U.S. DEFECTOR IN MOSCOW IS PICTURED AS A PARANOID IN WIFE'S TESTIMONY IN FLORIDA DIVORCE CASE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000700290001-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 6, 2005
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: December 5, 1967
• Content Type: NSPR

THE NEW Y O F ?VYI . E RAS ! x,9 iRDP75-00149 000700290001-6
U. S. Defector in Moscow Is Pictured as a Paranoid
in Wife's Testimony in Florida Divorce Case
Py P1 TER GR09E
fineclal to The New York Times
WASHINGTON, Dec. 4-Last
October. the Soviet 'Union an-
nounced the,, defection of an
Pmerican named John Discoe
Smith, identifying him as a dis-
illussioned anent-of the Central
Intelligence Agency.
Articles by and about him
began o appear in the Soviet
Press.' Reporting details, of al-
leged United States, espionage
activities.
The United States Govern-
ment issued routine denials that
Mr. Smith had been
agent; the State Department
dismissed his accounts of assas
sinations and a military plot to.
overthrow'.the overnment of hi-1
dia. A spokesman called the
stories "fatuous allegations."
Pemit
i 'ences of old friendsl
end evidence in court records
indicate that Mr. Smith, who
is from Quincy, Mass., is a con-
fused and troubled man who
grew suspicious of wife and
family and everything American
life had to offer.
His :. story, as pieced
together from Soviet: and Unit-
ed States evidence, is one of
persona, tragedy, not of high
politics,
Fixed Code Machines
"lie was. really a clew -cut
American boy, t'hough'
hough I hate
"
to sound trite,
said one friend
who had known him in,..the
ignited States Embassy in New'
Delhi Ii) years ago. "He was
a nice guy around the place.
No interest in politics at all."
State Department files show
that he was a Foreign Service
employe, a communica-
lipo~ s technician, until early in
~~ 7q
lie used to fix all the gadgest,
the rode machines and that
sort of .thing." This friend, al
Cnmess international
John Disrde Smith i a photo cabled from Moscow last month and, ri I1ght1L, identity card
Court Pceo'rds Found Mr Smith and Mary London
1were married in New Delhi on Only when the Russians be.
..,,_
me answer is contaihed in the
records of the Pinellas County
Circuit Court at clearWater,
Fla.,. in September; 1961, Mary
London Smith obtained a di-
vorce, uncontested, from Mr.
May 28, 1955. She was a sec- ;gar publishing Mr. Smith's ac=
rotary in the political section 1 'n111lt did Mrs. Smith and her
of the Embassy, he traveled ;lpare1's .learn what had:become
through South Asia for the of him.
United States officials be-
United States Government, is a Soviet reply to the pub-
maintaining and installing con- ]
i
ic
ly given to the recent d
,e-
Just before their legal separa- I munications equipment, inchul
fection in W
t
es
Germany of
tier 16 ment')s earlier, Mrs, mg code machines. a Soviet intelligence officer,
J
Smith told the court, he was They were a popular couple, , r,ieut. Col. Yevgeny. Y. Runge.
at Embassy parties i
th
n.,.
studying to become R
m
e ea
n
joinin
th
b
f
COilipo
nd
i ate.. '" n wiui ar,legeu es-
.~.
g
e
em
raternal
u
assy stau ,I 1)lonaj',C activity in India, these
order of the Itinights of Pythias. called "The Taj.' They had one, officials also see it, as .a Soviet
Mrs. Smith said he had con-~child, Ellen, born in Decem attcn)pt. to set theIndian Gov-
fided the philosophy to her, her, 1956.
I crnlnent on ;guard against al-
"
gre big hat you had to join these i~S Starting the next year, Mrs, leged Western intelligence op-
organizations, even mith said, he started drinking erations.
if they were in opposition tog heavily and accusing her of
each other, just in order tol-being a spy.
be in with all the big people,
you see, so you couldn't be
elm, and the Catholics would, in a different Light.
protect him " she said intc -i "All his p r s being
, which wasj
preting what he had told -her.' honest and healthy on the,
The same divorce proceed- whole, rose up in revolt against'
ings point to the origin of the the dirty work, the meanness
th t Art.. C~..
h
r
._:al_
c
a
ges
- -o_
and the false life of most of 11 making in the Soviet press.
" acquaintances," Jszestia said.
He had the impression that Mr. and Mrs. Smith were)
transferred from India to the
The Soviet account of his
experiences, published in izves-'
caslon3l messages as he worked everybody was Wrir)cin^for thel United States 1?nibassy in Vi
on the machines, but he cer.l~Centr'1 lntcllipencc Agency curia in November. 1959. A few
A?Y LA11 11u regular access
to what the diplomatic traffic
was all about, nor did he seem
,particularly interested."
Mir. Smith left his wife and
disappeared from his familiar
that they were out to et him,"I Smith's testimony, tlicy Will'(,
F, ordered back to I lie I Tnitocl
Mrs. Smith told the court. "Ile States on the advice of the
embassy's consulting ps
chia-
y
thought that I was in their Inst.
secret employ, that I was re-1 j._ "He told me that John was
vice after a government psy_ illuugnc i was drugging his Mrs. Smith said. Then, accord-
f
ehiatrist had declared him a l
ood, and he also thought that ing to the court records, lie
paranoid with all-consuming at cocktail parties I paid other was asked to resign from the
His last known address, dat-
ing from 1961, was "care of
American Express, Rome."
The Russians say he traveled
the world-Australia, South Af.
-rica and - *isewhere-bey-
fore finding a home in ll
cI^w He has now become ~a
Soviet citizen, they say. They
have not disclosed exactly
when he rearhPei *I,. c,,.,:,.a
Moscow Mr. Smith called his
wife a "regular employe" of
ington to Clearwater, wherei
Mrs. Smith's parents live. She!
the C.I.A. ' said he refused to go to hisl
In response to a question (home in Quincy. He moved outs
bdPor ?leasv20MOcVQi eirglTP,PRr7 44t 000700290001-6
ccn a member of the C. I.o, A.?
and separation proceedings be-
haven't." f .gar.