Later, investigators found a receipt, with Bensons palm print, for the purchase of pieces of pipe and end caps used in the bomb. Support local journalism. Benson's 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. Even though he had a fancy car" -- the Lotus -- "he didn't like to drive. Margaret's son, Steven Benson, was convicted of placing two pipe bombs inside the family's Suburban, which killed his mother and brother, and seriously injured his sister, Carol Benson Kendall. It wasnt discussed. She sat in the front row, not directly behind Steven, but on the other side -- in one of the seats reserved for the prosecution. Benson wanted to kill his mother and siblings so he could be sole heir to the familys $10 million estate, police believed. It also wanted to rehear some of what the government fingerprint expert had said about the palm prints. [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? He was the last person to drive the SUV. He was sobbing.. Collier County's most notorious killer himself met with a violent end. ), After a brief rebuttal by the prosecution, Judge Hayes let the jury go. Benson was sentenced to life in prison. Dad was very religious, she said. Patty Bennett was a nervous mother of two boys sitting in a jury box when the defense gave its opening statement about Steven Benson. Shes never tried to contact Benson, who has never spoken publicly about the murders. Did Ukraine use innocent civilians as human shield against Russia in the name of evacuation? The District Two Medical Examiner's office provided the report in response to a long-standing request for documents made after Benson's death. Carol Lynn Kendall testifies during the trial of her brother, Steven Benson, during his 1986 trial. (One witness, Scott's psychiatrist, testified that the young man had a serious nitrous oxide habit, which had started when he'd go to the supermarket and sniff Reddi-Whip cans. Carol Lynn Benson Kendall is 42 years old. Murphys nephew, Steven Benson, was the only one to escape the fiery blast that day. The jury convicted 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. Prosecutors said it showed that while Carol Lynn owed her mother $118,560.33, Steven's IOU was $268,163.89. He just ignored it.. We learned about the passing of Carol Lynn Benson Kendall on May 23, 2022. . In the Know: Is that Benson guy still in prison? All but 30 remain open investigations. 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. Theres no record of him having a single visitor during his 28 years in prison, a Department of Corrections spokesman said. 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: . Puncture wound of right temple made by a sharpened instrument ('shank')," the report states. 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. 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. When Benson refused to pay, Washington and another man, identified as Marvin Taylor, ambushed and shanked Benson. Steven was paid $244,974.39 so he could pay his legal fees. It r -- Scott Benson's natural mother and Margaret Benson's daughter -- got along better with her mother. * 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. (Admitted to practice: 2002) Further, Kendall shall pay . His face got really red. But the topic was always the same: problems in prison. 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. He was just not your usual teenager. He got stabbed, and a knife was found in his own cell. A jury convicted him of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and arson of a dwelling in 1986, and he spent the rest of his life in jail. 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. Carol Lynn Benson Kendall, a former Naples City Council candidate, is now a lawyer in Broward County focusing on family law and real estate. A jury convicted Steven Benson of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and arson of a dwelling. An investigator said later they probably didnt have a chance to move.. [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. Murphys father, Harry Hitchcock, was fine. The prosecution's evidence is entirely circumstantial. He was tall and thin and looked intellectual. It was her sister, Margaret, 63, and her nephew, Scott, 21, who had died in a horrific car explosion in Florida. 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. Margarets blood was still all over the side of his van. Thats how Margaret died. I never saw him cry as much as he did with the Challenger. He had very few visitors. Steven Wayne Benson was an American double murderer of his mother, tobacco heiress Margaret Benson, and his brother, tennis player Scott Benson. The chief prosecutor, Jerry Brock, argued she had made conflicting statements in earlier depositions. Mail Address: Law Offices of Carol Lynn B Kendall, Esq 2719 Hollywood Blvd Ste 164 Hollywood, FL 33020-4821. 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. In the Know: Is that Benson guy still in prison? 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. He had been driving it all that time, he said. Office: 954-789-0834. There was a local uproar over the thought that the public would be paying his bills, and in mid-January the judge reversed himself. Its almost like its unbelievable, Murphy said today. The Fallout, At the funeral of Margaret and Scott Benson, Steven sat between his wife Debra and his grandfather, Harry Hitchcock. District Court of Appeal of Florida, Second District. Connect with the definitive source for global and local news. [9][10] Benson was in a long running feud with Cordell Washington, another inmate at the facility. She also said that Steven was gone so long for coffee that she kidded he "could have gone all the way to Fort Myers. They had so much, and the family dynamic was about as whacked out as you could ask for.. A juror in the Steven Benson case compares an artist's sketch of the suspect who purchased materials to create the bomb with a mug shot of Benson. Carol Lynn Benson Kendall, 2719 Hollywood Blvd., Suite 164, Hollywood, disbarred effective immediately, following a September 22 court order. Kendall was injured in the car-bomb that killed her son, Scott Benson, and mother, Margaret . Behind bars, Benson has worked in the laundry and on a painting detail. He called Hitchcock, his friend and employer, to express his condolences on the deaths of Hitchcocks daughter and grandson. There were local TV stations every night that had local reporters critiquing what I was doing, McDonnell said. Copyright 2023 The Washington Times, LLC Final arguments took place yesterday and the jury began its deliberations, 13 months after the killings of Margaret and Scott Benson. Also Read:Mariannette Miller-Meeks : Role during Iowa elections. Once, Benson wanted his mother to loan him the down payment for a factory building in Lancaster. Maybe it was the money, the power and the greed, they say. Some who knew him werent really surprised. To my knowledge, Scott never confronted his mother with the question. He grabbed her and shook her, and told her that it might be her house but it was his dog, and if he but gave the command Buck would "rip you to pieces." File photo. She is shown here in a 1975 photo, a decade before the murder. Apparently, the idea was to cut down on speeches to the jury, and to speed things along. 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. He was born in 1951 in Baltimore. They were obliterated when a pipe bomb the size of a football planted between the two front seats exploded. 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. Once Benson was in custody, investigators questioned him until he invoked his right to call an attorney. Scott tried to start the vehicle, she testified, "and immediately after that I was surrounded by this orange thing.". Or purchase a subscription for unlimited access to real news you can count on. Twelve and a half hours later, almost to the minute, Harry Hitchcock's granddaughter made an equally dramatic, if brief, appearance in the courtroom. Carol Lynn Benson Kendall Death, Obituary pending- Carol Lynn Benson Kendall has reportedly passed away unexpectedly and suddenly. My memorys getting pretty hazy. He was always doing things but never getting anything accomplished, Sands recalls. He just wouldnt respond to it, Sands says. 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.". She thought he had been embezzling family funds and had called her attorney to check into it. Most recently, he was assigned as a houseman, performing maintenance and cleaning duties. Release Calendar Browse Movies by Genre Top Box Office Showtimes & Tickets Movie News India Movie Spotlight. After his initial outburst, Benson became stoic and unemotional as the evidence was presented against him. I saw you on TV. Scott was an aspiring tennis professional, but apparently the aspirations were Margaret's rather than his. That will had no mention of Wayne Kerr; it named the three children as coadministrators, and it left her money to the three of them equally. He walked behind him and put his hand on his shoulder and he said, Steven Benson is a nice person. Her daughter, Carol Lynn Benson Kendall, was injured. 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. 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