Bid to Control S.D. Atheist’s Estate Falters

The nation’s best-known atheist has a lost a key lawsuit in her fight for control of a fortune left by a religion-hating eccentric.

The court defeat leaves the $14-million estate of the late, cranky James Hervey Johnson of San Diego--as well as the oldest atheist publication in the country--in the hands of a church-going Episcopalian and a Mormon, who say they intend to carry out Johnson’s wishes of “(exposing) religion as against reason.”

Madalyn Murray O’Hair, atheism’s most high-profile leader and self-described “most hated woman in America,” says that the setback is only temporary and that she intends to keep fighting in the courts to keep “atheist money” away from those who believe in God.

“I’ll be badgering them for the next 20 years,” vowed the bombastic O’Hair, who played a role nearly 30 years ago in outlawing prayer in public schools and who also tried to prevent “In God We Trust” from being printed on American currency.

The dispute arose even before Johnson, whose exaggerated holistic health ideas often compelled him to go long periods consuming nothing more than orange juice and condensed milk, died alone of a heart attack at age 87 in August, 1988, as he soaked his pain-riddled body in the bathtub inside his austere Hillcrest apartment.

For years, Johnson and O’Hair were rivals. While O’Hair was making headlines promoting atheist causes throughout the country, Johnson was quietly amassing a fortune by selling family property and using the money to invest in the stock market.

In the early 1960s, Johnson assumed control of the Truth Seeker, which at 117 years is the oldest atheist magazine in the nation, as well as two old atheist organizations--the American Assn. for the Advancement of Atheism (AAAA) and the National League for the Separation of Church and State, also known as the National Liberal League.

Through the Truth Seeker, Johnson launched racist and anti-Semitic attacks that drove many allies away and left him an outcast. But, among all the things he detested, one stood out: religion.

And, in his will, filed a year before his death, Johnson demanded that his millions be placed in a trust and the income used “to publicize my views on religion and health.” He selected Lawrence Y. True as the person to control it all. True, a bank trust officer, had known Johnson for 25 years but they weren’t close, talking only a few times each year, and did little business together.

True, now in his late 60s, has retired from his job to work full time on the estate, which has so far paid him a minimum of $217,000 for his services and is likely to pay him about $70,000 a year as caretaker of the trust. True is also an Episcopalian active in his Hillcrest congregation.

That fact sent O’Hair into a frenzy. How, she asked, could a Christian and believer in religion and God have any idea about promoting atheism? She and 10 other old-line atheists filed a lawsuit in San Diego federal court, claiming they were entitled to control the estate and take ownership of the Truth Seeker. The Austin, Tex.-based O’Hair even began printing a duplicate Truth Seeker.

After Johnson’s death, O’Hair formally challenged the will in probate court.

But, one after another, O’Hair’s legal challenges have been rebuffed. First, a probate judge ruled against O’Hair’s lawsuit, which has allowed True to begin spending money from the estate. O’Hair appealed and the matter is being considered by the 4th District Court of Appeal.

Last August, the federal court judge threw out a contention by O’Hair-led atheists that Johnson had amassed his fortune by mingling money from atheist organizations with his personal accounts. More important, the judge said O’Hair and several others could not be made party to the lawsuit. Then, three weeks ago, on Jan. 8, the judge dismissed the lawsuit entirely, in part because the last remaining plaintiff--an ally of O’Hair’s--failed to prove he was a stockholder in the Truth Seeker.

Still before the federal court, though, is a countersuit filed by Johnson’s lawyers, accusing O’Hair of racketeering for allegedly conspiring to take over the Truth Seeker, AAAA and the National Liberal League, a charge she dismissed Wednesday as “a bunch of silliness.”

In a telephone interview from Austin, O’Hair said she is confident that she and other atheists will end up victorious despite the recent court defeats. She said she plans to embark on a counter legal attack that includes appealing the federal court ruling, and, if that fails, she will file another lawsuit in the state courts in either California or New York, where the Truth Seeker was incorporated.

The legal history of American atheism, she said, shows that the movement’s defeats at the lower court level have often turned into victory at the appellate level. “The only hope we’ve ever had is at the appellate level,” she said.

Aside from the legal machinations, O’Hair has written critical letters to leaders of the Mormon Church and to the minister of True’s church, chastising them for allowing members of their dominations to use atheist money.

Meanwhile, Johnson’s estate moves forward. Last year, it was worth $16.5 million. Taxes took more than $1 million and fees to attorneys and True have consumed at least $600,000.

A probate judge has allowed the remaining $14-million estate to be split into two parts; one fourth, or about $3.5 million, will be used to support the Truth Seeker, a publication that bears little resemblance to the magazine Johnson published, and which, to its critics, has nothing at all to do with promoting atheism but is instead a mishmash of New Age philosophy headed by Bonnie Lange, a Mormon and Johnson’s former friend and housekeeper.

Three-fourths of the estate, about $10.5 million, has been placed in a charitable educational trust. Roy R. Withers, Johnson’s attorney, said he is in the midst of registering the charitable trust with the state attorney general’s office and applying for tax-exempt status from the IRS. Under the law, annual income from the trust, estimated to be about $1 million this year, must be disbursed by the end of the calendar year to organizations that promote Johnson’s views on religion and health.

That will make it one of San Diego’s largest charitable trusts, and already, said Withers, groups and individuals from throughout the country have contacted him about obtaining grants. Withers and True are preparing a brochure on guidelines for applicants, who must have IRS tax-exempt status to qualify.

“We’re getting calls from groups in L.A. and Wisconsin. . . . Some are against religion and others are into health science,” Withers said. “When people know you have money to give, you don’t have to advertise.”