(UNTITLED)

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000200600084-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: November 17, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 7, 2000
• Sequence Number: 84
• Publication Date: September 16, 1960
• Content Type: OPEN

BOSTftPftNWdIFor Release 2000/ IARDi -00001
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Six by seven inch picture of wife and 3 children and one and half
by two inch picture of Harvey Bennett.
Newspaper article appearing in the Boston Traveller, 16 September
with 2 inch headlines stating: r{ms2xr*tus~Rt~rx~.axas~v4=. .,.s.; K, , f.h ,h:.;:
Ex-GI and Pal Vanish in Russian (by Ed Martin with Bath, Maine date-
line)
An old ex-GI and his former Air Force buddy have dropped from
sight behind the iron curtain under mysterious circumstances. The
distraught 26 year old wife of Harvey C. Bennett, 26, told the
Taveller today her husband and his friend have been missing since
September 1.
Mrs. Bennett said the State Department and other agencies have
run into a blank wall in their attempt to learn the whereabouts from
the Russian government.
The young mother of three small children is living with her
father, Forrest Legard, a former Maine legislator at 15 Maple Grove
Avenue here.
(article continued on page 42)
She said her husband and his friend Mark Kaminisky, 27 of
1127
East Ann Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan crossed into Russia
July
27
as accepted tourists. Both had been granted scholarships
from
an
educational fund in Philadelphia to visit Russia and several
satellite nations she said. Her husband, a native of Tracy,
California was graduated from University of California, Berkley
last January where he majored in Russian studies.
he said she received several letters from her husband as he
traveled to Moscow, Kiev, Leningrad, Smolensk and other Russian
cities. They were mostly descriptions of the places he had visited.
None of them indicated he was worried or disturbed. The last
letter was mailed from a small village in the Ukraine dated August 19
explaining he was to leave Russia in about 6 days for Vienna. I
haven't heard from him since, she told the Traveller,and I am worried
over what could have happened to him. Mrs. Bennett said she wired
the State Department and Amerpole Enterprises in Detroit, Michigan
which arranged the tour.
Neither has been able to come un with a single clue as to where
the men are or what has happened to them. A spokesman at Amerpole
sa d his a enc cabled Intourist the official Russian tours agency
.II"6w; ~?r ~~fa 106 ' :'A-RE7&?OOQI R O OOO-bed no
 Approved For Release 2000/06/13 : CIA-RDP75-00001 R000200600084-8
CPYRGHT
reply he told the Traveller. Both men were granted Tourist visas
by the Soviet Embassy in Washington for the trip. She said she under-
stood that Kaminsky was in the Soviet Union last year as a representa-
tive of the State Department at the U.S. Exhibition in Moscow.
The men left by Swiss Air from New York on July 25, and flew to
Zurich, Stockholm and Helsinki. At Helsinki they rented a car to
go to Russia.
TOURS INCLUDED CZECHOSLAVAKIA
They were expected to cross from Russian into Czechoslovakia
about August 27 and reach Italy three days later. I have no.idea
what could have happened to them, the agency spokesman said. When
asked if the men could have been arrested by the Russians he
replied, "I have no idea." He added: " I would assume if they
met with an accident and were taken to a hospital the authorities
at the hospital would have notified the American Embassy," But
an official of the State Department told the Traveller that they
received no reply to the official query to the American Embassy
indicating officials there have received no word from the Russians.
Mrs. Bennett, the former Rena Legard, said she could not understand
why she hasn't heard from her husband since August 19.
CONFIDENT HE WOULD CONTACT HER
If anything happened to him she said and if was able he
certainly would get some word to me. She said she met her husband
while he was an Airman 1st Class in the Air Force stationed in the
US Naval Station, Brunswick, Maine. He served four years including
an overseas assignment in Korea. When he was discharged in 1956
they were married and went to California where her husband entered
college.
I don't know too much a Pout Mark Kaminsky
except that he
was
a close friend of my husbands when they were in
the Air Force
she
i
said. She said her husband is one of a family
of 5 children.
li
s
H
t
father is deceased and his mother, Mrs. Frances
ves
Bennett
a
213 West 21st St., Tracy, California.
Harvey had no definite plans for a career when he came out
of the University of California. He looked forward to his Russian
trip and hoped to make up his mind what career to follow when he
returned she said.
Meanwhile, she waits with ever increasing concern while the
State Department and other agencies wait too for some message of
her missing husband and his companion. Also waiting, but not under-
standing are the three Bennett children--Valeri 2, Clint 1, and
baby Pamela, 6 months.
Approved For Release 2000/06/13 : CIA-RDP75-00001 R000200600084-8