The Madalyn Murray O'Hair FCC Petition Is A Hoax

Last significant update: March 15, 2001

This information can be freely reproduced in any medium, as long as the information is unmodified.

Thanks to "DFAS User", whoever that might be, for first bringing this to our attention on 14 October, 1998.

UPDATE: Case closed. See CNN's article (leaving our site) from 15 March, 2001. I wonder how long we'll be seeing this thing from now on? I'll try to remember to keep a counter.

This is a particularly galling hoax:

Madeline Murray O'Hare, 

First of all, it's "Madalyn Murray O'Hair."

an atheist, successfully eliminated the use of
Bible reading and prayer from schools fifteen years ago.  Her organization
has now been granted a Federal Hearing on the same subject by the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) in Washington, D.C. Their petition, No.
2493, 

Lies, and coming from supposed Christians. For shame! See the FCC's debunk (leaving our site) of this nonsense.

would ultimately pave the way to stop the reading of the Gospel of
our Lord  and Savior Jesus Christ, on the airwaves of  America.  They took
this petition with 287,000 signatures to back their stand. If this attempt
is  successful,  all Sunday Worship services being broadcast either by
radio or television  will stop. This group is also campaigning to remove
all Christmas Programs, Christmas songs and Christmas carols from public
schools.

There is an other variant of this that claims that the above would force Touched By An Angel to be discontinued. Tee hee. How DO the hoaxters come up with this stuff???

Then there is the fact that Ms. O'Hair was presumed dead years ago.

This is a waste of time: Ms. Madalyn O'Hair went missing in 1995 a year before the hoax claims she filed the petition, and is presumed dead.

There was an article about this over the weekend in our local newspaper. Here's some text I found on the New York Times web site in 1999:

      Possible Clue On Missing Atheist

      With a former employee of the missing atheist leader Madalyn
      Murray O'Hair in custody, charged with weapons violations,
      investigators were hoping for a long-awaited breakthrough in the
      perplexing 1995 disappearance of the 77-year-old woman, her son, her
      granddaughter and $500,000 in gold coins.

      David R. Waters, a convicted felon who also pled guilty in 1994
      to theft from Ms. O'Hair's organization, American Atheists Inc., was
      arrested after an eight-hour search of his apartment in Austin,
      Texas His lawyer told reporters that federal officials considered
      Waters a suspect in the possible murder of the three missing people.

      -- By RICK LYMAN

Another article -- somewhat more gruesome -- is at The Detroit Free Press (leaving our site), if you really care.

Finally, in January 2001, the presumed remains of Ms. O'Hair and two others was found; hear the Real Audio clip from NPR (leaving our site) -- if this fails, search for "Madalyn Murray O'Hair" at NPR (leaving our site).

Finally, as confirmation of this, and with lot of other details, see the Snopes debunk of this nonsense (leaving our site).

So I think we may safely lay this one to rest, as it were.

The thing is drivel. Treat it as such.

Please do not forward this -- or any other hoax -- to all your friends.

Instead, you should reply to the sender -- and as far back up the email chain as you have energy -- informing the originators that this is a hoax. For this particular hoax, I suggest that you provide a pointer to this URL (http://www.umich.edu/~virus-busters/hoaxes/ohair.html)
For virus or hoax info, please see our main page (http://www.umich.edu/~virus-busters/) or go to another reputable site, like The Urban Legends Reference Pages (leaving our site).

   -BPB

visits to this page since March 9 2001 16:35 EST