Although Gene kept talking about his diabetes, Lindsey said she didn’t believe that he really had the disease.
“I want him to stop writing, but I don’t want to communicate with him to tell him that. . . . He’s lost the right to have any place in my life. He tried to kill my mom; he was emotionally abusive to me and my sister. . . . He was a jackass as a father. I don’t have any real happy memories involving him.”
Gene seems to be well aware of her anger. In November 2002, he wrote to her regarding the TV shows about his case that had been airing, saying he hoped that they didn’t upset her and her sister too much, or cause them any further embarrassment or trouble at school.
“I know you were very, very angry, disappointed, mad etc. at me for causing you so much pain and complications in your young life,” he wrote. “Anger and being mad are normal behavioral responses. What I want to tell you is that it is okay to be mad and angry with me. I also want to tell you I hope you vent this anger at me, towards me, and not others around you.”
Saying he’d discussed this issue with counselors over the years, he suggested that Lindsey try writing letters to deal with her emotions. “It’s not healthy to stay mad and angry for such a long time. . . . I’ve had a hard time letting go of my anger, frustration and disappointment over a lot of things also. It’s not easy to do.”
Lindsey grew up plagued with health problems, shyness, and social awkwardness. Big-boned like her father, she too has fought to keep her weight down.
She was diagnosed with dyslexia in the second grade after the teachers figured out that she was failing because she couldn’t read.
“I still can’t spell. I’m okay at math. But I’m really good at and do like English,” she said recently.
Lindsey started coming out of her shell after she got involved in theater at school in 2003, when she worked on the stage crew for a production called Yippie Skippy, There’s a Monkey in My Pants, becoming incensed when the teachers wanted to shut down the performance because it included profanity and content they thought was racist and otherwise inappropriate.
In spring 2004, she made the swim team; in 2005, she joined the Cougar, the high school newspaper, as a writer. The following year she became the arts and entertainment editor and worked as a lifeguard.
She was accepted by the Building with Books program, which entailed spending two weeks building a schoolhouse in Nicaragua in summer 2005. Although she’d grown up thinking she wanted to work with animals, after the Nicaragua trip she switched her focus to helping people and ultimately decided she wanted to work toward a nursing degree at Cal State University, Chico.
Lindsey, who has spent much of her life in therapy, was still seeing a counselor regularly in summer 2007, mostly to deal with stress. Allison, who has seen nearly a dozen therapists, said they haven’t helped her a whole lot.
Unlike Allison, Lindsey hasn’t dated much. As of summer 2007, she’d only gone out with two boys, one whom she liked quite a bit and the other who liked her quite a bit. Neither worked out.
She and Allison aren’t all that close these days. Allison thinks that Lindsey is a “very ‘good girl,’ ” and Lindsey thinks that Allison is not sensitive enough to other people’s feelings.
Even so, Lindsey said, “I know she still cares about me.” That is certainly true. Although the two sisters have very different personalities, interests, and lifestyles, Allison said, “I love her to death.”
After she stopped using meth, Allison tried to get her life back on track, but her former high school turned her away, saying she would do better at an alternative high school. She took auto shop classes for several semesters at the College of Alameda while attending the alternative school, with an eye on a career as a mechanic. After graduating at seventeen, she went to Diablo Valley, a junior college, for one semester.
She has always liked to read. In fact, Patricia Cornwell is still one of her favorite authors.
Allison started dating Chris Sugg in December 2003 and found out she was pregnant in May 2006. She moved into an apartment with Chris in October. At the time, Allison was working at Trader Joe’s grocery store, and was contemplating a visit to see Gene in prison with her new baby. “I’m just really curious to see his reaction,” she said.
While Allison was still pregnant, Margo said, “I’m trying to step back and let her do what she needs to do. I told her I’ll buy the crib, but I can’t do it all, and I shouldn’t. I don’t think she has a clue how she’s going to support this kid, but it’ll happen.”
Allison had her baby, Serena, on January 1, 2007. She was a healthy six pounds, eleven ounces. That summer, Allison was back working at Trader Joe’s and happily raising her baby with Chris.
Asked if she had any interest in going into law enforcement, Allison replied, “Never.” She has no interest in returning to college, but said she hoped to get into real estate someday.
She has also reconsidered and decided against taking Serena to visit her father in prison. “I don’t want to put my daughter in that type of situation—to be used against me, my mother,” she said.
People have repeated to Margo the old adage, that which doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. She jokes that she wants to kill them for saying it, but she knows it’s true.
“I know I can get through anything. I know that I have gone through a unique set of circumstances, to be at this position in my life for a reason. I feel powerful in the sense that I know nothing’s going to break me. Yet, at the same time, I know that I’m capable of being hurt. It’s one of the lessons we have being on this earth that you get to feel these things.”
“When I pray, I thank God for the experiences that have made me who I am. Without them, I wouldn’t be who I am, so the bad makes the good even sweeter.”
These experiences have also helped her see what’s really important in life: her kids, her freedom, and the opportunity to help other people.
Back in 2002, when Allison was so troubled, Margo didn’t know if they’d ever be close again. But more recently, Allison has commented several times that she knows how bad her life would have been if Gene had killed Margo. In the birthday card that she gave Margo in 2006, she wrote, “You’ve sacrificed so much for us.”
“To know that she’s capable now of understanding some of what I went through makes me feel complete,” Margo says today.
Sometimes Margo thinks the reason she lived through all that trauma with Gene was to save her children from being raised by him. “They now have the freedom to be who they want. Allison is still floating around, but I see her going in the right direction. Lindsey just needs to build her self-confidence.”
Although her life as Gene’s wife and as a mother has been challenging at times, Margo says she’s done her best to protect and care for her children. She thinks that they’ve turned out pretty well.
“I raised my daughters to have a mind of their own and speak up. It’s been painful, but I’m very, very proud of my kids.”
It wasn’t until 2002, when she was forty-eight, that Margo found a woman she sees as her other half, someone with whom she has a soulful bond and believes she’ll be with for the rest of her life.
They shook hands when they first met, and both felt an immediate connection, a familiar, comfortable feeling as if they’d known each other for a long time.
“It was as if our lives came together for a reason,” said Margo, who turned fifty-four in 2007.
Looking back, she now sees that her interactions with Gene forced her to come to grips with the fact that if she were not in a relationship with another woman, she would not be in a relationship at all. She also realizes that she wouldn’t have “the maturity of soul” to have found such a strong connection without having progressed through the trials and tribulations that brought her to that point.
“I finally understand what it is to have a good healthy, loving relationship. It’s just so nice. It’s everything I’ve longed for in a relationship. The ability to love someone a
nd be loved, care for her and trust her, makes my life full.”
Gene’s appeal was rejected by Virginia’s Court of Appeals in March 1999. In February 2001, the Attorney General’s office for Virginia informed Margo that the petition he filed for a writ of habeas corpus in 2000 had also been dismissed.
He is due to be released on July 9, 2016.
“I wish they could’ve given him a longer sentence so he wouldn’t bother my mom, because our family is going to have to worry when he gets out,” Allison said.
But Margo doesn’t sit around and fret about the day Gene will get out of prison. She is simply determined to be ready if he attempts to come after her and take his final revenge.
“God didn’t let me survive the first two attacks to have me fail if he tries again.”
About the Authors
Caitlin Rother is the author of Poisoned Love, the true story of the Kristin Rossum murder case, and the thriller Naked Addiction. Rother, a Pulitzer Prize-nominated investigative journalist, worked for daily newspapers for nearly twenty years before she started writing books full-time. Covering topics ranging from criminal justice to government, politics, and human drama, she won many awards for her narrative stories, establishing a solid foundation for writing book-length nonfiction. She was a staff reporter for the San Diego Union-Tribune and the Los Angeles Daily News, and has written for Cosmopolitan, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, and the Boston Globe. She also has made dozens of media appearances on TV news and crime shows, including E! Entertainment network’s “Women Who Kill,” Oxygen Network’s Snapped series, and Greta Van Susteren’s On the Record. Rother lives in San Diego, California. For more information, visit her Web site at http://caitlinrother.com.
John Hess, a retired FBI supervisory agent and Quantico instructor, is the author of Interviewing and Interrogation for Law Enforcement, a textbook dealing with the skills investigators need for obtaining the truth from both witnesses and suspects. He is also the coauthor of Writing for Law Enforcement, which addresses a serious shortcoming among many in law enforcement, and has written articles for various professional journals over the years. Since retiring from his twenty-seven-year career with the FBI, Hess has addressed numerous professional groups including the CIA, DEA, and United Nations inspectors prior to their departure for Iraq. He lives in Fredericksburg, Virginia.
Index
A
Adams, Edwin (Gene Bennett alias)
Akers, Ed (father of Margo Bennett)
abusiveness of
Akers, Elizabeth (Gene Bennett DBA)
Akers, Gerthaldean “Dean” (mother of Margo Bennett)
Akers, Letta (sister of Margo Bennett)
Akers, Marguerite Elizabeth. See Bennett, Marguerite “Margo”
Alabama
Albracht, Donald
Alexandria, Virginia
All That Remains (Cornwell)
American Airlines
Annandale, Virginia
Ant Farm
Appletree Preschool
Arlington, Virginia
Ashburn, Virginia
Aspen Achievement Academy (Utah)
Athens, Georgia
Atlanta field office (FBI)
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta Journal
Atlanta, police academy at
Attempted murder charges
Ayers, Dick
B
Baptist church
Baptist Sunday school
Batchlett, Clarence
Batchlett, Tammy
Bay Area
Beals, Dianna
Behavioral Sciences Unit
Bellyband
Beltway sniper
Bennett, Alene (mother of Gene Bennett)
Bennett, Allison Akers (daughter of Gene and Margo Bennett)
birth of
self-cutting of
Bennett Elementary School
Bennett, Eugene “Gene”
abusive behavior of
alternate personas of
assignment to White House Applicant Squad
courtroom speech of
defense of
and disassociative disorder NOS
and “Ed” persona
and hearing voices
indictment of, by federal grand jury
investigation of
manipulative tactics of
marriage of, to Marguerite Akers
911 calls of
preliminary hearing of
prosecution of
second trial of
sentencing of
served no-contact order
surrenders to police
transferred to Public Corruption Squad
verdict on
Bennett, Karen (first wife of Gene Bennett)
Bennett, Linda (sister of Gene Bennett)
Bennett, Lindsey (daughter of Gene and Margo Bennett)
birth of
heart defect of
Bennett, Marguerite “Margo”
abduction of
asks for divorce
assigned to Department of Justice Applicant Squad
cooling off of marital sex life
courage and self-discipline of
cross-examination of
deposition on 1993 abduction of
FBI counteroffensive against
gains full custody of children
gets position at NOVA
interest of, in criminology
proposal of marriage of, to Gene Bennett
resignation of
sexual past of
sexuality issues of
vindication of
and wanting third child
Bergere, Doug
Binney, David
Biograph Theater
Bishop, Robert
Blakeney, Leon
Blakeney, Linda
“Blonde Bitch”
Bobbit case
Body of Evidence (Cornwell)
Bootstrap. See Operation Bootstrap
Brethren Church
Bryant, Robert
Building with Books program
Bull Run, battle of
Bureau of Prisons
Burke, John
C
California State University, Chico
Camp Sunshine
Carter, Beth
Cause of Death (Cornwell)
Cause of Death: A Writer’s Guide to Death, Murder and Forensic Medicine
Champaign, Illinois
Charlotte Observer
Children’s Hospital
Clever, Edwin
Coats, Martha (sister of Margo Bennett)
College of Alameda
Colombians
Colonial Beach, Virginia
Commerce Court, Manassas
Corley, David
Cornwell, Charles
Cornwell, Patricia “Patsy”
All That Remains
Body of Evidence
Cause of Death
photo at Globe & Laurel
Cougar (high school newspaper)
Criminal Personality (Samenow)
Cunanan, Elnora
D
Daniels, Tony
Davidson College (North Carolina)
Davis, Nancy
Death kit
DelCore, Bob
Delta Airlines
Department of Justice
Applicant Squad
Office of Security and Emergency Planning Staff
Public Integrity Section
Diablo Valley Junior College
“Diagnosis Missing: The FBI Should Monitor Its Agents’ Mental Health” (Washington Post)
Dillinger, John
Disassociative disorder
Discovery Channel
DNA evidence
Doubletalk. See Operation Doubletalk
Dress for Success (Molloy)
DuHadway, Thomas
Dulles Airport
Dunaway, Faye
Dunham, F
rank
E
Ebert, Paul
“Ed” (Gene Bennett alternate personality)
Education and Communications Unit (Quantico)
Ellsworth, Molly
Employee Assistance Program (FBI)
“Ex Files: Here’s What Can Happen When Two Heavily Armed People Fall Out of Love” (Washington Post)
“Ex-FBI Agent in Custody” (Prince William Journal)
Eyes of Laura Mars (film)
F
Fairfax County Police Department
Fairfield Inn (Richmond, Virginia)
Falls Church, Virginia
Farrell, Kathy
“FBI Agent Withdraws Charges Against Spouse: Woman Testifies Husband Not Guilty of Theft” (Washington Post)
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI):
Employee Assistance Program
Liaison Office
policy concerning sexual conduct
retirement fund
Food Lion (Manassas, Virginia)
Forscore. See Operation Forscore
Foster, Jodie
Fredricksburg, Virginia
Freeh, Louis
Fulton County, Georgia
G
Gable, Clark
Gallagher, Thomas
Gans, Jeffrey
Garbo, Greta
George Washington University
Georgia
“Gerbil tubes”
Gettings, Brian
Giant grocery store (Alexandria, Virginia)
Gilliam, Jeanette
Girodo, Michel
Globe & Laurel
Good Morning America
Graham, Billy
Graham, Ruth Bell
Guin, Alabama
H
Hall of Honor
Hammond, Pat
Hess, John
Hetzel, Janice
Higgins, Reverend Bill
Hogan’s Alley (Quantico)
Holiday Inn (Manassas, Virginia)
Holiday Inn (Washington, DC)
Home relocation fraud scheme
Home Relocation Program