A lot. 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, Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. Nobody else had time to put a bomb in there, Young said. Also on the public record is a 3-year-old paternity suit filed by Scott's former live-in girl. Money was the downfall of the whole thing, says Sands, who visited Benson in prison up until about 10 years ago. He had very few visitors. Landscaping. 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. Final arguments took place yesterday and the jury began its deliberations, 13 months after the killings of Margaret and Scott Benson. Lancaster was the hometown of the wealthy Benson family and the case received coverage . Scott tried to start the vehicle, she testified, "and immediately after that I was surrounded by this orange thing.". There were local TV stations every night that had local reporters critiquing what I was doing, McDonnell said. "Sharp force head trauma. 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. In the spring and summer of 1985, she asked Wayne Kerr, a young lawyer from Philadelphia, to come down to Naples. Scrambling desperately, the injured Kendall pitched herself through the open door of the mangled van and onto the circular driveway in front of her mother's home. Mail Address: Law Offices of Carol Lynn B Kendall, Esq 2719 Hollywood Blvd Ste 164 Hollywood, FL 33020-4821. Benson was 33, just five years younger than Bennett at the time. Many members of the family have disappeared from public view in the past 20 years. Other testimony revealed another regular expenditure. I told my wife after we left, I said, Its funny he can see the problems everywhere but in his own life, Sands says. Steven Bensons trial is scheduled to begin in Naples, Fla., on Nov. 13. The jury was left with one noticeable absence from the list of witnesses. 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. (Admitted to practice: 2002) Further, Kendall shall pay restitution of $1,075 to one client. Nervously at first, but then more calmly, she testified in response to the prosecutor's questions. She said, I want to know where all the money went. She wanted to see the books. 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. 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. He was the last person to drive the SUV. A maid testified that he was "the apple of his mother's eye." Those involved with the case say they are surprised at how it still resonates in peoples minds, and their own lives. It was then that she had her personal secretary run a tab of what her children owed her. Theyre all dead.. It wasnt very long at all. He didnt say anything after prison. How people were crooked. The Wait. That's a negative as far as the jury is concerned. He was born in 1951 in Baltimore. The attorney said, I want you to meet Steven Benson, she recalled. Twelve and a half hours later, almost to the minute, Harry Hitchcock's granddaughter made an equally dramatic, if brief, appearance in the courtroom. 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. Puncture wound of right temple made by a sharpened instrument ('shank')," the report states. Benson died earlier this month in a Florida prison, where he was serving two life sentences for the crimes. He got stabbed, and a knife was found in his own cell. The killings, prosecutors said, were sparked by one motive. Steven Wayne Benson was an American double murderer of his mother, tobacco heiress Margaret Benson, and his brother, tennis player Scott Benson. Did Ukraine use innocent civilians as human shield against Russia in the name of evacuation? Shocked by the attack, she says that since then, her siblings have been completely uninterested in her physical and emotional well-being. Theres no record of him having a single visitor during his 28 years in prison, a Department of Corrections spokesman said. 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. 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 had cautioned his new employes, according to testimony, not to let anyone in the offices of the Naples-based companies know the name of the company or what they did. Related story: Naples pipe bomb killer Steven Benson dies in prison. * The prosecution's key evidence, along with the testimony of Steven's sister, were palm prints on sales receipts for pipe identical to that used in the bombs, as well as end caps. 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. Lets go with disastrous hate. The case still resonates three decades later. Keep supporting great journalism by turning off your ad blocker. Im 91 now, Sands said when reached by phone Friday. Bennett heard how the bombs were assembled, with nails and tacks put inside them so they would do the most damage. A jury convicted Steven Benson of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and arson of a dwelling. And then, at the last minute, he went back into the house, supposedly because he had forgotten a tape measure. he asked. The thing that stuck out in my mind was, wow, how easy this is to see what the money did. The siblings did not return phone messages Friday. He found Steven Benson inside his mothers house, talking on a telephone. Carol Lynn testified that he arrived unusually early and insisted on taking the Chevy Suburban, rather than his own car, and first going by himself for coffee and doughnuts. Prosecutors said it showed that while Carol Lynn owed her mother $118,560.33, Steven's IOU was $268,163.89. 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. Privacy Policy Agreement * I agree to the Terms of use and Privacy Policy. Carol Lynn Kendall unsuccessfully ran for a Naples City Council seat while living in Port . The police were called and he was held for five days. Carol Lynn Kendall, then 40, survived the explosion but was severely burned to make sure her brother was sentenced to life in prison for the murders. I knew it was no accident, said Young, now 75, of Naples. The problems, Sands says, were all Benson wanted to talk about during the visits. Steven Benson is serving two life sentences at Union Correctional Institution in Raiford, Fla. The District Two Medical Examiner's office provided the report in response to a long-standing request for documents made after Benson's death. But everyone agreed that she had done so well, it might be unwise to risk a second appearance. She is shown here in a photo shoot at Lancaster Country Club in 1974, more than a decade before the incident. Only Carol Lynn Benson survived in this tragic blast. Not long after, Harry Hitchcock wrote to the judge, opposing his nephew's release: "Anyone capable of murdering his mother for money is capable of murdering his grandfather for the same reason. He returned and got everyone into the Suburban and then went back into the house to retrieve a tape measure. He wont admit any wrong hes ever done, including the murder., Benson seemed, he says, like a man who was in there, but didnt know why he was in there. He was stabbed in the neck in 1991 by a prisoner who was later sent to a mental hospital. 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. doesn't have anything to do with my mother anymore.". Its still fresh in my memory, he said. Steven Wayne Benson was an American double murderer of his mother, tobacco heiress Margaret Benson, and his brother, tennis player Scott Benson. Something is wrong with Daddy. If they had objections they were to say, quietly, "May we approach the bench?" Benson has had his share of problems behind bars. Nothing was heard from him at all during the trial, she said. He said that "initially" he thought it was just sloppy bookkeeping. Copyright 2023 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Steven Benson turned gray behind bars and died, to little fanfare. Young said they talked about Mothers Day, and how sad it would be to not have his mother around on that day. That seemed more important to him than his family lying all over the golf course.. His company prospered, and he became one of the best-liked civic and charitable figures in Lancaster, Pa., a lovely area surrounded by Amish farms. For his work, the man who once stood to gain millions received no compensation, prison officials said. [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. But the topic was always the same: problems in prison. There was a brief flurry of excitement when the foreman knocked on the door only two hours later. Fragments of the pipe-bomb Steven Benson built to blow up his family's Chevy Suburban, killing his mother and nephew and injuring his sister on July 9, 1985 in front of their Naples, Fla., home. She, of course, was referring to Margaret. ", 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. 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. 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. And finally, there was the issue of Steven's apparent history of playing with explosives. Her father, she says, was broken up by the entire affair. District Court of Appeal of Florida, Second District. It looks like we don't have any photos for Carol Lynn Benson Kendall yet. Benson was also charged with the attempted first-degree murder of his sister, Carol Lynn Benson Kendall. Also Read:Mariannette Miller-Meeks : Role during Iowa elections. He worked in the laundry. 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 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. I mean, I was scared of Scott . 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. . Toxicology tests showed no drugs in Benson's system, the report states. He was calm as a cucumber, he said. The jury was split on the death penalty, and so gave him life in prison. . It r ", The jowly and bespectacled witness testified that Steven's company books were a mess, with checkbook entries missing and no balance carried forward. Also Read:Mustang used by Steve Mcqueen in Bullitt auctioned, Your email address will not be published. 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. 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. He looked, said one of the many reporters who cover the trial every day, "brain-dead." The judge made the sentences consecutive, in accordance with Bensons sisters wishes. 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. We were trying to get some emotion out of him, he said. Attorney (s) appearing for the Case My memorys getting pretty hazy. It was her sister, Margaret, 63, and her nephew, Scott, 21, who had died in a horrific car explosion in Florida. Said that `` initially '' he thought it was no accident, said one the., just five years younger than Bennett at the last minute, he said Hollywood FL... 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