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Scrounge
, February 12, 2015
A major problem with making the late Madalyn O'Hair the sole atheist spokesman was that all atheists could easily be slurred through her. Ungodly is a prime example; Dracos' Christians are portrayed as flawless, while his atheists are treated little better than pond scum.
Fortunately, his book is easy to dismiss. Haphazardly arranged, riddled with stale clichés, and full of errors, it careens between biography and crime story, failing at each. The only attempts at chronology were as events unfolded through the media. Ungodly seemed to be written for a tabloid audience that cares less for facts than an embellished tale. Dracos was a television reporter (he actually sued the San Antonio paper for reporting how his job ended), which may help explain why his book reads like a bad soap opera that should be canceled.
Whoever wrote the cover perpetuates the myth that Madalyn O'Hair, as it states, “ended school prayer in America”. O'Hair (then Murray) had the least influential (though the most vocal) role in the public school prayer decisions of the early 1960s. Her case was attached to Schempp, and both were affirmations of Engel v. Vitale, decided a year earlier.
In the interests of brevity, I'll confine the error report to the Gary Karr and “Chico” Osborne trials and the David Waters hearings, since I attended them. Dracos said that Gerald Lee “Chico” Osborne gave the FBI a false Social Security number, which they used to arrest him. Osborne was charged with using a false Social Security number on an application for a storage unit. During his trial, it was noted that the Social Security number was optional.
Dracos reported that, “Just prior to taking the Murray-O'Hair case”, Karr's lead prosecutor Gerald Carruth won a major verdict over Racehorse Haynes. That happened about 15 years prior. During breaks, reporters passed around a Third Coast magazine issue that documented the Carruth/Haynes debates. Third Coast didn't survive the 1980s. Dracos described Carruth as having a “Kojak-shaved head”; Carruth is bald.
According to Dracos, Karr's lawyer Tom Mills is “one of the finer criminal trial attorneys in the state and a perceptive and vigorous adversary.” Well, he sure didn't prove it at the trial. Mills was poorly prepared, and hesitant when questioning witnesses. The only time he appeared confident was when Bill Murray was on the stand, and Murray was a very minor witness. Furthermore, Mills was gullible; during jury deliberations, he fell for a tall tale Carruth told about blue barrels being found at Cooksey Ranch. His second, Christie Williams, was much better. A former prosecutor, she seemed to be more experienced at cross-examination; her questions were focused toward making a specific point. However, Dracos didn't mention her.
Also missing is the fact that gun possession charges against Karr in Michigan were dismissed due to an improper search. This expedited his extradition to Texas for trial.
Ellen Johnson was the first Karr witness; the video of Madalyn O'Hair and Jon Murray was shown while she was on the stand. Patti Jo Steffens testified on the first Wednesday; Charlene Karr was called the next day. The preacher was the first defense witness; the bar owner testified the following morning. For each of these pairings, Dracos reversed the order.
Dracos didn't know that Johnson had long claimed to have the missing portions of O'Hair's diaries, though to his credit, he at least suspected her. But he wrote as though the entire set can't be found, when she has maybe 17 years' worth. Austin attorney Jimmy Nassour bought the rest of it at auction.
Dracos contended that, when Karr called his ex-wife Charlene from prison, she secretly taped the conversation. Not exactly: after she hung up, she called the FBI, who contacted the prison, and the recording was retrieved.
Dracos ended the prosecution with Patti Jo's testimony. The prosecution took the better part of two weeks: Patti Jo was the ninth of 68 prosecution witnesses.
Dracos described the bar owner as elderly: Bonnie Jean Davis was a slender babe with long thick hair and great legs.
Dracos stated that Waters' lead attorney, William Gates, attended the entire Karr trial. Gates was there, as were other interested lawyers, but not every day, and when he attended, he was in and out. Regardless, he wasn't appointed to represent Waters for several more months. He also showed up at Osborne's trial.
Dracos reported that Ellen Johnson opened a bank account in New Jersey for the gold transaction: that account already existed. It was for United Secularists of America, which Dracos contended was a shell corporation that O'Hair created. USA was an independent group, founded by former California governor Culbert Levy Olson in 1948, which published Progressive World into the 1970s. O'Hair was given the group, along with its mailing lists, in 1976.
Dracos claimed that the gold coins were stolen the day after they were acquired. Jon Murray picked them up and delivered them on September 29, 1995: they were stolen on October 3. Dracos also stated that the trial answered the question of what became of the coins, but a John MacCormack article in the San Antonio Express-News answered that question about a year earlier. Dracos said the thieves ate lunch at a Burger King. It wasn't established exactly where the coin thieves ate, but no Burger Kings are or were near the storage facility. The closest one is more than 3 miles northeast, in the opposite direction of the return drive to San Antonio. Dracos had one coin thief making a pendant from a coin before giving it to an aunt. Her gave her the coin to settle a debt; she made it a piece of jewelry.
Dracos said the kidnappers moved their victims from the Warren Inn to a La Quinta on September 26, 1995. The La Quinta room was rented on September 28 at almost 9:00 pm; they checked out on the 30th at 5:30 am.
As Waters (his name was twice misspelled as Walters) was being shackled after receiving his sentence, an old man in the front row started yelling at him. Dracos remarked that the judge didn't bother to silence the man, but at that point, the judge was no longer in the room. Dracos had Waters being led down the courthouse steps as Ellen Johnson was reading her statement; all press conferences were over before Waters came out. By then, reporters and spectators stood on the east side of the steps; Johnson was at the top, closest to the exit. Readers of Ungodly won't know that Waters was one of several prisoners escorted to the van. The female one hid her face from the assembled cameras, perhaps unaware that she wasn't the center of attention.
Maybe Madalyn O'Hair deserved such a hostile book; if so, one could easily be written without sacrificing accuracy.
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