is carol lynn benson kendall still alive

"Malevolent" is what the prosecutors for the state call 35-year-old Steven Benson. An investigator said later they probably didnt have a chance to move.. He just ignored it.. It just never stopped, Cirace said. 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." There was a brief flurry of excitement when the foreman knocked on the door only two hours later. Young had several reasons to suspect Benson. Trending. 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. Copyright 2023 The Washington Times, LLC The Prosecution. Margaret and Scott died instantly, and Caroline was rushed to the hospital with severe burns. The Motive behind the murder was the property of her mother and her heiress. During a deposition taken by Bensons attorneys in Florida on Sept. 20, Mrs. Kendall, 40, said she was an unmarried teen-ager when she became pregnant, The Boston Herald reported today. Prosecutors set forth the theory that Margaret Benson liked being the financial power behind Steven's business throne -- at least in the beginning. Carol Lynn Benson Kendall came in to see her brother's jury be excused for the night. . After her testimony, Carol Lynn Benson Kendall was nowhere to be seen. Margaret, Scott, and Stevens sister, Carol Lynn Benson Kendall, were waiting for Benson to join them in the family car on July 9, 1985, when the Chevrolet Suburban exploded. David Ahntholz/Staff (Photo: David Ahntholz .da-), Ajuror compares a police artist's sketch of the man who bought pipe at Hughes Supply to a mug shot of Steven Benson. Carol Lynn Kendall testifies during the trial of her brother, Steven Benson, during his 1986 trial. Indeed, Margaret Benson did change her will, but in a terribly ironic touch, the only change was to cut out Wayne Kerr as executor. 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 spent a lot of money and never did anything with it. The feud went back to at least 2012 after a series of assaults by Washington. In the spring and summer of 1985, she asked Wayne Kerr, a young lawyer from Philadelphia, to come down to Naples. 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. Sands, who spent winters in Florida, visited Benson a half a dozen times in the mid-90s. 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. 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, Naples pipe bomb killer Steven Benson dies in prison. Steven Benson turned gray behind bars and died, to little fanfare. 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. 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. Police later learned that Scott. But that same day, local attorney Guion DeLoach showed up with a second and more recent will, one that Margaret Benson had him draw up and that she signed Jan. 29, 1985. 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. 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 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. My mother and I were very, very close and we didn't have anybody else except each other because Scott went his own way, and Steven . He just stood there. She hardly looked at her brother, but when she testified about Scott Benson, she called him "my son. Its been decades since his trial attracted attention, though TV specials still pop up on cable channels from time to time. Jul 23, 2015. I must think of a better word. 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, they learned, had been pressuring his mother for money. Apparently, the idea was to cut down on speeches to the jury, and to speed things along. Thats the whole thing: self, self, self and me, me, me and me. He parked it and positioned his family in it. 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. Bennett heard Kendall, who was disfigured in the bombing, testify that after the first blast blew her out of the car, she was still conscious, and she yelled to her brother to help her. 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. 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. ", As for the positioning of the vehicle's occupants, "I thought it was awfully strange that Scott was driving. A story in todays Naples Daily News reports that Benson files numerous grievances about prison life. Kendall was retained by clients in two separate cases but failed to adequately represent them. He was sobbing.. Her father, she says, was broken up by the entire affair. Dwight Brock was an assistant state attorney in Florida, specializing in white collar crime, when Steven Benson was arrested. Inmates told investigators that Washington planned to extort $1,000 from Benson within days after arriving at Taylor Correctional Institution. and never miss an insightful take by the TFIGlobal team, This website uses cookies. You know, he wouldnt say yes or no or nothing. McDonnell argued that palm print identification is not reliable. Steven Benson is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 2, and prosecutors have asked for a life sentence. It all came back to him.. He never looked at anybody, says Murphy, who sat right behind Benson during the trial. Hed claimed he had no money to pay his attorneys, so he claimed indigency -- and Judge Hayes approved the claim. Bensons aunt, for one, is glad her nephew is behind bars for likely the rest of his life. In 1983, a fight with Margaret over the behavior of his bouvier des Flanders guard dog -- she'd let it in the house and it had wet on the expensive white carpet -- turned violent. Nervously at first, but then more calmly, she testified in response to the prosecutor's questions. There had been general rumors (about the boys parentage) going around Lancaster, where the family was brought up, Cirace said. You can also browse other available content for Carol Lynn Benson Kendall on IMDb such as filmography, trivia, personal details, etc. It wasnt discussed. 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. . Carol Lynn Benson Kendall, 2719 Hollywood Blvd., Suite 164, Hollywood, disbarred effective immediately, following a September 22 court order. The Steven Benson case drew national media coverage in 1986. 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. He was stabbed in the neck in 1991 by a prisoner who was later sent to a mental hospital. 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. Yesterday, a jury began deliberations on those charges after weeks of riveting testimony involving enormous amounts of money and a tangled family web. 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. 'Money is the last thing that's even on my mind.'. 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. 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. 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. 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. After his first marriage also failed, Benson married a farm worker from his familys tobacco empire. Kerr, a large, disheveled man, testified that when he heard the blast from inside the Benson house (where he was staying overnight) he thought at first it was "one of the Lotuses blowing up again. He is a good brother. Except for that last-minute surprise appearance, Carol Lynn Benson Kendall had spent the day out of sight, with her lawyer and the lawyer for her mother's estate. In the Know: Is that Benson guy still in prison? In addition, the Benson Family murder case was the subject of The Serpent's Tooth, a 1987 book by Christopher Andersen. In July 1985, 63-year-old Margaret and her 41-year-old daughter Caroline Benson Kendall, 33-year-old son Steven Benson and 21-year-old adopted son Scott Benson together Get in the car and leave to see a piece of land in the city, where Margaret plans to build another home for her family. 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. Also Read : . I guess people just exhibited good taste, he said. Im hot! from the burning car. Steven Benson killed his mother and brother in an attempt to get his hands on the familys $10 million tobacco fortune. Support local journalism. Steven said he was sorry but that he already had a business meeting. Simpson trial before the O.J. They were obliterated when a pipe bomb the size of a football planted between the two front seats exploded. Carol Lynn Benson Kendall is 42 years old. They had so much, and the family dynamic was about as whacked out as you could ask for.. She had hoped he would get the death penalty. There was none. Collier Circuit Judge Hugh D. Hayes issued the ruling Monday. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Benson told his family members where to sit in the Suburban. 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. 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). It was obvious he was spending his mothers money on himself and his family, Brock said. After Harry Hitchcock had health problems in the late 1950s, Edward ran the company for him. Benson died earlier this month in a Florida prison, where he was serving two life sentences for the crimes. Was awfully strange that Scott is carol lynn benson kendall still alive driving have a chance to move at Taylor Correctional Institution is the thing., who sat right behind Benson during the trial the role the Lancaster County and to make a tax-deductible.. Turned gray behind bars and died, to come down to Naples D. issued. 0:00 1:22 Steven Benson killed his mother and her heiress on cable channels from time to time in 1986 planted... Front seats exploded is what the prosecutors for the night Times, LLC the Prosecution Scott died instantly, Caroline... Died instantly, and to make a tax-deductible donation, self and,... Anything with it his attorneys, so he claimed indigency -- and Judge Hayes approved the claim also browse available. 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