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| Prosecutor: Inmate Convicted In Atheist's Plot Dies In Prison |
| By WOAI |
| Published: 03/05/2003 |
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A prosecutor says the man convicted in the extortion plot that ended in the slaying of atheist activist Madalyn Murray O'Hair has died in prison. David R. Waters had suffered from poor health since his sentencing on a federal extortion charge in O'Hair's death. Assistant U.S Attorney Gerald Carruth of Austin, who prosecuted Waters and once described him in court as 'a depraved recidivist,' learned of his death Monday. 'We always have believed and still believe that Mr. Waters was the mastermind of this plot,' Carruth told the Express-News. 'After he agreed to plead and show us where the bodies were, it allowed us to finally put the case to rest.' The newspaper reported that Waters succumbed to lung cancer last week at the Federal Medical Center in Butner, N.C. A prison spokesman declined early Tuesday to comment to The Associated Press. Waters, who was 55, admitted in early 2001 that he did 'threaten and commit physical violence' in 1995 to O'Hair, 76; her son, Jon Garth Murray, 40; and her granddaughter, Robin Murray O'Hair, 30. Robin Murray O'Hair was also the adopted daughter of Madalyn Murray O'Hair. The three disappeared in 1995 from San Antonio along with $500,000 in gold coins. A former office manager for O'Hair, Waters led investigators in 2001 to their dismembered bodies in a shallow grave on a remote Hill Country ranch about 120 miles west of San Antonio. Waters was sent to North Carolina in late December from Leavenworth, Kan., where the Peoria native was dying of hepatitis. He was serving 20 years for the O'Hair crimes. 'It really does close the books on the whole sordid affair,' said Bill Murray, O'Hair's lone surviving child and a professed born-again Christian. 'Everyone's soul is salvageable, but there are people who give themselves up to evil, and never really make an attempt to right themselves, and Waters was one of those individuals.' O'Hair, who rose to prominence in the 1960s for her role in battling prayer and Bible reading in public schools, called herself the most hated woman in America. In 1963, the U.S. Supreme Court responded by banning organized prayer in public schools. Ann Rowe Seaman of Los Angeles, who is writing a biography of America's most famous atheist, said she met with Waters four or five times in prison over the past two years and exchanged numerous letters with him. 'He was quite a philosophical guy. He wouldn't say he was an atheist, but he really didn't believe in God,' she said, adding that Waters declined to give details of the O'Hair case but was unrepentant when he did. 'He didn't feel sorry. He kind of admired O'Hair, in a dark way,' Seaman said. Waters, a native of Peoria, Ill., was the third suspect sentenced in the case. Gary Paul Karr, 52, a former jail cellmate of Waters, was sentenced to life in prison for extortion and other charges. Gerald Osborne, 50, was sentenced to three years probation and fined $1,500 for using a false Social Security number to rent an Austin storage unit. Authorities believed the O'Hairs were partially dismembered there. The body of a fourth suspect, Danny Fry, 42, was found dead in 1995 near Dallas. Investigators believe he was killed by his accomplices. The head and hands were missing from the corpse. |
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