Post by warrior1972 on Feb 4, 2013 18:16:29 GMT -8
God, I actually thought this kind of stuff had died down after Clark and Subic Bay closed.
Silly me.
ANTIPOLO CITY, Philippines — The murder plot hatched by U.S. Navy Master Chief Petty Officer John Bench continued to unravel Monday in a courtroom in the Philippines.
Dindo Esplana “Dimple” Santos, 30, dropped claims of innocence and pleaded guilty to killing a Filipino taxi driver in 2009 while attempting to carry out a murder contract on Bench’s wife and two children.
The guilty plea caps the saga of a sailor’s greed, betrayal and violence. An investigation by Stars and Stripes discovered Bench, who was stationed on the USS Denver at Sasebo Naval Base in Japan, and his Filipina mistress Lilibeth Eniceo hired Santos to kill his family during a vacation to the Philippines.
The couple fantasized about being together but Bench worried about his wife taking his Navy pension in a divorce. Several months after the failed hit, John Bench — frustrated that his family survived Santos’ attack — took matters into his own hands and murdered his adolescent son, then assaulted his wife and teenage daughter with a baseball bat in their Sasebo base housing.
The Denver master chief would never stand trial; he fled the Sasebo murder scene and died the same day after driving his motorcycle into oncoming traffic on a nearby highway.
With Bench dead, the family of slain taxi driver Peter Turiano has been pressing for justice for nearly four years. Turiano’s widow and eldest sister finally watched Santos file his guilty plea Monday in the Antipolo City courtroom.
www.stripes.com/news/hit-man-in-b....ppines-1.206431
And...from 2009...
SASEBO NAVAL BASE, Japan — A USS Denver sailor died in a motorcycle crash after he allegedly assaulted his family in an attack that left his 12-year-old son dead Sunday at Sasebo Naval Base in Japan, base officials said Monday.
John W. Bench Jr., 39, died after his motorcycle collided with oncoming vehicles on a Sasebo expressway, Japanese police said.
The Navy would not confirm the identity of the sailor or name his family members Monday, citing an ongoing investigation. But the USS Denver’s Web page in early August listed a John W. Bench as the ship’s command master chief.
The crash occurred Sunday afternoon shortly after the alleged attack at a main base housing facility.
The Navy released few details Monday about the assault and the circumstances of the 12-year-old boy’s death. The sailor’s wife was seriously injured and upgraded from stable to guarded condition at a hospital Monday, base spokesman Charles Howard said.
The sailor’s 17-year-old daughter was treated for minor injuries and released, the base said in a release.
“I think you can say the people at the base are in collective shock,” Howard said.
The incident was first reported by an emergency phone call at about 3 p.m. Sunday and the base learned from Japanese police about 90 minutes later that the sailor had died in a motorcycle crash, he said.
Bench’s Harley-Davidson collided with oncoming traffic at about 2:53 p.m. in the Kuwakoba-cho district area of the Nishi Kyushu Expressway, according to a spokesman for the Nagasaki Prefecture police’s Expressway Traffic Police Unit. It was not immediately clear whether the collision was intentional.
www.stripes.com/news/sailor-dies-in-crash-after-alleged-assault-leaves-12-year-old-son-dead-1.94404
Silly me.
ANTIPOLO CITY, Philippines — The murder plot hatched by U.S. Navy Master Chief Petty Officer John Bench continued to unravel Monday in a courtroom in the Philippines.
Dindo Esplana “Dimple” Santos, 30, dropped claims of innocence and pleaded guilty to killing a Filipino taxi driver in 2009 while attempting to carry out a murder contract on Bench’s wife and two children.
The guilty plea caps the saga of a sailor’s greed, betrayal and violence. An investigation by Stars and Stripes discovered Bench, who was stationed on the USS Denver at Sasebo Naval Base in Japan, and his Filipina mistress Lilibeth Eniceo hired Santos to kill his family during a vacation to the Philippines.
The couple fantasized about being together but Bench worried about his wife taking his Navy pension in a divorce. Several months after the failed hit, John Bench — frustrated that his family survived Santos’ attack — took matters into his own hands and murdered his adolescent son, then assaulted his wife and teenage daughter with a baseball bat in their Sasebo base housing.
The Denver master chief would never stand trial; he fled the Sasebo murder scene and died the same day after driving his motorcycle into oncoming traffic on a nearby highway.
With Bench dead, the family of slain taxi driver Peter Turiano has been pressing for justice for nearly four years. Turiano’s widow and eldest sister finally watched Santos file his guilty plea Monday in the Antipolo City courtroom.
www.stripes.com/news/hit-man-in-b....ppines-1.206431
And...from 2009...
SASEBO NAVAL BASE, Japan — A USS Denver sailor died in a motorcycle crash after he allegedly assaulted his family in an attack that left his 12-year-old son dead Sunday at Sasebo Naval Base in Japan, base officials said Monday.
John W. Bench Jr., 39, died after his motorcycle collided with oncoming vehicles on a Sasebo expressway, Japanese police said.
The Navy would not confirm the identity of the sailor or name his family members Monday, citing an ongoing investigation. But the USS Denver’s Web page in early August listed a John W. Bench as the ship’s command master chief.
The crash occurred Sunday afternoon shortly after the alleged attack at a main base housing facility.
The Navy released few details Monday about the assault and the circumstances of the 12-year-old boy’s death. The sailor’s wife was seriously injured and upgraded from stable to guarded condition at a hospital Monday, base spokesman Charles Howard said.
The sailor’s 17-year-old daughter was treated for minor injuries and released, the base said in a release.
“I think you can say the people at the base are in collective shock,” Howard said.
The incident was first reported by an emergency phone call at about 3 p.m. Sunday and the base learned from Japanese police about 90 minutes later that the sailor had died in a motorcycle crash, he said.
Bench’s Harley-Davidson collided with oncoming traffic at about 2:53 p.m. in the Kuwakoba-cho district area of the Nishi Kyushu Expressway, according to a spokesman for the Nagasaki Prefecture police’s Expressway Traffic Police Unit. It was not immediately clear whether the collision was intentional.
www.stripes.com/news/sailor-dies-in-crash-after-alleged-assault-leaves-12-year-old-son-dead-1.94404