BENNETT, PARIS: Psychopath with Piers Morgan TV - True Crime Recaps TV -
‘He very charming when he wants to be. I mean he is a psychopath.’ Psychopath with Piers Morgan: Paris Bennett, Paris’ mom, ITV 2019
I’m about to interview a murderer unlike any I’ve faced before. Psychopaths may seem like us but I want to find out how their minds really work. Paris Bennett is a diagnosed psychopath. ibid.
‘I believe that the most important goal for me is to show people that I may be incarcerated but that does not necessarily mean that I am a monster or a villain that the mistake I make 12 years ago at the age of 13 does not define my life.’ ibid. Bennett
Abilene, Texas, 4 February 2007: ‘4-year-old Ella Bennett was fatally stabbed and taken into custody with her 13-year-old brother.’ ibid. news
2007: The 13-year-old psychopath Paris Lee Bennett [sister] and 4-year-old Ella ... her son was the killer … ‘Ella had been stabbed 17 times and beaten and choked’ … He said it excited him. True Crime Recaps: Spine-Chilling Killer Kids, Youtube 29.40, 2023
Just days after killing his sister he attacked his mother in the detention centre. ibid.
BENSON, RALPH: True Crime with Aphrodite Jones TV -
Two family men vanish into thin air. The mystery of their disappearances spans decades and thousands of miles. But a chance encounter leads to an eerie underground lair. Leaving some loved ones yearning for justice. True Crime with Aphrodite Jones s6e2: Road to Nowhere, ID 2016
Police discover the empty trailer John [Deetz] was hauling at the truck stop. ibid.
Investigators run the plate and it hits to another trucker: this time to an independent long-haul driver named Ralph Benson. ibid.
Roger Erdman’s van is found abandoned near the Spokane River. ibid.
The blood trail is an obvious sign of trouble. The following day more than 30 Washington State police investigators arrive at Benson’s compound. ibid.
The next day, June 23rd 2002, Ralph Benson is arrested in Seattle while on a trucking delivery. ibid.
BENSON, STEVEN & RONALD DeFOE: Great Crimes and Trials TV - Murderpedia online -
Another particularly cunning killing was to take place in Florida. It happened outside this house in an affluent suburb of Naples on 9th July 1985. A Chevrolet Suburban blew up in the drive as the key was turned in its ignition. There were two explosions and a fireball which completely wrecked the car. Two of the people inside were killed instantly. They were wealthy heiress Margaret Benson, who had been sitting in the front passenger seat, and her 22-year-old playboy son Scott. Great Crimes & Trials: DeFeo & Benson, BBC 1996
Steven himself had often got into frequent financial difficulties and had borrowed heavily from his mother to keep various businesses going. ibid.
There was not a shred of hard evidence against Scott. ibid.
On 7th August 1986 the jury found Steven Benson guilty on all charges. Half of them recommended the death penalty. ibid.
On 22nd August 1985 Steven Benson, a 33-year-old Florida businessman, was arrested and charged with the murder of his mother, his nephew and the attempted murder of his sister.
A few weeks earlier Benson had rigged their car with a pipe bomb. His mother Margaret Benson (who had inherited $10 million from her father) was blown out of the car and died instantly.
Benson had hoped to inherit this money. Almost a year later on 14th July 1986 he pleaded not guilty to the murder of his family. Eleven hours later the jury found Benson guilty and the judge sentenced him to life. Murderpedia online article
BENTLEY, DEREK & CHRISTOPHER CRAIG [viz Miscarriages of Justice: Bentley & Craig]: David Wilson TV - Fred Dinenage TV - Daily Mirror - Let Him Have It Chris 1991 -
The Derek Bentley case is one of the most tragic and staining cases in the history of our criminal justice system. Professor David Wilson
On the evening of 2nd November 1952 gunshots echoed around Croydon in South London. A policeman had been killed and 19-year-old Derek Bentley stood accused of his murder. But he hadn’t pulled the trigger; the culprit was actually Bentley’s friend Christopher Craig. The legendary line ‘Let him have it’ has been immortalised in the big screen and in book. But did Bentley really utter those words, and what happened to his companion, Christopher Craig? Fred Dinenage’s Murder Casebook: Derek Bentley, CI 2011
It started out as a night of petty theft involving two teenagers. ibid.
Derek Bentley and Christopher Craig stood trial for murder at the Old Bailey. They both pleaded not guilty. The punishment for murder was hanging. However at just sixteen the gunman Craig could only face imprisonment because of his age. But for Bentley aged nineteen a guilty verdict would mean death. ibid.
At 9 a.m. on 28th January 1953 a crowd of around 500 gathered outside Wandsworth Prison and sang The Lord is My Shepherd and Abide with Me. ibid.
Derek Bentley was hanged for a murder he didn’t physically commit. He was the first and only person in the twentieth century to be executed in Britain for being an accomplice ... Many believe this case was one of the contributing factors that led to the permanent abolition of the death penalty in 1969. ibid.
The Court of Appeal quashed the murder conviction. ibid.
200 MPs Sign Plead – ‘Don’t Hang Him’. Police are called to Home Office Crowd. Bentley dies today – No Last-Minute Reprieve. Daily Mirror 28 January 1953
BENTLEY ... The last words that should shame British justice. Daily Mirror article
2nd November 1952 Croydon, South London: the police had received a call that two youths had been seen climbing on to the roof of a warehouse and attempted to break in. Great Crimes & Trials: Browne & Kennedy & Other Police Killers, BBC 1996
The other boy pulled out a gun and shot Fairfax in the arm. Both Fairfax and his partner, Constable Norman Harrison, who had also reached the roof, heard the boy Fairfax had seized shout, ‘Let him have it, Chris,’ just before the shot was fired. ibid.
Derek Bentley, who had been captured so easily on the roof ... was mentally slow, illiterate and prone to epileptic fits. ibid.
Craig had encouraged Bentley to join him in various minor robberies. ibid.
The trial was to revolve around two points: had Bentley known that Craig was carrying a gun? And had his cry of, ‘Let him have it, Chris,’ been intended to encourage him to use it? ibid.
Craig was too young at sixteen to receive a death sentence. ibid.
Derek Bentley was hanged on the morning of 28th January. There was a large crowd of protesters. ibid.
Kingswood Approved School 1951: Educationally, Derek has not been progressing. As you know his fits have been getting worse. Let Him Have It 1991 starring Christopher Eccleston & Paul Reynolds & Tom Courtenay & Tim Bell & Eileen Atkins & Rebecca Eccleston & Peter Eccleston & Craig Turner et al, director Paul Medak
Welcome to the underworld. I followed you from the corner – that’s where I hang out. ibid. Craig to Bentley
You’re one of us. ibid.
They said I was sub-normal. ibid. Bentley to Craig
My brother don’t want to go round with you no more. ibid. Bentley’s sister to Craig
Let him have it, Chris! ibid. Bentley
Surely these actions are more consistent with asking his friend to let them have the gun back? ibid. Bentley’s brief
Bentley didn’t have a gun. He never shot anyone. ibid.
These youths are not children. One is sixteen, the other nineteen. It would be idle to suggest they didn’t know what they were doing. ibid. Judge’s summing up
Did these two youths go out with a common purpose? ibid.