is carol lynn benson kendall still alive

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.. Benson was also charged with the attempted first-degree murder of his sister, Carol Lynn Benson Kendall. 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. Her daughter, Carol Lynn Benson Kendall, was injured. 20 years later, friends and family still try to make sense of Benson murders: 'It still seems unreal', By opting into newsletters you are agreeing to our. Steven Wayne Benson was an American double murderer of his mother, tobacco heiress Margaret Benson, and his brother, tennis player Scott Benson. "Malevolent" is what the prosecutors for the state call 35-year-old Steven Benson. Then the bombs went off. 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. After the shaking incident, Margaret had her secretary compile a list of everything she'd bought for Scott in the last two years. On July 11, two days after Margaret and Scott Benson were killed, Wayne Kerr, the lawyer from Philadelphia, filed a 1983 will that named him executor of the estate. I knew it was no accident, said Young, now 75, of Naples. Scott had canisters of nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, to which he was addicted, delivered to the house on a monthly basis, defense witnesses said. Carol Lynn Benson Kendall, a former Naples City Council candidate, is now a lawyer in Broward County focusing on family law and real estate. He was the last person to drive the SUV. In the second half of 2015, there were close to 200 inmate deaths in Florida's prisons. Hitchcocks daughter, Margaret, it turned out, was not really the mother of Scott Benson. Tragically, Hitchcock turned out to be right about his grandson. He thought he was better than everybody else.. It looks like we don't have any photos for Carol Lynn Benson Kendall yet. The motive was money. People had suspicions as to why, after having two children of her own, all of a sudden Mrs. Benson adopts a third.. Steven Benson is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 2, and prosecutors have asked for a life sentence. The Prosecution. She was afraid her brother would come after her and her children if he ever got free. he asked. But Murphy will never forget how the deaths affected her father. If Steven Benson caused problems, then Scott caused traumas. Benson was sentenced to life in prison. ), I think the attention it got was because it was a rich family, and there was money and greed and love of money, said Harold Young, a retired Collier County Sheriffs Office lieutenant who was the lead investigator on the case. (He'd even set up a tobacco company in direct competition with his family's concern, but it fizzled immediately.). Not long after, Harry Hitchcock wrote to the judge, opposing his nephew's release: "Anyone capable of murdering his mother for money is capable of murdering his grandfather for the same reason. I felt like I was being pressed back into the seat. The only survivor of the blast, Steven Benson's sister, Carol Lynn. Amos Sands of West Donegal Township remembers the day 20 years ago today as well. 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. Carol Lynn Benson Kendall, Appellant/Petitioner, v. Marjorie Starnes, As Guardian of the Property for the Minor Children of Steven W. Benson, and Steven W. Benson, Appellees/Respondents. File photo. Lets go with disastrous hate. Carol Lynn Kendall testifies during the trial of her brother, Steven Benson, during his 1986 trial. Not just Steven, but the whole family was just ugly. He had cautioned his new employes, according to testimony, not to let anyone in the offices of the Naples-based companies know the name of the company or what they did. 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. His face got really red. It seemed like a dumb thing." Movies. https://insideeko.com/carol-lynn-benson-kendall-obituary-d/ insideeko.com Maybe it was the money, the power and the greed, they say. Hollywood's Carol Lynn Benson Kendall (University of Richmond School of Law, admitted to the Florida Bar 2002) got disbarred, the final step after her suspension in February and a. Within this circle, there was lots of money. Benson died earlier this month in a Florida prison, where he was serving two life sentences for the crimes. 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. (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. He was stabbed in the neck in 1991 by a prisoner who was later sent to a mental hospital. Steven Bensons trial is scheduled to begin in Naples, Fla., on Nov. 13. Kendall was injured in the car-bomb that killed her son, Scott Benson, and mother, Margaret . Benson, he recalled, had a reputation as a wimp., He didnt fit in, Schelling said. Kendall's mother and son, Scott, were killed in the blast and Kendall, a resident of suburban Chestnut Hill, was seriously injured. Sands said he was only allowed to speak with Steven Benson for a couple of minutes because he wasnt family. Young said, I knew he did it immediately.. When Benson refused to pay, Washington and another man, identified as Marvin Taylor, ambushed and shanked Benson. Carol Lynn Kendall unsuccessfully ran for a Naples City Council seat while living in Port . He walked behind him and put his hand on his shoulder and he said, Steven Benson is a nice person. He said Steven was laughing. She is shown here in a photo shoot at Lancaster Country Club in 1974, more than a decade before the incident. Is Carol Lynn Benson Kendall still alive? A jury convicted him of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and arson of a dwelling in 1986, and he spent the rest of his life in jail. Prosecutors set forth the theory that Margaret Benson liked being the financial power behind Steven's business throne -- at least in the beginning. (AP Photo). He will be eligible for parole when he is 85. . Copyright 2023 The Washington Times, LLC There was a local uproar over the thought that the public would be paying his bills, and in mid-January the judge reversed himself. Carol Kendall currently lives in Hollywood, FL; in the past Carol has also lived in Norfolk VA. Other names that Carol uses includes Carol Lyn Falkiner, Carol Lynn Benson, Carol Lynn Benson-kendall, Carol Lynn Falkiner and Carol Lynn Kendall. I still get recognized, said Michael McDonnell, Bensons defense attorney, who at 74 still practices in Naples and Fort Myers. . 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. Benson, then 33, was running out of it and wanted to inherit his mother's. The attorney said, I want you to meet Steven Benson, she recalled. Reached Friday about her brothers death, she said, I really have no comment.. Only Carol Lynn Benson survived in this tragic blast. September 1, 1989. Even though her grandfather and her aunt opposed Steven's release on bail, she apparently still fights the conclusion that Steven did it. He looked, said one of the many reporters who cover the trial every day, "brain-dead." He turned to the television cameras and delivered a stern warning to the "youth of Southwest florida" about the dangers of laughing gas. Thats the way Steve was.. . Error! Just sort of odd, very different.. Murphy s nephew, Steven Benson, was the only one to. 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. Not at her mother's house in Naples, for that has been sold, but behind several closed doors in the state's attorney's offices. The jury was left with one noticeable absence from the list of witnesses. 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. 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. If he receives the recommended sentence, he would not be eligible for parole for 25 years, officials said. By July 8, the day before the bombing, Margaret had learned of Steven's new house in Fort Myers, according to testimony. 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. And she also contradicted the wake testimony regarding bombs. FDLE spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger said the agency had no updated information as of Friday afternoon. 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. Please enable JavaScript to properly view our site. An aerial shot of the home is shown in the background. Steven Benson and his wife, Debra, leave funeral services for his mother and brother, Margaret and Scott Benson, at St. James Episcopal Church in Lancaster in 1985. 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. Under Florida law, Steven Benson is precluded from receiving proceeds of the estate of the person he murdered, Hayes said. Benson was convicted of killing his mother and nephew and injuring his sister with a car-bomb on July 9, 1985. Tracking money - that was my forte, said Dwight Brock, who is now 61 and works as the Collier County Clerk of Courts in Florida. 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. 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. 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 . [2] (Margaret Hitchcock Benson was heiress of the Lancaster Leaf Tobacco Co., Lancaster, Pa., and had no connection with Benson & Hedges brand cigarettes manufactured in the US by Philip Morris.) 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. Some who knew him werent really surprised. He is also charged with the attempted murder of his sister, Carol Lynn. In a rare moment of emotion during his trial, Steven Benson cries 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. Once Benson was in custody, investigators questioned him until he invoked his right to call an attorney. Dysfunction, said Patty Bennett, a juror on the case, trying to describe the Benson family. By the time Sands met Benson, the young man had graduated from college and was trying to find his way in the world, without much success. Fragments of the pipe-bomb Steven Benson built to blow up his family's Chevy Suburban, killing his mother and nephew and injuring his sister on July 9, 1985 in front of their Naples, Fla., home. ", As for the positioning of the vehicle's occupants, "I thought it was awfully strange that Scott was driving. Its almost like its unbelievable, Murphy said today. Hes had no contact at all.. 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. 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. 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. Scheduled to begin in Naples, Fla., on Nov. 13 1991 by prisoner... In 1991 by a prisoner who was later sent to a mental hospital I still get recognized said... 'S occupants, `` brain-dead. another man, identified as Marvin,. Sands said he was only allowed to speak with Steven Benson, and mother, Margaret the whole family just. Car-Bomb that killed her son, Scott Benson, during his 1986 trial back into the seat trying to the... Naples City Council seat while living in Port prosecutors set forth the theory Margaret... Would come after her and her children if he receives the recommended sentence he., as for the state call 35-year-old Steven Benson caused problems, Scott. 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