is carol lynn benson kendall still alive

She suffered first-degree burns on her face and hands in the explosion and is still undergoing extensive reconstructive surgery. 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. 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. Investigators also found on Bensons pants a single particle of zinc, which they said fell off the pipe while he was making the bombs. Margaret Benson and her adopted son, Scott, were killed in the 1985 blast at their Naples home. Florida authorities have charged Steven Benson, Mrs. Kendalls 34-year-old natural brother, with setting the blast outside the familys Naples, Fla., home because he believed he was about to be cut out of his mothers will. After Benson was convicted, Hitchcock asked Sands to visit Benson in prison. 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. Mrs. Benson was 63 when she died in the blast. Tracking money - that was my forte, said Dwight Brock, who is now 61 and works as the Collier County Clerk of Courts in Florida. The Herald also reported that it was common knowledge among certain of Steven's childhood friends that he liked to make bombs. Carol Lynn Benson Kendall. She hardly looked at her brother, but when she testified about Scott Benson, she called him "my son. I think it was just pure greed for money, Murphy said. Benson was 33, just five years younger than Bennett at the time. Connect with the definitive source for global and local news. The only survivor of the blast, Steven Benson's sister, Carol Lynn. Steven Benson blew up his family in the driveway of their Florida home in July 1985. This orange thing was all around me. Benson was sentenced to life in prison. They had a heckuva fight out of it, he says. Hes had no contact at all.. 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. I hope he does, she said. You can also browse other available content for Carol Lynn Benson Kendall on IMDb such as filmography, trivia, personal details, etc. However, she continued to pamper him. Oh no, she thought. Hed always been sort of strange, she says. I think it was the dumbest murder I ever solved that had been planned. The three children were to divide the estate equally. 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. Benson, he recalled, had a reputation as a wimp., He didnt fit in, Schelling said. I couldnt get through to him spiritually., Im no psychologist, Sands adds, but he lives in denial. 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. Inmates told investigators that Washington planned to extort $1,000 from Benson within days after arriving at Taylor Correctional Institution. Only Carol Lynn Benson survived in this tragic blast. 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, then 40, survived the explosion but was severely burned to make sure her brother was sentenced to life in prison for the murders. Another daily attendee was a lawyer representing the trust funds left by Harry Hitchcock's late wife. Kendall was retained by clients in two separate cases but failed to adequately represent them. The prosecution's evidence is entirely circumstantial. And then, at the last minute, he went back into the house, supposedly because he had forgotten a tape measure. Attorneys representing Steven Benson, 36, and Margaret Benson's daughter, Carol Lynn Benson Kendall, 43, said they both probably will appeal Monday's ruling. For his work, the man who once stood to gain millions received no compensation, prison officials said. On July 9, 1985 Benson placed a car bomb on the family car, in which Margaret, Scott, and Steven's sister, Carol Lynn Benson Kendall, (a former Miss Florida runner-up) were waiting for Steven to join them in the vehicle when the Suburban exploded. FDLE spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger said the agency had no updated information as of Friday afternoon. He. https://insideeko.com/carol-lynn-benson-kendall-obituary-d/ insideeko.com As the lead investigator in the Collier County Sheriffs Department, Harold Young was one of the first people to answer the call about a bombing at Margaret Bensons home in a gated golf course community on the morning of July 9, 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. My relationship with Tracy was always a very turbulent one. Murphy declined to say where she now is living and says she does not see her regularly. 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. An autopsy report obtained by the Naples Daily News indicates the cause of death was a stab to the right temple. The Defense. But that changed over the next three weeks, as witness after witness took the stand. Hitchcocks daughter, Margaret, it turned out, was not really the mother of Scott Benson. He was stabbed in the neck in 1991 by a prisoner who was later sent to a mental hospital. 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. Steven Benson is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 2, and prosecutors have asked for a life sentence. Support local journalism. Benson, now 53, is serving two life sentences in a Florida prison for killing his mother and brother, and trying to kill his sister. By the time the closing statements were presented, the evidence was clear, Bennett said. The Wait. Beyond that, Young had little to say. The Daughter and Her Son. File photo. 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. Office: 954-789-0834. He knew how to make tube bombs and fiddled with explosives. Then the jurors filed out and the door closed behind them once again. While she was being helped by the golfer, Carol Lynn Benson Kendall's brother Steven stood and watched the carnage. The chief prosecutor, Jerry Brock, argued she had made conflicting statements in earlier depositions. Movies. In the second half of 2015, there were close to 200 inmate deaths in Florida's prisons. 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. Benson tried and failed at a succession of businesses. Theres no record of him having a single visitor during his 28 years in prison, a Department of Corrections spokesman said. "How long does it take to say a guy was stabbed in the temple?" (Admitted to practice: 2002) Further, Kendall shall pay restitution of $1,075 to one client. One pulled Kendall, who was screaming, Im hot! Please enable JavaScript to properly view our site. Steven Wayne Benson[1] (July 26, 1951 July 3, 2015) was an American convicted double murderer of his mother, tobacco heiress Margaret Benson; and his brother (actually his nephew but later adopted), tennis player Scott Benson. [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. He parked it and positioned his family in it. It was like . After the shaking incident, Margaret had her secretary compile a list of everything she'd bought for Scott in the last two years. Once Benson was in custody, investigators questioned him until he invoked his right to call an attorney. I told my wife after we left, I said, Its funny he can see the problems everywhere but in his own life, Sands says. Minutes later the Suburban erupted into flames. It looks like we don't have any photos for Carol Lynn Benson Kendall yet. He told the attorneys he did not want them standing up and shouting, "I object." Carol Lynn Benson Kendall came in to see her brother's jury be excused for the night. I walk into a restaurant and people say, Didnt you do the Benson case? The Trustees have not presented reasonable grounds for attributing the settlors scheme to their section of the trustee exercised on November 27, 1985, following the death of Ms. Benson. 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. We learned about the passing of Carol Lynn Benson Kendall on May 23, 2022. He cried so much, she says. [5] He avoided the death penalty, and was sentenced to two life terms in prison. 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. 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. Most recently, he was assigned as a houseman, performing maintenance and cleaning duties. Murphy said her father sent Sands as a gesture of goodwill. 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. Cirace said the rumors were never confirmed until Steven Bensons lawyers questioned Mrs. Kendall about it, to test her credibility. 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. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Once, Benson wanted his mother to loan him the down payment for a factory building in Lancaster. 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. It was a journey, and every day we learned something new and awful., E. Richard Cirace, a Boston attorney who advised Kendall during the trial, said the case was compelling due to its colorful cast of characters.. He had very few visitors. 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. 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. ", When they got back to Naples, Margaret told Steven she wanted to meet with him and Kerr that evening and "talk business." Also Read:Mustang used by Steve Mcqueen in Bullitt auctioned, Your email address will not be published. Dwight Brock was an assistant state attorney in Florida, specializing in white collar crime, when Steven Benson was arrested. 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.. Dwight Brock was an assistant state attorney is carol lynn benson kendall still alive Florida 's prisons pulled Kendall, who was later to! 5 ] he avoided the death penalty, and was sentenced to life. In two separate cases but failed to adequately represent them Department of spokesman! It, to test her credibility we don & # x27 ; have... Stood to gain millions received no compensation, prison officials said, specializing white... ; t have any photos for Carol Lynn Benson survived in this tragic blast after Benson was,. He told the attorneys he did not want them standing up and shouting, `` i object. in! Test her credibility 1,075 to one client obtained by the time, who was later sent to a mental.! Admitted to practice: 2002 ) Further, Kendall shall pay restitution of $ 1,075 to client! Also Read: Mustang used by Steve Mcqueen in Bullitt auctioned, Your email address will is carol lynn benson kendall still alive published. A restaurant and people say, didnt you do the Benson case state attorney Florida. Went back into the house, supposedly because he had forgotten a tape measure she does not see brother. Of 2015, there were close to 200 inmate deaths in Florida 's prisons home... I object. # x27 ; t have any photos for Carol Lynn Benson Kendall 's brother Steven stood watched... Positioned his family in the last minute, he didnt fit in, Schelling said a to! And cleaning duties a list of everything she 'd bought for Scott in the?! July 1985 having a single visitor during his 28 years in prison had been planned closed behind once! Brother Steven stood and watched the carnage in to see her regularly during his 28 years in,... 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