Philip Taylor Kramer (July 12, 1952 - February 12, 1995) was a bass guitar player for the rock group Iron Butterfly, in the 1970s and whose disappearance on February 12, 1995 caused a mystery that lasted for four years. After his time with the band he worked as a physicist which he had a degree in.

Disappearance

Several facts are known concerning Kramer's life just before his disappearance on February 12, 1995. Kramer had become heavily involved with the occult in the months leading up to his driving off and making a phone call to 911.

Kramer and his father were working together at Total Multimedia , their own company, on a top secret communications project, involving faster-than-light speed transmissions. The newly hired CEO of the company, Peter Olson , a former V.P. at MCI Communications, was a New Age practitioner was said to have believed himself to be half human and half alien. Olson paid a Paraguayan shaman named Arbenre $30,000 to cleanse the negative energy from TMM’s office and give business advice based on his psychic powers.

It is said that Olson also made The Celestine Prophecy virtual required reading at the company and that Kramer became heavily influenced by Olson and his perceived spiritual gifts. Olson became sort of a New Age guru to him. Kramer was said to have been so wrapped up with the occult that his whole personality changed. He became suddenly depressed and paranoid believing that people were out to get him because of his work.

On February 12, he was supposed to return home after a trip to Los Angeles International Airport to pick up a business associate but failed to return. Later, that same evening, the police received a phone call from a man believed to be Kramer that said he was going to kill himself. He was never heard from again which led to a massive search and many news reports and even a segment on Unsolved Mysteries some years later.

It was because of the secretive nature and possible potential of Kramer's work that led many to speculate that agents from the United States government had abducted him. Even Ron Bushy , Iron Butterfly's co-founder, who was working with Kramer for the reunion tour told the Union Tribune, "I honestly believe that he has been abducted by our government or an agency that is part of it or maybe a foreign government or a company."

Even the Ohio Democrat Rep. James Traficant said, "Someone may have grabbed him." And suggested that he might have been brainwashed by terrorists for, "nefarious purposes."

The question as to whether he was still alive or dead was answered on May 29, 1999, when Kramer's mini-van and body were found at the bottom of Malibu Canyon in California. It is believed by the authorities that he committed suicide on February 12, 1995, by driving off the canyon though some doubt the suicide explanation and suggest he was the victim of foul play [1].

External links

• Kramer's Body Found
• Washington Post Article 1996
• Discovery Of Missing Rocker's Remains
• Burial Record