O’Hair Suspect Pleads Guilty to Unrelated Gun Charges
by Hugh Aynesworth
The Washington Times, 5-28-99

DALLAS – A former office manager to atheist icon Madalyn Murray O’Hair, suspected of masterminding
a plot to kill her and two of her children, pleaded guilty yesterday to unrelated weapons charges that could send him back to prison for 10 years.

David R. Waters, 53, who worked for Mrs. O’Hair and her atheist organization, is expected to be indicted soon – along with two others – in Mrs. O’Hair’s death. “The web is slowly closing; one law enforcement source told The Washington Times. “He knows it and I think he is pretty much resigned to it. He doesn’t have any bargaining power.”

Waters’ guilty plea yesterday in an Austin federal courtroom was the result of a March 25 search of his apartment, where police say they found 119 rounds of ammunition, duct tape, sheriff’s badges, a knife and a calendar with dates circled. He has been in custody since.  Authorities refused to comment on whether the weapons charges were directly related to the O’Hair case.

The 36-page affidavit, made public late Wednesday and signed by Internal Revenue Service special agent Edmund I. Martin, laid out the government’s case in minute detail.
Waters, once convicted for murder in Illinois, has not been charged with the O’Hair family’s deaths, but an Austin grand jury has been hearing evidence for several weeks.

Rumor has it that plea-bargain talks are under way with two others who have knowledge of where the bodies of the three were buried. One of them, Gary Karr, now in a Detroit jail cell on weapons charges, apparently has filled in much detail about how Waters killed the O’Hairs and how he helped his one-time prison pal do away with another member of the killer troupe, Danny Fry, whose headless, handless body was dumped near Dallas a few days after the O’Hairs’ deaths.

Besides Karr, the IRS agent named a Fort Worth man, Gerald Lee Osborne, as helping Waters kill and dispose of the bodies. “Waters, Karr and Fry executed the scheme to abduct, kidnap and murder Madalyn Murray O’Hair, Jon Garth Murray and Robin Murray O’Hair for the purpose of stealing at least $600,000 from the
United Secularists of America;’ said Mr. Martin’s affidavit. 

Two confidential informants, identified in the affidavit only as “CS-2” and CS-3:’ outlined much of what transpired in the summer of 1995 as the O’Hairs disappeared from their Austin home and later were held in San Antonio while the abductors used Mr. Murray to collect gold and cash from organization accounts.

The informants suggested Waters held deep malevolence toward Mrs. O’Hair after she had turned him in to the police for stealing  $54,000 from the atheists in 1994. One said Waters was vocal about his hatred, particularly after Mrs. O’Hair wrote a lengthy article detailing his criminal history in the American Atheist newsletter early in 1995.

At this point in time, Waters had a serious change of attitude regarding the O’Hairs;’ the affidavit said. “Waters mentioned that he would like to get revenge for what had been written and expressed fantasies of killing Madalyn. He spoke about seeing Madalyn suffer and snipping off her toes.”

A second informant, who had met with Karr following the murders, said Karr had talked about
how Waters killed four persons following a poker game. He said Karr had specifically mentioned Mrs.
O’Hair as being one of the victims.

According to authorities in Michigan, Karr has admitted helping Waters dispose of the bodies, but has refused to admit complicity in carrying out the murders. The informants said Waters tired of Fry when they returned to
Austin after the murders and killed him, the affidavit added.

One of the more grotesque claims by Karr, according to one of the informants, was that after he had returned to Michigan, Waters telephoned him and ordered him back to Toxas. Waters wanted to rebury the bodies, he told Karr, “because their hands were sticking out of the ground.”

Karr reportedly returned to Texas, but refused to help Waters so the bodies remained where they were first placed, the affidavit said. Waters’ attorney, Patrick Ganne, said he was surprised that the search warrant affidavit was made public, and just hours before Waters appeared on the weapons charge.

“What it looks like to me; Mr. Ganne said yesterday, “is a script for Oliver Stone’s next movie. They
don’t have any direct evidence to link him. It is all speculation.”