The Massachusetts Parole Board has denied release for a man who has spent 46 years behind bars for killing and mutilating a 20-year-old man he picked up in East Wareham nearly five decades ago. Ronald Benson, now incarcerated at MCI-Shirley, was convicted of second-degree murder in 1979 for the death of Richard Carr, and the board voted 5-1 this week to keep him locked up.
According to The Boston Globe, Benson bought a switchblade at a Boston bar before picking up Carr in his vehicle for the purposes of having sex. Benson attempted to have sex with Carr, but Carr rebuffed his advances and grew uncomfortable, asking to be driven back to Boston. Instead, Benson drove him toward his family home in Wareham and parked in Maple Park, where a struggle broke out and Benson stabbed Carr multiple times, killing him on October 7, 1978. Per the ruling, Benson then cut off Carr's penis after Carr died. Carr's body was found the following day.
A Legal Identity Traced Back Decades
The Parole Board's decision, released Tuesday, revealed that Benson committed the murder under a different name entirely. According to the board's official parole decision, Benson was known as Ronald Grant Hendricken at the time of the killing, before legally changing his name to Ronald Nicholas Benson in Plymouth Probate Court on December 21, 1999. Court records show he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder on July 18, 1979, in Plymouth Superior Court, according to the Fall River Reporter.
Under Massachusetts law, second-degree murder carries a mandatory life sentence with parole eligibility after at least 15 years, requiring the state's seven-member Parole Board to weigh whether an inmate's release is compatible with public safety through structured risk assessments. That threshold made Benson eligible for release consideration decades ago, but his case dragged on far longer than the statutory minimum. Between 1993 and 2022, he repeatedly waived or postponed seven scheduled hearings — in 1993, 1996, 1999, 2004, 2012, 2017, and 2022 — before receiving formal denials following review hearings in 2007 and again in March 2023, per the board's decision.
Hearing Testimony and Ongoing Concerns
At Benson's most recent review hearing on March 24, 2026, Plymouth County Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth Mello Marvel argued against his release, the same account notes, while a defense expert identified as Dr. Bard and a social service advocate testified in support of parole. The Parole Board ultimately found that Benson's release is not compatible with the welfare of society, encouraging him to continue counseling that addresses his history of sexual violence.
A 2023 board decision had already flagged specific obstacles to Benson's release. That earlier ruling noted Benson completed the state's Sex Offender Treatment Program in 2011, but board members raised concerns over his minimal program participation in the years since, along with a personal relationship spanning nearly 30 years with another convicted sex offender. The board also noted Benson has previously waived or postponed other hearings throughout his incarceration, a pattern stretching back to the early 1990s.
Case Sits Amid Broader Parole Debate
Maple Park, the East Wareham campground where the killing occurred, falls under the prosecutorial jurisdiction of the Plymouth County District Attorney's Office, the same office that argued against Benson's release this year and fought to keep a Brockton killer locked up earlier this year. Benson remains at MCI-Shirley, a medium-security facility that opened in 1991 with an operational capacity of 1,129 medium-security beds, according to Wikipedia.
The denial lands amid heightened scrutiny of Parole Board decisions across Massachusetts, following a string of 2026 rulings that approved release for inmates serving life sentences for homicides committed in the 1970s and 1980s. In July, the board granted release to a man who had escaped prison after a 1978 Worcester slaying, and in the same month approved parole for a man convicted in the killing of an 87-year-old Roxbury victim. In April, the board also freed a Dorchester man serving a life sentence. Benson's case, by contrast, ended in continued incarceration, with the board citing his own record of postponements and unresolved treatment concerns as reasons his release remained incompatible with public safety.
