Who is Ben Crook, Skillet from The Persian Pickle Club and what is their importance?

Ben was Ella's violent husband, murdered in the aftermath of both a long period of physical and emotional abuse and a particularly violent act that causes at least one member of the club to resort to murder. The discovery of his body is the catalytic trigger for truths about the Club and its definition of friendship to come to the surface. Skillet was a former hired man on the Crook farm, a large, fairly unintelligent man who left his job shortly before Ben's death, who comes under Rita's suspicion as the murderer.