O Hair

AUSTIN, Texas -- A figure in the mysterious disappearance of atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hair was ordered held without bond yesterday after being arrested the day before on federal weapons charges.David R. Waters, 52, appeared before U.S. Magistrate Stephen Capelle after federal agents raided his Austin apartment and confiscated more than 100 rounds of ammunition."Federal firearms charges are being filed against Mr. Waters based on ammunition seized at his residence," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Gerald Carruth in Austin.

Sean O'Hair and Ryan Palmer charged into a tie for the lead Saturday after the third round of the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in Akron, Ohio. O'Hair fired a 6-under 64 and Palmer a 63, the only two bogey-free scores of the day, as the pair edged one shot clear of a tightly bunched leaderboard at Firestone Country Club. The Americans sit at 9-under 201 with compatriot Matt Kuchar (66) in third. Tiger Woods , a seven-time champion at Firestone, struggled to a dismal 75 in ideal scoring conditions for an 11-over total of 221, the worst of his PGA Tour career relative to par. He is 20 strokes back.

Madalyn Mays Murray O'Hair is 74. William J. Murray is 47. Leonard J. Kerpelman is 67.But more than their ages have changed since the sharp-tongued Northeast Baltimore mother, her harassed and ostracized teen-age son and their aggressive, nonconformist lawyer succeeded in removing prayer and Bible-reading from the nation's public schools.It happened 30 years ago this week. The Supreme Court handed down one of its most controversial opinions ever, and legal, cultural and religious history was made.

TURNBERRY, Scotland -- You wake one day on a golfing planet gone completely merciless and Sergio Garcia seems middle-aged, Adam Scott winds up dumped to No. 43 and the rankings teem with those who arrived young but ready to rumble. Nine of the top 26 players have the audacity not to have reached age 30, the same goes for 16 of the top 50, and one theme of this 138th British Open entails whether golf's largest wave of precocity to date might deposit one of its 20-somethings somewhere well up the Sunday leader board.

SPRINGFIELD, N..J. - He could have been one of those sports casualties, the Todd Marinovich of golf. It seemed Sean O'Hair was heading in that direction, estranged from an abusive father and struggling to get on the Nationwide Tour. To call what has happened to O'Hair in the past 10 months a dramatic turnaround would be understating things greatly. After finishing tied for fourth at the PGA Tour's qualifying school, he has gone from being ranked 1,155th in the world to 38th, increased his income from $3,400 to nearly $2 million, has won his first tour event and will likely be named the tour's 2005 Rookie of the Year.

The clutch shots. The late charge. An electric birdie putt on the 18th hole at Bay Hill. Yep, Tiger Woods is back. With those familiar back-nine heroics and a putt most everyone knew he was going to make, Woods holed a 15-footer for birdie to win the Arnold Palmer Invitational for his first victory since returning from knee surgery. Woods closed with a 3-under-par 67 for a one-shot victory over hard-luck Sean O'Hair in Orlando, Fla., matching his largest comeback on the PGA Tour. "It feels good to be back in contention, to feel the rush," Woods said.

AUSTIN, Texas -- The deepest secrets and innermost thoughts of America's most famous atheist are for sale.Madalyn Murray O'Hair, who founded the nation's leading atheist group, American Atheists Inc., in the 1960s and vanished in 1995, left behind a stack of diaries that will be sold next month to satisfy a claim against her estate brought by the Internal Revenue Service.The handwritten diaries, more than a thousand pages long, begin in 1953 and end abruptly seven weeks before O'Hair disappeared with her son, Jon Garth Murray, and granddaughter, Robin Murray-O'Hair.

At the height of her fame, she was the angry atheist from suburban Baltimore, a cursing communist who helped get prayer booted from America's public schools at the height of the Cold War. So perhaps it shouldn't surprise anyone that, even in death, Madalyn Murray O'Hair can create a stir. Now people are bickering over her remains. O'Hair disappeared 5 1/2 years ago at age 76, along with her granddaughter, Robin Murray O'Hair, 30, and youngest son, Jon Murray, 40. For three years, some people believed they'd drained a few bank accounts and gone into hiding.

After 17 months without a word, William Murray figures that his mother, the famous atheist, must be dead by now, if only because she never could have kept her mouth shut this long.That's 17 months without once railing against a televangelist, or browbeating her followers for money, or getting thrown out of a truck stop for profanity. That's almost a year and a half without shouting her fading battle cry -- that she, Madalyn Murray O'Hair, the Pope of Organized Atheism, is the Most Hated Woman in America, and (please!

DETROIT -- Two white plainclothes police officers were charged yesterday with murder in the widely witnessed Nov. 5 beating death of a black motorist, a case that has prompted comparisons with the 1991 Los Angeles police attack on Rodney King.Two more officers -- including the black supervisor at the scene -- were charged with manslaughter and assault. But there was not enough evidence to bring charges against three other officers who had been among seven originally suspended in the case, authorities said.

O'Hair rallies to win Quail Hollow event golf Five weeks after he blew a five-shot lead against Tiger Woods at Bay Hill, Sean O'Hair showed his mettle in hard, blustery conditions Sunday in Charlotte, N.C., with a 3-under-par 69 and rallied to win the PGA Quail Hollow Championship when no one could catch him. Despite a bogey-bogey finish on the two hardest holes on the course, O'Hair was the only player in the final nine groups to break 70. Lucas Glover,...

The clutch shots. The late charge. An electric birdie putt on the 18th hole at Bay Hill. Yep, Tiger Woods is back. With those familiar back-nine heroics and a putt most everyone knew he was going to make, Woods holed a 15-footer for birdie to win the Arnold Palmer Invitational for his first victory since returning from knee surgery. Woods closed with a 3-under-par 67 for a one-shot victory over hard-luck Sean O'Hair in Orlando, Fla., matching his largest comeback on the PGA Tour. "It feels good to be back in contention, to feel the rush," Woods said.

SPRINGFIELD, N..J. - He could have been one of those sports casualties, the Todd Marinovich of golf. It seemed Sean O'Hair was heading in that direction, estranged from an abusive father and struggling to get on the Nationwide Tour. To call what has happened to O'Hair in the past 10 months a dramatic turnaround would be understating things greatly. After finishing tied for fourth at the PGA Tour's qualifying school, he has gone from being ranked 1,155th in the world to 38th, increased his income from $3,400 to nearly $2 million, has won his first tour event and will likely be named the tour's 2005 Rookie of the Year.

In popular American lore, the late Madalyn Murray O'Hair is the frumpy Baltimore housewife who pried loose the Bible from the loving grasp of the nation's classrooms. Her crowbar was a lawsuit that led to a landmark 1963 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, outlawing prayer in public schools. In reality, O'Hair should be raised on a pedestal as a hero of the American Conservative movement, not only for her matchless recruiting for the nascent Christian Right, but also as a precursor for everything that has gone wrong with the tone and tenor of today's political discourse.

At the height of her fame, she was the angry atheist from suburban Baltimore, a cursing communist who helped get prayer booted from America's public schools at the height of the Cold War. So perhaps it shouldn't surprise anyone that, even in death, Madalyn Murray O'Hair can create a stir. Now people are bickering over her remains. O'Hair disappeared 5 1/2 years ago at age 76, along with her granddaughter, Robin Murray O'Hair, 30, and youngest son, Jon Murray, 40. For three years, some people believed they'd drained a few bank accounts and gone into hiding.

AUSTIN, Texas - The man suspected in the kidnapping and killing of atheist leader Madalyn Murray O'Hair struck a deal with prosecutors yesterday, possibly setting in motion the final search for the bodies of O'Hair and two of her relatives. David Roland Waters, the longtime suspect in the O'Hair family disappearance, was expected to plead guilty to reduced charges in exchange for leading prosecutors to the remains of O'Hair, her son Jon Garth Murray and granddaughter Robin Murray-O'Hair.

SAINTS AND SINNERS.Lawrence Wright.Knopf.266 pages. $24.Madalyn Murray O'Hair, the former Baltimore housewife who campaigned relentlessly to end prayer in public school, was one of Lawrence Wright's early heroes. Her passionate defense of free speech, as well as her stinging critique of capitalism and Christianity, won her a place in his pantheon of courageous free-thinkers. Imagine his chagrin when, in doing a profile of her for Texas Monthly magazine, she slapped him with a nuisance suit.

O'Hair rallies to win Quail Hollow event golf Five weeks after he blew a five-shot lead against Tiger Woods at Bay Hill, Sean O'Hair showed his mettle in hard, blustery conditions Sunday in Charlotte, N.C., with a 3-under-par 69 and rallied to win the PGA Quail Hollow Championship when no one could catch him. Despite a bogey-bogey finish on the two hardest holes on the course, O'Hair was the only player in the final nine groups to break 70. Lucas Glover,...

ANNAPOLIS -- His big, loud mom, famous atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hair, is silent now, presumed dead and dismembered somewhere in the dirt of Texas hill country. But son William J. Murray, her one-time accomplice and latter-day foe, hasn't stopped fighting against her legacy. So it was that Murray, 53, showed up yesterday at the Capitol to testify in favor of school prayer before a Maryland legislative committee, still trying to undo what O'Hair did nearly 40 years ago. Murray was a ninth-grader then at Woodbourne Junior High (now Chinquapin Middle School)

SAN ANTONIO, Texas -- When the mystery first hooked private eye Tim Young, he fancied it would end in Auckland, New Zealand, 7,000 miles from home. He'd stroll down a sunny street and there they would be, the world's three most famous missing atheists -- Madalyn Murray O'Hair, son Jon Murray and granddaughter Robin Murray-O'Hair."