They were obliterated when a pipe bomb the size of a football planted between the two front seats exploded. I saw you on TV. Debra divorced Steven shortly after his August 22, 1985, arrest. The case still resonates three decades later. 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. The jury deliberated just 12 hours before finding Benson guilty. 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. Keep supporting great journalism by turning off your ad blocker. "I couldn't understand why he wasn't coming over to help me," she testified to a packed but dead silent courtroom. 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. 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. He had very few visitors. Murphys daughter, Brenda, was there that day. I dont think he believed he belonged in there.. He. 10-Year Discipline History: . In the Know: Is that Benson guy still in prison? LANCASTER, Pa. (AP) - Heres what has stuck with them for 30 years, since the day that Steven Benson blew up his family in a Chevy Suburban in the driveway of their Florida home, in a greedy attempt to inherit a $10 million Lancaster tobacco company fortune: . Inmates told investigators that Washington planned to extort $1,000 from Benson within days after arriving at Taylor Correctional Institution. Kendall was injured in the car-bomb that killed her son, Scott Benson, and mother, Margaret . Young said they talked about Mothers Day, and how sad it would be to not have his mother around on that day. Carol Lynn Kendall testifies during the trial of her brother, Steven Benson, during his 1986 trial. Carol Lynn Benson Kendall is 42 years old. It r Benson, he recalled, had a reputation as a wimp., He didnt fit in, Schelling 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. In the second week of the trial, Judge Hayes, 38, tried to hurry things along. Trending. File photo. (AP Photo). A jury convicted Steven Benson of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and arson of a dwelling. Steven Benson, convicted in 1986 of murdering his mother and adopted brother, died in July at Taylor Correctional Institution in northern Florida. McDonnell argued that palm print identification is not reliable. Her father, she says, was broken up by the entire affair. Benson was sentenced to life in prison. She cannot believe that two decades have passed since the day that two family members were killed and her familys life was changed forever. "Suddenly his eyes opened and his mouth dropped and he kind of ran towards the house.". Please enable JavaScript to properly view our site. Carol 's cause of death is unknown to us at this time. She is shown here in a photo shoot at. Under the law, jurors are not supposed to take this into consideration. 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 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. Margaret Benson and her son, Scott (who was actually Kendalls son, later adopted by her mother) already were dead. But there were other debits. doesn't have anything to do with my mother anymore.". Theyre all dead.. The three children were to divide the estate equally. 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. 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. He said Steven was laughing. Not long after his mother moved to Naples, so did Steven Benson, a self-described "executive" who had been in and out of the family business with embarrassing quickness and a notable lack of success. 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. Carol Lynn Benson Kendall Disbarred . Benson tried and failed at a succession of businesses. He knew how to make tube bombs and fiddled with explosives. To my knowledge, Scott never confronted his mother with the question. I have a strong feeling Steven Benson also knew, Cirace said. That's a negative as far as the jury is concerned. One pulled Kendall, who was screaming, Im hot! 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. In addition, the Benson Family murder case was the subject of The Serpent's Tooth, a 1987 book by Christopher Andersen. 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. Copyright 2023 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Daddy. But that changed over the next three weeks, as witness after witness took the stand. By the time the closing statements were presented, the evidence was clear, Bennett said. She is shown here in a 1975 photo, a decade before the murder. Carol Lynn Benson Kendall Death, Obituary pending- Carol Lynn Benson Kendall has reportedly passed away unexpectedly and suddenly. An email has been sent with a link to confirm list signup. He said that "initially" he thought it was just sloppy bookkeeping. Its been decades since his trial attracted attention, though TV specials still pop up on cable channels from time to time. It continued to prosper, and eventually both families had what some people call "real money," and what others disdain as "nouveau. Benson, who was serving two consecutive life sentences, had last been housed at the Taylor Correctional Institution, a prison about an hour southeast of Tallahassee. He seldom looked at Steven.The defendant watched his grandfather enter the courtroom, but after that he never looked at him. 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.. Carol Lynn later had a brief marriage -- to a water-skier from Cypress Gardens -- with whom she had two sons. Many members of the family have disappeared from public view in the past 20 years. "), Near the end of his testimony, he said he had finally told Margaret Benson, "You have to stop being a bank for your children." A maid testified that he was "the apple of his mother's eye." As the lead investigator in the Collier County Sheriffs Department, Harold Young was one of the first people to answer the call about a bombing at Margaret Bensons home in a gated golf course community on the morning of July 9, 1985. She is shown here in a . 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. There was an error processing your request. The only survivor of the blast, Steven Benson's sister, Carol Lynn. Maybe it was the money, the power and the greed, they say. Nor was he surprised when prosecutors said Benson had murdered his mother and sister to get at the familys fortune. In the spring and summer of 1985, she asked Wayne Kerr, a young lawyer from Philadelphia, to come down to Naples. It all came back to him.. Murphy declined to say where she now is living and says she does not see her regularly. He doesnt know for sure why Benson has stuck with the public, and with him, all these years. (He'd even set up a tobacco company in direct competition with his family's concern, but it fizzled immediately.). Hed claimed he had no money to pay his attorneys, so he claimed indigency -- and Judge Hayes approved the claim. Please enable JavaScript to properly view our site. But the jury only wanted to have portions of Carol Lynn Benson Kendall's testimony read back. Steven Benson 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. And so he appears very much alone. Kendall's mother and son, Scott, were killed in the blast and Kendall, a resident of suburban Chestnut Hill, was seriously injured. 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. But there is no doubt that he had a rough crowd of friends -- the defense called several occupants of the Naples jail to testify about Scott and his various habits, in the hope that this possible alternative theory would raise a reasonable doubt as to whether Steven is guilty. 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.. Steven Wayne Benson was an American double murderer of his mother, tobacco heiress Margaret Benson, and his brother, tennis player Scott Benson. He got stabbed, and a knife was found in his own cell. 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. FDLE spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger said the agency had no updated information as of Friday afternoon. He was tall and thin and looked intellectual. DOC spokesman McKinley Lewis deferred comment to the FDLE, which he said is in charge of the probe. You can add or change photos at IMDb Pro. He never looked at anybody, says Murphy, who sat right behind Benson during the trial. [9][10] Benson was in a long running feud with Cordell Washington, another inmate at the facility. The only survivor of the blast, Steven Benson's sister, Carol Lynn Benson Kendall, testifies about the explosion and injuries she sustained. Justice is justice," he said. 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. Connect with the definitive source for global and local news. [3], On July 9, 1985, Benson placed a pipe bomb in the family car, in which Margaret, Scott, and Steven's sister, Carol Lynn Benson Kendall (a former Miss Florida runner-up), were waiting for Benson to join them when the Chevrolet Suburban exploded. He wanted his own way and he was going to get it one way or another, he says. Murphy herself doesnt have those feelings toward her nephew. 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. The best defense witness was Brenda Turnbull, Steven's former secretary, who said flatly that he was in his office at the time both the pipes and the end caps were purchased. I knew it was no accident, said Young, now 75, of Naples. A woman at the local medical examiners office said no information about his death could be released due to the pending investigation, including whether or not his body had been claimed by relatives. Kendall was injured in the car-bomb that killed her son, Scott Benson, and mother, Margaret Benson, on July 9, 1985, in front of their Naples, Fla., home. 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. I hope he does, she said. I still get recognized, said Michael McDonnell, Bensons defense attorney, who at 74 still practices in Naples and Fort Myers. Carol Lynn Benson Kendall, 2719 Hollywood Blvd., Suite 164, Hollywood, disbarred effective immediately, following a September 22 court order. Instead, he died in prison, leaving behind just $30.06 in his commissary fund. Lending her emotional support was her grandfather, Harry Hitchcock, who had made a dramatic appearance in the courtroom at 8:25 a.m. and stayed the entire day. Patty Bennett was a nervous mother of two boys sitting in a jury box when the defense gave its opening statement about Steven Benson. When the Challenger space shuttle exploded a year after the Florida murders, Hitchcock broke down, Murphy recalls. And she also contradicted the wake testimony regarding bombs. He just wouldnt respond to it, Sands says. By the time Sands met Benson, the young man had graduated from college and was trying to find his way in the world, without much success. Also Read : . 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. Benson, they learned, had been pressuring his mother for money. It was very weird. An aerial shot of the home is shown in the background. 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. [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. He was a strange fellow, says Sands, who worked as a landscaper for Bensons late grandfather, Hitchcock. Benson said he first went to get coffee and doughnuts at a nearby store. Office: 954-789-0834. Two hours later, the 11 o'clock local news had pictures of her leaving the courtroom, her lawyer Cirace running interference. It was just a tragic story. He had retained Naples attorney Michael McDonnell. Toxicology tests showed no drugs in Benson's system, the report states. She wanted an accounting and, if it had to be, a confrontation with Steven. Carol Lynn Benson Kendall was a former Miss Florida runner-up and was survived in a murder attempt by her brother Steven Wayne Benson in 1985. 'My brother has been convicted of murdering my family,' Kendall said. But the Florida Department of Corrections has been tight lipped about the cause and circumstances. 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. Then the jurors filed out and the door closed behind them once again. She, not being blinded by the forces of sexuality, very quickly perceived the true character of Tracy Mullins and was very much opposed to my seeing her. ", When they got back to Naples, Margaret told Steven she wanted to meet with him and Kerr that evening and "talk business." Click here to learn more about the role the Lancaster County Local Journalism Fund plays in Lancaster County and to make a tax-deductible donation. The Family The story goes back half a century to 1927, when Harry Hitchcock, Margaret Benson's father, founded the Universal Leaf Tobacco Co., which imported tobacco and resold it to manufacturers. Carol Lynn Benson Kendall, 2719 Hollywood Blvd., Suite 164, Hollywood, disbarred effective immediately, following a Sept. 22 court order. Carol Lynn Benson Kendall, a former Naples City Council candidate, is now a lawyer in Broward County focusing on family law and real estate. Be to not have his mother with the public, and a knife was found his! To us at this time inmate at the facility in there she also contradicted the wake regarding... Never looked at him `` the apple of his mother 's eye. negative as as... 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