is carol lynn benson kendall still alivelow income nonprofits

Steven said he was sorry but that he already had a business meeting. Shocked by the attack, she says that since then, her siblings have been completely uninterested in her physical and emotional well-being. 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. 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. 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. He said, Thats how Margaret died. I heard a lot of cursing and swearing.. She was not allowed to leave town, as there was the possibility that the state might put her back on the stand. I had never known anyone like this before. 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. That she is now horribly scarred is obvious; large red subdermal slashes streak her face. . Collier Judge Hugh Hayes presided over the trial. Benson died earlier this month in a Florida prison, where he was serving two life sentences for the crimes. Reached Friday about her brother's death, she. Steven Benson was taken into police custody on August 22, 1985, after being accused of blowing up his family in a Chevy Suburban in the driveway of their Naples, Fla., home on July 9 of the same year. Scott ran with a rough crowd, and was known to get rough with both Margaret and Carol Lynn. 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. He wanted his own way and he was going to get it one way or another, he says. Carol 's cause of death is unknown to us at this time. The attorney said, I want you to meet Steven Benson, she recalled. Cirace said the rumors were never confirmed until Steven Bensons lawyers questioned Mrs. Kendall about it, to test her credibility. [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. doesn't have anything to do with my mother anymore.". 'Money is the last thing that's even on my mind.'. Moments later, a second bomb, this one planted in the rear of the vehicle, exploded. He was tall and thin and looked intellectual. 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. Debra divorced Steven shortly after his August 22, 1985, arrest. He was going to turn it into an apartment house. Carol Lynn Benson Kendall Disbarred . The jury was split on the death penalty, and so gave him life in prison. We were trying to get some emotion out of him, he said. He found Steven Benson inside his mothers house, talking on a telephone. Mail Address: Law Offices of Carol Lynn B Kendall, Esq 2719 Hollywood Blvd Ste 164 Hollywood, FL 33020-4821. Prosecutors said it showed that while Carol Lynn owed her mother $118,560.33, Steven's IOU was $268,163.89. Dwight Brock was an assistant state attorney in Florida, specializing in white collar crime, when Steven Benson was arrested. I dont know if it will ever go away or not., Information from: LNP, https://lancasteronline.com. 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. . Quinn, left-center, was watching the production with friend Kathleen Garvey, left, and daughter Debbie Quinn, right, as the crew worked on a production for Court TV about the 1985 murders of tobacco heiress Margaret Benson and her son Scott. He walked behind him and put his hand on his shoulder and he said, Steven Benson is a nice person. Kendall was retained by clients in two separate cases but failed to adequately represent them. I knew it was no accident, said Young, now 75, of Naples. Harry Hitchcock, second from right, patriarch of the Benson family and founder of the Lancaster Leaf Tobacco Co., with his daughter Janet Murphy in a hallway of the Florida courthouse during the trial their family member, Steven Benson. I have a strong feeling Steven Benson also knew, Cirace said. "), Near the end of his testimony, he said he had finally told Margaret Benson, "You have to stop being a bank for your children." Margaret and Scott died instantly, and Caroline was rushed to the hospital with severe burns. 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. A maid testified that he was "the apple of his mother's eye." Photo Gallery. Murphy declined to say where she now is living and says she does not see her regularly. 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. The Prosecution. Privacy Policy Agreement * I agree to the Terms of use and Privacy Policy. He is a good son. Benson told Young that he and his family were going to look at piece of property where his mother wanted to build a home that morning. The thing that stuck out in my mind was, wow, how easy this is to see what the money did. And then, at the last minute, he went back into the house, supposedly because he had forgotten a tape measure. Naples killer Steven Benson who sought $10 million family fortune dies in jail with $30 to his name, Naples pipe bomb killer Steven Benson dies in prison. Margaret Benson Best of 2022 Top 250 Movies Most Popular Movies Top 250 TV Shows Most Popular TV Shows Most Popular Video Games Most Popular Music Videos Most Popular Podcasts. Murphys father, Harry Hitchcock, was fine. 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: . How people were crooked. Nor was he surprised when prosecutors said Benson had murdered his mother and sister to get at the familys fortune. Support local journalism. ", The jowly and bespectacled witness testified that Steven's company books were a mess, with checkbook entries missing and no balance carried forward. But the jury only wanted to have portions of Carol Lynn Benson Kendall's testimony read back. 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.. . I dont think he believed he belonged in there.. . Twelve and a half hours later, almost to the minute, Harry Hitchcock's granddaughter made an equally dramatic, if brief, appearance in the courtroom. Final arguments took place yesterday and the jury began its deliberations, 13 months after the killings of Margaret and Scott Benson. Jul 23, 2015. 'My brother has been convicted of murdering my family,' Kendall said. Benson died earlier this month in a Florida prison, where he was serving two life sentences for the crimes. 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. 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. Carol Lynn Benson Kendall is 42 years old. ", 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. We learned about the passing of Carol Lynn Benson Kendall on May 23, 2022. Once, Benson wanted his mother to loan him the down payment for a factory building in Lancaster. Its still fresh in my memory, he said. Nothing was heard from him at all during the trial, she said. 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. He returned and got everyone into the Suburban and then went back into the house to retrieve a tape measure. [5] He avoided the death penalty, and was sentenced to two life terms in prison. 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. It was then that she had her personal secretary run a tab of what her children owed her. To that end, he held court one day from 8:30 in the morning, his usual opening time, to 10 that night. As trial testimony brought out, Steven had started yet another company, Meridian Marketing, which was located about 30 miles away in Fort Myers, where Steven had just bought a new (and very large) house. 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. It seemed like a dumb thing." 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. And trying to come to grips with the loss of her mother, with whom she had been close, at least from time to time, has been hard. . He spent a lot of money and never did anything with it. He told the attorneys he did not want them standing up and shouting, "I object." He was a strange fellow, says Sands, who worked as a landscaper for Bensons late grandfather, Hitchcock. Trending. He said Mrs. Kendall, who was recovering from severe burns at her home in the Chestnut Hill section of Boston, recently told her teen-age sons about Scotts parentage, but never told Scott. ", 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. 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. She suffered first-degree burns on her face and hands in the explosion and is still undergoing extensive reconstructive surgery. He. Those involved with the case say they are surprised at how it still resonates in peoples minds, and their own lives. Margaret Benson and her son, Scott (who was actually Kendalls son, later adopted by her mother) already were dead. There was a local uproar over the thought that the public would be paying his bills, and in mid-January the judge reversed himself. I mean, I was scared of Scott . However, according to a veteran Florida criminal attorney, "any time in a murder case when a defendant without a prior record fails to take the stand, it looks bad. It was very weird. Scott tried to start the vehicle, she testified, "and immediately after that I was surrounded by this orange thing.". Nobody else had time to put a bomb in there, Young said. He was stabbed in the neck in 1991 by a prisoner who was later sent to a mental hospital. In the second half of 2015, there were close to 200 inmate deaths in Florida's prisons. Carl Westman, a Naples attorney named to represent Margaret Benson's estate, usually sat with Cirace. Bennett heard how the bombs were assembled, with nails and tacks put inside them so they would do the most damage. The killings, prosecutors said, were sparked by one motive. Oh no, she thought. Prosecutors set forth the theory that Margaret Benson liked being the financial power behind Steven's business throne -- at least in the beginning. [4] 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. Justice is justice," he said. [citation needed] The case was featured in Great Crimes and Trials and Infamous Murders. Margaret Benson and her adopted son, Scott, were killed in the 1985 blast at their Naples home. His deposition in that case reads like pulp fiction of old: "My mother (meaning Margaret Benson) who had 38 years of marriage to my father, a greatly respected man of the highest character both in business and his personal life, is herself a religious person of high integrity and moral values. The bills were sent to and paid for by Margaret. Under Florida law, Steven Benson is precluded from receiving proceeds of the estate of the person he murdered, Hayes said. Just sort of odd, very different.. He had very few visitors. 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. 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. In July 1985, 63-year-old Margaret, her 41-year-old daughter Caroline Benson Kendall, her 33-year-old son Stephen Benson, and her 21-year-old adopted son Scott Benson got into the car to drive away to check a piece of land in the city where Margaret planned to build another house for the family. [12], Dominick Dunne's investigative crime show Dominick Dunne's Power, Privilege, and Justice devoted an hour for the case of Steven Benson. It came to an average monthly payment of more than $10,000, or a grand total of "around a quarter of a million dollars.". Another facet of the prosecutor's argument was that Steven had been very specific about where each one of the family's members was to sit in the wagon -- and then, just before the first blast, he said he had forgotten a tape measure and headed back to the house. Maybe it was the money, the power and the greed, they say. View our. (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. He is also charged with the attempted murder of his sister, Carol Lynn. emains listed on the DOC website as an open investigation led by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. All but 30 remain open investigations. In July 1985, Margaret, 63, her 41-year-old daughter, Carolyn Benson Kendall, her 33-year-old son Steven Benson, and her 21-year-old adopted son, Scott Benson, all got into a vehicle to go check out a plot of land in the city, where Margaret was planning to build another home for the family. 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. Murphy s nephew, Steven Benson, was the only one to. Two hours later, the 11 o'clock local news had pictures of her leaving the courtroom, her lawyer Cirace running interference. He was sobbing.. Office: 954-789-0834. (Admitted to practice: 2002) Further, Kendall shall pay restitution of $1,075 to one client. 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. Scott was an aspiring tennis professional, but apparently the aspirations were Margaret's rather than his. Electronics. Your email address will not be published. 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. I think it was the dumbest murder I ever solved that had been planned. Joyce Quinn, Margaret Benson's quiet and polite young secretary who'd lasted but three months in the job before realizing there had to be saner employment, testified that Margaret "paid for everything for Scott" -- his cars (among them two Lotuses, a sports car that costs $45,000 to $50,000) his van, his Cigarette speedboat, his apartment and furniture, repairs, his tennis lessons, his clothes and his gas credit cards. When he returned, they said, he prepared to join his family to look at a piece of land his mother had bought. She wanted an accounting and, if it had to be, a confrontation with Steven. He parked it and positioned his family in it. Benson said he first went to get coffee and doughnuts at a nearby store. 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. It wasn't the prison pallor that surprised people who had known him; it was the grim and almost affectless bearing. . Did Ukraine use innocent civilians as human shield against Russia in the name of evacuation? Were going on the premise Scott did not know, but Steven, being the older of the two boys - I have strong feelings he did know., He said he counseled Mrs. Kendall to tell the truth about Scotts birth and answer any and all questions they ask, no matter how private or embarrassing.. Dad was very religious, she said. 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. 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. 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. Also Read : . 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. Murphy said her father sent Sands as a gesture of goodwill. Steven Benson, convicted in 1986 of murdering his mother and adopted brother, died in July at Taylor Correctional Institution in northern Florida. Carol Lynn Benson Kendall, 42, of Brookline, Mass. Im hot! from the burning car. 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. He said Steven was laughing. He was born in 1951 in Baltimore. 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. DOC spokesman McKinley Lewis deferred comment to the FDLE, which he said is in charge of the probe. 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. Other testimony revealed another regular expenditure. She had hoped he would get the death penalty. He was calm as a cucumber, he said. I knew she was scared of Scott, but that was a different situation. Then the bombs went off. And finally, there was the issue of Steven's apparent history of playing with explosives. Steven Bensons trial is scheduled to begin in Naples, Fla., on Nov. 13. For his work, the man who once stood to gain millions received no compensation, prison officials said. [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 just kept a straight face.. [6][7] Over the course of his sentence, Benson was transferred to various prisons because of constant threats and abuse from other inmates. The Herald also reported that it was common knowledge among certain of Steven's childhood friends that he liked to make bombs. Attorney (s) appearing for the Case There was a brief flurry of excitement when the foreman knocked on the door only two hours later. He just looked at me. I know it happened to me and my family, she says, but it seems so surreal.. 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?. According to prosecution evidence, there was even talk that Steven might be cut out of his mother's will. 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. It was like . Margarets blood was still all over the side of his van. Murphy herself doesnt have those feelings toward her nephew. The case still resonates three decades later. 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. He complimented the jury for its "staying power," but that didn't stop him from holding court all day Saturday, too. I hope he does, she said. 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. Before the day was over, according to newspaper accounts, Steven had asked for and received a loan of $20,000 from his grandfather. (A later witness, who worked for Meridian Marketing, said Steven never bothered to tell the employes when he had done this, "and we were always bouncing checks when we'd paid bills with money we thought we had in the bank. Instead, he died in prison, leaving behind just $30.06 in his commissary fund. Prosecutors argued that Margaret Benson was apparently beginning to face the growing evidence that Steven was spending beyond the limits of her frequent loans and the $3,000 a month she paid him as a "consultant" to the Meridian businesses. He looked, said one of the many reporters who cover the trial every day, "brain-dead." 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. 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. I can see what money can do when people get so tied up in self, he says. McDonnell did succeed in keeping the jury from hearing the testimony of the groundskeeper who had said he had seen Steven playing with a remote-control bomb device in Pennsylvania, but he was not able to stop a former employe from telling the jury that at the wake, Steven mentioned to a small group that he had "made bombs as a kid.".

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