American activist and atheist (1919-1995). Born Madalyn Mays in Pittsburgh, she was baptized into her father's Presbyterian church at the age of 4. 

She enlisted in the Women's Army Corps in World War II, and was stationed in Italy, where she started a relationship with William J. Murray, Jr., a married Roman Catholic officer. She divorced her current husband, but Murray refused to divorce his wife -- she ended up taking Murray's last name anyway and gave birth to their son after returning to Ohio, naming the boy William J. Murray III

She gave birth to a second son, Jon Garth Murray, in 1954, fathered by another boyfriend. She got a bachelor's degree from Ashland University in 1959 and earned a law degree from the South Texas College of Law, but didn't pass the bar exam. 

By this time, Murray was a professed socialist and atheist who tried to defect to the Soviet Union twice -- the Soviets denied her entry both times. After the family moved to Baltimore, she enrolled William in junior high, saw kids engaging in prayer before classes, and told William to keep a log of all religious exercises in the school for a few weeks. After the school denied her request to leave class during prayers, she took him out of school and sued the Baltimore Public School System in 1960, saying that mandatory prayer and required Bible readings were unconstitutional. The Supreme Court heard an appeal of the case in 1963 and ruled 8-1 that mandatory Bible readings in public schools were indeed unconstitutional. (Mandatory prayer in schools had been ruled unconstitutional the previous year in a different case.)

After winning the court case, she founded American Atheists in 1963 and remained its president for the rest of her life. The organization was dedicated to defending the civil rights of atheists and non-believers and working for the cause of the separation of church and state

Murray and her family moved to Honolulu in 1963 after harassment, vandalism, and death threats were directed at her and her family. In Hawaii, she fought with police over William's girlfriend, Susan, a teenaged runaway. Susan later gave birth to William's daughter, Robin, who was eventually adopted by Murray. In 1965, Murray married a Marine named Richard O'Hair and adopted the name Madalyn Murray O'Hair. Richard O'Hair was a general sleaze -- he'd named names to the FBI of other members of a Communist group he belonged to in the 1950s and was investigated for claiming to be an FBI agent. The O'Hairs separated but remained married until his death in 1978. 

In 1980, William converted to Christianity, and his mother disowned him. (William wasn't a great guy, as he devoted himself to hard-right Christian fundamentalism, but you don't disown your kids for dumb reasons.)

O'Hair loved suing people. She'd probably be considered a vexatious litigant today, but she really, really loved suing people. She sued the FCC to try to get atheists equal time with religions on radio and TV; she sued Richard Nixon for having religious services in the White House; she sued NASA because astronauts on Apollo 8 read from the Bible; she sued to get "In God We Trust" taken off currency; she sued Texas to get a provision requiring belief in God to serve as a state official removed from the state constitution; she sued to keep the Pope from having mass on the National Mall. Some of these were doubtless things that needed to be repealed or changed, but she mostly did them because she just loved filing lawsuits. 

By the 1990s, staff at American Atheists consisted of O'Hair, her son Garth, her granddaughter Robin, and a few support personnel. She, Garth, and Robin lived in the same house and even took vacations together. 

And in late August of 1995, all three went missing. A note was left on the door saying they were out of town on an emergency and didn't know when they'd be back. The organization received mobile calls from them saying, nervously, that they were on business, they ordered $500,000 in gold coins from a jeweler in San Antonio, and after a month, stopped communicating entirely. Police in Austin didn't do much investigation -- they thought this was just a matter of the O'Hairs skipping town with money from American Atheists to avoid paying for stuff. 

Four years later, in 1999, it finally came out that O'Hair had angered a former American Atheists employee and ex-con named David Roland Waters, who had dug up a couple buddies named Gary Paul Karr and Danny Fry. Together, they kidnapped the O'Hairs, forced them to withdraw money, and finally killed and dismembered them. Waters and Karr murdered Fry a few days later. 

Eventually, Karr was convicted of various crimes related to the O'Hair case, but not murder, as the bodies had not yet been found -- he was sentenced to two life terms. Waters took a plea agreement; he pleaded guilty to conspiracy and was sentenced to 20 years in a federal lockup. He led police to the burial site; the bodies were so severely mutilated and decomposed that police had to use dental records, DNA testing, and the serial number on Madalyn O'Hair's artificial hip to confirm they were the O'Hairs. 

William Murray was granted custody of the remains and had them buried in an undisclosed location. Reports say he did not pray at their service, either because of their long estrangement or to respect their own beliefs. 

Years ago, I read an article about her in "Texas Monthly" magazine. It told how, when she was younger, she lived a very hard life, full of disappointments and failures. Someone who knew her back then said that one time she shook her fist at the sky, cursed God, and swore to get back at him someday. 

I think deep down, Madalyn Murray O'Hair relished being a villain. She got a charge out of being hated by people, as if having lots of enemies was a good way to know you were making a difference in the world. And I'm not sure she was ever really an atheist. I think she believed devoutly in God; she just really, really hated him.

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