Amelia Earhart. Jimmy Hoffa.
D.B. Cooper. Madalyn Murray O'Hair.
One of these famous disappearances
has been solved. This is the tale of the missing
Murray O'Hairs - Madalyn, Jon Garth, and Robin -
as reconstructed from local newspaper articles in Austin and San
Antonio, Texas, a national magazine article, and actual monthly
newsletters from O'Hair's "American Atheists" organization.
Early last year, the disappearance again became prominent
in the national headlines. Several high-profile trials
involving conspirators in the O'Hair case were underway.
Then federal authorities released an affadavit that detailed
the FBI's theory about the disappearance of the atheist trio.
O'Hair, the founder of the American Atheists organization, is
best known for her role in a 1963 lawsuit challenging prayer
in public schools. She was once described as the "most hated
woman in America," and she reveled in the description, repeating
it to friends and enemies alike.
Jon
Garth Murray, her son, worked with O'Hair at American Atheists and was the heir-apparent.
Robin
Murray worked in the very profitable printing and media department
of the organization. Robin Murray was both O'Hair's granddaughter
by her other son, William, and her daughter by adoption.
The trio were inseperable, and they disappeared from their
Austin home on September 4, 1995.
The FBI's affidavit contained allegations from an Internal Revenue
Service agent that former American Atheists office manager
David R. Waters plotted to steal $600,000 from O'Hair's "United
Secularists of America" organization. The affidavit also alleged that Waters "expressed fantasies of killing Madalyn."
July 1995
Madalyn Murray O'Hair was angry with her former office manager,
David R. Waters. In the group's newsletter to A.A. members,
O'Hair blasted David Waters for his role in thefts at the A.A. headquarters.
Waters, O'Hair wrote, joined the organization on January 4, 1994. On the very next day, $50,000 to $60,000 worth of bearer bonds were found missing from a safe in Jon Murray's office. A report was made to Austin Police (APD), who concluded that the theft was an "inside job." Mr. Waters, at the time, was not a suspect.
In
April, the trio of Madalyn, Jon, and Robin returned from a court
trial in California to Austin to find their general headquarters
building locked and abandoned. Mystified, O'Hair made a few
phone calls to office staff and discovered that they had all
been "laid off" by office manager Waters. When she contacted Waters
for an explanation, she was told that he had resigned
"because he could no longer tolerate the mystique of the organizations."
O'Hair and other American Atheists officers soon discovered that
Waters had also written out $54,000 of checks to himself and
cashed them.
A report was duly made to the Austin Police, and, on April 18,
the APD received a warrant to pick up Waters. He admitted to
having written the checks, but he claimed that Jon Murray had
instructed him to do so because the California trial was
going astray (which it had not). Because his story sounded
plausible, no immediate action was taken.
O'Hair
was livid. "If Mr. Waters had stolen this amount of
money from any church, or had invaded the home of any minister, he
would have been arrested within hours, tried and convicted within
days, and would even now be serving a term in the Texas state
penitentiary."
The
Murray-O'Hairs then did their own investigation into the
background of David R. Waters, and the findings were surprising. As
Madalyn reported in the newsletter:
- 1964, burglary, Illinois
- December 14, 1964, murder. According to the murder charge, Mr. Waters and several friends had "struck and beat a young man (sixteen years old) with their fists and with a hedgepost. . . about the head" and then "left the decedent in the ditch beside the road"
- December 7, 1977, battery, "against Mr. Waters' mother and that it included his beating her with a broom handle, breaking wall plaques over her head, cursing, urinating in her face, and demolishing her apartment. At that time he was on parole for the murder offense and he received a sentence of 364 days for the battery charge."
(Source)
September 4, 1995
A.A.
acting President Ellen Johnson, in the first newsletter after the
disappearance, informs the members about the vanishing trio. She
writes that board members first noticed that phone calls, faxes, and
mail from A.A. headquarters to the O'Hairs were going unanswered.
Several days later, Johnson talked with the Murray-O'Hairs via cell
phone. Said Jon Murray, "It's too complicated to explain now, but
we'll have a conference call with the board members when we get
back and explain everything."
A.A.
members must have been baffled by the silence coming out of A.A.
headquarters. It had been almost eleven months since the
disappearance. Would Johnson come clean about what the
organization itself knew?
She tried, but the organization had been as much in the dark since
the last of those cell phone calls as the newspapers and the
Austin Police Department. In place of real information, Johnson
offered speculation.
One theory was that Madalyn O'Hair was seriously ill and did not
want religious groups exploiting her death. O'Hair, after all, was
76 years old, and she had diabetes and heart trouble. She had
often expressed her wish that Christians, especially her
"born-again" son William J. "Bill" Murray, not pray over her
body. (O'Hair phrased it far more graphically: she said she
did not want Bill or any one else to "stick a crucifix up my
a**.")
Another theory was that the family was the victim of foul play.
There was no real evidence to support this theory, but several
board members remembered how Madalyn had been eager to picket
the Pope's visit to New York in December. It seemed unlikely
that with this event coming up and the court case in California
(the "Truthseeker" case) finally over, that Madalyn and the
others would have voluntarily chosen to disappear.
Finally, there was the theory that he family left the organization suddenly for New Zealand. (Source)
Nov 17, 1995
Muddying the waters further and adding to speculation that the family departed to New Zealand, the Austin Chronicle reports that they have learned from David Travis, a former employee of American Atheists, of a New
Zealand bank account with $838,200. (Source)
May 3, 1996
Two
cocker spaniels belonging to Jon Garth and Robin Murray disappear
from American Atheist's headquarters. Orin "Spike" Tyson, the new
office manager, returns from running errands and finds "Ghannon"
and "Shannon" missing. The dogs were inside a 6-foot tall fence
with a padlock. Tyson says that it appears that someone climbed
the fence to let them out. Speculation: with Madalyn Murray
O'Hair dead of heart trouble, would Robin and Jon come back to
take their dogs... and leave behind Madalyn's?
(Source)
Fundamentalist Christian O'Hair son, William J. "Bill" Murray III, says
that he is puzzled that the trio left their dogs. "The last time she fled the country, in 1964, she made sure to take the dogs."
(Source)
August 16, 1996
The Austin Chronicle reports that Jon Murray had a classified ad in the "San Antonio Express News" in September, 1995 to sell his Mercedes. The ad read, "'88 Benz 300 SEL, $15,000 cash. Firm." The ad listed Murray's
cellular phone number.
(Source)
Feb 10, 1997
Time, in a retrospective article entitled "Where's Madalyn?" reveals that Robin's 1985 Porsche 944 was found in a parking lot at Austin's
Robert Mueller Municipal Airport, apparently abandoned at the time of the disappearance.
In May 1996, the article said, when Phil Donahue wanted Madalyn to attend his final broadcast, (she had been on his very first show) his executive producer hired a private detective to find her, without success.
The Time article also looked at Travis, calling him a "foxhole atheist" who lost his God while under enemy attack. It was Travis who came across the New Zealand account information. Travis said that he was "extremely insulted" to discover the extra cash at a time when the organization was financially strapped. After the O'Hairs' disappearance, he took his story to the IRS. (1)
November 20, 1998
The Austin Chronicle reports that it has received an email from David Waters.
Waters offered to share confidential materials from American Atheists that would show that "Ms. O'Hair's 'disappearance' was not at all sudden, but was actually the culmination of a rather convoluted scheme carried out over a considerable period of time."
A
reporter went to Water's home and saw documents that Waters says he "took the liberty of taking" from A.A. Headquarters. Later, Waters rescinded the offer, and the paper never published them.
The
documents dealt with communications between Jon Murray and a Houstonian "who was helping Jon hide the contents of the Charles E. Stevens American Atheist Library and Archive," which had an estimated value between 1 and 3 million dollars.
Meanwhile, the O'Hair estate is in receivership, which is being handled by Orin Tyson, who notes that the Murray-O'Hair's credits cards have been "maxed out" by big cash advances.
The article also notes the disappearance of one Danny Fry, a small-time criminal from Florida who had moved to Houston to work with David Waters. Fry was last heard from on Sept. 30, 1995, which was the day after Jon Garth made his last phone call from San Antonio to American Atheist headquarters in Austin. (Source)
Other facts about the case are:
- Jon Garth had purchased $600,000 worth of gold coins in San Antonio from a jeweler named Cory Ticknor, with money that was transferred from a bank in New Zealand. That was on September 29, 1995.
- At the time of the Murray-O'Hair's disappearance, the IRS was seeking $1.5 million in back taxes from Jon and Robin.
(Source)
Austin Police Department Detective Stephen Baker says that the evidence indicates that the Murry-O'Hairs had been planning a "scam"
for some time. Baker, who had not interviewed Tyson, Waters, or A.A. President Ellen Johnson, says, "That's why I'm of the opinion that they are not dead and that there was no foul play involved. I still have that feeling. If somebody wants to show me a body or a crime scene, I'll be glad to have my opinion changed." He relates reports that O'Hair has been seen in Romania, New Zealand, and "in South Austin driving a 1964 station wagon."
(Source)
January 31, 1999
The San Antonio Express News (SAE) reports that a headless, handless body dumped in south Dallas County is that of Danny Fry. The link between Fry and the Murray-O'Hairs is that he disappeared at the same time as the atheists. (2)
Cellular and long-distance phone records allowed investigators to track the movements of the Murray-O'Hairs. Similarities exists between the O'Hair and Fry phone records. After leaving Austin on August 27 or 28, 1995, Jon Murray began to use his cell phone in San Antonio, making more than 150 calls in the following month. According to
relatives, Danny Fry made his last phone call from Austin to Florida on August 27. It was from David Waters' apartment. (3)
March 25, 1999
After conducting lightning raids at the homes of David Waters, Gary P. Karr, and Gerald Lee Osborne, the FBI arrests David Waters on federal weapons charges. Said Assistant U.S. Attorney Gerald Caruth: "Federal
firearms charges are being filed against Mr. Waters based on ammunition seized at his residence." The other men are detained and questioned, but not charged. (5)
March 27, 1999
Gary P. Karr is
arrested in Michigan after FBI agents, Dallas officers, and local police search his apartment and find two loaded firearms. He is charged with being "a felon in possession of a firearm." Like Waters in San Antonio, Karr is ordered held without bond. (6)
April 2, 1999
Richard Helfrick, a federal public defender who represents Gary Karr tells a reporter, "Their [the FBI's] characterization of those interviews was that Mr. Karr was cooperative with regards to matters relating to Texas
involving homicides." (7)
April 3, 1999
Federal agents are using "cadaver dogs" to search scrubby pasture land in rural Real (pronounced re-al) County, Texas. An article in the San Antonio Express News relates that Gary Karr might have led FBI agents to the remote site, although the FBI declines to comment on the investigation. (4)
April 7, 1999
David Waters is indicted on weapons charges, almost two weeks after federal agents raid his apartment in Austin. (8)
May 28, 1999
In a surprising move, David Waters pleads guilty to federal firearms charges. Says his attorney: "There's no defense. They've got 30 pictures of him using the gun at a firing range." (9)
June 3, 1999
In Michigan, Gary Karr "absolutely denies he had anything to do with the murders," says a Dallas lawyer who meets with Karr in jail. "He is disappointed that so far he hasn't been able to be more cooperative and offer more help to try and clear himself of any involvement." (10)
July 4, 1999
Federal authorities unseal a 36-page affidavit that alleges that Waters and three other men "executed a scheme to abduct, kidnap and murder [the three atheists] for the purpose of stealing at least $600,000..." The affidavit speculates that David Waters, Gary Paul Karr of Novi, Michigan, Danny Fry, and a man named Gerald Lee Osborne of Ft. Worth, Texas, murdered the atheists and disposed of their bodies by stuffing them into blue plastic barrels. The affidavit goes on to
say that Waters and Karr "turned on Fry and killed him. They then dumped the beheaded and handless body of Fry in Dallas County, Texas." (Source)
August 12, 1999
Patti Steffens Chavez, a surprise state witness and former girlfriend of David Waters, testifies at a hearing that he plotted to kidnap the three atheists almost a year before the trio vanished. Said Chavez: "He said he was going to go over there and lay in wait for them, and kidnap and hurt them and probably kill them." The subject of the hearing was a motion by state prosecutors to adjudicate Waters' prior (1995) guilty plea to the charge of stealing $54,400 from the O'Hairs and send him to prison. The judge sentences Waters to 60 years. (11)
December 8, 1999
The first person to be charged specifically with the kidnapping and extortion of the Murray-O'Hairs is Gary P. Karr. The grand jury charge is formed on the basis of testimony from federal agents, and involves five counts. Among these are kidnapping, robbery, and extortion. (12)
December 9, 1999
Karr's Dallas lawyer says, "I think they want to put as much pressure on Karr as possible, maybe threaten him with death penalty offenses, hoping he'll tell them something that helps their case." Karr's lawyer in Detroit adds "If the government is seeking his cooperation, this is an odd way to go about getting it - the strategy may backfire." (13)
December 28, 1999.
The San Antonio Express reveals the contents of a June, 1998 phone call to the news room: "It was a kidnapping. I have the person's name who organized it. It was David from Austin. I was told by a person who was involved, and that person has disappeared now." (14)
March 2, 2000
Blood traces recovered from an Austin self-storage unit are found to belong to the Murray-O'Hairs. The same document presented in court claims that Gary Karr "has allegedly told an informant that the bow saw found
by the FBI was one of two saws used to [dismember the atheists]." This proves to be the first concrete physical evidence linking Karr and the others to the actual murder. (15)
April 5, 2000
Looking "pale and tired," Gary P. Karr, enters a "not guilty" plea to charges related to the disappearances of Madalyn Murray O'Hair and her son and daughter. (16)
May 16, 2000
The Karr trial gets under way. In his opening remarks, the U.S. Attorney refers to David Waters as well as Gary Karr. Says Gerald Caurruth, "This is a tale that involves financial greed but also revenge on the part of Mr. Waters. He became obsessed with separating [O'Hair and her children] from their [organization]." (17)
May 24, 2000
Jason Cross, a Michigan inmate who spent time in prison with Gary Karr, testifies that Karr "admitted extensive involvement in the kidnappings and slayings of Madalyn Murray O'Hair and her family and in the
killing of Danny Fry." He related that Karr chose to use a .22-caliber gun to shoot Fry because it was neater: "...the bullet doesn't exit the body. It just kind of bounces around inside." Cross is serving a sentence in Michigan for
bank robbery. (18)
June 3, 2000
After deliberating for three days, the jury finds Gary Karr guilty of extortion, money laundering, and other charges related to the disappearance of
Madalyn Murry O'Hair and her family, but not to the KEY charge that he had conspired with others to kidnap the atheists. (19)
August 17, 2000
Gary Karr learns that his life-time prison sentence will be without parole. Ironically, the rule of which he runs afoul does not relate to the nature of his crimes with the atheist family. His chance of parole is denied because of Texas's "three strikes" rule. Says
prosecutor Carruth: "It was a just sentence. The punishment fit the crime." (20)
January 24, 2001
With his own involvement in the O'Hair case about to go to trial, David Waters accepts a plea arrangement in a closed court. The details of the plea agreement are not revealed, but Carruth tells the press, "The federal investigation of the O'Hair disappearance has been in progress about as long as the Civil War lasted, about four years." (21)
January 27, 2001
David Waters leads FBI agents to a site on the Real County ranch where human bones are unearthed. It is the fourth time that the property is searched
by the FBI. Says the head FBI agent, "We have what appears to be a femur, of substantial size, cut off at one end, and finger bones and parts of a hand." (22)
January 29, 2001
FBI agents dig into caliche (a hard soil layer) at the remote grave site and
discover the remains of three bodies that were stacked vertically in a 4-by-6-foot grave. Identification of Madalyn Murray O'Hair's body is almost certain because the topmost corpse has a titanium hip, and O'Hair had hip-replacement surgery a few years prior to her disappearance. Commenting about the appearance of the remains, FBI spokesman Darren Holmes says, "All the bones appear to have been severed, although at this point we don't know what cutting device was used." (23)
March 15, 2001
Nancy Murray, wife of
William Murray, tells CNN that the FBI has made positive identification of her
mother-in-law's body by the serial number on her artificial hip. (24)
