Madalyn Murray O'Hair (née Mays; April 13, 1919 - September 29, 1995), was an American activist, founder of American Atheists, and the organization's president from 1963 to 1986. She created the first issues of American Atheist Magazine. O'Hair is best known for the Murray v. Curlett lawsuit, which led to a landmark Supreme Court ruling ending official Bible-reading in American public schools in 1963. That case came just one year after the Supreme Court prohibited officially sponsored prayer in schools in Engel v. Vitale.
In 1995, O'Hair, her son Jon, and her granddaughter Robin disappeared from Austin, Texas. They were later found to have been kidnapped, murdered and mutilated by David Roland Waters, a convicted felon on parole, Gary Karr, and a third man, Danny Fry.
Video Madalyn Murray O'Hair
Early and personal life
Madalyn Mays was born in the Beechview neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on April 13, 1919, the daughter of Lena Christina (née Scholle) and John Irwin Mays. She had an older brother, John Irwin Jr. (known as "Irv"). The siblings had Irish ancestry on their father's side and German ancestry on their mother's side. At the age of four, Madalyn was baptized into her father's Presbyterian church; her mother was an Evangelical Lutheran. In 1936, she graduated from Rossford High School in Rossford, Ohio.
In 1941, she married John Henry Roths. They separated when they both enlisted for World War II service, he in the United States Marine Corps, she in the Women's Army Corps. In April 1945, while posted to a cryptography position in Italy, she began a relationship with an officer, William J. Murray, Jr., a married Roman Catholic who refused to divorce his wife. Mays divorced Roths, adopted the name Madalyn Murray, and gave birth to a boy, William J. Murray III (nicknamed "Bill").
In 1949, Murray completed a bachelor's degree from Ashland University. On November 16, 1954, she gave birth to her second son, Jon Garth Murray, fathered by her boyfriend Michael Fiorillo. It was rumored that she sought to defect to the Soviet Union at their embassy in Paris, but that the Soviets denied her entry. Murray and her sons returned to the Loch Raven neighborhood of northern Baltimore, Maryland in 1960 to live with her mother and brother.
Murray left Maryland in 1963 and fled to Honolulu, Hawaii, , after allegedly assaulting five Baltimore City Police Department officers who tried to retrieve a runaway girl, Bill's girlfriend Susan (who would later be granddaughter Robin's mother). In 1965, she married U.S. Marine and government informant Richard O'Hair. Although they were separated later, she remained married to him until his death in 1978.
Maps Madalyn Murray O'Hair
Activism
Murray filed a lawsuit against the Baltimore City Public School System (Murray v. Curlett) in 1960 in which she asserted that it was unconstitutional for her son William to be required to participate in Bible readings at Baltimore public schools. In this litigation, she stated that her son's refusal to partake in the Bible readings had resulted in bullying being directed against him by classmates and that administrators condoned it.
After consolidation with Abington School District v. Schempp, the lawsuit reached the Supreme Court of the United States in 1963. The Court voted 8-1 in Schempp's favor, which effectively banned mandatory Bible verse recitation at public schools in the United States. Prayer in schools other than Bible-readings had already been ended in 1962 by the Court's ruling in Engel v. Vitale.
O'Hair filed a lawsuit with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in regard to the Apollo 8 Genesis reading. The case was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court for lack of jurisdiction. The impact of the suit was limited: Although NASA asked Buzz Aldrin to refrain from quoting the Bible in the Apollo 11 mission, he was allowed to conduct the first Communion service in space.
O'Hair appeared on The Phil Donahue Show several times, including the first episode in 1967, following which Phil Donahue said O'Hair was unpleasant and had mocked him off camera for being a Catholic, although after O'Hair's death, Donahue described her message of atheism as "very important". She appeared on the show again in March 1970 to debate Preacher Bob Harrington, "The Chaplain of Bourbon Street".
O'Hair endorsed Jimmy Carter in the 1976 presidential election because of Carter's opposition to mandatory school prayer, his support for sex education in public schools, and his stance on ecological matters.
American Atheists
Following her arrival in Austin, Texas, O'Hair founded American Atheists, "a nationwide movement which defends the civil rights of non-believers, works for the separation of church and state and addresses issues of First Amendment public policy". She acted as the group's first chief executive officer, the public voice and face of atheism in the United States during the 1960s and 1970s. In a 1965 interview with Playboy Magazine, she described religion as "a crutch" and an "irrational reliance on superstitions and supernatural nonsense".
In the same Playboy interview, O'Hair gave a long list of incidents of harassment, intimidation, and even death threats against her and her family for her views. She read several letters she received, including one that read (referring to the conversion of Paul the Apostle on the road to Damascus), "May Jesus, who you so vigorously deny, change you into a Paul." In response, O'Hair told the interviewer, "Isn't that lovely? Christine Jorgensen had to go to Sweden for an operation, but me they'll fix with faith -- painlessly and for nothing." She stated that she left Baltimore because of persecution from residents, including mail containing photos smeared with feces, the strangulation of her son Jon Garth's pet kitten and the stoning of her home by neighborhood residents, which she believed had caused her father's fatal heart attack.
She filed several lawsuits on issues over which she felt that the United States Constitution was violated by a collusion of church and state. One was against the city of Baltimore, demanding that it assess and collect taxes on property owned by the Catholic Church.
O'Hair founded an atheist radio program in which she criticized religion and theism, and a television show she hosted, American Atheist Forum, was carried on more than 140 cable television systems.
O'Hair remained a polarizing figure into the 1980s. She served as "chief speechwriter" for Larry Flynt's 1984 presidential campaign, and continued to be a regular talk show guest. Her second son Jon Murray succeeded her as leader of the American Atheists; he was not liked by many in the organization, and some chapters seceded from the main group. American Atheists remains an active organization with a growing membership.
Her son William J. Murray became a Christian in 1980. Speaking of her response to this, she commented, "One could call this a postnatal abortion on the part of a mother, I guess; I repudiate him entirely and completely for now and all times ... he is beyond human forgiveness."
In 1988, O'Hair produced several issues of Truth Seeker under her masthead as part of an attempt to take over the publication; however, the courts ruled against her ownership.
In the 1990s, American Atheists consisted of O'Hair, her son Jon Murray, her granddaughter Robin Murray O'Hair, and a handful of support personnel. (Robin, the daughter of William Murray, was adopted by Madalyn. William had not seen nor spoken to any of them in many years.) The trio lived in O'Hair's large home, went in the same office and took shared vacations.
Court cases
O'Hair filed numerous lawsuits in which she argued the separation of church and state had been breached.
- Murray v. Curlett (1963) Challenged Bible reading and prayer recitation in Maryland public schools.
- Murray v. United States (1964) To force the Federal Communications Commission to extend the Fairness Doctrine so that Atheists could have equal time with religion on radio and television.
- Murray v. Nixon (1970) Challenged weekly religious services in the White House.
- O'Hair v. Paine (1971) Challenged open readings from the Bible by U.S. astronauts (who are Federal employees) during their spaceflights, spurred by a reading from the book of Genesis by the crew of Apollo 8.
- O'Hair v. Cooke (1977) Challenged the opening prayer at city council meetings in Austin, Texas.
- O'Hair v. Blumenthal (1978) Challenged the inclusion of the phrase "In God We Trust" on U.S. currency.
- O'Hair v. Hill (1978) To have removed from the Texas constitution a provision requiring a belief in God of persons holding offices of public trust.
- O'Hair v. Andrus (1979) Challenged the use of National Park facilities for the Pope to hold a Roman Catholic mass on the Mall in Washington, D.C.
- O'Hair v. Clements (1980) This case tried to remove the nativity scene displayed in the rotunda of the capitol building in Austin, Texas.
- Carter, et al. v Broadlawns Medical Center, et al. (1984-1987) Challenged the full-time employment of an unordained chaplain at a tax-funded county hospital, Broadlawns Medical Center in Des Moines, Iowa.
Feminism
During an interview with Playboy in 1965, O'Hair described herself as a "militant feminist" and expressed her dissatisfaction with women's inequality in America, stating during the interview
The American male continues to use her sexually for one thing: a means to the end of his own ejaculation. It doesn't seem to occur to him that she might be a worthwhile end in herself, or to see to it that she has a proper sexual release. And, to him, sex appeal is directly proportional to the immensity of a woman's tits. I'm not saying that all American men are this way, but nine out of ten are breast-fixated, wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am cretins who just don't give a damn about anyone's gratification but their own. If you're talking about intellectual and social equality for women, we're not much better off. We're just beginning to break the ice. America is still very much a male-dominated society. Most American men feel threatened sexually unless they're taller than the female, more intellectual, better educated, better paid and higher placed statuswise in the business world. They've got to be the authority, the final word. They say they're looking for a girl just like the girl who married dear old dad, but what they really want, and usually get, is an empty-headed little chick who's very young and very physical -- and very submissive. Well, I just can't see either a man or a woman in a dependency position, because from this sort of relationship flows a feeling of superiority on one side and inferiority on the other, and that's a form of slow poison. As I see it, men wouldn't want somebody inferior to them unless they felt inadequate themselves. They're intimidated by a mature woman.
She also expressed her discontent with the women's liberation movement.
Murder
On August 27, 1995, O'Hair, her son Jon, and granddaughter Robin disappeared. The door to the office of American Atheists was locked with a typewritten note attached (apparently with Jon's signature), stating, "The Murray O'Hair family has been called out of town on an emergency basis. We do not know how long we will be gone at the time of the writing of this memo." When O'Hair's home was entered, breakfast dishes were sitting on the table; her diabetes medication was on the kitchen counter, and her dogs had been left behind without a caregiver. In phone calls a few days later, the trio claimed that they were on "business" in San Antonio, Texas. A few days later, Jon ordered US$600,000 worth of gold coins from a San Antonio jeweler, but took delivery of only $500,000 worth of coins.
Until September 27, American Atheists employees received several phone calls from Robin and Jon, but neither would explain why they left or when they would return; while they said nothing was amiss, their voices sounded strained and disturbed. After September 28, no further communication came from any of the O'Hairs.
Investigation and arrests
Ultimately, the investigation focused on David Roland Waters, who had worked as a typesetter and later office manager for American Atheists. Not only did Waters have previous convictions for violent crimes, there were also several suspicious burglaries at the organization during his tenure, and he had pled guilty earlier that year to stealing $54,000 from American Atheists. Shortly after his theft of the $54,000 was discovered, O'Hair had written a scathing article in the "Members Only" section of the American Atheists newsletter exposing Waters, the theft and Waters' previous crimes, including a 1977 incident in which Waters allegedly beat and urinated upon his mother. O'Hair also reported on his murder of another teenager at the age of 17, meaning that Waters was already a convicted felon. This, in conjunction with his public use of firearms, was enough to sentence Waters to prison for eight years before he could kill again.
Waters' girlfriend later testified that he was enraged by O'Hair's article, and that he fantasized about torturing her in gruesome ways and snipping off her toes. Federal agents for the FBI and the IRS, along with the police, concluded that Waters and his accomplices had kidnapped all three O'Hairs, forced them to withdraw the missing funds, gone on several huge shopping sprees with the O'Hairs' money and credit cards, and then murdered and dismembered all three people. Waters' accomplices were Gary Paul Karr and Danny Fry. A few days after the O'Hairs were killed, Fry was murdered by Waters and Karr. What turned out to be Fry's body was found on a riverbed with the head and hands missing, and remained unidentified for three and a half years.
A search warrant was executed on the apartment of David Waters and his girlfriend. The apartment was across the street from the Headquarters of the Department of Public Safety. The search produced various calibers of ammunition. Waters, a convicted felon, was arrested, and the contents of his apartment were examined and seized. At the same time, Gary Karr was contacted in Walled Lake, Michigan, and interviewed. As a hardened criminal who had spent the last 30 years in prison for the kidnapping of the daughter of a judge, Karr would not talk. After being read his rights, Karr was asked to listen to the information being discussed. Karr decided to talk and implicate David Waters in the death of the O'Hairs. Karr went so far as to sign an affidavit and to draw a map of where their bodies could be found. Karr was arrested for possession of two firearms and taken to jail. He lingered in Detroit, awaiting trial. The weapon seizure was dismissed, and Karr was transferred to the custody of the United States Marshals in Austin to stand trial for the deaths of the O'Hairs.
After a three-week trial, Karr was found guilty of conspiracy to commit extortion, traveling interstate to commit violent acts, money laundering and interstate transportation of stolen property charges related to the O'Hair case. However, he was acquitted of kidnapping conspiracy, since the bodies of the O'Hairs were not found at the time. Karr was sentenced to two life sentences in prison in August 2000 by U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks. Waters was arrested and found guilty of kidnapping, robbery, and murder in the O'Hair case, and sentenced to 80 years in prison; he was also ordered to pay back a total of $543,665 to the United Secularists of America and to the estates of Madalyn Murray O'Hair, Jon Garth Murray, and Robin Murray O'Hair. It is unlikely that these debts were paid, because Waters had no ability to earn money while in prison. Waters died of lung cancer at the Federal Medical Center in Butner, North Carolina, on January 27, 2003.
In January 2001, after his conviction and imprisonment, Waters informed the federal agents that the O'Hairs were buried on a Texas ranch, and subsequently led them to the bodies. When law enforcement excavated there, they discovered that the O'Hairs' bodies had had their legs dismembered with a saw. The remains exhibited such extensive mutilation and decomposition that identification had to be made through dental records, DNA testing and, in Madalyn O'Hair's case, records of a prosthetic hip from Brackenridge Hospital in Austin (the product number identified her body). The head and hands of Danny Fry were also found at the site.
The gold coins extorted from the O'Hairs were put in an unsecured storage locker rented by Waters' girlfriend, which was locked with a cheap Master padlock. Waters had taken out a small number of coins and proceeded to party with his girlfriend for a few days with Gary Karr and his former wife but, upon his return to the locker, he discovered that the remaining gold coins (American eagles, Maple Leafs and Krugerrands) had been stolen. A group of thieves from San Antonio operating in that area had a master key to the type of lock that the girlfriend purchased to secure the locker. In the course of their activities, the thieves had come across the locker, used the master key to open it, and found a suitcase full of gold coins. They returned to San Antonio, and with the help of friends converted the gold coins to cash. For the efforts of the friends, they were taken to Las Vegas for a weekend. The money was eventually all spent but for one coin that was given as a pendant gift to an aunt. The coin was recovered by the FBI after a Memorial Day 1999 public appeal.
There was some criticism of the Austin Police Department's apparent apathy about the disappearance. Austin reporter Robert Bryce wrote:
Despite pleas from O'Hair's son, William J. Murray, several briefings from federal agents, and solid leads developed by members of the press, the Austin Police Department (APD) sat on the sidelines of the O'Hair investigation ... Meanwhile, investigators from the Internal Revenue Service, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Dallas County Sheriff's Office are working together on the case ... a federal agent was asked to discuss APD's actions in the O'Hair case. His only response was to roll his eyes in amazement.
Legacy
Madalyn Murray's lawsuit largely led to the removal of compulsory Bible reading from public schools in the United States, amongst other lasting and significant effects. Until the lawsuit, it was not uncommon for students to participate in a variety of religious activities while at school, such as Bible reading and prayer recitation, sometimes including religious instruction itself. Nonreligious students were expected to participate in such activities, and were not consistently given an opportunity to opt out, as state-level policies varied. While students may pray in public schools, even in organized groups, the lawsuit disallowed schools from including prayer as a compulsory activity.
O'Hair was the subject of the 2006 documentary film, Godless in America, which documented her life, atheist activism, disappearance and murder.
Recurring urban legends keep O'Hair's name alive, but her fame still rests in what she accomplished while living. In one story version, an e-mail claimed "Madeline Murray O'Hare [sic] is attempting to get television programs such as Touched by an Angel and all television programs that mention God taken off the air". It cited petition RM-2493 to the Federal Communications Commission, which concerned the prevention of educational radio channels from being used for religious broadcasting. The petition, which was denied in 1975, had nothing to do with O'Hair. A variant acknowledging her death was circulating in 2003, still warning about a threat to Touched by an Angel months after the program's last episode had been aired. In 2007, similar e-mails were still being reported, 12 years after O'Hair's disappearance and long after her confirmed death.
A 2009 variation of Petition 2493 claims that O'Hair's organization wants the "Removal of Joel Osteen, Joyce Meyer, Charles Stanley, David Jeremiah and other pastors from the air waves", and James Dobson asks petitioners to send responses and donations to "Lisa Norman". Dobson denies any involvement.
The first atheist monument on American government property was unveiled in 2013 at the Bradford County Courthouse in Florida; it is a 1,500-pound granite bench and plinth inscribed with quotes by O'Hair, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin.
A 2017 Netflix original movie, The Most Hated Woman in America, is a loose dramatization of O'Hair's life with a focus on the kidnapping and murder.
Books
- Madalyn Murray O'Hair, Part 1 of 2. United States. Federal Bureau of Investigation. 2013. ISBN 1288559569.
- Murray O'Hair, Madalyn (1972). What on Earth Is an Atheist!. ISBN 1578849187.
- Murray O'Hair, Madalyn (1978). Atheist Primer: Did You Know All the Gods Came from the Same Place?. ISBN 0911826106.
- Murray O'Hair, Madalyn (1988). All about Atheists (American Atheist Radio Series). ISBN 0910309442.
- Murray O'Hair, Madalyn (1991). Why I Am an Atheist: Including a History of Materialism. ISBN 0910309981.
- Murray O'Hair, Madalyn; Murray, Jon Garth (1986). All the Questions You Ever Wanted to Ask American Atheists With All the Answers. ISBN 0910309035.
- Dracos, Ted (2010). UnGodly: The Passions, Torments, and Murder of Atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hair. ISBN 1439119961.
- Le Beau, Bryan F. (2003). The Atheist: Madalyn Murray O'Hair. ISBN 0814752853.
- Rappoport, Jon (1998). Madalyn Murray O'Hair: Most Hated Woman in America. ISBN 0939040042.
- Murray, William Joseph (1992). My Life Without God. ISBN 1936488345.
See also
- Charles E. Stevens American Atheist Library and Archives
- List of people who disappeared mysteriously
References
External links
- Biography of O'Hair at Rotten.com
- 1968 debate between Baptist minister Walter Martin and O'Hair - MP3 file
- FBI Records: The Vault - Madalyn Murray O'Hair at fbi.gov
- Madalyn Murray O'Hair on IMDb
- Madalyn Murray O'Hair at NNDB
- Madalyn Murray O'Hair vs. Religious Broadcasting at urbanlegends.about.com
- Meeting Satan Herself: An evening with Madalyn Murray O'Hair: 14 September 1977
- The Murder of Madalyn Murray O'Hair: America's Most Hated Woman Crime Magazine
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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