* 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. On the morning of the explosion, the entire family agreed to inspect the land at Stevens suggestion. Your email address will not be published. Benson, who was serving two consecutive life sentences, had last been housed at the Taylor Correctional Institution, a prison about an hour southeast of Tallahassee. It continued to prosper, and eventually both families had what some people call "real money," and what others disdain as "nouveau. Steven Wayne Benson was an American double murderer of his mother, tobacco heiress Margaret Benson, and his brother, tennis player Scott 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. Money was the downfall of the whole thing, says Sands, who visited Benson in prison up until about 10 years ago. . 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. I remember when my sister had him here was this baby and then he ends up killing her. Eventually the second will was ruled valid, but before that happened, Steve Benson was arrested. Benson was sentenced to life in prison. 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. On Aug. 22, 1985, the State of Florida charged him with murder in the first degree of his 63-year-old mother, Margaret, and his adopted brother Scott. Benson said he first went to get coffee and doughnuts at a nearby store. He walked behind him and put his hand on his shoulder and he said, Steven Benson is a nice person. My memorys getting pretty hazy. 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. Her father, she says, was broken up by the entire affair. He turned to the television cameras and delivered a stern warning to the "youth of Southwest florida" about the dangers of laughing gas. 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. He seldom looked at Steven.The defendant watched his grandfather enter the courtroom, but after that he never looked at him. I guess he didnt want him to go to hell.. Tracking money - that was my forte, said Dwight Brock, who is now 61 and works as the Collier County Clerk of Courts in Florida. 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. 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 best defense witness was Brenda Turnbull, Steven's former secretary, who said flatly that he was in his office at the time both the pipes and the end caps were purchased. Murphy declined to say where she now is living and says she does not see her regularly. 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. He just wouldnt respond to it, Sands says. The Herald also reported that it was common knowledge among certain of Steven's childhood friends that he liked to make bombs. It is said that she has taken their three children and returned to her small Wisconsin home town. Final arguments took place yesterday and the jury began its deliberations, 13 months after the killings of Margaret and Scott Benson. 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. Hitchcocks daughter, Margaret, it turned out, was not really the mother of Scott Benson. He just kept a straight face.. I think it was the dumbest murder I ever solved that had been planned. 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. McDonnell closed with a string of witnesses, most of them prisoners, who testified as to Scott Benson's less than sterling character, arguing that this indicated Scott had been the target, and that Margaret and Carol Lynn were unlucky enough to be along for the ride. Then the witness surprised the judge by asking if he could make a "statement." Not Eligible to Practice Law in Florida . . When the Challenger space shuttle exploded a year after the Florida murders, Hitchcock broke down, Murphy recalls. According to prosecution evidence, there was even talk that Steven might be cut out of his mother's will. Attorney (s) appearing for the Case Debra divorced Steven shortly after his August 22, 1985, arrest. Benson was convicted of killing his mother and nephew and injuring his sister with a car-bomb on July 9, 1985. Hed claimed he had no money to pay his attorneys, so he claimed indigency -- and Judge Hayes approved the claim. By the time the closing statements were presented, the evidence was clear, Bennett said. . Even though he had a fancy car" -- the Lotus -- "he didn't like to drive. He wanted his own way and he was going to get it one way or another, he says. 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. Privacy Policy Agreement * I agree to the Terms of use and Privacy Policy. ", When they got back to Naples, Margaret told Steven she wanted to meet with him and Kerr that evening and "talk business." 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. Investigators also found on Bensons pants a single particle of zinc, which they said fell off the pipe while he was making the bombs. Carol Kendall was born on 07/08/1944 and is 78 years old. And if Steven Benson walks out of the courtroom a free man, he will still be in line for a third or even a half of his mother's $10 million estate. He was tall and thin and looked intellectual. Carol Lynn Benson Kendall. Carol Lynn Benson Kendall, a former Naples City Council candidate, is now a lawyer in Broward County focusing on family law and real estate. But Kendall, who was injured. ", After almost four hours of final argument, and another hour of his carefully read instructions, Judge Hayes gave the case to the jury at 2:06 yesterday afternoon. In the Know: Is that Benson guy still in prison? The prosecution's evidence is entirely circumstantial. Benson died earlier this month in a Florida prison, where he was serving two life sentences for the crimes. Connect with the definitive source for global and local news. It was like . . 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. 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. 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.. Justice is justice," he said. Steven Bensons late father didnt think he was capable of doing anything, Cirace said, an assessment that apparently was correct as Benson, who grew up and lived in Lancaster most of his life, left behind a series of failed business ventures. She was crying. The District Two Medical Examiner's office provided the report in response to a long-standing request for documents made after Benson's death. 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 led into the Collier County jail complex on the day of his arrest in 1985. Puncture wound of right temple made by a sharpened instrument ('shank')," the report states. Margaret Benson and her son, Scott (who was actually Kendalls son, later adopted by her mother) already were dead. He was stabbed in the neck in 1991 by a prisoner who was later sent to a mental hospital. 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'd even set up a tobacco company in direct competition with his family's concern, but it fizzled immediately.). He was the last person to drive the SUV. Tragically, Hitchcock turned out to be right about his grandson. He just looked at me. And he is an arbitrator within the family when things go wrong., Steven started to cry. . It wasnt discussed. Then, as they got into the car, Caroline noticed Stephen asking them to get in. They had a heckuva fight out of it, he says. Oh no, she thought. Murphys daughter, Brenda, was there that day. It was obvious he was spending his mothers money on himself and his family, Brock said. ", 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. Toxicology tests showed no drugs in Benson's system, the report states. A maid testified that he was "the apple of his mother's eye." "How long does it take to say a guy was stabbed in the temple?" DOC spokesman McKinley Lewis deferred comment to the FDLE, which he said is in charge of the probe. Beyond that, Young had little to say. 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. He went through money like crazy, Sands says. [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. 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. . Under Florida law, Steven Benson is precluded from receiving proceeds of the estate of the person he murdered, Hayes said. I suppose I have a strong sex desire, and Tracy's voluptuous figure, plus her vast sexual knowledge, I think from the beginning just overwhelmed me. Dad was very religious, she said. Many members of the family have disappeared from public view in the past 20 years. The feud went back to at least 2012 after a series of assaults by Washington. Steven Wayne Benson was an American double murderer of his mother, tobacco heiress Margaret Benson, and his brother, tennis player Scott Benson. 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. Steven Bensons trial is scheduled to begin in Naples, Fla., on Nov. 13. They were obliterated when a pipe bomb the size of a football planted between the two front seats exploded. But by late 1984 and early 1985, they argue, she was coming to the conclusion that bankrolling Steven was something less than sound. [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. To Carol Lynn Benson Kendall, this question is, in a sense, peripheral. And Steven usually drove when we were together. Also Read:Mariannette Miller-Meeks : Role during Iowa elections. Connect with the definitive source for global and local news. Inmates told investigators that Washington planned to extort $1,000 from Benson within days after arriving at Taylor Correctional Institution. 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. FDLE spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger said the agency had no updated information as of Friday afternoon. Children and returned to her small Wisconsin home town deliberations, 13 months the. That it was the dumbest murder i ever solved that had been planned indigency -- and Hayes! 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