EXCLUSIVE: Ben Carson's parents were NOT the bigamist father and child bride

with 23 siblings he describes his mother's real name is Johnnie and his father
was buried in an unmarked grave
Ben Carson has made his mother's life story a central part of his
campaign, describing how Sonya Carson guided him and his brother out of
poverty
He has said she was one of 24 siblings married at 13 to his father Robert and that
she divorced his father after finding out he was a bigamist
Daily Mail Online has uncovered the true story of his family, including that his
mother's real name is Johnnie and she is older than he thinks
She did not marry at 13, she was one of 15 (not 24) siblings, and no records suggest
Ben's father Robert Solomon Carson was a bigamist
Elder Carson died in 1992 from Parkinson's after marrying late in life; his
stepdaughter says he invited Ben to his wedding but doctor never came
Carson's business manager tells Daily Mail Online that Republican candidate had
always known his mother as Sonya Ben Carson has made his mother's extraordinary life story a central part
of his campaign.

In his books, speeches and interviews, he has told how Sonya was one of a family of
24, married when she was just 13 and divorced his father after discovering he was a
bigamist who had a second family.
But Daily Mail Online can reveal that little of that story is exactly as he has relayed it
although the truth appears to be just as inspirational as the version the Republican
candidate has offered.
The differences between Carson's version and what official documents and interviews
with family members revealed suggest that the surgeon himself may not know the full
story of his background.
But they raise questions about why he did not seek documentary proof for many of the
claims he made in his books, especially once he repeated them in the context of a
political campaign.VIDEO

Family: Pictured in 2008, Carson poses in his home with his wife, Lacena 'Candy'
Rustin, his two sons and his mother, Sonya Carson (seated at right) who is actually
legally named Johnnie

Deep impact: Carson's mother (left in the early 1950s and right in 2006) has been the
key influence on her son, and he credits her for making him a success in life

Family: Ben Carson (second from right) and his brother Curtis (left) at their home in
Detroit in the 1950s. According to his account their mother divorced their father in 1959
because he was 'a bigamist,' but no documentary evidence can be found to support that
claim

+
Scrutiny: Republican candidate Ben Carson (left) is under growing pressure over his life
story. 'One Nation,' a book sold (right) at his campaign events, reprints a National

Prayer Breakfast speech in which he said his mother was one of 24 children, and
married at age 13 a man who turned out to be a bigamist
They also raise questions over the methods of a Harvard professor who investigated
Carson's ancestry for a PBS miniseries in 2006 and made no documentary checks on
the stories the now-Republican front-runner told about his parents.
The candidate has leaned repeatedly on a narrative retelling of his mother Sonyas
extraordinary upbringing and hardships, including in his best-selling book, 'Gifted
Hands,' and in a number of interviews.
He even recounted it in the moment that propelled him into political prominence his
address to the Fellowship Foundation National Prayer Breakfast in 2013 in front of
President Obama.
'My mother and father got divorced early on,' Carson said then. 'My mother got married
when she was 13. She was one of 24 children. Had a horrible life. Discovered that her
husband was a bigamist, had another family.'
The full speech is reproduced in his latest book, 'One Nation,' which is frequently sold at
campaign events.
Daily Mail Online, however, has uncovered four separate documents suggesting
Sonyas true name is actually Johnnie. There are no publicly accessible records that
name her as Sonya.
According to U.S. Census information, Carson's mother is between two to four years
older than she has claimed. And, far from being married at 13, the records show she
was still single and attending school at 14, living at home with many of the 15 children
her parents are recorded as having.
Carson has previously claimed she had only a third-grade education. Records show that
she was still in school in the fifth grade.
It is possible that Carson's description of his mother's third-grade education refers to her
level of attainment, not her years in the classroom.

Childhood home: This was the house where Ben Carson lived with his mother and
brother. Official documents show that his father Robert, and Johnnie, 'his wf.,'
purchased it

Purchase: The records for the childhood home of Ben Carson, showing how his parents
bought it in August 1950

Documented: Part of the property records which establish the Carsons' ownership of the
home

Documentary proof: The 1950 document which describes how Robert Carson was
'married' to Johnnie - although no further documentary evidence of their marriage exists

Handover: Dr. Carson's mother, named as Johnnie Carson, relinquished ownership of

the house in return for $18,250. A further document shows that two months later it
passed to Willie Copeland Jr., who appears to be her nephew and therefore the
candidate's first cousin

Identification: The 1973 document which makes clear that 'Johnnie Carson' is a woman
and therefore Ben Carson's mother
Daily Mail Online can also identify his father as Robert Solomon Carson, a Baptist
minister who died in 1992 in Detroit at age 77, leaving behind a wife named Mary.
He was also survived by a stepdaughter, Fairell Tubbs, who said she was at his
wedding around five years before his death, but did not know the details of his previous
marriages, if any.

Being one of twenty-four children, getting married at age thirteen, and

later having to get a divorce after finding out my husband was a
bigamist were just a few of them.
Ben Carson's mother describes the challenges she faced
Public records inspected by Daily Mail Online show no evidence of Robert Solomon
Carson ever marrying or divorcing Sonya Copeland the name until now believed to be
that of Carson's elderly mother.
Tubbs said Dr. Carson was invited to his father's wedding but didn't come and that he
also did not attend his father's funeral.
Ironically the distinguished neurosurgeon's dad died of Parkinson's, a neurological
disease.
He is buried in an unmarked grave.
Carson's father, according to his account in his book 'Gifted Hands,' raised him until the
age of eight. But he is never mentioned as being part of his life after that.
In chapter two of the 1990 memoir, the Republican politician describes his parents'
story: 'Both my parents came from big families: my mother had 23 siblings, and my
father grew up with 13 brothers and sisters.'
'They married when my father was 28 and my mother was 13. Many years later she
confided that she was looking for a way to get out of a desperate home situation.'
Dr. Carsons account continues: 'Shortly after their marriage, they moved from
Chattanooga, Tennessee, to Detroit, which was the trend for laborers in the late 1940s
and early 1950s.'
A letter attributed to Sonya Carson, reprinted in 'Gifted Hands,' states: 'As the mother of
Ben and his brother, Curtis, I had a lot of challenges.'
'Being one of twenty-four children, getting married at age thirteen, and later having to
get a divorce after finding out my husband was a bigamist were just a few of them.'
Census and property records paint a different if equally tough picture.

They show that in Georgia in 1930 a 'John' Carson a female was part of the large
family of a male John Carson and his wife Ruby, whoe maiden name was Stanley. That
Mr. Carson was a farm laborer; his daughter John was described as age six at the time.
Ten years later the family had moved to Hamilton County, Tennessee. 'Johnnie Lou,' a
daughter, was recorded in the 1940 census as being 14 years old, in the fifth grade at
school, and single.

Resting place: This is the unmarked grave where Robert Solomon Carson was buried in
1992, after a funeral which his son did not attend. He died of Parkinson's disease

Gravesite: The metal marker in the foreground is all that shows the burial place of
Robert Solomon Carson, who was a Baptist minister and auto worker in Detroit

Passed away: Robert Solomon Carson's death certificate shows that he was born in
Georgia, and married to Mary E. Carson. She is also now deceased
Census records also shed some light on the Copeland family that produced Dr.
Carson's mother. It appears to have been made up of 15 children. The latest census
records which are public are from 1940.
The 1930 and 1940 census records indicate inconsistent ages for some members of the
family. But taking either account, Carsons mother is two to four years older than
Sonyas age, whom current public records show was born in 1927 and is 87 years old.
The next official document shows that in 1950, Robert Solomon Carson bought the
house at 1860 Deacon Street where Ben Carson was born and brought up.
The doctor's dad is recorded as buying it with 'Johnnie,' 'his wf' wife. That suggests
Sonya may be a middle name or a family nickname, and not the elderly Mrs Carson's
legal name.
The deed that recorded the Carsons' home ownership does not include any proof of
their marriage.
After an examination of city, state and national records, Daily Mail Online was unable to
find any marriage record for Robert Solomon Carson and Sonya Copeland.
The Hamilton County Clerk of Courts, which covers Chattanooga, Tennessee where
the Copelands had been living when they were supposedly wed found no details of a
union in any year between a male Carson and a female Copeland.
Property records show that, formally married or not, the Carsons were the first family to
live in the home built on Lot 558 on Deacon Street, now located at the street address
#1860.
In 'Gifted Hands,' Dr. Carson described the modest home as 'about the size of many
garages today ... one of those early pre-fab post-World War II square boxes.'
He estimated that the whole building 'wasn't 1000 square feet,' but said it was 'in a nice
area where the people kept their lawns clipped and showed pride in where they lived.'
The doctor's elder brother Curtis was his parents' first child, born in December 1949.
Ben followed on September 18, 1951. Their birth certificates are private documents.
In 1959, according to Carson's memoir, his happy childhood ended when 'Daddy left
home for good'.
He has frequently said the departure came as a consequence of his mother's discovery
that his dad was a 'bigamist.'
And in a 1988 profile of Ben in the Detroit Free Press's Sunday magazine 'Detroit,'
Sonya described her struggles after she learned of Robert Carsons 'betrayals with
women and with drugs.'
'The mans sins were so many and so extensive,' the Free Press reporter wrote, 'that
when his young wife finally figured out most of the truth, the shock overcame her.''She
wound up in a mental hospital for a time, saving up her sleeping pills and thinking about
suicide.'

Contrast: Ben Carson married his wife Candy with his mother (second right) and brother
Curtis (right) present, along with his wife's married sister Cerise Tounsel and his wife's
mother, also Cerise

Family: Ben Carson graduating Yale in 1973 with his mother Sonya (left) and then wifeto-be Candy (right)

Family: Carson's mother was filmed in 2006, when she was 76, with two of her brothers,
Eddie, then around 70, and John, then around 70, in a PBS documentary investigating
Ben Carson's roots. However it did not obtain documentary evidence of his claims about
his mother's and father's life stories
The bigamy story is curious: Daily Mail Online has found no evidence of any divorce
records, or any documents suggesting Robert Solomon Carson was married until
much later in life.
He and Ben's mother were registered as joint owners of their Deacon Street home until
1965, a detail that differs from Dr. Carson's account of the property's status.
In his book's telling, he, his brother and mother had moved to Boston to stay with his
mothers older sister Jean Avery, and her husband William, who agreed to take them in.
In 'Gifted Hands,' the doctor recalled: 'With no financial resources to fall back on, Mother
knew she couldn't keep up the expenses of living in our house, modest as it was.'
'The house was hers, as part of the divorce settlement. So after several months of trying
to make it on her own Mother rented out our house, packed us up and we moved away.'
'We moved to Boston in 1959 and stayed until 1961,' he added in the 1990 memoir,
'when Mother moved us back to Detroit.'
BEN CARSON, HIS MANY UNCLES AND AUNTS AND THE 'SONYA' MYSTERY
There is little doubt that both Sonya Copeland and Robert Solomon Carson came from
large families.
Sonya Carson's family is the more difficult of the two to be entirely sure about.
She does not appear on any of the US. Census records which are crucial to piecing
together family histories.
The census, taken every 10 years, lists everyone in a given household. The 1940
census and all preceding ones are published as public documents.
In a 2006 PBS miniseries, Sonya Carson's parents are named as John Copeland and
his wife Ruby, nee Stanley.

Records show that they appeared by 1940 to have had 15 children although Sonya
was not named as one of them.
In 1940, John was 53 and Ruby was 44, according to the document.
The 1920, 1930 and 1940 censuses show that they had recorded a total of 15 children.

Part of the 1930 Census records showing the Copeland family, including 12 children
aged from 20 down - but not Sonya
In 1920, the census named their sons and daughters as Barney, 8; Willie B., 6; Mattie (a
daughter), 5; Roy, 4; Annie, 2; and Ross, 4 months. The family was living in Flint Hill,
Talbot, Georgia.
In 1930, each of those children was recorded as living in the family home in Mountville
Troup, Georgia, with the addition of Eunie, 8; Lucilea, 8; John (a daughter), 6; Albert, 4;
Eddie, 3; and Rosie, under 1 year old.
In 1940 many of the children were not recorded as living at the new family address in
Hamilton County, Tennessee.
Those who were were Willie B., 26; Ross, 20; Unice, 15; Lelia, 15; Johnnie Lou (a
daughter), 15; Albert, 12; Eddie B., 12; Lacey (a son), 7; John (a son), 5; and Pearl (a
daughter), 3.

Family: In the course of the 2006 documentary Sonya Carson showed a picture of her
sisters, naming Jean, Eunice and Mattie. She said the picture was taken 'after Daddy
died', which happened at Christmas 1951.

Young demise: John Copeland, Ben Carson's grandfather died on Christmas Day 1951,
shortly after Ben Carson was born.
Taking into account disparities of spelling, that accounts for a family of 15 but not for a
'Sonya', who on the basis of Carson's account would have been born in or around 1927.
However, the property records for the purchase of Ben Carson's childhood home show
that his mother's legal name was Johnnie, solving the mystery of the missing Sonya.
Daily Mail Online was able to trace what had happened to just three of her siblings.
Willie B. Copeland died on April 6, 1968; his sister Mattie married, became Mattie
Morris, and died in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on July 13, 1999; and their sister Eunice
(who had been recorded as Eunie and Unice in successive census records) died Eunice
Reed in Memphis, Tennessee, in June 2000.
John Copeland, the father of the at least 15 children, died in 1951 in Hamilton County,
Tennessee. He was 63 and his wife Ruby survived him.
Records for Robert Solomon Carson show that he was born on December 27, 1914. His
father was also named Robert Carson, and who Anna Gordon in November 1901.

Robert Solomon Carson's marriage record. In 1930 they had ten children living at home,
including Robert Solomon Carson, Ben Carson's father
The 1920 and 1930 census records suggest that he was one of 10 children.
In 1930 it named the family as: Ollis L., 22; Christana, 19; Mandie M., 17; Robert S., 16;
James E., 14; Gladys E., 10; Mary L., 8; Fannie M., 6; and 3-year-old John H.
Daily Mail Online was able to trace more of Robert Carson's siblings, and found four
had lived in or near Detroit before their deaths.
Ollis died in Florida, in November 1973. James E. Carson died on April 29, 1989, in
Detroit. Fannie Lawson (nee Carson), died in 2002 in Detroit. Gladys died Gladys Geter
on May 30, 1999, and had lived in Hamtramck, Michigan. And John Henry died in
Detroit on April 27, 2007.
HARVARD GENEALOGIST WHO COVERED UP BEN AFFLECK'S ANCESTORS
NOW FACING QUESTIONS ON CARSON
The only previous public investigation of Dr. Ben Carson's family tree came in 2006
when he took part in 'African American Lives,' a PBS documentary miniseries hosted by
Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Gates said on the show's website that he would take Carson and others 'and trace
their family trees, as well as my own, using all available documents going back deep
into slavery.'
But his team made no attempt to find documents confirming Carson's parents' purported
marriage or divorce, or to find out from official records how many siblings his mother
had.
During the 2006 broadcast, Sonya Carson expressed her own doubts about how many
brothers and sisters she in fact had.

Carson and Gates in the 2006 PBS documentary

'I don't know how many children they had in all. Can you remember?' she asked two of her brothers who were
featured in the program Eddie, then around 79, and John, then 70.
One said: 'Nine.' Another was heard to say 'six.'
She said: 'I don't know.'
In the documentary, Gates described himself as a Yale classmate of Carson.

Gates is now facing questions over his documentary-making for a second time this year.
In April, Daily Mail Online disclosed how he had covered up actor Ben Affleck's slave-owning
ancestors after the 'Batman' star took part in an episode of another show called 'Finding Your
Roots.'
Then Daily Mail Online uncovered a key error in the documentary that Affleck's mother had not
been, as Gates claimed, a 'Freedom Rider' or taken part in the Mississippi 'Freedom Summer'
voter registration drive.
In the wake of the disclosures, the following season of the PBS documentary was suspended
pending an investigated.
The finding was damning: Gates had 'violated PBS standards'.
Gates will return to the air in the new year with the documentary series after his production
company added an additional researcher/fact-checker, an extra genealogist, and an expert in
DNA-based genealogical research.
But it is now clear that his 2006 miniseries never sought wedding, property, or divorce
documents for Ben Carson's parents, or made an inspection of public and family records to find
out how many siblings each had.
Thorough research would have found the discrepancies concerning their biographies, especially
that of Carson's mother.
Gates's spokesman initially described the source of the biographical claims as 'Dr. Carson'
himself, and later said it was Carson's book and a number of other published articles which the
academic's production staff had used to conduct the research.

Gates (above) described his method in 2006, telling 'Crisis' magazine: 'I show up with a big
Black book that includes old family pictures and photocopies of other documents that we had
researched - Census records, property deeds, tax records.'
But he and his team did not check census records or property deeds.
Gates then went further than he had on the documentary when, in 2011, he wrote an article for
'The Root,' discussing Carson's mother's upbringing as one of '24' children.
The claim had not been aired on PBS, which had featured Carson's uncles saying that their
parents had 'six' or 'nine' children.
The spokesman claimed that in 2006, one of Sonya Copeland's brothers had said during an
interview with an associate producer for the show that there were 24 siblings in her family. But

the spokesman declined to name the brother or explain why the varying numbers of
siblings had not been investigated further.
Gates still had no primary documentary sources in 2011, but was relying on other
accounts.
His spokesman declined to say if this was his usual practice or a departure from his
normal methods.
It is not clear when Carson, his brother and mother moved back into the Deacon Street
home: Upon returning to Detroit, Carsons mother initially moved the family 'into a multifamily dwelling just across the tracks from a section called Delray,' he wrote.
But Carson added that his mother said: 'Boys just wait. Were going to make it back to
our house on Deacon Street. We may not be able to afford it now, but well make it.'
What is clear is that in 1965, a 'Quit Claim Deed' shows a transfer of ownership to
Johnnie Carson, 'grantor's former wife,' from Robert Carson Jr., 'an unmarried man.'
Carson's mother owned the home until February 14, 1973 when a warranty deed shows
that 'Johnnie Carson, a woman' transferred ownership to John Saddle, 'a single man.'
The following month, records show, John Saddle transferred ownership of the house to
Willie Copeland Jr., who is believed to be Dr Carsons first cousin.
Johnnie Copeland, in 1930 and 1940, is recorded as having an elder brother Willie; the
1940 census showed him living with his wife and Willie Jr., then ten months old.
In 1975 the Deacon Street home appears to have left the familys ownership after it was
transferred to the governments Department of Housing and Urban Development.
It can also be disclosed that Carson's father did marry, late in life, and died in 1992.
His last address was on 25th Street in Detroit where his stepdaughter, Ms Tubbs, 55,
still lives.
She told Daily Mail Online that Robert Carson married her mother in the late 1980s after
they met at their local Baptist church where he was a preacher.
New Starlight Baptist Church members confirmed that Carson was an associate
minister.
Speaking in 1988, Dr. Carson described his father as a minister 'of the Jimmy Swaggart
variety.'
In contrast, New Starlight members remembered him as 'a good man, smart, faithful, tall
and good-looking' who never missed a Sunday service and was always impeccably
dressed, often wearing a suit and bow tie.
Robert Carson and Mary were married for around five years, until his death following a
battle with Parkinson's disease. Mary Carson is also no longer living.
Tubbs, her daughter from an earlier relationship, said her mother and Ben Carson's
father invited the future presdiential candidate to their wedding.
'He was supposed to have been in the wedding but he never showed up,' she said.
Tubbs added that she did not know the details of her stepfather's past life, but denied
that her family were 'the other "wife" and other children' Carson wrote about in 'Gifted
Hands.'
'Not my family,' she said. 'We didn't come until 30 years later. We were in his old age.
Mr Carson was a reverend at New Starlight Baptist Church around the corner. That's
how he and my mother met.'
'He wore a white collar when nobody else did. They did the services down there under
Reverend Petty at the time. He sat next to Reverend Petty at the church.

'He and his brother were living in a big house down the street. The house is still down
there.'
Documents recording the transfer of the deeds of the Carsons original family home,
1860 Deacon Street, from Robert to Johnnie Carson reveal that in September 1965
Robert Carson gave his address as 3375 25th Street. That property is now condemned.
According to Tubbs, Robert's brother later passed away in a nursing home.
Other than his two sons, Ms. Tubbs said she did not believe Robert Carson had any
other children.
'I was on the obituary as a stepchild,' she said.
She described her stepfather as a clever man but added: 'then he started drinking.'
Tubbs and her mother cared for Robert Carson at their small home while he battled
Parkinson's. By then his son was chief of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins
Children's Center and was being sought the world over for his groundbreaking work.
Ms. Tubbs said: 'Reverend Carson chewed up the grapevine we had out back, that's
how we knew he was sick. He started chewing up the 45 [RPM] records and the buttons
on the remote.
'I took care of him personally because my mom had to work. We had to feed him
through a tube in his stomach.'
Tubbs became emotional as she added: 'I haven't thought about him in a long time, it's
stirring up a lot of memories. I miss him.'
Robert Solomon Carson passed away while an inpatient at Michigan Health Center in
Detroit.
His immediate cause of death was listed as pneumonia with an underlying issue of
anemia. Both medical conditions developed over a matter of days, according to the
death certificate.
His occupation was given as laborer in the auto plant industry. He was described as
married and having served in the U.S. armed forces.
Tubbs said Dr. Carson did not attend his father's funeral at the J.H. Cole Home for
Funerals in Detroit, nor his burial at Westlawn Cemetery in Wayne, Michigan.
'We put him away very nicely,' she said.
Robert's grave today lies near the perimeter fence next to a maintenance shed
unmarked except for a small metal disc with the engraved number '75.'
She had never heard her stepfather speak of his son Ben, or Ben's brother Curtis, and
did not know if he had tried to contact them throughout the years, in particular when he
became ill.
She also did not know if the Carson brothers made attempts to contact their estranged
father.
Ben Carson makes no mention of his father in his memoir beyond the opening chapters.
In the 1988 Detroit Free Press Sunday magazine feature, Robert Carsons whereabouts
were described as unknown.
Ben Carson then adds: 'I must admit I have a personal familiarity with obstacles starting,
I guess, with the man who was my father.'
Tubbs said: 'I never met Ben Carson. I never got in touch with him, never heard his
voice. I have never laid eyes on the man. I only saw the movie on him on TV.'
Robert Carson's step-grandson, Raylan Terrell Tubbs, 32, said: 'At one point I thought
he [Ben Carson] must have been a myth.

'In his book, he's talking about his father like he's in the third-person, how his father left
them for another then that was it.'
'If you're trying to be the president, then these things have to be known,' he said.
Questions about the accuracy of the Republican White House hopeful's biography have
been steadily mounting as he assumes a leading role in some state-level and national
opinion polls.

Last residence: This was the home where Ben Carson's father lived with his wife Mary,
who is also now deceased, before his death in 1992

Worship: Robert Solomon Carson was an assistant minister at the New Starlight Baptist
Church, where he is still fondly remembered
Last weekend the doctor allowed that his book was not '100 per cent accurate,' telling
ABC's George Stephanopoulos on 'This Week' that it was a work of recollection, but
'none of the things are lies.'
Separately Carson's campaign manager, Barry Bennett, told The Wall Street Journal
there was 'no evidence' that any aspect of Dr. Carson's biography wasn't true.
'There's not facts saying they are not true. We are guilty until proven innocent. You have
no reason to believe that they are not true. There's no evidence to point to the fact that
they are even questionable,' Bennett said.
Last Friday the doctor's campaign clarified that he had not been 'offered a scholarship'
to West Point after meeting General William Westmoreland at a Memorial Day Parade
in 1969, as he claimed in 'Gifted Hands' and three other times this year.
He later said it was false to claim that he had lied.
Key among Carson's contentious claims that have emerged are a string of supposedly
violent episodes which, he claims, included attacking a schoolmate with a rock and a
padlock, attempting to attack his own mother with a hammer over a pair of pants he
didn't want to wear, and an attempted stabbing of a boy named Bob at the age of 14.
That was, according to Carson's account, a turning point in his life when he prayed to
God for redemption and in that moment experienced the sort of divine intervention
which the Seventh Day Adventist claims to have felt repeatedly throughout his life.

But when a CNN report failed to unearth any peer who recalled any of these incidents,
and couldn't find any classmate named 'Bob' who was Carson's victim, the truthfulness
of Carson's account became shrouded in doubt.
Carson suddenly claimed that 'Bob' was a pseudonym used to protect a relative's
identity.
He had previously described 'Bob' as 'one of his best friends.'
Ben Carson Complains hes Being Lied About at GOP Debate-Video

Derelict: Before being married to Mary, Robert Solomon Carson lived at this now
condemned property on 25th Street in Detroit

+Decay: The sign condemning the building in Detroit where Carson's father lived for a
number of years, until the mid to late 1980s.
His book did acknowledge where other people's names had been changed to conceal
their identity but made no mention that Bob was not a real name.

And this week Daily Mail Online disclosed how the 1988 'Detroit' interview with his
mother contradicted her sons often-repeated claim that he came after her with a
hammer during a teenage dispute over a pair of pants.
Last week during a Fox News Channel interview on 'The Kelly File,' host Megyn Kelly
asked him: 'Dr. Carson, I know that youve said this feels like a witch hunt 0 but let me
ask you flat out whether you stand by the claim that you as a young man, a 14-year-old
boy, attempted to stab another boy and attacked your own mother with a hammer.'
He replied: 'Those claims are absolutely true, you know I am 100 percent sure that
theyre true and this is simply an attempt to smear and to deflect the argument as weve
seen many times before.'
In her interview with the Detroit Free Press's Sunday magazine, his mother recounted
her own starkly different recollection of the incident.
Source of claims: The 1990 book in which Ben Carson told the story of his life
Speaking then, the reporter related, she 'remember[ed] the time she and Bennie had a
spat over clothes he wanted for school.'
'He raised his hand; she reached for the hammer she had out while working on the
house. The two might really have tangled, she says, had not her older son Curtis....
stepped in between them.'
She admitted at the time: 'I'm still working on my temperbut God seems to have done
Bennie a really big favor.'
In 'Gifted Hands,' Carson gives yet another version of the incident.
Then, writing some six years before he claimed to have wielded the hammer and two
years after his mother's version placed the weapon in her own hand, there is no mention
of the tool.
In chapter 6, titled 'A Terrible Temper,' Carson wrote: 'She folded the pants across the
back of the plastic kitchen chair. "I can't take them back." Her voice was patient. "They
were on special."
'"I don't care," I spun to face her. "I hate them, and I wouldn't be caught dead in them
They're not what I want."
'She took a step forward. "Listen Bennie. We don't always get what we want out of life."
'Heat poured through my body, inflaming my face, energizing my muscles.My right
arm drew back, my hand swung forward. Curtis jumped me from behind, wrestling me
away from Mother, pinning my arms to my side.'
Reflecting at the time, he carried on: 'The fact that I almost hit my mother should have
made me realize how deadly my temper had become.'
Daily Mail Online questioned the doctor about the discrepancy this week in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, following a Republican presidential primary debate.
'I don't want to talk about that,' he said at first, saying of the Detroit Free Press Sunday
magazine feature: 'I haven't seen the article that you're talking about. I have not seen
what you're talking about.'
Asked point-blank if he had any recollection of his mother swinging a hammer at him, he
said at first, 'No I don't' but then paused and added: 'I don't remember.'
Curtis Carson, the Republican candidate's brother, declined to speak to Daily Mail
Online at his home in Peachtree, Georgia. The two men's elderly mother now suffers
from Alzheimer's disease.

Carson's brother-in-law, Samuel Christopher Rustin Jr., 69, told Daily Mail Online that
he had always found the presidential hopeful to be an honest man.
Speaking from his home in California, Rustin said: 'All the years I've known him, I have
always found him to be very truthful.'
He said he wouldn't discuss his family further but added that his relationship with
Carson is 'close enough.'
In a phone interview on Thursday, Carsons business manager Armstrong Williams was
surprised to hear of the candidates mother's name.
'He's always known her as Sonya Carson, since he was a child,' Williams said.
He also described hearing directly from Mrs Carson about the oversized nuclear family
she was part of as a child.
'I've been at the dinner table when she often talked about the 24 siblings,' Williams told
Daily Mail Online.
'Now maybe that's just a story that's lodged in her mind, and he [Carson] got it from her
of course.'
Williams also suggested that the missing nine brothers and sisters might have been
half-siblings from other relationships.
'It wasn't uncommon back then, he explained. 'Sometimes men wouldn't acknowledge
them, but the kids would consider them part of the larger family.'