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Madalyn Murray O'Hair (née Mays; April 13, 1919 – September 29, 1995) [1] was an American activist supporting atheism and separation of church and state. In 1963, she founded American Atheists and served as its president until 1986, after which her son Jon Garth Murray succeeded her.
Melissa Leo as Madalyn Murray O'Hair, an atheist activist; Josh Lucas as David Waters, American Atheists' former manager who masterminds the kidnapping; Michael Chernus as Jon Garth Murray, Madalyn's loyal younger son Devin Taylor Freeman as teenage Jon Garth Murray; Rory Cochrane as Gary Karr, one of the Murray O'Hairs' kidnappers
Though Murray refused to get a divorce and marry Madalyn, she divorced her husband, changed her surname to Murray, and named her newborn son William J. Murray, after his father. Madalyn moved with the baby to Baltimore, where her mother and brother lived. In 1954, Bill's half-brother Jon Garth Murray was born. When Bill was still a child ...
Jon Garth Murray [a] was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1954, the son of Madalyn Murray O'Hair and Michael Fiorillo, her boyfriend at the time. It is likely that Jon Garth never met his father. In 1960 his mother filed a lawsuit against the Baltimore public school system, naming his older half-brother William J. Murray as plaintiff.
Madalyn Murray O'Hair, Jon Murray, and Robin Murray O'Hair: August 27, 1995, in Austin, Texas: Found deceased in 2001, buried on a remote Texas ranch, 120 miles from San Antonio. [6] Gary Paul Karr was found guilty of extortion and other charges relating to the O'Hair cases and was sentenced to life in prison.
American Atheists was founded in 1963 by Madalyn Murray O'Hair as the Society of Separationists, after the legal cases Abington School District v. Schempp and Murray v. Curlett (1959) were filed.
Madalyn Murray O'Hair: 1919–1995 Atheist activist Founder of American Atheists, campaigner for the separation of church and state: Filed the lawsuit that led the US Supreme Court to ban teacher-led prayer and Bible reading in public schools. [77] Joyce Carol Oates: 1938– Author Author and Professor of Creative Writing at Princeton University.
Madalyn Murray O'Hair, the founder of American Atheists, one of her sons and granddaughter disappeared in 1995, along with $500,000 in gold coins. In time, the police homed in on several suspects, including David R. Waters, who worked as the office manager for O'Hair's organization.