I knew it was no accident, said Young, now 75, of Naples. 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. 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.. He just looked at me. He had been driving it all that time, he said. He was calm as a cucumber, he said. 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. 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. 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. She was afraid her brother would come after her and her children if he ever got free. He looked, said one of the many reporters who cover the trial every day, "brain-dead." 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. [6][7] Over the course of his sentence, Benson was transferred to various prisons because of constant threats and abuse from other inmates. 'Money is the last thing that's even on my mind.'. An autopsy report obtained by the Naples Daily News indicates the cause of death was a stab to the right temple. Then you had Scott as an aspiring tennis player, but ordering nitrous oxide to be delivered to the house like some people get milk, he said, so he could carry on with his girlfriend, who was a stripper.. Shocked by the attack, she says that since then, her siblings have been completely uninterested in her physical and emotional well-being. She was not allowed to leave town, as there was the possibility that the state might put her back on the stand. She sat in the front row, not directly behind Steven, but on the other side -- in one of the seats reserved for the prosecution. As for Carol Lynn, she too waited in Florida for the verdict. He went through money like crazy, Sands says. The prosecution's evidence is entirely circumstantial. Many members of the family have disappeared from public view in the past 20 years. 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. He said, Thats how Margaret died. She suffered first-degree burns on her face and hands in the explosion and is still undergoing extensive reconstructive surgery. 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. Hitchcock died in 1990, five years after the Florida killings. She hardly looked at her brother, but when she testified about Scott Benson, she called him "my son. Carol Lynn Kendall testifies during the trial of her brother, Steven Benson, during his 1986 trial. The Herald also reported that it was common knowledge among certain of Steven's childhood friends that he liked to make bombs. The killings, prosecutors said, were sparked by one motive. He cried so much, she says. Thats the way Steve was.. He is a good brother. The Defense. Its still fresh in my memory, he said. [13] But the Florida Department of Corrections has been tight lipped about the cause and circumstances. Carol Lynn Benson Kendall, a former Naples City Council candidate, is now a lawyer in Broward County focusing on family law and real estate. The mangled Benson family 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. No mental problems, he was just evil., The case garnered national attention, and four authors later wrote books about it. Something is wrong with Daddy. emains listed on the DOC website as an open investigation led by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Her father, she says, was broken up by the entire affair. The case still resonates three decades later. He walked behind him and put his hand on his shoulder and he said, Steven Benson is a nice person. Benson, he recalled, had a reputation as a wimp., He didnt fit in, Schelling said. You could see a hateful heart in Steven then. We learned about the passing of Carol Lynn Benson Kendall on May 23, 2022. How people were crooked. The feud went back to at least 2012 after a series of assaults by Washington. Attorneys representing Steven Benson, 36, and Margaret Benson's daughter, Carol Lynn Benson Kendall, 43, said they both probably will appeal Monday's ruling. Indeed, Margaret Benson did change her will, but in a terribly ironic touch, the only change was to cut out Wayne Kerr as executor. Bensons aunt, Murphy, recalls him as being different as well. The next day, Wayne Kerr, at whose wedding Steven Benson had been the best man, took the stand. 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. By the time the closing statements were presented, the evidence was clear, Bennett said. [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. Young said, I knew he did it immediately.. He doesnt know for sure why Benson has stuck with the public, and with him, all these years. 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. Murphy said her father sent Sands as a gesture of goodwill. It was just a tragic story. In addition, the Benson Family murder case was the subject of The Serpent's Tooth, a 1987 book by Christopher Andersen. 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. Steven Wayne Benson was an American double murderer of his mother, tobacco heiress Margaret Benson, and his brother, tennis player Scott Benson. How it wasnt run correctly. Scott ran with a rough crowd, and was known to get rough with both Margaret and Carol Lynn. Investigators also found on Bensons pants a single particle of zinc, which they said fell off the galvanized pipe while he was making the bombs that would later kill his mother and sister. Macron wont let go off Africa so easily, he is love sick, Canadas Debt Crisis: A Never-Ending Burden Passed On From Generation to Generation, Alcohol tax in Canada: Canadian government is taking a sip out of your beer. The judge did another unusual thing. he asked. 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. (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. My relationship with Tracy was always a very turbulent one. Tragically, Hitchcock turned out to be right about his grandson. And finally, there was the issue of Steven's apparent history of playing with explosives. He never looked at anybody, says Murphy, who sat right behind Benson during the trial. Margaret's son, Steven Benson, was convicted of placing two pipe bombs inside the family's Suburban, which killed his mother and brother, and seriously injured his sister, Carol Benson Kendall. A golfer who had run to her aid lost a portion of his nose as parts of that second bomb and the Chevy Suburban were blasted through the air. According to prosecution evidence, there was even talk that Steven might be cut out of his mother's will. I hope he does, she said. "I don't really know how to comment on it. It looks like we don't have any photos for Carol Lynn Benson Kendall yet. He was 63, the same age his mother was when he killed her. I couldnt get through to him spiritually., Im no psychologist, Sands adds, but he lives in denial. Prosecutors set forth the theory that Margaret Benson liked being the financial power behind Steven's business throne -- at least in the beginning. While she was being helped by the golfer, Carol Lynn Benson Kendall's brother Steven stood and watched the carnage. Its like the story that keeps on giving. The siblings did not return phone messages Friday. 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. His face got really red. Final arguments took place yesterday and the jury began its deliberations, 13 months after the killings of Margaret and Scott 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.". Carol Lynn Benson Kendall, a former Naples City Council candidate, is now a lawyer in Broward County focusing on family law and real estate. Bar Number: 555258. Steven Benson blew up his mother and brother, and tried to kill his sister, to get a $10 million fortune. She is shown here in a photo shoot at Lancaster Country Club in 1974, more than a decade before the incident. Your email address will not be published. This orange thing was all around me. They had so much, and the family dynamic was about as whacked out as you could ask for.. When he returned, they said, he prepared to join his family to look at a piece of land his mother had bought. Behind bars, Benson has worked in the laundry and on a painting detail. 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