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. The case still resonates three decades later. Something is wrong with Daddy. She was crying. It continued to prosper, and eventually both families had what some people call "real money," and what others disdain as "nouveau. And there was lots of squabbling over who got what. I guess people just exhibited good taste, he said. Movies. Under the law, jurors are not supposed to take this into consideration. He was born in 1951 in Baltimore. Steven Benson killed his mother and brother in an attempt to get his hands on the familys $10 million tobacco fortune. She was not allowed to leave town, as there was the possibility that the state might put her back on the stand. Carol Lynn Kendall testifies during the trial of her brother, Steven Benson, during his 1986 trial. [9][10] Benson was in a long running feud with Cordell Washington, another inmate at the facility. "Sharp force head trauma. The Chevrolet Suburban was blown all to bits and pieces, with a body lying out on each side.. Please enable JavaScript to properly view our site. Benson was arrested and ultimately convicted of planting two pipe bombs in the family's SUV, then coaxing everyone into the vehicle before blowing it up. She is shown here in a photo shoot at. Steven Benson's palm print was one of the major points in the prosecution's case against him, a case that ultimately convinced a jury to convict 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 police were called and he was held for five days. Carol Lynn was in the back seat, and, as she testified 2 1/2 weeks ago to a packed courtroom here, "I was suddenly surrounded by this orange thing. The jury deliberated just 12 hours before finding Benson guilty. The matricide was a huge point, she said. But showing little emotion after that. Attorney (s) appearing for the Case Its almost like its unbelievable, Murphy said today. "), Near the end of his testimony, he said he had finally told Margaret Benson, "You have to stop being a bank for your children." I still get recognized, said Michael McDonnell, Bensons defense attorney, who at 74 still practices in Naples and Fort Myers. 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. 'And it's something that although I know I have to live with it, it's going to be the most difficult thing that I've ever had to do in my life.'. Moments later there was a loud explosion. He complimented the jury for its "staying power," but that didn't stop him from holding court all day Saturday, too. Dwight Brock was an assistant state attorney in Florida, specializing in white collar crime, when Steven Benson was arrested. The Steven Benson case drew national media coverage in 1986. The motive was money. 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. 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?. He just wouldnt respond to it, Sands says. The attorney said, I want you to meet Steven Benson, she recalled. Another daily attendee was a lawyer representing the trust funds left by Harry Hitchcock's late wife. Carol Lynn Kendall testifies during the trial of her brother, Steven Benson, during his 1986 trial. ), After a brief rebuttal by the prosecution, Judge Hayes let the jury go. She also said that Steven was gone so long for coffee that she kidded he "could have gone all the way to Fort Myers. Toxicology tests showed no drugs in Benson's system, the report states. Kendall's mother and son, Scott, were killed in the blast and Kendall, a resident of suburban Chestnut Hill, was seriously injured. There was a brief flurry of excitement when the foreman knocked on the door only two hours later. There was an error processing your request. When the Challenger space shuttle exploded a year after the Florida murders, Hitchcock broke down, Murphy recalls. It was then that she had her personal secretary run a tab of what her children owed her. ", Edward Benson died in 1980 at the age of 60, and his widow moved to Naples, Fla., a Gulf Coast enclave whose Chamber of Commerce boasts more millionaires per capita than any other U.S. city. This jail cell is similar to the ones in which Steven Benson spent the last 30 years in the Florida prison system, serving two life sentences for murdering his mother and brother, and trying to murder his sister, in a 1985 pipe bomb explosion to get his hands on his family's $10 million tobacco company fortune. He is a good son. Florida law allows cameras in the courtroom, and much of this trial was televised live. Carol Lynn Benson Kendall Death, Obituary pending- Carol Lynn Benson Kendall has reportedly passed away unexpectedly and suddenly. He was born in 1951 in Baltimore. It was obvious he was spending his mothers money on himself and his family, Brock said. ", 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. Later he approved a partial distribution from Margaret Benson's estate. Carol Lynn Benson Kendall Death, Obituary pending- Carol Lynn Benson Kendall has reportedly passed away unexpectedly and suddenly. I think it was just pure greed for money, Murphy said. He found Steven Benson inside his mothers house, talking on a telephone. To Carol Lynn Benson Kendall, this question is, in a sense, peripheral. We were trying to get some emotion out of him, he said. Please enable JavaScript to properly view our site. He looked, said one of the many reporters who cover the trial every day, "brain-dead." Carol Lynn Benson Kendall, 2719 Hollywood Blvd., Suite 164, Hollywood, disbarred effective immediately, following a Sept. 22 court order. He turned to the television cameras and delivered a stern warning to the "youth of Southwest florida" about the dangers of laughing gas. Theres no record of him having a single visitor during his 28 years in prison, a Department of Corrections spokesman said. Did Ukraine use innocent civilians as human shield against Russia in the name of evacuation? Also Read : . 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. Defense lawyer Mike McDonnell, who represented Benson along with attorney Jerry Berry, said it was one of the first trials to have televised gavel-to-gavel coverage.. Carol Lynn Kendall testifies during the trial of her brother, Steven Benson, during his 1986 trial. He is also charged with the attempted murder of his sister, Carol Lynn. Benson said he first went to get coffee and doughnuts at a nearby store. . It wasnt discussed. 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. Beyond that, Young had little to say. View our. On the morning of the explosion, the entire family agreed to inspect the land at Stevens suggestion. emains listed on the DOC website as an open investigation led by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. He was tall and thin and looked intellectual. Required fields are marked *. Copyright 2023 The Washington Times, LLC. He was sobbing.. he asked. Born on Christmas Day 1963 in a Baltimore hospital to Carol Lynn Benson, then an unmarried teen-ager, he was adopted by Margaret and Edward Benson. Under Florida law, Steven Benson is precluded from receiving proceeds of the estate of the person he murdered, Hayes said. People are interested in that, and the way it was done every day, people dont blow up their mother and brother and sister in a prominent part of Naples., Young described Benson as calm, calculated, coldblooded., He thought he could get away with it, Young said. Benson wanted to kill his mother and siblings so he could be sole heir to the familys $10 million estate, police believed. Connect with the definitive source for global and local news. And then, at the last minute, he went back into the house, supposedly because he had forgotten a tape measure. 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. Carol Lynn Benson Kendall came in to see her brother's jury be excused for the night. Nothing was heard from him at all during the trial, she said. He just looked at me. The blast blew apart the Benson familys Chevrolet Suburban sometime between 9:17 and 9:20 a.m. on July 9, 1985, in the driveway of Margaret Bensons home, just off a golf course in an exclusive Naples, Fla., community. 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. Thats the way Steve was.. 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. Bensons aunt, for one, is glad her nephew is behind bars for likely the rest of his life. To my knowledge, Scott never confronted his mother with the question. That she was once a beauty contest winner is easy to see. It was a journey, and every day we learned something new and awful., E. 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