Ex-Aide to Atheist O’Hair Held on Weapons Charges

AUSTIN, Texas — A former office manager for missing atheist Madalyn Murray O’Hair has been arrested on weapons charges amid indications prosecutors suspect that O’Hair was murdered.

David Roland Waters, 52, was arrested Wednesday and jailed after 119 rounds of ammunition were found in a search of his apartment and car. He had been convicted of murder in Illinois in 1965 and is on probation for skimming $54,000 from the O’Hair family’s atheist organizations.

O’Hair disappeared in September 1995 at age 76, along with her son, John Garth Murray, then 44, granddaughter Robin Murray, then 31, and $500,000 in gold coins. They left a note saying an emergency had arisen.

O’Hair had waged the lawsuit that led to the 1963 U.S. Supreme Court decision outlawing organized prayer in public schools.

Her disappearance gave rise to speculation that they were victims of foul play or that O’Hair, a diabetic who would be about 80 now, had gone somewhere to die privately so that Christians couldn’t pray over her.

Prosecutors have not said whether they think O’Hair was murdered and did not mention her at Waters’ court appearance Thursday.

But Waters’ lawyer, Patrick Ganne, told reporters that “there are allegations he was somehow involved” in O’Hair’s death.

Ganne said Assistant U.S. Atty. Gerald Carruth told him: “Your client could get the death penalty. . . . People are rolling over on your client, and he better get right with God.”

Carruth wouldn’t comment Thursday.

Of O’Hair’s disappearance, Ganne said: “She’s probably partying it up with Jimmy Hoffa somewhere.”

Waters was charged with possessing ammunition despite a felony record. The warrant used in the search remains sealed. Ganne said the bullets belonged to Waters’ former girlfriend, who had moved out of the apartment.

Waters has denied knowing anything about the disappearances. Police have been investigating him since the headless, handless body of his friend Danny Fry was found near Dallas on Oct. 2, 1995.

Fry had told his family he was in Austin working on a big money deal with Waters, according to the San Antonio Express-News.