America's Most Hated Woman: The Life and Gruesome Death of Madalyn Murray O'Hair

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They found her heaped in a shallow grave, sawed up, and burned. Thus ended Madalyn Murray O'Hair, the articulate 'atheist bitch' whose 1963 US Supreme Court case ended school prayer. Her Christian-baiting lawsuits spanned three more decades; she was on TV all over the country, foul-mouthed, witty, and passionate, launching today's culture wars over same-sex marriage and faith-based initiatives. She was a man-hater who loved sex, a bully whose heart broke for the downtrodden. She was accused of schizophrenia, alcoholism, and embezzlement, but never cowardice or sloth. She was an ideologue who spewed toxic rage even at the followers who made her a millionaire. She thrived on her fame, but just as the curtain of obscurity began to lower, the family vanished in one of the strangest of America's true crimes. This is the real story of 'the most hated woman in America', by the only author to interview the killer and those close to him and to witness the family's secret burial in Austin, Texas.

Reviews

"Seaman convincingly portrays the late O'Hair as part celebrity-craving nutcase and part tireless crusader for separation of church and state." -Texas Monthly, 3/05
"It seems fitting that Seaman, an Austin native and part-time resident, would deliver the most complete biographical rendering of America's Most Hated Woman- a moniker coined by life magazine that O'Hair, true to her irascible nature, embraced....Seaman plumbs O'Hair's psyche with insights that avoid pop psychology." -Austin American Statesman, 4/6/05
"America's Most Hated Woman is a welcome addition to political science, legal, criminal justice, religious and general collections." -Academia, July 2005
"Seaman has combined three genres: intellectual biography of an undeniably historic figure. True-crime thriller, and detailed social history, copiously footnoted with published and unpublished sources. For the most part, the author lets O'Hair's actions and words speak for themselvesthe most damning words are from the subject's own journalsbut she frequently summarizes complex ideological arguments in clear and graceful prose, which vaults her a cut above the typical true-crime raconteuse." -The American Conservative, July 2005
mention -- Jim Agnew's Pick of the Week

Author Bio

Ann Rowe Seaman, a native of Austin, Texas, is the author of Swaggart: The Unauthorized Biography of an American Evangelist.