07x10 - Without a Prayer

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NARRATOR: Madalyn Murray
O'Hair was America's best

known atheist, principally
responsible for abolishing

prayer in public schools.

Madalyn, you either liked
her or you hated her.

NARRATOR: In 1995, Madalyn
Murray O'Hair mysteriously

disappeared from her Texas
home, along with her son Jon

Murray and granddaughter Robin.

Over $600,000 of their
organization's money

disappeared along with them.

What is it not to
love about the story?

It involves greed.

It involves gold.

It involves the most
hated woman in America.

This is a sexy story,
and we should tell it.

NARRATOR: It was
a local newspaper

reporter playing
forensic detective

who helped solve the case.

[theme music playing]

I don't remember his name.

NARRATOR: Madalyn Murray O'Hair
was often called "the most

hated woman in America."

INTERVIEWER: --telephone
records, evidence [inaudible].

Mr. Withers, is this
a form of harassment?

If it is, I will leave.

INTERVIEWER: No, ma'am.

I am creating the record.

No, you're not
creating the record.

You are wasting my time.

INTERVIEWER: These are resp--

When you're done
reading that, call me.

I'll be in the ladies room.

INTERVIEWER: Is it
your understanding

then that you have brought
no documents today?

Call me in the ladies
room when you're done.

NARRATOR: She was
an avowed atheist

who achieved fame
in 1963 by opposing

prayer in public schools.

She took her case all the way to
the United States Supreme Court

and won.

She founded the nonprofit
group The American Atheists

as well as a magazine preaching
the gospel of strict separation

of church and state.

She also wrote articles
for Larry Flynt's "Hustler"

magazine and was the subject of
a "Playboy" magazine interview.

Madalyn O'Hair was a
difficult woman to work with

and was notorious for
speaking her mind.

All right then.

Don't [bleep] with me.

VALERI WILLIAMS: I
have never encountered

a more bitter, more
distasteful person

than Madalyn Murray O'Hair.

Don't touch me.

She was extremely foul
mouthed, to the point

that even though we were doing
an interview about something

that she wanted us
to do a story on,

we had to stop the
interview in the middle

because she was cursing so much.

You have a limited
opportunity this morning

to ask me questions.

Why don't you get
to the questions?

NARRATOR: In August of


her 40-year-old son Jon, and


Robin left Austin, Texas
without saying a word to anyone.

The staff of the American
Atheists organization

found a note on
their office door

saying the O'Hairs had been
called away for an emergency

and didn't know when
they would return.

Jon's Mercedes-Benz and
Robin's Porsche were gone too.

But they left their
passports behind

as well as Madalyn's diabetes
medicine and her three dogs.

Madalyn may not have
cared very much for people,

but she sure loved those
dogs, we were told.

Couldn't get in touch with
them, and I got concerned.

So I started making
phone calls, and then

I called Jon's cell phone, and
that's when Madalyn answered.

But Madalyn wouldn't
tell the board member

Ellen Johnson where she was.

Johnson said the calls
were short and strained,

and she worried that
Madeline and her son

were under some sort of duress.

Now, I questioned him
about what was going on.

And, you know, he tried to
reassure me that everything

was OK, and I believed it.

NARRATOR: Just one month
later, Madalyn and Jon

stopped answering
their cell phone calls.

When Ellen Johnson took over
the American Atheists group

in Madalyn's absence,
she discovered

that since the O'Hairs
disappeared, more than $600,000

was missing from the
organization's bank account.

Suddenly you have three
people and a very large amount

of money all disappearing
at the same time,

and this makes it
far more interesting.

NARRATOR: John
MacCormack covered

the disappearance for
the "Express News"

in San Antonio, Texas.

Among the atheists, there
was a very peculiar silence,

but beneath it was this
very profound concern.

They were very concerned.

They didn't know what to do.

They hadn't really
attempted to get

any help from law enforcement.

NARRATOR: No one associated
with the American Atheists

reported the three missing, and
it wasn't until a year later

that Bill Murray,
Madalyn's estranged son,

filed a missing persons
report with Austin police.

Madalyn and Bill had
a rocky relationship.

In 1980, on Mother's
Day, Bill told Madalyn

that he had embraced
Christianity

and was no longer an atheist.

He then went public,
writing a book

and making a film attacking
his mother's beliefs.

My mother loved
confrontations, and she

never hesitated to use me as
an accomplice in her schemes.

She wanted to push the school
prayer issue as far as she

could, so she instructed me
to keep a record of prayer

and Bible reading at school.

It was here in my
home my mother made me

a spy for the cause of atheism.

NARRATOR: Madalyn
immediately disowned him,

and Bill never again spoke
with his mother, his brother

Jon, or his daughter Robin.

Bill didn't know if his family's
disappearance was foul play

or if they had stolen the
atheist's money and fled.

A year after Madalyn
Murray O'Hair disappeared

with their son Jon Murray
and granddaughter Robin,

journalist John MacCormack
learned what the American

Atheists group already knew,
that Jon Murray had withdrawn

over $600,000 from the
atheists' bank account

just weeks after the
three disappeared.

MacCormack also examined
Jon's cell phone records,

which indicated he had been
living in San Antonio, Texas

after his disappearance.

Many of the 200 calls
were suspicious.

They'd been calling
financial institutions.

They'd been calling airlines.

They'd been calling drugstores
to get Madalyn's prescriptions.

There were more than 150 calls.

They called jewelry stores.

NARRATOR: One of
those jewelry stores

was on Fredrickson
Road in San Antonio.

The owner said that Jon
Murray purchased $600,000

worth of gold coins using cash.

Even after Madalyn's
son Bill Murray

reported the three
missing, the Austin police

showed little interest.

There was no investigation by
the Austin Police Department,

it was a total joke.

NARRATOR: The
police reaction may

have been based on their belief
that Madalyn and her family

absconded with the
Atheists' money

and that it was an
internal matter.

How can somebody
that's that famous

turn up missing with all
that money and still no one

wants to look for her?

So I decided I'd be part of
the team that went looking.

NARRATOR: Television news
reporter Valeri Williams

discovered the Jon Murray sold
his Mercedes-Benz for $15,000,

well below the car's value,
to this man, Mark Sparrow.

I'm Jon Murray.

NARRATOR: The seller identified
himself as Jon Murray,

Low miles.

Yeah, it's 20,000.

Is that about right?

NARRATOR: But when shown
a picture of Jon Murray,

Sparrow said it wasn't the
man who sold him the car.

He said his name
was Jon Murray,

and that's not the guy
who sold me the car.

Would you mind taking a look
at these mug sh*ts for me?

NARRATOR: After reviewing
mug shot pictures,

Mr. Sparrow identified
the impersonator

as another missing person, an
ex-convict named Danny Fry.

This was an interesting
coincidence.

Danny Fry's family told police
that Danny had been working

with another ex-convict,
David Waters,

who had once worked for Madalyn
O'Hair and had a falling out.

In 1993, Madalyn hired David
Waters as her office manager.

Within a few months,
she fired him,

maintaining he had stolen
$50,000 from the Atheists'

organization.

Waters was charged with theft.

He accepted a plea agreement
and paid the money back.

And in so doing,
avoided jail time.

But Madalyn was furious
that authorities

allowed Waters to go free.

Using the power of the pen,
Madalyn wrote an article

in her magazine exposing
Waters as a thief

and implied Waters had
h*m* relationships

while serving an
earlier prison sentence

for as*ault. When
Waters saw the article,

friends say he vowed revenge.

Journalist John
MacCormack called Waters

and asked him if he
had anything to do

with Madalyn's disappearance.

JOHN MACCORMACK [ON PHONE]:
Did you have anything

at all to do with this?

DAVID WATERS [ON PHONE]: I
had nothing to do with this.

I didn't believe
a word he said,

but he spoke as though
it was the truth.

NARRATOR: MacCormack discovered
that David Waters, Danny Fry,

and another ex-convict Gary
Karr were all working together

in Austin, Texas around
the time the O'Hairs

disappeared in August of 1995.

And not long
afterwards, a headless,

pantless male torso was
discovered in a Dallas river.

They'd spent three years
trying to figure out who it was,

but they had no
fingerprints, no dental,

and they had no missing
persons records that

matched this disappearance.

So they were totally stumped.

NARRATOR: MacCormack had
a hunch that this body

was somehow connected to
the O'Hairs' disappearance.

Not long after the
O'Hairs disappeared,

a male torso was found
in a Dallas river.

Without a head or hands,
fingerprints and dental records

couldn't be used
for identification.

Forensic anthropologists
estimated the man to be

between the ages of 35 and 45.

He had a stocky build
and a lot of chest hair.

The description didn't
fit Madalyn's son Jon.

But journalist John
MacCormack had a hunch.

He told police that
it might be Danny

Fry, the man who
had impersonated Jon

Murray when selling his car.

Scientists took DNA
from Danny Fry's brother

and compared it to the
blood DNA of the torso.

It was a match.

Just as MacCormack suspected,
the dead man in the river

was Danny Fry.

The blockbuster was when we
could write a story that said

that the headless corpse
in Dallas was Danny Fry,

and, by the way,
he was last seen

with David Waters in Austin.

And by the way, he spent his
last month in San Antonio

at the same time
the O'Hairs did.

So that really
kicked in the door.

NARRATOR: Suddenly local,
state, and federal law

enforcement
officials took notice

and joined the investigation.

When David Waters' ex-girlfriend
Patti Steffens read

about Danny Fry's
m*rder in the newspaper,

she immediately called the FBI.

At first she wanted to tell
us small bits and pieces.

You have to understand this
was a woman who was terrified.

NARRATOR: She gave
investigators an important lead.

Three years earlier she said
that David Waters had rented

a storage unit around the
time the O'Hairs disappeared

and that Waters had once gone
there with this spray canister.

Laboratory tests on
the canister revealed

it had once contained
bleach, which is sometimes

used to remove blood evidence.

Armed with a search
warrant, police

found a tiny red stain
beneath a piece of aluminum

under the wall.

It was so small, it
was almost invisible.

With blood from Madalyn's
Bill for comparison,

a mitochondrial
DNA test revealed

the stain was a mixture of two
people-- Madalyn Murray O'Hair

and her son Jon Murray.

Next the FBI searched
Waters' apartment.

We found documents that
belonged to the O'Hairs that

were dated after
David Waters had been

fired from their organization.

Mr. Waters, himself a prior
convicted felon, who was not

allowed to have
g*ns or amm*nit*on,

was found to be in
illegal possession

of about 118 rounds
of handgun amm*nit*on

of three different calibers.

NARRATOR: They even found
books from the O'Hair library

and a bow saw.

The FBI confronted David
Waters with the forensic and

physical evidence against him.

It took quite a while, but
eventually, 5 and 1/2 years

after the O'Hairs
disappeared, Waters

led investigators to
a remote burial site

at Camp Wood, Texas.

Forensic anthropologist Dr.
David Glassman was there.

When we hit the first
bone, it was kind of

interesting in this case
because the bone was very large,

and it was the upper leg bone.

The upper leg bone is the
largest bone in our skeleton.

But this one was
particularly large.

NARRATOR: After 21
hours of excavation,

three adult bodies
were uncovered.

In each case, the legs had been
cut off, possibly to make it

easier to transport the bodies.

On one of the bodies,
the hair was very well

intact, a female
skull, and the hair

was braided down the back of
the neck of the individual.

There were some
remnants of clothes

that were found but no
clothes that were intact.

There had been some effort
to burn the remains, not

to the point of
cremation, but in order

to destroy maybe the
clothing or any other DNA

evidence that might be there.

NARRATOR: As the
remains were unearthed,

shining in the afternoon
sun was the metal

plate of an artificial hip.

Medical records revealed that
Madalyn O'Hair had undergone

hip replacement surgery several
years before her disappearance.

The serial number of the hip
in Madalyn's medical file

matched the number on
the hip in the grave.

Forensic odontologists compared
the O'Hairs' dental records

to the skulls in the grave
and confirmed that these

were the remains
of Madalyn, her son

Jon, and granddaughter Robin.

For Jon Murray, when he was
in the grave and uncovered,

he did have a plastic
bag over his skull.

And when the plastic
bag was removed,

there were small fractures that
occurred to the skull itself,

indicating some blunt
trauma had been done to him

during the time of his death.

NARRATOR: The cause of
death for Madalyn and Robin

couldn't be determined
by looking at the bones.

But since their heads
were covered in plastic,

it was assumed they
were asphyxiated.

But investigators found
something else-- an extra head

and two extra hands.

The head showed a single g*nsh*t
wound at the base of the skull.

Forensic scientists used
a photo superimposition

technique for identification.

They suspected
the skull was that

of Danny Fry, the
man whose torso

was found in the Dallas river.

Scientists took a
photograph of Danny Fry

then photographed the skull
at the same angle and size.

The two photographs
were superimposed

to see if the facial
features matched the skull.

For example, the distance
between the eyes and the shape

of the nose and the distance
between the nose to the teeth

and the distance
across the cheeks,

in every area that I examined
in the video superimposition

matched up.

NARRATOR: The motive
for the O'Hairs' m*rder

had been revenge.

But why had Danny
Fry been m*rder*d?

The forensic
evidence found years

after the O'Hairs'
disappearance tied David Waters

and his two associates,
Danny Fry and Gary Karr,

to their murders.

David Waters' girlfriend
Patti Steffen told police

that Waters
kidnapped the O'Hairs

because of the unflattering
and inflammatory article

Madalyn had written about him.

His girlfriend said he
fantasized about torturing her,

cutting off her toes.

And so basically I think
this whole thing came down

to not just money, but really
ugly personal chemistry

between two dysfunctional
personalities.

For David Waters,
it was about revenge.

He wanted the ultimate
revenge on Madalyn O'Hair,

and the money was
just a byproduct.

NARRATOR: After
kidnapping the O'Hairs,

Waters forced Jon Murray
to withdraw $600,000

from the Atheists' bank
account and then took

him to the jewelry
store to exchange

the $600,000 for gold coins.

The O'Hairs were most
likely dead by the time

Danny Fry impersonated Jon
Murray to sell his car.

Thanks for letting me see it.

NARRATOR: But why was
Danny Fry k*lled too?

The answer was his drinking.

We knew that Danny Fry drank,
and loose lips sink ships.

And by what David had told
Bob Fry about his brother,

and that was your
brother has a big mouth,

could be the thing
that caused his death.

NARRATOR: But David Waters
made several crucial mistakes.

Although Waters cleaned the
room with water and bleach,

scientists still
found a tiny speck

of blood three years later,
identified by mitochondrial DNA

as that of Jon Murray
and Madalyn O'Hair.

But removing Danny Fry's
head and hands still

didn't prevent identification.

DNA and skull photo
superimposition

were all scientists needed.

Ironically, after stealing
the $600,000 from the O'Hairs,

Waters never got the
opportunity to enjoy the money.

It was stolen from him.

Well, his first mistake was
putting his money in a storage

locker up in Austin and having
three bozos from San Antonio,

who were looking for
used TVs, open up

the locker with a master
key and find a suitcase

with a half million in gold.

NARRATOR: For his
role in this case,

David Waters was sentenced
to 80 years in prison.

His accomplice Gary Karr was
sentenced to life in prison.

Mr. Karr fully admitted
his role and involvement

with David Waters in
the abduction, robbery,

and m*rder of the O'Hairs.

And he indicated that he
had assisted in dismembering

the bodies and
putting the body parts

in 55 gallon drums in a
storage unit here in Austin.

It was a nice neat ending.

They found the bodies.

The bad guy goes to prison.

And you know the heroes
ride off into the sunset.

NARRATOR: For his persistence,
John MacCormack is

one of the heroes of this case.

And forensic science played
an important role too.

Well, I mean, this
is definitely one

that, if it wasn't
for DNA, we'd probably

still be scratching our heads
as to who this person was.

A lot of times I kind
of forget about the case

when the next case comes in.

And so I really don't have
one that always jumps to mind.

But I'll remember this
one for a long time.

[theme music]