The Nation - News from Sept. 3, 1989

The slaying of tobacco heiress Margaret Benson by her son should not keep his children from getting a share of her $10-million estate, a Florida appeals court ruled. The 2nd District Court of Appeal in Lakeland, Fla., on Friday upheld a circuit court decision guaranteeing an inheritance for the three young children of Steven Benson. Both courts rejected arguments that a state law barring killers from profiting from the wills of their victims could be applied to Benson’s children. Benson, 38, murdered his mother and his adopted brother Scott Benson and disfigured his sister, Carol Benson Kendall, in July, 1985, by exploding two pipe bombs in Mrs. Benson’s car. Mrs. Benson’s will ordered her estate to be equally divided among her three children.