Philip Taylor Krammer

[adamcuthbertson]

He was the bass player from the rock musical group Iron Butterfly who mysteriously disappeared on February 12, 1995 from Los Angeles. He made a few phone calls from his van's cell phone one to his wife and another to his bandmate saying that no matter what happened to him he loved them very much. He then placed a call to 911 and told the operator that he was going to kill himself then hung up. A couple witnesses claimed to have seen him on the day he vanished at a garage sale and at an electronics store and it is believed he did make one more phone call before disappearing for good. He may have been suffering from sleep deprivation because he was constantly up all day and night working on some new cutting edge technology that could locate lost or missing children. The mystery ended four years later. A text message update stated that his van was found at the bottom of the Santa Monica Mountains in May of 1999 by two hikers. Inside the van were human remains and forensic experts were going to do tests to determine the cause of death, if a crime had been committed, and if the remains were indeed Krammer's. They never brought us more information in a future broadcasting, even though they said they would. I did some research of my own and found out that the remains were Philip Krammer's and his death was ruled as a probable suicide committed on the day he disappeared, but some people believe he may have been murdered. I just wanted to throw that out there in case anybody was interested in what happened to him.

[crystaldawn]

I definitely think that Kramer committed suicide. He probably suffered some sort of mental break (brought on by sleep deprivation among other things). He did call his family and friends and told some of them he was going to kill himself and I believe soon after he made good on his word. Such a sad case. I am glad they found his remains so his wife and kids wouldn't have to have the burden of wondering where he was and what happened to him. I have never heard of a rational explanation of why anyone would think he was murdered and just think its much more likely he died at his own hands.

[Todd Mueller]

Reminds me very much of the case of John Cheek. Amazing what stress and lack of sleep can do to a person.

I agree with CD. I think he most likely committed suicide (or just drove off the cliff) because of stress.

What I am curious about is whatever happened to the software technology he was developing. Did it turn out not to work? Is that what pushed him over the edge? It sounds very intriguing.

Adam: UM frequently said we would get more info on a "future broadcast." They may have meant well, but it most cases it was the UM equivolant of "don't call us, we'll call you."

[DP1]

Heheh. "More info on a future update" is the kiss of death as far as UM was concerned.

[kane7474]

First off he was not working on any device to find lost children. Instead he was working on developing a rocket that was more efficent and powerfull then anything currently available. He told several people including his father that people in "high places" did not want him to continue his work. It seems that whatever he was coming up with could make many of the other rockets on the market obsolete. I'm sure we can all imagine what kind of money is involved developing rocket engines for the Military or NASA. We also know that the people that have these contracts don't want anything coming in between them and their profits. Now, he had actually told his father that if he ever heard that he had committed suicide not to beleive it because people were out to get him. He even told him that " If I ever call you and say Im going to kill myself it really means that Im in danger and need help".

This is nothing new here, several scientist have been killed that threatened to expose things that governments or large corporations don't want exposed. Inventors have been killed who were developing engines that don't run on petroleum, the list goes on and on. They all share a few common traits which link them. First, they are developing something that threatens the status-quo and could cost someone in a high place alot of money. Secondly, they either up and decided to commit suicide while they were in the midst of developing their invention or they were the victim of a random robbery/murder.

[Todd Mueller]

Originally Posted by kane7474

First off he was not working on any device to find lost children. Instead he was working on developing a rocket that was more efficent and powerfull then anything currently available.

Where did you hear he wasn't working on software to find missing kids? I'm not trying to argue, but they mentioned that software in the UM story and I have never heard/read otherwise. Not that I doubt you, just curious where that is from.

[kamy]

Originally Posted by kane7474

He even told him that " If I ever call you and say Im going to kill myself it really means that Im in danger and need help".

Wow, where on earth did you hear this? If indeed true, it would bring a whole new angle to the story.....

[kane7474]

There was another show about him a few years ago other than U/M. I can't remember what it was called but it was about tragedies in Rock and Roll. I also know that Art Bell has talked about the strange situation around Kramer's death on his coast to coast radio show. I must correct myself from earlier, he had worked on facial recognition software which is probably what people mean when they talk about him developing something to help find lost children.
The following is from Wikipdedia which shows that he at one time worked on missle guidance systems for government contractors. I will try to find the story about the rocket engine he was developing when he went missing.


Philip Taylor Kramer (July 12, 1952 - February 12, 1995) was a bass guitar player for the rock group Iron Butterfly during the 1970s. After this he obtained a night school degree in aerospace engineering, worked on the MX missile guidance system for a contractor of the US Department of Defense and later in the computer industry on fractal image compression, facial recognition systems, and advanced communications. His disappearance on February 12, 1995 caused a mystery lasting four years.

[kamy]

Okay, maybe I love conspiricies too much, but after reading more about Kramer and his "zest for life" and more about his actions that day, is it possible that he could have been murdered?

It seems that he went way out of his way to establish the idea that he himself was committing suicide. Not only does he calls his family/friends (which to me is logical) but he also calls 911 and says nothing but "This is Philip Taylor Kramer and I'm going to kill myself". What was the point of that? He made no attempt to identify his location or to be found, so what really was the point of the 911 call?

I'm not insinuating that the conspiracy goes as deep as the US Government abducting/murdering him, but maybe his controversal work got the wrong persons fired up?


Any one else have any thoughts???

[kane7474]

I can't find this episode. Does anyone have it? If so I beleive the interview with his father is part of that segment too. He says that Phillip told him that if he ever called and said he was going to kill himself not to beleive it.