The following article was first published as a blog post on September 8, 2006:
June 23, 1996: Eugene Bennett, a former agent for the FBI abducted Alva Clever, a Manassas, Virginia pastor, at gunpoint. Bennett then had Clever lure Margo Bennett (Bennett's spouse) to the Prince of Peace United Methodist Church. Bennett, whose face has been concealed by ski mask, binds Clever to a chair until Margo Bennett, a former FBI agent herself, gets there. Bennett had also attached a bag containing explosives around the minister's waist and put a bag over his head.
Margo, noting the intentionally suspicious content of Clever's phone call, arrives and confronts Eugene Bennett. After dousing him with pepper spray, she ducks into an office where she fires a shot at her husband from behind a desk. The shot misses. Bennett, armed with a .45, continues to taunt his wife.
Bennett tells his wife of the explosives tied to Clever, warning her that they could all perish should she choose not to communicate with him. Margo stayed behind the desk. She was able to call authorities from the office, prompting Bennett to leave the scene.
Eugene Bennett was later arrested at his residence after a short standoff with law enforcement. It seemed Bennett had to restrain "Ed" in his garage before he could give himself up. Ed was Bennett's alter-ego, an evil replication that Bennett claimed took over during periods of mental blackout.
After Bennett was apprehended, a pipe bomb was discovered outside the church. Police also found a bomb in a locker kept by Bennett at Northern Virginia Community College. Margo Bennett was employed as a ploice supervisor at the Woodbridge, VA school. Even more explosive components were discovered at the school's Annandale campus.
This incident was not the first act of violence involving Eugene Bennett. In 1993, prior to a fraud trial against Bennett, a similar incident occurred. Bennett attacked his wife with a stun gun, then tied her up. He warned her that her children would be killed if she testified against him. He held her for several days until the trial started.
So what we have is man who has no problem with kidnapping. A person who claims to have blackouts and an evil alter-ego. A person trained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. A person who --has a strong hatred for lesbians.
Yes, Bennett blamed his wife's romantic involvement with Patricia Cornwell, a Virginia author, for his marital problems. Bennett claimed that his wife would "secretly meet with Cornwell for romantic candlelight dinners, would visit Cornwell's Richmond home, accepted expensive gifts and clothes from her and spoke with her on the phone constantly." He said the couple would often meet at a gay bar near Quantico. Bennett said that, while laughing at him ``Mrs. Bennett admitted the affair" and "asked Mr. Bennett why it took him so long to figure things out.'' He worried that his children would be "brought up by lesbians". Bennett blamed the affair for leading him into insanity. He claims to have found lingerie and sexual toys in her vehicle. He said his wife called him a "square." Bennett trailed Margo to Richmond and "observed Mrs. Bennett and Ms. Cornwell hugging and kissing in their vehicles'' So he hooks a bomb up to her minister, threatens her with a gun, claiming all the while he was insane and Ed was the guilty one. This was a man who claimed to have lost his sanity because of lesbians. A person who claims to black out and do things that he cannot recall later; a sort of Jekyll & Hyde situation.
A few years prior, a mental health professional met with Bennett at his request. The man later said that Eugene Bennett was "a dangerously volatile character." The prosecution against Bennett stated: "when he went into that church and tied up the reverend this wasn't the first time he had done that kind of thing. When he told the reverend that someone was watching his kids, it wasn't the first time he had gained control over someone through that ruse. He did it to Mrs. Bennett in '93. Bound her. Got the jump on her just like he did the minister. Bound her.
Eugene Bennett is scheduled for release in July of 2017.
In a completely unrelated story, occuring approximatley three weeks prior to the above:
June 1, 1996 Park rangers discover the bodies of 24 year-old Julianne Williams and 26 year-old Lollie Winans in the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. Their wrists were bound. Their throats had been cut. Many people felt that the two were targeted because of their sexual orientation.
In 2002, Darrell David Rice was charged with the crimes based solely on jail informants. In 2004, the federal government sought to drop the charges against him, based on newly obtained forensic evidence. Hairs found at the scene did not match the two women or Rice.
