The prank that went tragically awry
Sep. 2—The prank that went tragically awry
KALKASKA — On a warm summer evening 44 years ago, two longtime friends — Grand Traverse County Emergency Services Director Jack Bensley and Bing McClellan, the owner of a Traverse City-based fishing lure business — hatched a plan to prank some fly-fishing buddies by staging a mock shooting at Bensley's cabin in Bear Lake Township on the Manistee River.
Pretending that he and Bensley were arguing over a coveted fishing spot, McClellan pulled out a .38-caliber revolver and fired a single shot from what he thought was a gun loaded with blanks. Only it wasn't. Hit with a live round, Bensley, then 56, collapsed and died, leaving future county Sheriff Tom Bensley and his two sisters fatherless and the sheriff's mother a widow.
The memory of that tragedy is seared into Tom Bensley's memory. The date was June 14, 1979 — just five weeks before his wedding to his wife Candy. He was 31 and working as a road patrol officer in the Sheriff's Department.
"They were very close friends," Bensley recalled of McClellan and his father in an interview during which he reflected on his 15-year career as sheriff. "Bing had a company in town called Burke Flexo Lures; they were the first to make plastic worms and squiggly fish and stuff like that.
"He had this gun and I believe Bing's father used it with blanks to train hunting dogs. They didn't know the difference between a blank and a live round and it had a live round in it."
News stories in the Record-Eagle and The Leader and the Kalkaskian, a weekly newspaper that covered Kalkaska County, said four fishing buddies witnessed the shooting, which occurred at about 8 p.m. after McClellan retrieved some fishing gear from his car. Tom Bensley said the men were feigning a quarrel "about who gets the prime spot and who gets the bad spot" when McClellan and Jack Bensley staged what was supposed to be a fake confrontation between the two friends.
According to an account in The Leader and the Kalkaskian, McClellan, who was then 49 and is now deceased, "playfully" fired the revolver, expecting Bensley to fall to the ground as if he'd been shot. The story quotes then-Kalkaska County Prosecutor Philip J. Crowley as saying that the gun, instead of being loaded with blanks, "contained four cartridges of birdshot and two wadcutters used for practice or target shooting."
Crowley told the newspaper that a wadcutter fired by McClellan hit Jack Bensley in the right arm, traveled through his chest and struck his aortic artery.
McClellan was charged with involuntary manslaughter, a felony.
"The charge of involuntary manslaughter does not require intent to kill, but that an act was performed in a grossly negligent manner," Crowley told the newspaper. He added: "If anything, it was a tragic accident. But it was a grossly negligent act. Handguns are not to be used in pranks."
Asked how he and his family handled the tragedy and whether they blamed McClellan for the shooting, Bensley said, "It was difficult. Obviously, that's what happened. He shot him. It was pretty straightforward. There were no questions, no big investigation. It was pretty much just what happened."
Dubbed "Mr. Traverse City," Jack Bensley had previously served as a county commissioner, as well as chairman of the county commission. He had a long history of community service that included the local Chamber of Commerce, the Rotary Club, the Grand Traverse Historical Society and various school millage campaigns.
The Record-Eagle reported that, after pleading guilty to a reduced charge of recklessly discharging a firearm, a misdemeanor, McClellan was sentenced by 46th Circuit Court Judge William A. Porter to two years of probation and assessed $1,350 in fines and court costs on Nov. 6, 1979.
Tom Bensley said he assumed the judge didn't send McClellan to prison because he agreed that the shooting was simply a prank that had gone tragically wrong. "There was no, if you will, criminal intent there," the sheriff said.
