BANG-JENSEN’S SUICIDE

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29067, 2 December 1959, Page 14

BANG-JENSEN’S SUICIDE

Widow’s Doubts At Finding

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) NEW YORK, November 30. Mrs Povl Bang-Jensen said today she still had lingering doubts about the police finding that her husband had killed himself. She would continue to have them until there was concrete evidence that her husband’s death had been suicide, she said. She did not offer any alternative explanation. Mrs Bang-Jensen left bv air for Denmark today for funeral services in her husband's native; land. She would not speak to reporters, but answered their questions through a spokesman. Mr Bang-Jensen was found dead in a Long Island wood last week, a pistol in his hand. Police ruled it suicide and closed the case, saying he had been depressed after having been dismissed from his job as United Nations senior political officer. Mr Bang-Jensen was dismissed after he refused to hand over a list of names of Hungarian refugees who had testified at a hearing on conditions in Hungary. He said he had promised that he would not let the list fall into Communist hands. As Mrs Bang-Jensen stepped aboard her aircraft today, she authorised her spokesman to read part of the note found on her husband’s body.

“I Have Been Honest” The part read out said: “Whatever faults I have, I know I have been honest and wanted to do good, but I underestimated the forces I was up against. Please, no funeral, but just a prayer.” Mrs Bang-Jensen said she had still not read the actual note her husband left, but that it had been read to her. The body was cremated yesterday. The family decided there should be a funeral service in Denmark. Mrs Bang-Jensen, who is American-born, took her five children with her to Denmark, and is expected to bring them back next week so that they can return to school. A delegation of 15 Hungarian refugees saw Mrs Bang-Jensen aboard the plane with her children. They carried American and Hungarian flags, and just before Mrs Bang-Jensen stepped into the plane an unidentified woman member of the group presented her with a spray of pine and holly, circled with ribbons in the Hungarian colours. Mrs Bang-Jensen wept at the gesture.