 philip taylor kramer (july 12, 1952&nbsp;â 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, he worked on the mx missile guidance system for a contractor of the us department of defense and later in the computer industry on fractal compression, facial recognition systems, and advanced communications. his disappearance on february 12, 1995 caused a mystery lasting for years. ==life== in 1990 at the age of 38, kramer co-founded total multimedia inc. with randy jackson (brother of michael jackson) to develop data compression techniques for cd-roms.leiby (1996)henry, tamara (march 31, 1999) usa today internet promise goes unfulfilled'maxim, "the vanishing" the firm claims it developed the first video compression capable of producing full motion video from a single speed cd-rom in 1992. in 1994 the company was reorganized under bankruptcy and hired new leadership. kramer continued working there until his disappearance.total multimedia history on corporate web site kramer co-developed softvideo based on fractal compression and he also claimed to work on a transmission project that would result in faster-than-light speed communications. the latter related to his father ray's long-running family effort to discredit albert einstein's theories. ==death== on february 12, 1995 he drove to los angeles international airport to pick up an investor. he spent forty-five minutes at the airport but failed to meet the investor. kramer did make a flurry of cell phone calls, including one to the police during which kramer said, "iâm going to kill myself." he was never heard from again. this led to a massive search, many news reports, and talk show segments including an episode of the oprah winfrey show, america's most wanted, the unexplained ("strange disappearances," first aired june 7, 2000) and unsolved mysteries some years later. an article in skeptic reported numerous conspiracy theories about his death.rice, fredric (1996) "iron butterfly member disappears after allegedly working on faster-than-light communication - is he in a godda da vida?", skeptic (u.s. magazine) on may 29, 1999, kramer's ford aerostar minivan and skeletal remains were found{{cite web |url=http://music.yahoo.com/read/story/12055660 |title=iron butterfly fans come to terms
1952_births 1995_deaths American_bass_guitarists Iron_Butterfly_members Musicians_who_committed_suicide Road_accident_deaths_in_California Suicides_in_California