| O'Hair vs. Religious Broadcasting | |||||||||||||||
| Part 2: Religious and patriotic fervor | |||||||||||||||
What it lacks in accuracy, the petition more than makes up for in religious and patriotic fervor. As one would expect in a text that has been copied and re-copied so many times over by people who have no idea what the facts really are, this recent version features some odd and anomalous details along with the standard falsehoods:
Madalyn Murray O'Hair: Missing in action
Perhaps the most curious fact of all in the history of this misbegotten controversy is that, far from posing an ongoing threat to anyone's religious proclivities, Madalyn Murray O'Hair disappeared without a trace in the mid-1990s. As Time magazine recounted, "One day in August 1995, Madalyn, then
76, along with Jon, 40, and Robin, 30, vanished from the house on Greystone Drive, reportedly with
breakfast still cooking, and were never seen again." Evidently several hundred thousand dollars of American Atheists, Inc. money vanished with them, leading to all sorts of speculation as to the fate of O'Hair, her family and her fortune.
More recently she has been confirmed dead along with the missing members of her family, all victims of murder. On June 2, 2000 ex-convict Gary Paul Karr was convicted of participating in a scheme to extort money from the O'Hairs. Prosecutors alleged that Karr was also part of a kidnapping plot masterminded by former O'Hair associate David Waters, though jurors acquitted him of the charge.
In any case, publicity surrounding the 1999 arrests and subsequent prosecution of Waters and Karr generated a new surge in popularity for the FCC rumor in spite of the fact that all available evidence pointed to the likelihood of O'Hair being dead. What effect will confirmation of her passing have on its fate? None. In its 25 years of existence, the FCC petition never had a whit to do with reality. Why should that change now?
|
|||||||||||||||
Explore Urban Legends