An American Tragedy: Alamo 2009

An American Tragedy is the name of a very long, dense classic novel, published in 1925, about a man whose fierce but over-reaching desire to enjoy his share in the American dream ends in violence.

This novel, by Theodore Dreiser, was based on the true-crime 1906 drowning death of a single young pregnant woman at an upstate New York lake resort, and the subsequent arrest and prosecution of her lover. An Academy Award-winning 1951 film adaptation, A Place in the Sun, starring Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor at their most beautiful, expertly depicts the young man’s yearning for material comforts and social status, and then his desperation when he feels those aspirations slipping away.

Clift's (and Dreiser's) protagonist comes from the poor side of a family. In A Place in the Sun, he goes to work in his rich uncle’s swimsuit factory, gets involved with a fellow factory worker (played by Shelly Winters), impregnates her, then tries to dump her when he meets and becomes involved with the town’s most desirable young debutante (Taylor). When Winters’ shopgirl presses him to marry her, he says OK, but let’s first take a romantic rowboat trip around a lake. Needless to say, she doesn’t make it back to shore, and he winds up arrested, put on trial for her murder, convicted, and then sentenced to death. Clift’s performance in the film and Dreiser’s long but riveting account of the police interrogation and trial testimony of the protagonist--in some ways, an American everyman--offer fascinating portraits of human desperation and a person's descent into reckless, self-centered, cruel criminality.

I couldn’t help but think about the Dreiser book and A Place in the Sun (one of my favorites) while reading Friday’s story in the San Francisco Chronicle about what led up to the shootout last Thursday night between an Alamo contractor and a jewelry store owner in his hometown.

Thomas Paul Bennett was not a hungry young man, but a man in mid-life, 50 years old. And, apparently, like a lot of men and women in our community he was hungry and perhaps felt entitled to a certain way of life. And he possibly got way in over his head, while seeming to have acquired the 21^st century version of material comforts and social status that Dreiser’s Clyde Griffiths was desperately seeking. Bennett had his own business, a wife, a son and a daughter, and a $2.5 million home in a cul-de-sac in one of the East Bay’s toniest zip codes.

But according to what prosecutor Bruce Flynn told the Chronicle’s Henry K. Lee, Bennett was on the verge of losing his home—and, one wonders, much more—so, he made a plan to rob a man who had been a friend “in a desperate attempt to stay afloat.”

On last Thursday evening, Bennett, armed with three guns—including a .22-caliber weapon outfitted with a homemade silencer—drove to Oscar Herrera’s jewelry store in the Alamo Square Shopping Center.

Herrera, 53, who was on a first-name basis with Bennett, told investigators that Bennett came into his store at about 7 p.m., pulled a gun and said he had to rob him to save the home where he has lived for eight years with his wife, son and daughter.

Somehow during this exchange, Bennett opened fire and struck Herrera in the chest, Flynn told the Chronicle. Herrera, pleading for his life, moved to the back of the store, grabbed his own gun, and shot back, striking Bennett in the neck, mouth, and wrist.

Responding Contra Costa Sheriff’s deputies pulled Herrera out, and got him to the hospital. Bennett refused to surrender for about an hour, at one point standing in the doorway, pointing a gun at his own head and threatening suicide.

Now, both he and Herrera are recovering from their injuries at John Muir medical center, and Bennett has been charged with attempted murder, attempted robbery, commercial burglary.

Meanwhile, his family is dealing the possible loss of the home Bennett was apparently trying to save. Lee says that public records that that “Bennett and his wife, Sutton, were notified in August that they were $35,631 in default on their six-bedroom, 6,200-square-foot home, which they bought in 2001 for $1.2 million.”

“On Nov. 27, the couple received a "notice of trustee's sale" detailing an unpaid balance of $2.3 million and indicating that their home would be sold at public auction Dec. 21, records show.”

According to a realty website, the Bennett property is in pre-foreclosure. “The homeowner has missed at least one payment and may be willing to sell this home at an attractive price, in order to avoid foreclosure.”

Suburban dad with his own business and prosperous home now a suspect in botched robbery and murder attempt

Driving up to the home of Thomas Paul Bennett, even at night, you would definitely think he has made a very nice life for himself. And that the 50-year-old builder is a very unlikely candidate to try to rob a jewelry store.

His contemporary ranch-style home sits on top of a hill, at the end of a long winding driveway. To get to his home, on a small cul-de-sac off Stone Valley Road, you pass other multi-million-dollar Alamo homes—faux Colonials, Cape Cods, Mediterranean villas—some twinkling with Christmas lights in the mist of a cold December night.

Yes, I took a short drive to Bennett’s house last night, after seeing that he owned a construction company, and that, according to the San Francisco Chronicle's Henry K. Lee, he lived in a $2.5 million house with Mt. Diablo Views and flew his own private plane. Of course, something very terrible must have been going on in his life for him, according to Contra Costa Sheriff’s investigators, to arm himself with a gun Thursday night and attempt to hold up a small jewelry store in his hometown.

As you’ve read here and in other news accounts, that attempted heist ended up with Bennett allegedly exchanging gunfire with the owner of Alamo Jewelry Mart in the Alamo Plaza shopping center. The store’s owner, Oscar Herrera, 53, of Hercules, was wounded in the upper torso. Late Friday, Herrera was listed in critical condition. Bennett was also wounded in the shoot-out, but initially refused to come out of the store.

Sheriff’s deputies say they found him, standing in the doorway of the store, holding a gun to his head and threatening suicide. Although wounded in the neck, mouth and wrist, he initially refused to come out and an hour-long standoff ensued with deputies finally talking him into surrendering. As of Friday, he was also in the hospital, and under arrest on suspicion of robbery and attempted murder.

And on Friday night, several Sheriff’s cars were crowded into the cul-de-sac below the home he shared with his wife, daughter and son, and from where he operates his Bennett Construction, according to the San Francisco Chroncile.

A couple, relatives of Bennett, emerged from the house, descended the driveway and got into the car. They said the family was declining comment: “Our family is going through a lot right now.”

I told them I was sorry. Some would say my sympathy is misplaced, that it should be with Oscar Herrera and his family. Well, I’m sorry for both of them and their families. Some would also say I was being intrusive and voyeuristic, driving up to Bennett’s house, maybe hoping to talk to someone, but a reporter’s habits die hard. The Chronicle added that in Bennett’s driveway was a boat and a pickup truck with National Rifle Association and Air Force Academy stickers.

Sheriff’s Captain Dan Terry said Bennett had been dealing with financial problems, but doesn’t know yet whether that was the motive in this incident. Terry also told the Chronicle that Bennett and Herrera had "at least one prior contact with each other" before Thursday's shootout. "It appears there might even be some kind of association here," he said. But again, it’s still not clear whether that association had anything to do with the robbery.

An online advertisement for Bennett Construction says the family-owned company has been in business since 1992. It specializes in window and door installation. “We will handle your project with the utmost care.” The ad also says the owner loves to work in this area and, in his spare time, loves working on his own home. A customer praised the company: “Just that thepeople were very nice, professional, great attention to details. Referred them to anyone, very good.”