OPINION: Intersecting with fame and weirdness

But one of the most unusual experiences was a chance meeting with Madalyn Murray O’Hair in 1988. She was the long-time director of the largest atheist organization in the United States, and the person who brought the case to the Supreme Court that resulted in the decision to ban prayer in public schools.

“I am Ms. Madalyn Murray O’Hair and you may call me Ms. Murray-O’Hair,” a large white-haired woman shouted at me as I waited to be interviewed for a proofreading job in Austin, Texas. At the time, I had no idea who she was. I had replied to a classified ad in the Austin Chronicle for a position as a proofreader and her assistant had summoned me to an address that ended up being the national headquarters for her organization, American Atheists.

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After the tense introduction, O’Hair calmed down and explained the position to me, along with some personal information about how she had been in poor health and the pressure of her job responsibilities had started to cause her problems. She told me that they would make a decision on the proofreading job soon.

One of the most fortunate events in my life was that I did not get hired for that job. Her office manager, with whom I probably would have worked on a day-to-day basis, kidnapped and murdered O'Hair along with her son and granddaughter a few years later.

Madalyn Murray was born in 1919 to a poor family in Pittsburgh. She became a household name when she contested the mandatory prayer and Bible reading in her son William’s Baltimore-area public school in 1960. The Supreme Court, then under Chief Justice Earl Warren, delivered its 8-1 verdict in favor of O’Hair in 1963. This eliminated both the obligatory school prayer and the mandatory Bible readings in public schools. Madalyn Murray married Richard O’Hair in 1965, and they stayed married until his death in 1978.

O'Hair founded American Atheists in 1963, and was its president from 1963 to 1986. She pushed several other separation-of-church-and-state cases. Her aggressive and outrageous style got her a great deal of press coverage, but also earned her many enemies. She was once described by Time magazine as the most hated woman in America. The American Atheists is still one of the most active atheist groups in the U.S.

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Many years later, I became curious about what had ever happened to O’Hair. I found a copy of the book, “UnGodly: The Passions, Torments and Murder of Atheist Madalyn Murray O’Hair,” by Texas journalist Ted Dracos. He described many of the ups and downs of her colorful life, her media antics, along with her inability to delegate authority, and her constant mistreatment of office staff and supporters. She appeared on the Donahue Show several times, including the first episode.

Perhaps the most chilling part of Dracos' book is the mysterious disappearance of O'Hair, along with her son Jon Murray, and granddaughter Robin Murray O'Hair. According to Dracos, they were kidnapped by former American Atheist office manager David Waters, forced to withdraw money from the American Atheist's bank account, and eventually all three were murdered.

All of these years later, I look back on the chance meeting as amusing, and chilling, at the same time.