial distribution from Margaret Benson's estate. He was sobbing.. She is shown here in a 1975 photo, a decade before the murder. McDonnell argued that palm print identification is not reliable. 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. Despite claims by the defense that Scott was heavily involved in drug use and possibly even drug dealing (and that the bombing was therefore drug-related) there was little testimony that Scott was anything more than a regular user of nitrous oxide and an occasional user of marijuana and cocaine. Thats the way Steve was.. Shortly before his death in 1990, Harry Hitchcock the owner of Lancaster Leaf Tobacco Co. asked a longtime family employee, gardener Amos Sands, to visit his grandson in prison on his behalf. It looks like we don't have any photos for Carol Lynn Benson Kendall yet. Theyre all dead.. Margarets blood was still all over the side of his van. Carol Lynn Kendall testifies during the trial of her brother, Steven Benson, during his 1986 trial. Twelve and a half hours later, almost to the minute, Harry Hitchcock's granddaughter made an equally dramatic, if brief, appearance in the courtroom. 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. doesn't have anything to do with my mother anymore.". Carol 's cause of death is unknown to us at this time. But Kendall, who was injured. She is shown here in a photo shoot at Lancaster Country Club in 1974, more than a decade before the incident. Just follow the money, and you could see what he was doing.. The jury was left with one noticeable absence from the list of witnesses. His face got really red. In addition to the fatal wound to the head, Associate Medical Examiner Anthony Clark noted a puncture wound to the left scalp and multiple bruises on Benson's torso, upper and lower extremities. 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. Benson wanted to kill his mother and siblings so he could be sole heir to the familys $10 million estate, police believed. Success! I guess he didnt want him to go to hell.. Steven Wayne Benson was an American double murderer of his mother, tobacco heiress Margaret Benson, and his brother, tennis player Scott Benson. I guess you'd call them bombs." But everyone agreed that she had done so well, it might be unwise to risk a second appearance. Then the jurors filed out and the door closed behind them once again. Murphy s nephew, Steven Benson, was the only one to. Murphy declined to say where she now is living and says she does not see her regularly. His second wife Debra was not in the courtroom, or even in Florida. She wanted an accounting and, if it had to be, a confrontation with Steven. But Murphy will never forget how the deaths affected her father. Hitchcock died in 1990, five years after the Florida killings. 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. Benson died earlier this month in a Florida prison, where he was serving two life sentences for the crimes. Debunking the Myth: Is Maduro a Dictator? 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. [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? Or purchase a subscription for unlimited access to real news you can count on. Not at her mother's house in Naples, for that has been sold, but behind several closed doors in the state's attorney's offices. Tragically, Hitchcock turned out to be right about his grandson. 'My brother has been convicted of murdering my family,' Kendall said. That she was once a beauty contest winner is easy to see. Dwight Brock was an assistant state attorney in Florida, specializing in white collar crime, when Steven Benson was arrested. Connect with the definitive source for global and local news. An email has been sent with a link to confirm list signup. He complimented the jury for its "staying power," but that didn't stop him from holding court all day Saturday, too. How do we fathom in our heads that this boy plotted and schemed, and told them where to sit so he could do the most damage to the ones he hated the most?. 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. Margaret and Scott died instantly, and Caroline was rushed to the hospital with severe burns. [12], Dominick Dunne's investigative crime show Dominick Dunne's Power, Privilege, and Justice devoted an hour for the case of Steven Benson. Young said, I knew he did it immediately.. For his work, the man who once stood to gain millions received no compensation, prison officials said. Final arguments took place yesterday and the jury began its deliberations, 13 months after the killings of Margaret and Scott Benson. 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. Eric Strachan/Naples Daily News, Steven Benson, right, enters Lee County Court with his defense attorney Mike McDonnell as the jury selection portion of his murder trial Monday, July 14, 1986. Bar Number: 555258. Hed claimed he had no money to pay his attorneys, so he claimed indigency -- and Judge Hayes approved the claim. 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. 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 can see what money can do when people get so tied up in self, he says. And he put a lot of planning in it but never covered his tracks at all., Tom Schelling, whom the Benson family had on the payroll to do maintenance and construction around their many estates, said he has known Steven Benson since high school. By the time the closing statements were presented, the evidence was clear, Bennett said. 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. Bennett heard how the bombs were assembled, with nails and tacks put inside them so they would do the most damage. 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. Support local journalism. I have a strong feeling Steven Benson also knew, Cirace said. 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 born in 1951 in Baltimore. I had never known anyone like this before. The jury was split on the death penalty, and so gave him life in prison. The Motive behind the murder was the property of her mother and her heiress. Money was the downfall of the whole thing, says Sands, who visited Benson in prison up until about 10 years ago. malevolent." After her testimony, Carol Lynn Benson Kendall was nowhere to be seen. 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. Retired U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms agent Frank Kendall -- no relation to Carol Lynn -- testified that the palm print Steven Benson voluntarily gave the police in the summer of 1985 and the palm print on the pipe invoice were "made by the same person." Keep supporting great journalism by turning off your ad blocker. It wasnt very long at all. 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. 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. Steven Bensons trial is scheduled to begin in Naples, Fla., on Nov. 13. Prosecutors argued that Steven had engineered the whole idea of the early-morning trip to view the huge -- 17,000-square-foot -- residence his mother was building nearby in the same exclusive subdivision. Reached Friday about her brother's death, she. The Prosecution. 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. Landscaping. It seemed like a dumb thing." The police were called and he was held for five days. 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. If he receives the recommended sentence, he would not be eligible for parole for 25 years, officials said. US fails miserably against Russia at the crucial UN Vote. I know it happened to me and my family, she says, but it seems so surreal.. Its still fresh in my memory, he said. 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