Kenneth Taylor

I read the true crime book, In a Child's Name by Peter Maas, many, many years ago. I read it after seeing the television movie of the same name. The movie aired in 1991 when we were still on the back end of the era in which television mini-series' were a thing. I always remembered the movie due to how it ended on the first of two nights on the air. To be fair, my knowledge of all things criminal was not what it is today and the impression they gave in the movie is completely false, but it was still powerful. In the movie investigators had sprayed the home of Kenneth Taylor with Luminol while he was being investigated in the murder of his wife, Teresa Benigno-White. The movie would indicate that it was the use of this chemical that had led to his arrest, which is not really true. At the end of the first night however the movie showed Kenneth Taylor's parents sleeping in the master bedroom of the home and after they turned the light off the room began to glow. As they looked up they saw hand prints that had slid down the walls and carpet, all presumably covered in blood since that is what the Luminol was to show. Of course Luminol does not work that way but it was great for dramatic purposes as it forced you to tune in the following night to see what happened. The movie and the book were both really two parts. First there was the part in which Kenneth Taylor had murdered his wife, dumped her body along a rural road and would be convicted of the crime. The second part of the story revolved around the custody of Kenneth and Teresa's infant son and lets just say that it was only slightly less intriguing than the murder and the cover up.

Teresa Benigno met Kenneth Taylor in 1981. She was a dental hygiene assistant in an office in which Kenneth Taylor worked. He was married at the time with a young daughter, but it appears that no one is for certain that Teresa knew this at the time. Teresa would later become his third wife. Kenneth had deserted his first wife, Emily, when she was nine months pregnant. I am sure she was likely devastated at the time but I would also gander to guess that later when she learned of things he did after that time she was relieved to know he left when he did. I did not see any reports that Emily (to be fair, if that was her real name) ever claimed that Kenneth had been abusive. Kenneth's second wife, Marilyn could not say the same. Reports state that Kenneth was at one point a Lieutenant in the Navy but I am not sure if that occurred before either of his marriages, or in between. Regardless, despite being beaten by Kenneth and being told by a Navy psychiatrist that he was a “homicidal maniac,” Marilyn married him anyway. But, between abusing drugs like cocaine and apparently being continually unfaithful, it seems that it was Kenneth who decided to end that relationship too, although the two had a young daughter together.

By 1981 when Kenneth met Teresa Benigno he was thirty-one while the young, pretty hygienist was ten years younger. They would get married on July 10, 1983 but by most reports not before Teresa had already become pregnant and Kenneth had insisted on an abortion. The wedding seemed a bit odd to the Benigno family. Kenneth's parents had come to the New York/New Jersey area (the White's and Benigno families apparently lived on the border of both) for the wedding but seemed to be less than enthused. There were also rumors that Kenneth had been married twice before even though apparently Teresa only knew of one. At any rate Teresa seemed happy and the couple went to Mexico for their anniversary. About a week later Teresa's parents, Albert and Louise went to the airport to pick the couple up but they did not show. After several phone calls and tracking things down they learned that Teresa was in the hospital and Kenneth was being held by Mexican authorities. Albert and his daughter Celeste would fly to Mexico to see what happened. Teresa had been severely beaten. Her eyes were swollen shut, one side of her face had been cut several times with shards of glass, there were deep slashes in her neck and all of her front teeth were broken. By the time Albert and Celeste got to the hospital authorities had released Kenneth. He would claim that intruders had broken into their hotel room while they were sleeping and had attacked Teresa. He would tell them that authorities would release him because they first, could not prove he had been responsible but also because they were “crooked” and simply took bribe money. Later Albert and Celeste would learn that the reason Kenneth was released was because Teresa had refused to press charges. She would tell her family that she remembered going to sleep and the next thing she remembered was waking up in the hospital. She refused to believe that Kenneth had done this to her and apparently believed his story of intruders. After about a week in Mexico Teresa returned to New York where she spent another two weeks in the hospital and then another month recuperating at her parents' home. In the meantime not only had Kenneth bought the couple a home in Manalapan New Jersey, he was kind enough to fix her teeth since he was a dentist and all! I only hope as a reader that you saw that as the sarcasm that it was meant to be.

Teresa was soon pregnant. It has been alleged that once again Kenneth encouraged Teresa to have an abortion but this time she refused. On June 11, 1984 Phillip Andrew Taylor was born. Almost exactly five months to the day later Teresa would die at the hands of Kenneth. On Saturday November 11, 1984 Teresa would call her parents. Sundays were spent as a family day and the Benigno's gathered for a traditional Italian dinner. On this day Teresa would call to say that she, Kenneth and Phillip would not be there the following day as they were going to be visiting with friends. On Monday morning Kenneth would contact Louise Benigno and claim that he had dropped Teresa off at the Newark Airport and that he and Phillip were in Indiana visiting his parents. By Wednesday morning he was back in New York talking to Albert and Louise claiming that Teresa had a drug problem and was allegedly going to a rehabilitation center, although she had failed to tell even him where it was. He would file a missing person's report on Teresa, seemingly at the urging of her family. He would also go to the airport with Teresa's sister, Celeste White and her husband Jeff to show them where he claimed he dropped her off and to show her picture to airport workers in an effort to find her. Once the White's and Kenneth parted ways the Whites went back to the police station to report their own concerns that Kenneth was not telling the truth and even mentioning the beating Teresa suffered on their honeymoon.

On Thursday the body of a woman was found on a rural road in Pennsylvania by a hiker near a bird sanctuary. The following day Albert Benigno and his son, Phillip would identify the body as belonging to Teresa. It was said that the back of her scull had been literally crushed in. Kenneth, who seemingly had been going back and forth between his home, Indiana where his parents lived and Pittsburgh where his ex-wife, Marilyn and their daughter lived was asked to come into the police station for questioning.

Kenneth seemed to stick to his story about dropping Teresa off at the airport. While he was being questioned he had agreed to allow investigators to search his home. The investigators at the home and the police station were keeping in constant contact with each other. When a bloody earring was found in the garage investigators at the station were informed and confronted Kenneth. It was then that he told a new story. He would alleged that he had awoken early that Sunday morning and walked downstairs to find Teresa “performing fellatio” on their infant son. He would claim that Teresa was high on cocaine and went into a rage, coming after his with a twenty pound barbell. He claimed that he had been able to wrestle the barbell from her and hit her with it. It was then that he stopped communications and requested a lawyer.

Kenneth Taylor would go on trial in September of 1985. Part two of this story, the custody of his child, Phillip, would begin almost immediately upon his arrest but to lessen the confusion I will discuss that after going through the trial and the criminal process. Prosecutors did not buy the “cocaine” story. While witnesses would claim that they had seen Teresa occasionally use the drug, they would also claim to have seen Kenneth use it often. In addition to that toxicology reports would show only small traces of cocaine in Teresa's system and no where close to the amount that would have caused her to exhibit the behaviors that Kenneth had described. Not only would prosecutors alleged that Kenneth was a frequent, if not addicted, drug user, they would also claim that he had a sex addiction as well. They would claim that between midnight and nearly six in the morning of November 12^th there had been twenty-six calls made to a pornographic message service in California and brothels located in New York. Through forensics (this is likely where the Luminol came in) investigators were able to determine a “55 foot trail of blood in the house” that led from the master bedroom to the garage. It was here that they believed Kenneth had placed Teresa's body in the trunk of the car. Later, after doing what they said was a decent attempt at cleaning up the home, he would put his five month old in the car with him and drove to Indiana where he would leave the child with his parents. It appears he was not in Indiana long and when he left he headed to Pittsburgh where he met up with Marilyn to celebrate their daughters fifth birthday. After leaving Marilyn's and heading back to the New York/New Jersey area he had stopped and dumped Teresa's body on the side of the road.

It appears that Kenneth attempted to stick to the story that he had walked into the room and found his wife molesting their child but it seems that the only people who believed that story was Kenneth's parents who had returned to the area with Phillip almost as soon as Kenneth was arrested. On October 4, 1985 Kenneth Taylor was convicted in the murder of his wife. His sentence seems a bit confusing. It appears that the sentence was a “thirty years to life” sentence without parole for a minimum of thirty years. That means that he was eligible in 2014 for parole, but it also does not mean that it was or would be granted. The problem in finding the answer is that fairly early on Kenneth was no longer in a New Jersey prison and inmates that are held in Interstate are difficult to track. In general the state of conviction does not show them on their websites because they are not within their prison system and the state in which is holding the inmates is not technically responsible for their care because they are from another state. I believe the general rule is that many of these inmates are moved for their safety and public record as to their whereabouts are to be kept secret. It seems that Kenneth had made at least one attempt to escape (although I have seen allegations that he tried twice) while in New Jersey and was sent to a prison in Virginia. It has been alleged that he also attempted an escape there also. He was found around 2012 on a website devoted to writing prisoners. The name matched his profile as well as many other things such as his conviction and occupation so I am certain that this was him. However, I found it quite interesting that he never mentioned Indiana in all the states in which had claimed to have lived in the past. He had stated in his profile that he was scheduled for release in 2014 but even if he was eligible then (which is unclear with the escape attempts since he allegedly got time added for each one), it does not appear that it was the “done deal” as he made it sound. I am going to gander to guess that he is still being housed by the Virginia prison system but then again I could be wrong.

As I have said a few times by now, there was another intriguing story to this case and that was the custody of Phillip Taylor who was five months old when his father murdered his mother. Jean and Everett Taylor, Kenneth's parents, would be engaged in a custody battle with Teresa's sister, Celeste White and her husband Jeff. At the time of Teresa's murder Celeste was eight months pregnant with her first child, Christina. Before the custody battle would be over Celeste was preparing to give birth to another daughter, Jacqueline. It appears that they would go on to have at least two more children, another daughter named Alexandra and a son, Jefferson, named after his father. I discovered this by finding an announcement of Jacqueline's wedding in 2013. Kenneth would also have two siblings, a brother, Tom, and a sister, who it seems was lucky enough to never have her name published. At the time of the murder Tom was in his thirties, had never married and was said to be living with his parents. As far as the daughter goes the attorney representing the Taylors would only say he “thought” she lived in New Orleans and was married to “some kind of military man” in the late 1980's.

Jean and Everett Taylor apparently believed that their son was all but “forced” to kill the “evil” woman he had married and seemingly bought his stories despite all of the evidence against him. If we believe all we have seen and read then the couple stayed in their son's home while he was incarcerated. Two weeks after Kenneth's arrest Jeff and Celeste White filed in the New Jersey courts for custody of Phillip Taylor. It was ordered that the child was to stay in New Jersey with the Taylors having him four days a week and the White's three days while the custody was settled. Keep in mind that the Whites lived in New York and the Taylors lived in Indiana but for legal purposes Phillips address was in New Jersey. This apparently worked ok during the incarceration and trial because the Taylors were in New Jersey and the Whites were nearby. After the conviction the Whites were given four days and the Taylors were given three. The court appointed a psychologist to evaluate the situation for final custody. Eventually the psychologist recommended that the Whites retain custody of Phillip for ten months of the year, giving the Taylors two months in the summer as well as overnights visits for three days at Thanksgiving and a week at Christmas. Additionally the Whites were required to accept a call from Kenneth once a week and take the child to visit him once a month. Of course this did not set right especially with Celeste White. During that first Thanksgiving after his conviction Kenneth's parents took Phillip to the prison everyday and the Whites protested. A new psychologist “strongly recommended” that Phillip not visit Kenneth in prison saying that it would only confuse him seeing as Kenneth would never retain custody of him while he was a minor considering his sentence.

Despite the rulings made it seemed that the Whites and Taylors still were not happy with the arrangement. The Whites retained a new attorney who thought it a long shot but at some point an offer was made to the Taylors in which they would receive not two months, but two weeks in the summer, with the Whites being able to call each day the first week and visit the second. Strangely the couple and their lawyer agreed. Celeste White would later say she just felt in her bones something was not right. Kenneth had been allowed at these custody hearings and at this one at the end of July 1986 she had noticed him looking at his parents and wink. It gave her an uneasy feeling that something was amiss. On August 1, 1986 Phillip went to Indiana with his grandparents for presumably a two week stay. On August 6^th Celeste White contacted the Taylors to set up visitation for the following week. Jean Taylor told Celeste that there was no need because they had adopted Phillip and Teresa's family would never see the child again.

Celeste immediately called their lawyer who contacted the courts in Marion Indiana where the Taylors lived. She informed the judge that the custody issues had been ongoing in New Jersey and just days prior a final order had been made giving the Whites primary custody. The judge informed the lawyer that as soon as she got him a copy of the custody order that he would rescind the adoption. The next morning the Whites and their attorney made their way to Indiana but when they got to the courthouse with the custody order they found that the judge was not in his office and would be gone for the weekend. They did however get another judge to sign an order to have Phillip removed from the Taylor home and put in foster care until Monday when the original judge would be back in the office. A social worker from DFS, a local sheriff, along with the Whites and their attorney went to the Taylor home. Eventually Everett Taylor would open the door and the social worker would take custody of Phillip but not before he called his attorney. As the DFS worker was leaving the home the Taylors attorney arrived and attempted to remove Phillip from the car. The Whites obviously were upset with the entire situation but they and their attorney stated they felt Phillip was in a good home for the weekend and they headed home until Monday morning. Monday was not a better day. It was discovered that over the weekend the judge who had ordered Phillip into foster care rescinded his order and he had been returned to the Taylor home. On top of that the judge who had ordered the adoption decided to withdraw from the case, leaving everything in limbo.

It was discovered that in January of 1986 the Taylors, through their lawyer obviously, had filed for the adoption in Grant County Indiana, their legal place of residence. The adoption petition simply stated that his mother was “deceased” and that Kenneth had given them permission to proceed with the adoption. Kenneth had not listed an address, let alone let it be known that he was in prison. The petition made no mention of the New Jersey proceedings that were going on and claimed that Phillip had lived with the couple from November of 1984 to September of 1985. It also claimed that there was no “property” technically owned by Phillip but there was a $13,000 trust fund that had been established from Teresa's life insurance as well as proceeds from selling the Manalapan home. Kenneth had signed this over to his parents. The last decree, dated August 6^th stated that there was a “pending” issue in New Jersey. The Whites attorney believed that it was purposely “dumped” into the record and was actually a lie considering it had been settled but that it had been done knowing that the judge would not read it well enough to catch it at that late date.

Prosecutors in New Jersey, the ones who had prosecuted Kenneth, were now brought in and ticked off themselves. They sought a criminal extradition warrant against the Taylors for defying the New Jersey order. Both the governors of New Jersey and Indiana signed it but Governor Orr of Indiana would withdraw the warrant for “further investigation” while a new judge was sought to oversee the case and decide if the adoption had been done illegally. Over the next several months there would be hearing after hearing. The Taylors were not only fighting that their adoption of Phillip was legal they were also arguing that the New Jersey courts had erred when they in essence gave the Whites custody because they were younger than the Taylors.

During all of this time Peter Maas, who would later write the book based on this case, began doing interviews with the people involved and publishing articles in The New York Times about the case. This is when he approached the Taylors' attorney and was given the information about Kenneth's siblings. I find it quite interesting that it was the only place in which a sister to Kenneth was mentioned and even still it appeared there was little known about her. The attorney argued that if something were to happen to either of the Taylors they had other family members that could take custody of Phillip. At some point the Indiana Attorney General was contacted about the warrant against the Taylors that had been withdrawn for “further investigation” admitted to Maas that there was no investigation and that they were simply waiting on a decision to be made by the judge. His first article was published in April of 1987 but as it went to print a decision was finally made in the case in Indiana.

After five judges and nine months an Indiana judge finally invalidated the adoption by the Taylors and ordered that Phillip be returned to the Whites. He was now nearly three years old. But, as is everything else in this case going and getting Phillip was not that easy. The Taylors had asked for a stay when the judge had issued the order but it was denied. At the time Celeste was preparing to give birth to her second child and could not travel so the following morning Jeff White was in Indiana expecting to bring Phillip home. The Taylors for their part filed an immediate appeal and the courts agreed to look at the case, requiring Jeff, Phillip and their lawyer to remain in Indiana. Finally three days Jeff was able to leave Indiana with Phillip. He discovered on his travels home that the Taylors had packed the same clothing that the Whites had sent to them nine months earlier so nothing fit that now growing child. It appeared to be one last “dig” at the Whites. The Whites would later say that Phillip “seemed terrified of taking baths” and it appears no attempt to potty train him had occurred.

By May 22, 1987 it seems that the Taylors had been brought back to New Jersey and arraigned on charges of “interference of custody.” I cannot say what ever came of this. All I can say is that eventually the Taylors moved to Florida where Jean would died in 2004 at the age of seventy-seven and Everett would die three years later at the age of eighty, in a car accident. It was only through his obituary that I was able to determine that they had a daughter named Nancy who did indeed live in Louisiana. The obituary also listed two grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Whether one of those grandchildren was Phillip and whether they had an ongoing relationship with him is unknown.

By September of 1987 the Whites had officially filed to adopt Phillip. Of course Kenneth Taylor objected. At that hearing it was shown that the Whites could adequately care for Phillip, which never seemed to be a question. Now, I have been through adoption proceedings myself and the number one thing generally is to prove that there has been no contact or support from the biological parent, but to also show that to not grant the adoption would prove detrimental to the child. The Whites argued that there had been no contact or support from Kenneth, but in fairness, not that I am making excuses for him, Kenneth argued that the Whites would not take his calls or letters, hence the no contact or support. I can only assume that the court had reversed themselves on the phone calls and visits especially since Kenneth was no longer in New Jersey but in Virginia by then. There would be proof however that while Phillip had been in the custody of his parents he had given them control of the $13,000 trust and had also sent money for gifts for Phillips. Now I say there was proof of this but I am sure it came down to the word of Kenneth and/or his parents and I think I have shown already how trust worthy they were. Regardless if he did or did not send money to his parents for Phillip I am sure he or they thought it would sound good that he had. They did not think that it would show that he was willing to support his child as long as he was with who he wanted him to be with. In December of 1987 Kenneth's parental rights were terminated and a final hearing on the adoption was said to go forward. There was a note that the previous order giving the Taylors visitation had been rescinded but not dismissed so the final hearing would also deal with that issue. While I can say that it appears that Phillip was adopted by the Whites and carries their name. Not only was I able to determine this when his sister Jacquline was married in 2013, but I also found an announcement in which Phillip himself married in 2009.

While I am sure Phillip felt the loss throughout his life of a mother he never remembered, I can only hope that for the most part the damage done to him by his father and his biological grandparents was as minimal as possible.