County buries Marine who faked his death

Robert Macy

Tuesday, Aug. 3, 1999 | 5:28 a.m.

The body of Arthur Bennett was buried in a pauper's grave Tuesday, minus the military trappings of his funeral 5 1/2 years ago. Among the missing were family members snared in an alleged conspiracy born when he faked his own death, and two of his teen-age daughters he sexually assaulted.

Bennett's $400 casket - pressed wood covered with blue flannel - rested in the 100-degree sunshine for 30 minutes as cemetery and mortuary workers waited in vain for any family members to show.

The casket was then slowly lowered into the grave. A second casket will eventually be placed atop Bennett's casket in the section reserved for social services cases.

Ten reporters and cameramen joined the workers in watching the brief burial. No one was there to say any final words for the man who had wreaked havoc on so many lives.

Ron Given, general manager and part owner of Hites Funeral Home, said he had talked Monday with Bennett's brother, Scott, and informed other members of the family that the burial would be Tuesday.

"Scott asked me if we would have a minister at the services and I told him no," Given recounted.

The brother told Given: "All I want is for someone to say 'God have mercy on his soul.' "

Facing a court-martial on charges of sexually assaulting the children of fellow Marines in Yuma, Ariz., and Okinawa, Japan, Bennett allegedly faked his own death in February 1994. Family members turned out then to bury the remains of a man found in a burned trailer, a man thought to be Bennett.

Unlike the 1994 services at a veterans cemetery in Boulder City, Nev., Tuesday's burial was brief and without ceremony. The 1994 burial included full military honors.

The Marine Corps refused to be involved in Tuesday's service at Woodlawn Cemetery, on the edge of the downtown district. Bennett was buried in civilian clothes, according to Given.

Taxpayers will pick up the $720 tab for the burial.

"Death does strange things to you," said Jean Hites, the funeral home owner. "You're either very angry or very sad. This family was very angry, very angry at what he had done to their family."

Two of Bennett's brothers, Scott, 39, and David, 41, and his mother, Ellen, 67, declined to be responsible for funeral services. So did his ex-wife, Amelia, 45. The four face federal conspiracy charges in connection with $300,000 in insurance and benefits paid to the family when Bennett was declared dead in the trailer fire.

Bennett told family members he was a government operative being used to kill drug lords, and the military faked his death to provide him a new identity.

Hites said a brother and sister in California talked of providing funeral arrangements, then backed off.

If a body is not claimed within 30 days, the county pays the cost of burial in a pauper's grave.

Bennett hanged himself with a bedsheet in his Clark County Detention Center cell July 12, a day before he faced a new court-martial here on sexual assault and desertion charges.

Hites said the 30-day period was waived when it became apparent the family would take no responsibility for the burial.

After the ashes believed to be those of Bennett were buried at the veterans cemetery, he moved to tiny Hurricane, Utah, with his ex-wife and three young daughters, changing his name to Joe Benson.

The ruse was discovered on Halloween 1997 when Bennett was arrested on charges of sexually molesting two of his teen-age daughters and one of their friends. He pleaded no contest to the charges and was serving time in Utah when he was transferred here to face another Marine court-martial.

He also faced trial in Las Vegas next February on murder and other charges in connection with the trailer fire death. The victim has never been identified and authorities say that identity may be buried with Bennett.