A man is a member of a popular rock band in the 1970s. He has settled into life as family man by the 1980s. In the 1990s, he owns his own computer company and is developing potentially revolutionary programs. He then disappears after saying he is going to kill himself, but he is believed to have been seen several times thereafter before being found dead at the bottom of a ravine.

Such a story occurred in Los Angeles, the cinema capital of America, but it was not created by a Hollywood screenwriter. The drama was real and it starred Philip “Taylor” Kramer. The death of the forty-two-year-old former rock star was ruled a suicide but remains debated.

Taylor Kramer

From 1974-80, Taylor Kramer was the bass guitar player for the rock and roll group Iron Butterfly and associated groups.

A Former Rock Star . . .

By the 1990s, the former rock star looked different and had a different life, having given up music and become a family man.

Taylor and his wife, Jennifer, lived in Thousand Oaks, California, in the northwestern part of Los Angeles. They had a five-year-old daughter, Hayley, and Taylor had adopted thirteen-year-old Derek, Jennifer’s son from her first marriage.

. . . Turned Family Man

Taylor Kramer was not the stereotypical dumb rock star. In stark contrast, he was brilliant. After his music career, he completed a degree in aerospace engineering, then worked on the MX missile guidance system for the Department of Defense. He later moved to the computer industry where he worked on fractal compression, facial recognition systems, and advanced communications.

Taylor and Michael Jackson’s brother, Randy, co-founded Total Multimedia Inc.(TMM), a company developing data compression techniques for CD-ROMs. The company was reorganized under bankruptcy and hired new management in 1994. Financial problems forced Taylor to relinquish his partnership in TMM, but he remained with them as an employee.

A Brilliant Mind

By 1995, Jennifer Kramer says her husband was obsessed with further advancing a computer program based on data compression theories developed thirty years earlier by his father Ray, who had been an electrical engineer and college professor.  When his work was completed, Taylor told Jennifer a computer could instantly find a missing child when given a picture of the child’s face.

Taylor believed the software was revolutionary, but he was afraid his ideas were being misappropriated by his new bosses at TMM.  Ray Kramer said his son told him the people spearheading the company’s reorganization wanted to use the program for covert purposes, including spying. Ray said his son told him the new brass had even threatened him.

A Pioneer Program

The more Taylor developed the program, Jennifer says, the more hyper and emotional he became, and he seemed to find sacredness in everything. Her husband was riding an emotional roller coaster; he could be excessively happy and then, within minutes, become severely depressed.

Jennifer attributed the changes to sleep deprivation, as Taylor was working round-the-clock on his project, which he believed would be historic.

Jennifer Kramer

Taylor’s Wife

On February 12, 1995, Taylor Kramer left home around 9:00 a.m. He initially went to Los Robles Medical Center to visit Jennifer’s father who was receiving cancer treatments. His father-in-law said Taylor was in good spirits.

Taylor then went to Los Angeles International Airport as scheduled to meet his friend and business associate, Greg Martini, and his wife flying in from New York.  Afterwards, he was to return home, pick up Jennifer, and the foursome would have lunch in Santa Barbara. Taylor, however, inexplicably left the airport before the Martinis’ plane arrived.

Parking records show that Taylor Kramer’s vehicle, a 1993 Ford Aeostar minivan, was at LAX for forty-five minutes. A six-foot-five-inch former rock star would seemingly be recognizable, but he was not viewed on any videotapes and no one at the airport recalled seeing him.

Taylor’s Vehicle Was At The Airport

But Where Was Taylor?

After leaving LAX without picking up his friends, Taylor made a series of odd cell phone calls while driving along Highway 101. The first call was a message left with Iron Butterfly drummer Ron Bushy, with whom he had remained close even after the band’s breakup. The two had continued to play together in the groups Magic and Gold.

Bushy said his friend and band mate sounded stressed and upset, as though he had been crying.

Ironically, Bushy was departing at the same LAX Delta terminal that morning, but he too, did not see Taylor at the airport.

Ron Bushy

Iron Butterfly Drummer

Taylor then phoned Jennifer, saying he was not going to be able to pick up their friends. He asked her to tell them he would meet them at the Westlake Hyatt Hotel at 2:00. He also told her that he had a big surprise for her when he returned home. Jennifer was worried as she, too, felt Taylor sounded strange.

Taylor then made seventeen short phone calls to family members, friends, and business associates; all also said he sounded strange as he rambled without conveying a clear message.

The last of the calls, made just before noon, was to 911. Taylor stated his full name and calmly uttered that he was going to kill himself. He hung up the phone before the operator could get any information.  This call, made on the Ventura Freeway in the San Fernando Valley, was the last confirmed contact he made with anyone.

Strange Phone Calls

After missing person posters of Taylor Kramer were posted throughout Los Angeles, several people claimed they saw him in the San Fernando Valley area.

Sometime in late February, approximately two weeks after Taylor disappeared, a pawn shop employee believes he saw him in Canoga Park, thirty miles northwest of Los Angeles, not far from where Taylor had lived for a time in the 1970s when he was a member of Iron Butterfly. Around the same time, a woman and her daughter believe they saw him at a nearby garage sale. Multiple people also believe they saw Taylor at a soup kitchen at the Santa Monica Pier in Long Beach. Still others said he was begging for change outside the Agoura Hills Supermarket.

On February 28, two-and-a-half weeks after his disappearance, Jennifer believes Taylor called their home, leaving a message on the answering machine simply saying “Hello… hello”.

These sightings and recording, however, appear not to have been of or made by Taylor Kramer.

Reported Sightings

Four years later, on May 29, 1999, two hikers exploring Decker Canyon near Malibu Beach discovered the rusted shell of a 1993 Ford Aeostar minivan. The vehicle was found registered to Taylor Kramer and the remains were confirmed as his.

The Los Angeles County Coroner determined the former musician had been killed by blunt force trauma to the head. Taylor Kramer’s death was ruled a probable suicide based on forensic evidence and the 911 phone call.

Nevertheless, many friends and fans believe he was murdered and that it was related to the research for developing his computer program.

Taylor’s Van At The Bottom Of Decker Canyon

Before his death, Taylor Kramer was believed to be working on a transmission project that would result in faster-than-light speed communications. The work was similar to his father Ray’s work while he was an engineering professor at Youngstown State in Ohio. Ray’s work aimed at discrediting many of Albert Einstein’s theories.

Ray Kramer died in 2000.

Ray Kramer

Taylor’s Father

Taylor Kramer’s contentions of Facial Recognition seemed far-fetched in the 1990s. If he were alive today, he probably would be working for Facebook.

A Man Ahead Of His Times

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/10442084/philip-taylor-kramer#

 

SOURCES:

• Los Angeles Times
• Unsolved Mysteries
• Washington Post