Madalyn Murray O'Hair

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Madalyn Murray O'Hair

Madalyn Murray O'Hair, 1983
Born April 13, 1919(1919-04-13)
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
Died September 29, 1995 (aged 76)
Austin, Texas, USA
Cause of death Murdered by David R. Waters
Education Bachelor's degree
Law degree
Alma mater Ashland University
South Texas College of Law
Occupation Founder and president of American Atheists
Known for Abington School District v. Schempp (Supreme Court case)
Successor Ellen Johnson
Religious beliefs Atheism
Children William J. Murray

Madalyn Murray O'Hair (April 13, 1919 – September 29, 1995) was an American atheist and activist.

She is best known for the lawsuit Murray v. Curlett which led to a landmark Supreme Court ruling and ended the practice of daily prayer in American public schools. O'Hair later founded American Atheists[1] and became so controversial that, in 1964, Life magazine referred to her as "the most hated woman in America."[2]

She was murdered in 1995 along with her son and granddaughter.

Contents

[edit] Early life and education

Madalyn Mays was born in the Beechview neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania[3] in 1919 to Lena Christina Scholle and John Irwin Mays.[4] As an infant, she was baptized into the Presbyterian church.[5] She graduated from Rossford High School in Rossford, Ohio.

She married John Henry Roths in 1941. 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 (WACs). In 1945, while posted to a cryptography position in Italy, she began an affair with an officer, William J. Murray, Jr. Murray was a married Roman Catholic, and he refused to divorce his wife. Mays divorced Roths and began calling herself Madalyn Murray, and gave birth to a boy she named William J. Murray.

Murray completed a bachelor's degree from Ashland College.[6] In 1952 she completed a law degree from South Texas College of Law, but she failed the bar exam and never practiced law.[3] On November 16, 1954, she gave birth to another son, Jon Garth Murray, by a different father.[citation needed]

Differing versions of this point in Murray's life exist. Some sources state that Murray attended meetings of the Socialist Workers Party in 1957 while living in a Baltimore townhouse with her sons, parents and brother. In 1959 she applied for Soviet citizenship.[citation needed] The following year, having gotten no response, she and her two children traveled by ship to Europe with the intention of defecting to the Soviet embassy in Paris and residing in the Soviet Union. The Soviets refused them entry.[3] Murray and her sons returned to Baltimore in 1960.[7]

Murray states that she worked for 17 years as a psychiatric social worker, and that in 1960 she was a supervisor at the Baltimore city public welfare department.[6]

[edit] Activism

In 1960, Murray filed a lawsuit (Murray v. Curlett) against the Baltimore City Public School System in which she asserted that it was unconstitutional for her son Bill 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 violence being directed against him by classmates, and that administrators overlooked it.[6] After consolidation with Abington School District v. Schempp, the lawsuit reached the United States Supreme Court in 1963. The Court voted 8-1 in Murray's favor, which effectively banned Bible-reading at public schools in the United States.

Murray left Maryland in 1963 after allegedly assaulting five Baltimore police officers who came to her home to retrieve a runaway girl, Bill's girlfriend.[8] Murray claimed she was beaten, by "God-fearing police".[6] She and her family first went to Hawaii, then Mexico, and eventually settled in Austin, Texas in 1965. She married Richard O'Hair, a Marine.[6][9] Although the marriage broke down, she remained married to him until his death in 1978.[9]

O'Hair constantly challenged and publicly debated religious leaders and public figures on a variety of issues. She described herself as a "sexual libertarian" and stated that children in sixth grade should be given sex education and allowed to have intercourse without supervision or restriction.[6] She felt that relationships between people, such as emotional or sexual relationships, were not open to any kind of supervision by other people and especially not by the government.[5]

[edit] American Atheists

Main article: American Atheists
Accuracy dispute
 This article appears to contradict the article American Atheists. Please see discussion on the linked talk page.

Following her arrival in Austin, 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.

O'Hair was the voice and face of atheism in the United States during the 1960s and 1970s, and therefore was a highly controversial figure. Her son William described her as "profane and vulgar", and said his mother had several grotesque statues of mating animals displayed in her home.[10] In a 1965 interview with Playboy, she claimed religion was "a crutch" and an "irrational reliance on superstitions and supernatural nonsense."[6]

In the same Playboy interview, O'Hair gave a lengthy list of alleged incidents of harassment, intimidation, and even death threats against her and her family for her views. She read several profane letters she received in the mail, with content including one that said, "you will be killed before too long. Or maybe your pretty little baby boy. The queer-looking bastard. You are a bitch and your son is a bastard". 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 not from fear of prosecution for assaulting police officers, but because of persecution from Baltimore residents, including receipt of mail containing photos smeared with feces, the strangulation of her son Bill's pet kitten, and the stoning of her home by neighborhood residents, which she claimed caused her father's fatal heart attack.[6]

She filed several lawsuits on issues over which she felt there was a collusion of church and state in violation of the United States Constitution, including a lawsuit against the city of Baltimore demanding they assess and collect taxes on property owned by the Catholic Church.[6]

O'Hair produced 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.[2][11]

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.[2] Jon Murray succeeded her as leader of the American Atheists; he was not liked by many in the organization, and various chapters seceded from the main group. In 1991, the remaining local/state chapters were dissolved.[2]

In the 1990s American Atheists amounted to O'Hair, her son Garth Murray, her daughter/granddaughter Robin Murray-O'Hair, and a few support personnel. (Robin, the daughter of Bill Murray, was adopted by Madalyn as a teenager. Bill had not seen nor spoken to any of them in many years.) The trio lived together in O'Hair's large home, they went to the office together, they vacationed together, and they returned home together.[2]

[edit] Disappearance

On August 27, 1995, O'Hair, Garth, and Robin vanished.[2] The door to the office of American Atheists was locked with a note attached (apparently in Garth's handwriting), 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,[2] her diabetes medication was on the kitchen counter, and her beloved dogs had been left behind with no caregiver.[8]

In phone calls a few days later, the trio claimed they were on "business" in San Antonio, Texas.[2] A few days later, Garth ordered US$600,000 worth of gold coins from a San Antonio jeweler but took delivery of only $500,000.[12]

Until September 27, American Atheist employees and friends received several phone calls from Robin and Garth, but neither would explain why they left or when they would return; while they said nothing was amiss, their voices sounded strained and disturbed.[2] After September 28, no further communication came from any of the O'Hairs.

[edit] Speculations

Speculation abounded on the cause and meaning of O'Hair's disappearance.[13] Some hypothesized that the O'Hairs had abandoned American Atheists and fled with the money. One investigator working for Vanity Fair, after looking at evidence presented to him by former employee David Roland Waters, concluded they had gone to New Zealand.[8]

Exactly one year after the disappearance, Bill Murray filed a missing persons report.[2] He had previously stated he would not file such a report due to the inevitable media attention it would bring. He also noted the lack of evidence of foul play, stating, "I don't want to search for people who don't want to be found."[14] The O'Hairs were declared legally dead, and many of their assets were sold to clear up their debts.[15]

[edit] Murder

Ultimately, a murder investigation focused on Waters, who had worked as a typesetter for American Atheists and was the organization's office manager at the time the three vanished. Not only did Waters have previous convictions for violent crimes, there were several suspicious burglaries during his tenure, and he pleaded guilty earlier in 1995 to stealing $54,000 from American Atheists.[16]

Shortly after his theft of the $54,000 was discovered, O'Hair wrote a scathing article in the 'Members Only' section of the American Atheists newsletter exposing Waters, the theft, and Waters' previous crimes,[8] including a 1977 incident in which Waters allegedly beat and urinated upon his own mother.[16] Waters' girlfriend later testified that he was enraged by O'Hair's article, and that he fantasized about torturing her in gruesome ways.[16]

Police concluded that Waters and his accomplices had kidnapped all three O'Hairs, forced them to withdraw the missing funds, went on several huge shopping sprees with the O'Hairs' money and credit cards, and then murdered all three people. Danny Fry, an accomplice, was murdered a few days after the O'Hairs; his body was found with its head and hands severed on a riverbed, but his remains were unidentified for three and a half years. Waters eventually pled guilty to reduced charges.

In January 2001, Waters informed the police that the O'Hairs were buried on a Texas ranch, and he subsequently led them to the bodies.[8][12] When the police excavated there, they discovered that the O'Hairs' bodies had been cut into dozens of pieces with a saw. The remains exhibited such extensive mutilation and successive decomposition that identification had to be made through dental records, by DNA testing and, in Madalyn O'Hair's case, by her prosthetic hip.[17]

The gold coins extorted from the O'Hairs were put in a storage locker rented by Waters' girlfriend.[citation needed] Waters had taken out $80,000 and partied with his girlfriend for a few days,[citation needed] but upon his return he discovered that the remaining $420,000 had been stolen.[citation needed] A group of thieves operating in that area had a master key to the type of lock which Waters used to secure the locker. In the course of their activities, they came across the locker, used the master key to open it, and found a suitcase full of gold coins. They eventually spent all but one, which the police recovered.[citation needed]

Waters was found guilty of kidnapping, robbery, and murder in the Murray case, and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.[18] In addition, he was also ordered to pay back a total of $543,665 to the United Secularists of America and the estates of Madalyn Murray O'Hair, Jon Garth Murray, and Robin Murray-O'Hair. It is unlikely that any of these debts were paid, as Waters had no ability to earn money while in prison. Waters died in prison of lung cancer on January 27, 2003.[8]

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, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, 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."[16]

[edit] Legacy

In 1980, William Murray converted to Christianity and was baptised at a Baptist church in Dallas, where he took up work as a preacher. This led to a permanent estrangement between mother and son. As she put it, "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."[19]

Murray spoke critically of his mother after her disappearance:

"My mother was an evil person... Not for removing prayer from America's schools... No, she was just evil. She stole huge amounts of money. She misused the trust of people. She cheated children out of their parents' inheritance. She cheated on her taxes and even stole from her own organizations. She once printed up phony stock certificates on her own printing press to try to take over another atheist publishing company."[10]

Murray claimed his mother had stashed "tens of millions" away.[2] He attempted to gain "guardianship" over his missing mother and brother's assets, declaring they had stolen money, and said, "My brother had a tendency to fall for con games and con artists".[2]

O'Hair achieved some posthumous notoriety through an urban legend. An e-mail claimed "Madeline Murray O'Hare [sic] is attempting to get TV programs such as Touched by an Angel and all TV programs that mention God taken off the air" (the e-mail invariably misspelled O'Hair's name). It cited petition RM-2493 to the FCC which had nothing to do with O'Hair, and which was denied in 1975, concerning the prevention of educational radio channels being used for religious broadcasting.[20] 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, twelve years after O'Hair's disappearance and long after her confirmed death.[21][22]

Between the time of O'Hair's disappearance and the discovery of the bodies, a comedic play called The Last Days of Madalyn Murray O'Hair in Exile was written by Dave Foley. It was based on the premise that she, her son and her granddaughter had stolen the money and fled to an island in the South Pacific.[23]

Texas musician Gurf Morlix recorded a black humor song about O'hair's murder, entitled "Madalyn's Bones," on his 2007 album Diamonds To Dust.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Goeringer, Conrad F. (2006). About American Atheists. AmericanAtheists.com. American Atheists. Retrieved on 2007-12-01.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Van Biema, David. "Where's Madalyn?", TIME, 1997-02-10. Retrieved on 2007-12-01. 
  3. ^ a b c Bryce, Robert. "Madalyn Murray O'Hair timeline", Austin Chronicle, 1998-11-20. Retrieved on 2007-12-01. 
  4. ^ Reitwisner, William. Ancestry of Madalyn Murray O'Hair. Retrieved on 2007-12-01.
  5. ^ a b Woman, Atheist, Anarchist (reprint). Freedom Writer (March 1989). Retrieved on 2007-12-01.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Murray, Madalyn; Tregaskis, Richard (October 1965). Madalyn Murray (reprint). Playboy. Retrieved on 2007-12-01.
  7. ^ Wright, Lawrence (1995-05-16). Saints and Sinners: Walker Railey, Jimmy Swaggart, Madalyn Murray O'Hair, Anton LaVey, Will Campbell, Matthew Fox. London: Vintage Books. ISBN 0-679-76163-2. 
  8. ^ a b c d e f Manning, Lona (2003-09-29). The Murder of Madalyn Murray O'Hair: America's Most Hated Woman. Crime Magazine. Retrieved on 2007-12-01.
  9. ^ a b LeBeau, Bryan F. (2003). The Atheist: Madalyn Murray O'Hair. New York: New York University Press. ISBN 0-8147-5171-7. 
  10. ^ a b Murray, William J. (1999-03-01). Madalyn Murray O'Hair Murder: Statement of William J. Murray. Religious Freedom Coalition. Retrieved on 2007-12-01.
  11. ^ Bryce, Robert. "The Case of the Missing Atheists", Austin Chronicle, 1996-05-03. Retrieved on 2007-12-01. 
  12. ^ a b MacCormack, John (1999-07-29). Lucky Break. Dallas Observer. Retrieved on 2007-12-01.
  13. ^ Bryce, Robert. "Where are the Murray O'Hairs?", Austin Chronicle, 1998-11-20. Retrieved on 2007-12-01. 
  14. ^ Bryce, Robert. "Bill Murray Believes", Austin Chronicle, 1996-05-03. Retrieved on 2007-12-01. 
  15. ^ Bryce, Robert. "Abducted by Aliens?", Austin Chronicle, 1998-11-20. Retrieved on 2007-12-01. 
  16. ^ a b c d Bryce, Robert. "Preying on Atheists", Austin Chronicle, 1999-06-04. Retrieved on 2007-12-01. 
  17. ^ MacCormack, John (2001-02-01). Dead Giveaway. Dallas Observer. Retrieved on 2007-12-01.
  18. ^ McAnally, Amber. "Waters sentenced for role in O'Hair murder", The Daily Texan, 2001-04-02. Retrieved on 2007-12-01. 
  19. ^ Dracos, Ted (2004-10-05). Ungodly: The Passions, Torments, and Murder of Atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hair. New York: Berkley Books. ISBN 0425201163. 
  20. ^ Religious Broadcasting Rumor Denied. Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved on 2007-12-01.
  21. ^ Dr. James Dobson vs. Petition No. 2493. About.com. Retrieved on 2007-12-01.
  22. ^ Petition to Ban Religious Broadcasting. Snopes. Retrieved on 2007-12-01.
  23. ^ Sloane, Jesse (2003-02-19). Atheists in paradise. OffOffOff.com. Off Off Off Theater. Retrieved on 2007-12-01.

[edit] External links

Preceded by
None		 American Atheists President
1963–1995		 Succeeded by
Ellen Johnson
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